Here’s an example of the improvements in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop since 2008. This image was shot in camera raw in 2008; however, in my post processing, I just couldn’t seem to crop to the falcon without seeing a lot of unwanted noise. My photograph was not well lit; however, it was all I had to work with. My first attempt at post processing in Photoshop CS3 used a shadowy, desaturated look to hide all of the background noise. I liked the look, but I was never happy about the light on the falcon. Today, I revisited this photograph in the latest version of Lightroom, re-cropped, removed noise and added a vignette. I also darkened the bottom of the image with the adjustment brush. I could have gone a bit further to darken the bird food box, which I think is distracting in this image. In any case, here is a collage which shows (from left to right) the original image, my first attempt at post-processing in 2008, and my latest attempt at post-processing. Clearly, Adobe continues to improve the way Lightroom and Photoshop handle images. Of course, this image was shot in Raw format — essential for being able to manipulate digital images. I doubt the JPG format would have allowed this much improvement.
