The Shadow Knows
If you want to bring out the highlights and detail in an image a great way to do that is with the Shadow control in Lightroom. As you’ll see, it’s also a nice way to relegate something to the dark background. Any time you have something that lets you control what your viewer sees, it’s a good tool to know.
Another fairly obvious side effect is that the image goes just a bit more into the surreal side of the art. As always, these tools should be used to bring out your own style. And that would be what you see that you love in your own work. Because I love the surreal does NOT mean you should love the look.
There are two sections of this video. First a fairly full edit of this one but starting with a very dark and featureless image in Lightroom. I want to show how just about any image can not only be saved, but it can fly off the page. It’s also a full edit so you can get how it was created. The second goes into more detail on how to use the shadow adjustment.
I have included the RAW of this beautiful image of Marcela for you to work from. I encourage you to dig through your own work and find something that ‘might’ look wonderful ‘if’ and see what art you can create with it.
Enjoy! And practice!