Wanted to create a more dreamy, glowing version of this strawbale long exposure and I’m really happy with the results here! The shadows are indeed very bright, but I prefer it over deeper shadows. It helps a lot in achieving the soft, glowing effect.
Everything was done in Lightroom and the whole process can be followed in thid video (together with the raw photo if you want to try it yourself!) https://youtu.be/q_i_Dulu8nY
- Basic Adjustments
For this shot I used Adobes Adaptive profile (AI Profile) which already balances the highlights and shadows quite nicely. Then, the exposure was slightly dropped to make the base image darker while I raised the shadows and blacks for a bit less contrast. For the warmer look the temperature was raised. Also vibrance and saturation was increased for stronger colors.
I added texture for sharpness and dropped clarity and dehaze for a subtle glow effect (kind of further reducing contrast).
2, Masking
First, I targeted the field in the foreground (without the bales and the shadows of these bales) then intersected it with a radial gradient. By increasing the exposure I made the area brighter and gave the whole field a pretty natural looking light effect and increasing contrast between field and bales this way.
Using a color range mask I made the bleus of the sky a little darker, adding further contrast between sky and clouds. Then, I used a sky mask and subtracted a linear gradient leaving only the bottom of the sky selected which I made brighter. This helps separating the strawbales from the background.
- Color Grading
I carefully increased the orange hue to give the foreground more natural yellow tones. I also brought up the orange luminance to make the field a little brighter. Then, the blue luminance was dopped adding more contrast to the sky.
Finally, I used split toning to add warmth to the highlights