Photography tip #1 - Cropping & White Balance for low light situations by Jonathan Stacey

good tips mate, i follow some of the same advice. Lightroom is kick arse for post production always makes sure you check your white balance as its the first option there

great Tutotrial,oops Tutorial, Jonathan!!
Fantastic description of what you do with your magical photos, thank YOU!

Thank you so very much indeed Jonathon, I will be trying this:)

Thank you – I’ll check it out sometime!!

Great info, Jonathan, very generous of you to share some of your ‘signature’ tweaks. The included photos are gorgeous, as always. :-)

I’ll add, for those of us who live and breathe Photoshop or don’t have Lightroom (yet!), Nik Color Efex Pro includes a “Brilliance/Warmth” setting that creates pleasing natural enhancements and saturation, similar to Lightroom’s ‘Vibrance’.

As for those comments about ‘fake’ photography - there’s absolutely nothing wrong with any artist using every available tool to create their work. Ansel Adams routinely did it, and I’ll bet Leonardo Da Vinci would have been eager to do the same! :) It’s just taking the world a little time to catch up to us digital pioneers.

Absolutely! I consider my hardware and software to be my ‘Digital Studio’, and feel absolutely no qualms in using every techno-tool in any way I choose, to get the desired results! :-)

Some good tips there Jonathan.

Jonathan, really great tutorial and thanks for sharing:))

Fantastic advice. Thank you so much for posting it. I’m intending to do more landscape shots so your tutorial is very helpful and I shall have a go at what you suggest. :o))

Great tips thank you

Nice lesson..if you shoot RAW you can alter wb anyway and yes is does make a difference. I have silver and color efex. I like the crop ratio, must try that sometime.

I absolutely loved your article. I love to experiment with WB but haven’t been doing it for very long and I used to crop a lot, but it made a smaller file, so I quit doing it. PS has a vibrance setting in the Raw File processing area and you can have that open up for JPG files also and use those settings to enhance your work. Thanks for the wonderful info! Dee

Thanks Jonathon for the great tutorial and tips, keep them coming :))

Thankyou Jonathan. Straight into my faves.

Gosh – secrets from the master himself – what a treat! Thanks so much Jonathan. Very interested in Lightroom now! :-)

Oh you have given me so much food for thought I hold my hand up white baance a lot on auto unlass it is cloudy and i then change it. I have not done a lot of sunsets at all. As for the crrop Idea what a wonderful way to also look for images. Will be keeping that thought held in my head. Simple things to try but amazing results, I have efex pro so can give it a go.

Might have to do a challenge or journal link in the D90 group and see what members can come up with.

Great article thankyou Jonathan, and really its an individual choice about tweaking, enhancing, the bottom line is your production and its what yoiu wanted to achieve, and the end result will be pleasing!

great stuff, thanks for this

TY for the tip & sharing your knowledge!!!

Jonathan, this excellent Tutorial has been included in the TUTORIAL LIBRARY GROUP

thanks so much for these great tips, jonathan! and congrats on being featured in the RB Community post!

Great advice

Excellent tutoral, thank you…

Thank you, wonderful tips :)

I’m confused.

Isn’t setting WB when shooting RAW (as you do) rather a waste of time? WB is corrected in ACR or whatever conversion program you use in your computer, by choosing a setting which matches your memory of the scene, or it can be done by choosing a white (or neutral grey) patch in the scene and adjusting accordingly. That is one of the advantages of RAW – not to have the camera ‘decide’ for you.
The on-camera WB setting has no effect on the RAW image.

JPEGs, produced in-camera, do require a choice (or the more haphazard Auto) of WB which may approximate the colour temperature of the scene. All digital cameras shoot in RAW, but the less complex do the immediate conversion to JPEGs as the final product using their in-camera computer (which you can tweak using the WB button).

Do you think your tutorial would be better divided into two sections, one for RAW, and the other for in-camera JPEG production?

I might be barking up the wrong tree, but that’s how my Brownie works..

Cheers.

Thanks for sharing…

thanks for sharing. Can you elaborate on your WB. Do you use a gray car or white balance card to make sure it’s right on?

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for this Jonathan – always good to get other peoples perspectives on this wonderful hobby. Especially like your comments on cropping. Keep ’em coming!

Wow! Thank you so much for sharing!

Thanks for the helpful information!

This is great information Jonathan. Lightroom is fantastic. I have to say I really like your attitude to cropping. It is always nice to get a fresh perspective on something we all do everytime we process an image. I have been sticking to standard format when cropping but maybe thats up for review.

Awesome tut, Jon….thanks hepas!

That would be heaps of course! LOL

Really interesting read Jon, especially re using cloudy WB, I usually set my WB for the situation then alter the effect to what I want by aiming at something brighter or darker then half clicking to retain it before taking the desired shot, has a similar effect to what youre talking about however I didnt think of altering the WB itself. Clever!

I have to admit Ive never used lightroom, im a photoshop user where the vibrancy can be upgraded there too but Id be interested to try out the Nik Color Efex Pro Wendy suggested..had a quick look and it seems like fun…ty Wendy!

In my opinion its not cheating using effects or cropping…its passing on your imagination and representation of what nature provided, making it stand out in an individual portrayal. There is a time and place for both ways. I generally keep most of my photos close to the original however will crop out unwanted areas to enhance the focus on the subject that attracted me to take the photo in the first place, but then there is play time when you let loose with the imagination…good fun.

Great tutorial Jon, thanks for sharing with us all.

Rhonda :)

Congratulations……

thank for the tips i wil try that next time

Thanks for sharing your process in LR.

Thank you so much for sharing :))

Thanks for sharing. Love the pics taken from Ocean Reef~!:::)))))

I love the idea of your tips, any more to come please?

very interesting and appreciate the insight…your work is so very beautiful xx

This is very well written – interesting and humorous. I’d like you to think about more ‘tips’ to share :o)
I also do very little processing, as a matter of principle combined with lack of technical skills, and I guess we all have to decide what is ‘legitimate’. Your arguments have me convinced.
I look at Lightroom differently now, thanks very much. Cheers x

Excellent article Jonathan.Some great tips ther to be had by all:))

Jonathan I’m right there with you bro haha..P’shop scares the…..@#x% out of me apart from stiching panos …I love the advice re WB & Crop..excellent! I’ll stay tuned !! Cheers JOY :-)