Lightroom 4 Post-processing

As I read posts on the Internet about Lightroom 4 and had people asked the question " is it decent full post-processing" I will have to say yes, it is.  I do the majority of my post-processing in the develop module of Lightroom 4.  I still utilize Photoshop, especially if I want to use plug-ins, since in Photoshop, I can stack them in layers.  However, although Lightroom4 does not have a layer option, by judicious use of the adjustment brush and the graduated filter, you can choose areas of the photo to do selective adjustments.  In this blog, I will not show you the entire workflow steps that I went through create the final picture (In a previous blog, I did show a workflow utilizing Lightroom 4 http://photobee1.blogspot.com/2013/01/yaquina-head-light-post-processed-in.html), but will show you that you can utilize Lightroom 4 for a majority of your post-processing.

Below is a screenshot of the original photo and if you notice the histogram is pushed to the left because of the bright light of the sun showing through the clouds, if I pushed it.  More to the right more of the same would be blown out and with people walking on the beach, and utilizing a slow shutter speed, I did not want to do an HDR.

My first step was to do a lens correction for the lens that I was using, then in the graduated filter panel, adjustment brush panel and graduated filter panel worked on the adjustments to create the effect that I wanted.Notice the change in the histogram, it has been moved to the right.

Here is the final picture, After all the adjustments and cropping the picture

 

 Here is the same picture, taken a little earlier, but adjusted both in Lightroom, Photoshop, and NIK software- HDR Pro, Color Efex Pro.I created a different mood for this picture.