REPROCESSING A FLORAL PORTRAIT

JULY 11, 2025

                                      FINAL PORTRAIT AFTER ONLY A FEW MOVES IN LIGHTROOM

Another quick one this week in my continuing campaign to convince you that post-processing is an exceedingly simple and quick procedure that should not be avoided, especially if it “takes too long.” This floral portrait was transformed in only a few steps, and I believe the final product comes much closer to my initial vision of the image.

I captured the snapshot nine years ago on a trip to Vancouver, B.C. to a beautiful garden known as the Bloedel Reserve. I heartily recommend that you stop by this garden if you are anywhere near the area - it is worth a full day, including a ferry ride. This image was taken along with several hundred others that day, and immediately forgotten. mostly because it was underexposed and didn’t reveal it’s worth upon my initial inspection. Today I went back to that day nine years ago and decided to see what I could make of the snapshot.

                THE ORIGINAL SNAPSHOT

I’ve grown tired of the single floral portrait, so I am more attracted to an image with multiple flowers. The first thing I did was to grab my trusty cropping tool to center my attention on just a portion of the image. The square crop reduced the field of flowers to just a few of the specimens that had caught my attention nine years ago. Google has just informed me that these are Big Blue Sea Hollies.

                                       I BELIEVE THE SQUARE CROP FOCUSES YOUR ATTENTION ON ONLY A FEW BLOOMS

I then made a short series of “global” adjustments to the entire image. I adjusted the exposure, brightening the entire image a touch, and then followed with some sharpening which is pretty much standard procedure for almost every digital image. The main subjects, the interesting white blooms, were coming into their own. Now it was time to separate them further from the background of blue flowers which were competing for attention.

                                      THE FIRST MOVES TO CONCENTRATE THE VIEWER'S ATTENTION ON THE WHITE BLOOMS

Once you begin to affect only parts of the image through selecting only specific areas, your images can begin to reflect your original intent. Each image reacts to different techniques, based on the image, your strategies, and your skill in using Lightroom’s selection tools. These tools seem to increase constantly, so it is up to the individual photographer to try to keep up to date, which includes rejecting any new tools that really don’t live up to their hype. Frequently told standards still work the best. 

The trick is to study the image and see what might work best in this individual case to divide the image into areas that can be easily separated from the main body of the image. I worked with white and black points to add some sparkle to the white blooms. The color adjustment tools allowed me to darken and subtly desaturate the blues which only affected the background flowers.

Once you begin to affect only parts of the image through selecting only specific areas, your images can begin to reflect your original intent. Each image reacts to different techniques, based on the image, your strategies, and your skill in using Lightroom’s selection tools. These tools seem to increase constantly, so it is up to the individual photographer to try to keep up to date, which includes rejecting any new tools that really don’t live up to their hype. Frequently told standards still work the best. 

The trick is to study the image and see what might work best in this individual case to divide the image into areas that can be easily separated from the main body of the image. I worked with white and black points to add some sparkle to the white blooms. The color adjustment tools allowed me to darken and subtly desaturate the blues which only affected the background flowers.

                                      THE FINAL PRODUCT AFTER PAINTING IN THE BACKGROUND TO DESATURATE THE BLUE FLOWERS AND TO USE THE SHARPENING TOOLS TO REDUCE THE SHARPENING OF THE BACKGROUND.

The final result really allows the interesting blooms to pop out of the background, and my work is complete. I would assure you that even with all of that brushing, it has take me much more time to explain my process than it took to actually get to the final image. I would encourage you to try to play with the post-processing tools at you disposal to quickly transform you own images beyond what you thought was originally possible. Have fun!