What if your image could only communicate one thing: one major
idea, overarching theme, or driving emotion? If you identified
this, you’d discover your vision for that image—the
internal, invisible guiding principle that directs both how you
capture the image and how you develop it in the digital
darkroom.
Without vision, you likely find yourself flailing both behind the
camera and in front of the computer—indiscriminately shooting
and arbitrarily moving sliders in hopes of stumbling upon something
great every once in a while. With vision, you bring direction and
intention to both the creation and development of all your
images.
Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop
Lightroom is about identifying your vision and using
Lightroom’s Develop module to give voice—that outward
expression—to your vision. Photographer David duChemin begins
with the fundamentals of a vision-driven workflow, where he
discusses everything from vision and style, to the importance of
mood and color, to the crucial role of histograms and of getting
the best possible digital negative to work with. After
demonstrating how the Develop module’s tools affect the
aesthetics of your image, duChemin then offers a straightforward
approach to developing your images in accordance with your own
personal vision: identify your intention, minimize the
distractions, maximize the mood, and draw the viewer’s
eye—all while leaving room for play and serendipity. Finally,
duChemin applies this approach to 20 of his photographs as he takes
you into his own digital darkroom and, beginning with the original
RAW file, works step by step through the development of the final
image.