The SOAR! Recipients have done such an AMAZING job blogging their journey these last eight months.   This week they are highlighting the awesome influence some of the SOAR! Partners have had on their photography journey!  Don’t miss it!

If you are a beginner in Post Process stuff, here is one post you don’t want to miss. For those of you who don’t know, Adobe is one of our awesome SOAR! Scholarship partners.  They are equipping the recipients with all kinds of amazing software and books.  Jennifer dove right into Lightroom and fell in love with one of my favorite features; Vignettes.  Keep on reading, and you’ll be adding vignettes to your photos in no time!   (great post Jen!)

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The day that Lightroom was delivered down our drive, I became a professional photographer…

At least it feels that way!  I really am in love with using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.  We kind of have this thing… this little relationship now.  Even though we are still getting to know each other, I am by far one of Lightroom’s biggest fans. Not only is Lightroom a cataloguing genius, it is just plain EASY to use!

My life has changed.  I heart you my little photo editing b.f.f.

Want to know one of my favorite, super-easy, must-haves on most of my picture edits?  Let’s look!

On the right hand side, when you are in the “Develop” screen, you can scroll down and see “Vignettes.”

Moving those sliding scales leads you to the perfect finishing touch for your picture.

Here’s a before and after:

These were from the self portrait exercise we did last week-The vignette is letting me put focus on the details that help tell the story. So simple and so effective!  I love that!  In fact, I love it so much that I’m a little addicted to vignettes.

But I didn’t become a “vignetting queen” right away.  I experimented many times and tried a lot of different edits before I had a few things that I included in most pictures.  See, the value of Lightroom is that it is non-destructive editing.  I can make all kinds of ugly attempts at improving a photo and with the click of my mouse, go right back where I started, straight out of the camera.  And then I can change my mind again and, with the same click of a mouse, go straight back to the edits I tried.  This is so huge, especially when you are learning what looks good and what doesn’t!

(these are the history of my edits from beginning to end-picture below-before and after…if I click on Import, I will see the picture I imported (SOOC), if I click on Fill Light, I will see where I stopped editing.  and I can click on any of these steps in between and see where I was during editing!)

Lightroom is such a powerful tool.  In fact, there is so much more I could tell you than what will fit in this blog.  Here are some of the most fun features Lighroom offers.  While I am getting better at photography, I’m also getting better at presenting my photos.  And, when I need bigger help because of tricky lighting or something like that, Lightroom has saved me!

Besides picture editing, Lightroom will be so helpful in working with clients…from watermarking to putting together slideshows and publishing them on my website.

I am SO grateful to Adobe for their partnership with SOAR!  What a gift we’ve been given!  And now that I’m working with Lightroom, it’s time to start learning all of CS5-unbelievable!!

Here’s to hoping you are having a great week!  If you haven’t used Lightroom, go download a trial version today!  Tell ‘em the “vignetting queen” sent ya’!

Let’s do this y’all!

Jen

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For more Post Processing Tips, check out these two blog posts from the Archives!

Me Ra’s Six Time Saving Steps to Processing an Image!

and

Make Post Process Count!

To read more of Jen’s SOAR! journey, CLICK HERE!

And tomorrow, we discuss the beauty in photographing Baby Details!  This post will make you smile!  🙂