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Author Topic: Lightroom Auto Experiments, Part 2  (Read 1263 times)

Chris Kern

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Lightroom Auto Experiments, Part 2
« on: December 14, 2017, 06:04:46 pm »

Sample 3 (Cemetery Hill, Taiwan)

I made this pano of a cemetery in the mountains north of Taipei on a wet, windy day.  The version with my manual adjustments actually represents an interim stage of post-processing, which included a subsequent round-trip to Photoshop.  However, I thought that, even unfinished, this might be an interesting counterpoint to the San Miguel sample because the overcast conditions were almost exactly the opposite of the bright sunlight that afternoon in Mexico.  The Auto-adjusted version is quite a bit drearier than the one with my manual adjustments, with slightly reduced Exposure and Shadows settings, greatly reduced Contrast and Highlights settings, and added Vibrance and Saturation.

Sample 4 (Riverbank in Kyoto)

I had to blow some highlights in this night shot from the Sanjo Dori bridge in Kyoto in order to capture the detail on the riverbank below.  The manually-processed image required several local adjustments.  These are reflected in the pasted settings.  I was curious to see what the Auto control would do with the overall tones of a file that had been subjected to multiple local adjustments.  I don't think it was thrown off by them at all.  The version processed with the Auto control isn't a very good representation of the scene that was in front of me that night, but it's not a preposterous rendering, either.

* * *

Again, I don't consider this to represent a rigorous test of the new Auto control.  I can't even say how much better it is than the old version of the control, which I think I tried a few times but never seriously used.  And I haven't come to any conclusions about whether I'm going to try using the Auto control as a starting point for post-processing in the future.  But it does strike me as an interesting and perhaps useful choice for the introduction of an "artificially intelligent" tool to a product whose greatest strength has always been the amount of manual control it offers the photographer.

luxborealis

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Re: Lightroom Auto Experiments, Part 2
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2017, 02:15:18 pm »

Chris, I think you could easily have done more manually with the Cemetery photo, even without trips to PS. Try using Auto White point and Auto Black point (Shift+double click on White and Black), then try increasing Exposure slightly. It also looks like a good candidate for Auto Contrast.

I would recommend trying the same with the night photo then raising the Shadows.

My point is, with a few basic LR instructions, I find that most thinking human beings can be their own Auto button. And I think you’ve shown that here.
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Tim Lookingbill

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Re: Lightroom Auto Experiments, Part 2
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2017, 06:10:34 pm »

Considering what I get in CS5 Auto control I think you may be over analyzing this.
 
The Auto version of the Cemetery Hill shows more clarity in the clouds which is typical of a truly linear adjustment instead of a compressed as seen in your manual version.

You haven't indicated what sliders you started with and how long it took to complete your manual version. Auto is intended as a starting point to save time in further editing.

Just a reminder if you haven't become familiar with PV2012 slider behavior on brightening a dark Raw image is that the White slider has the linear function that used to be in the Exposure slider going back to PV2010 (where Recovery slider compressed and flattened highlight definition). Reduce the Highlight slider all the way to the left and increase the White slider to the right to show this linear behavior as seen in the clouds.
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