Learn Lightroom and Photoshop CC: Improve Food Photography

There are several options you can choose from when importing pictures, which will affect your workflow later on. Lightroom also can make a backup of your original files while importing.

Because i got requests from students, i added all the pictures used in this course, so You can work on them while going through the course. Enjoy!

Easy way to check what shortcuts are available. Explaining modules, views, panels and zooming - for effective work.

Most of the time you will edit just some of your pictures from a photo session. If you took a lot of photos, the selecting process can be quite time consuming. In this lesson I will show you how to do it as quickly as possible.

There is no "one and only" way of rating and selecting your pictures. On top of marking pictures with stars and flags, using labels can be also very useful.

Instead of searching for your pictures in folders, use collections. There is much more functionality to it and its easier to find specific pictures in the future.

You can make objects in your picture straght (window, table, bottle...) manually or let Lightroom do it for you - it works in most cases very well!

Overall colours in the picture goes into blue, yellow or red or... (the scene looks "cold" or too "warm")? It means that WB (White Balance) in your camera was not set correctly. No problem, in most cases its easy to fix.

The most important part of adjusting the picture. Too dark? Too bright? Washed out colours? Many times this adjustments are all you need!

Some surfaces reflects the light more strongly then others. For example dark fruits on white plate will make big contrast. When taking a picture you will set your camera exposure low enough to keep the details on the white surface. This can make darker elements loosing a bit of contrast and colour. With local adjustments you can bring this contrast and colour back.

More visible steam above your dish. Making proper colour to the coffee only, leaving the rest of the picture unchanged. Using Radial Filter to "bring to the front" the main part of the picture.

Glass of red wine on the white background. You will learn how to remove any grey areas of the background and make them completely white without loosing details in the glass. You will also make red wine even more red if you want :)

Attention to details makes BIG difference in the pictures. This tool will help you get rid of unwanted spots, dust and scratches. Most of the time it works very good, only sometimes it will need some help from Your side.

Here You will learn how to adjust elements of particular colour, by changing their Hue, Saturation and Brightness. In the second part of this lesson we will cover an interesting issue (of loosing details in specific colour) which can occur and how to solve it.

Learn 3 different ways of converting pictures into black and white. End results can be really big.

While Smartphones and entry level cameras tend to sharpen pictures quite heavily, whether you want it or not. But when You shoot RAW, using more advanced camera, like DSLR, the pictures are untouched - You need to take care of sharpness in post processing (editing pictures). Why? Because "sharpness", details are a little bit lost on their way through lenses and while capturing by the camera's sensor.

Reducing the camera's sensor noise: its luminance and colour.

Manual and automatic corrections of your lens (chromatic aberration, distortions, etc.). In some cases it can give really big impact on your pictures.

Pictures that don't need further editing in Photoshop you can export already in size and format needed for publishing. Those which still need editing, you can export for editing later or open in Photoshop directly from Lightroom.

Introduction to the powerful feature of Photoshop: layers and masks. Thanks to them your editing possibilities grows exponentially.

Mastering selecting objects is essential to advanced editing. Rectangular selection tool, eliptical selection tool, quick selection tool, color range... Use different tools for different objects - to make the selecting process more efficient and precise.

Great tool to select and/or modify selections

Not only You can make and edit selections with channels, but also save as many different selections for later

How to shape what You have already selected

Learn the magic of Liquify Filter!

How to use Clone Stamp Tool and Spot Removal Tool

Next level of removing dust and spots. Using a mixture of tools. Some of them were not really meant for this task, but work beautifully

Making coffee more tasty and background less distracting at the same time. Making multiple selective adjustments, mixing them in every possible way.

Placing gingerbread on wooden background.

Changing the background behind very complicated dish. Darkening, adding contrast and changing colour.

How to sharpen food pictures in Photoshop the best way

Use this technique to extend depth of field in the picture or slightly correct. It will bring the attention to the area You want.

Make elements which are out of focus even more out of focus. Use different filters to achieve different effects. Very desirable effect these days.

Make beautiful Black&White pictures in a creative way.

How to change the size of the picture for the best final result (web or print).

When and where to use JPEG, TIFF, PSD, PNG file formats.

How to make the files as small as possible or as high quality as possible. You need to know if websites will still process your pictures or they will be inserted as they are. Best is to know the exact size needed and prepare pictures accordingly to have the best quality.

FREE Lightroom presets for quick 1-click effects for food photography

It can happen, that the picture is not perfect, the food is damaged a bit, and its difficult to take a picture again. It could be that it was time consuming or ingredients you don't have at the moment, or you are not at the place of shooting anymore, which was important for the picture. Its not the end of the world :) Thanks to your new skills, you can act as an "food doctor" :)

Check how the light is changing when i move reflectors on the shadow side. This is how you can adjust the light according to the type and shape of your subject. This bonus lecture goes beyond the topic, but i hope you are fine with that :-)

Final word