Camera’s View

Trying to clean up my image catalog, I came across an image of the Methodist Church of Bodie California that I captured while visiting various Ghost Towns during a trip to California.

Bodie State Historic Park is a genuine California gold-mining ghost town. Bodie is one of the largest and best preserved ghost towns in the West with over 170 buildings still remaining and accessible to visitors. Bodie is a photographer’s paradise, if you are looking to capturing an image with that “antique - worn” look . The Methodist Church is one of the better preserved buildings and one of the first that you will encounter.

Google Earth Locator - Bodie SHP

The day of my visit was warm, very dry and very, very windy, with dust everywhere. It was also high noon.

I don’t have any particular reason for picking this image, other than I wanted to see if I could obtain the desired effect - an HDR Simulation totally within Adobe Lightroom without having to do any adjustments or editing with Adobe Photoshop.

As captured image -

(click on images for better viewing)

After adjustments

Here are the steps that were used -

1. Create a Virtual Copy (optional)
2. Set Recovery, Fill Light, Contrast and Vibrance to +100
3. Reduced Blacks to +50, Brightness to +50 and Saturation to -84
4. Tone Curve set to Medium Contrast
5. Reduced Exposure to -0.21
6. Readjusted Saturation to -64 and reduced vibrance to -28
7. Sharpening to +62 and Sharpen Detail +54, masking the sky

How effective this adjustment is, is also dependent on the image being used. Trial & Error are involve and actual settings will vary depending on the image being adjusted. As an example, you may have to adjust blacks and/or exposure to get the desired effect on your image.

What I am trying to demonstrate is, you do not always have to use Photoshop to create this or other effects. Some effects can be achieved totally within Lightroom, so experiment !

Here are more examples from the same Bodie trip with the same effect applied -

You can download a preset that I created for this effect at this link -Effect Preset Download and use it as a starting point for your own image.

Note: Adobe Photoshop Killer Tips Blog has a tutorial on how to install presets.

Let me know how it worked for you.

Have a Great New Year !

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