Focus of Episode: HDR Merging in Lightroom and How to Use the Split Toning Panel

In this episode of The FIX, I show you the editing behind a shot that was posted as Photo of the Week on May 7th, called Chapel Bridge in Lucerne Switzerland. As you have probably already guessed by my exceedingly creative photo names, this picture not only features a bridge, it was also taken in the small town of Lucerne, Switzerland.

So, the big challenge with this pictures is that it was taken in the middle of the afternoon when the light wasn’t great, I didn’t have a tripod with me (rookie mistake) so I couldn’t blur the motion of the water, and I was probably in a hurry to get somewhere. I actually don’t know about the last one, but it seems to happen often so it wouldn’t be unusual. I was, however, happy with the composition of the picture so I thought I could save it by tinting and toning the photo to give it an aged sepia look. This is done with the split toning panel in Lightroom which makes it really easy and gives you lots of room for creativity.

Some of the things that you can learn in this episode are:

• How to used the split toning panel in Lightroom
• How to give your photos an aged sepia look
• How to combine photos into an HDR in Lightroom using photomerge

The edit on this photo was a little bit more involved than my standard edit as I had to first combine three different exposures into a single file using the built in HDR option in Lightroom. I then edit the photo like normal and then use the split toning panel to tint the highlights and shadows. I also use the temperature and tint sliders to fine tune the overall tone of the photo.