A 2-minute video critique made me rethink my entire editing workflow

I had this photo editor look at my landscape shots from a trip to Yosemite last spring. She said 'your shadows are completely crushed, you're losing all the texture in the trees.' I took her advice and started lifting shadows 40% in Lightroom. Man it made a huge difference, now the images actually pop. Has anyone else had a random piece of feedback totally shift how they edit?

3 comments

3 Comments

robert6591mo ago

@keith_bennett's onto something. 40% lift is a lot for woods.

keith_bennett1mo ago

I've been lifting shadows 40 percent for years and honestly I think it can flatten things out in a different way. Yosemite specifically has those deep forest shadows that give the whole scene weight. When you pull them up that much you lose that sense of depth, the trees start looking like flat green blobs. I'd rather keep the darks heavier and use a graduated filter to bring out just the texture in the bark instead. Have you tried that approach with a few photos to compare?

james_bell1mo ago

A two minute video critique is a pretty low bar for tearing down a whole workflow and rebuilding it. Lifting shadows 40% on every shot sounds like a blanket fix for something that probably varies image to image. Maybe just take her advice on a case by case basis and see how it feels instead of committing to it like a religion.