Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 for Dummies®

Chapter 8. Taking Your Photos to the Next Level

In This Chapter

• Adjusting contrast and enhancing color

• Converting to grayscale

• Adding color to highlights and shadows

• Adding capture sharpening and reducing noise

• Removing purple fringe and working with vignettes

• Modifying the camera calibration

First things first. I say throughout this book that Lightroom is a workflow tool, and each part of the workflow consists of smaller workflows. The process of developing a photo is no different — developing has a beginning (the import state) and an end (your vision for that photo), but you have to jump through a series of hoops (or workflows) before you get to that end. Which hoops you choose depends on which tools you rely on to get your work done, so your workflow may look quite different from mine.

I address the most common adjustments you make to most of your images in Chapter 7 (such as basic tonal adjustments, cropping, and spot removal), now it's time to explore the rest of what the Develop module has to offer (that is, all the adjustments below the Basic panel) to really set your photos apart. Keep in mind, though, that the basic tonal adjustments you've made already aren't set in stone. If you decide to work with the Tone Curve, convert to grayscale, or apply a different camera profile, for example, go back and tweak your earlier settings for better results. All these adjustments are performed ...