Lightroom

Lightroom is the most indispensable tool I have for processing images, all my work begins by using Lightroom, other programs include CS5 for final touches and Photo Mechanic for browsing (I use a MAC), I consider all three programs essential to my work.

You can see in the first example how much can be recovered from the shadows, that is a pretty extreme example, but it happens, the second is a lot closer to a normal exposure and much easier to handle when shadows and highlights are not clipped.

Adjustments are almost always very subtle when an image is exposed correctly, often a small tone curve adjustment along with shadows and highlights. In the case of the second image above, luminance was used to control contrast in the blue, yellow, red and orange, along with curve a adjustment,  then shadows and highlights. Sharpening always is left at the preset standard in Lightroom.

Sometimes trickier images that show an odd color cast may need a hue or white balance adjustment and there is the occasional image that needs a digital Graduated filter.

Ross
Images In Light