Brainstorming in Photography

Have you ever done a brainstorming session?  It’s great for generating fresh, out-of-the-box ideas.  It’s used when you want to find a solution.  You can do it by yourself or with a group but the basic rule is you write down everything that comes into your mind.  Nothing gets discussed or edited or rejected.  No  matter how outrageous the thought, it gets recorded.  It’s only when you run out of ideas that you go back over the  list and discuss the various ideas, eventually zeroing in on the one or ones you want to pursue.

Well, I’ve recently started using a brainstorming technique in Lightroom.  It’s the same concept – develop as many versions of the photograph with no evaluation, no criticism, no limits.  Just try as many things as you can think of.  Here’s how it works.

Select a RAW image you want to work on.  I like to give it 1 star at that point.  Create a virtual copy and go to town.  Make some changes and see where they take you.  Then repeat the process.  Make another virtual copy and try a different series of changes.  Keep on making virtual copies and applying different approaches until you can’t think of anything else to try with that image.

Now I deviate from the pure brainstorming technique in this way.  If I find a version that I really like I give it another star.  Then I continue with more virtual  copies and more ideas.

You might be asking yourself how you can make different changes with the same image.  Well, here are a few ideas.

1. Try different color balances.  Make a warm version.  Then try a cool version.  Then try one that has a neutral color  balance.
2. Try different ways to adjust the  image’s luminance.  For  example, try Exposure.  Then on another version try Brightness.  On yet another version adjust luminance of specific colors.
3. Try different ways of controlling shadow and highlight clipping.  Use Recovery for highlight clipping.  Then try reducing the exposure.  Or try Fill for black clipping.  Then increasing brightness.
4. Use different techniques to adjust contrast.  Use the Contrast control.  Then use Brightness and Black.  Or Exposure and Black.
5. Don’t forget playing with saturation.  And hue too.
6. Now, mix and match all of these  techniques.  The possibilities are virtually endless.

Many of the versions will be very similar to each other but use this technique and you’ll come up with some very pleasant surprised.

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Author: doinlight

Ralph Nordstrom is an award-winning fine art landscape photographer and educator. He lives in Southern California and leads photography workshops throughout the Western United States. View all posts by doinlight