mvPhotos

Using Lightroom - this is a complete tutorial on how to take a simple portrait and create a dramatic, toned and high contrast effect. Below are the before and after photos.

The following steps apply to Lightroom or, if you are using Camera Raw (the Photoshop plugin that loads CR2 files), then this section applies to that as well.

1. Select the photo you want to work with and click on the Develop tab (on Camera Raw this is not needed).
2. In the Basic panel change the value of Recovery, Fill Light, Blacks, Brightness, Contrast, Vibrance and Saturation to the values shown below. Essentially what we’ve done is increased the contrast and brought down the saturation so that the colours look washed. The resulting output is shown adjacent.
   
3. Now go way down to the Split Toning panel and change the values as shown below. Here we are going to give hues to the highlights and shadow areas. What these values will do is give a warm colour to both highlights and shadows. This results in the effect shown adjacent.
   

That ends the bit you have to do in Lightroom (or Camera Raw). We can see that our adjustments in Lightroom have put Zayan’s left eye too much in the shadows that it is almost invisible. This portrait will look better with both eyes visible, so that’s what we are going to do in Photoshop in the next tutorial.

Here’s another example of how this toning has been used with slightly different settings. The source photo has an orange cast all over it from the bright orange paint on the wall. Try these values in combination to the above: Recovery = 36, Fill Light = 0, Black = 60.

In the end all that matters is how you adjust the different parameters to satisfy your own style. The split toning needs little adjustment. But don’t be afraid to experiment.

And finally, for your convenience, here’s the Lightroom Preset for you to download: mvphotostones1.zip

Unzip it in your User Presets folder of Lightroom. It is usually at:

C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\Develop Presets\User Presets

Apply to your photo and play around with the controls. Play around with the Vignetting controls too.

Thank you and I hope you’ve enjoyed that.