mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I don't accept your age of 64 as either old or as a valid reason for your computer ignorance. I'm 71 and my wife is almost 63 and we are both computer power users. If you are as intelligent as you suggest, what is lacking is sufficient interest and willingness to commit the time needed to master something new. Lightroom is a professional level tool. There are many adjustments available to fix your image, but it's not a quick fix where I can tell you in a couple of easy steps what to do. You would need a good working knowledge of Lightroom first.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

79 years old, and although not a "master" at the computer, am pretty good at it. Have "mastered" Lightroom CC after many hours of study and practice.

sathca Loc: Narragansett Rhode Island

Are you drooling yet! You’re eyes must at least be glazed over a bit! I’m choosing a different tack on your problem. You will learn Lightroom in time and if you wish to go through all the steps suggested then have at it, but in the meantime learn about high dynamic range and the cameras limitations for recording extreme lights and darks ( highs and lows ). You can’t have your moon and your clouds too! At least not in this situation. You can achieve a compromise with much manipulation through the wizardry of Lightroom but it’s easier when you plan for it and, as others have said, its easier in photoshop ( ps ). Learning that gem will put you in a coma if Lightroom tutorials are making you drool! But it’s not bad with the right teacher. The best teacher starts with an emphasis on working with layers as they are the foundation of all the greatness that photoshop has to offer. I started with a book that didn’t start with layers and I drooled also! I realized on my own that layers were key and I’ve been reading Robin Whaley to catch up. I think, I may be wrong, that the basic problem you have there is high dynamic range. So learn what it is and how to deal with it in camera and in Lightroom and photoshop and let the drooling stop and wall hangers begin!

Chief Rob

Sir; Lightroom is a very sophisticated software package with many functions, each function having multiple facets. While videos, to more than fewer, are an easy method of learning I have found they do not work well for me. To compensate for my poor video based learning I rely on written materials such as tutorials and desk references. In the case of Lightroom I have found a book that serves me well as both a tutorial and as a desk reference. This is Victoria Bampton's book "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC/6 The Missing FAQ". Today, October 7, 2017 the book is available at Amazon for $46.95 paperback and $31.95 kindle. I highly recommend buying the paperback version as Ms Bampton gives you an ebook version in any of several formats including kindle IF YOU REGISTER YOUR BOOK. See the directions for book registration on page 576 of the tome. Good luck and photography! Chief Rob

Retired fat guy with a camera Loc: Colorado

I can and did crop the leaves, in another image. It was shot on a full frame camera, a 1Ds Mark lll, with a 70-200 mm, f/4 L lens. At 200 mm. The picture I posted, was straight out of the camera.
For the reason, that , people who know more than me, could help with the lightroonm settings, and effects I am trying to learn.
It was on tripod, if you read the settings, it was shot a 5 seconds. There is no way I can hold steady that long. It was a breezy night the leaves were swaying slightly.
I hope that explained the picture, thanks for taking a interest and replying

Retired fat guy with a camera Loc: Colorado

I have taken other shots of the moon. On manual, 200 ISO, F/11 at 200th of a second shutter speed and have been successful. The cloud cover, was a different light than I had ever shot before. It was a learning experience.

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

Many ways to go with this shot...........here's one way.

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

For a snapshot, I kinda like it the way it is.......maybe lighten it just a little, not much. LR is very complicated and takes some time to learn. I just played with it to learn each function.

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

I like your picture Tom. When you open it in the LR develop module, does the histogram show the whites or highlights climbing up the right-hand side? If it does, you will want to try pushing the whites and highlights sliders to the left. Don't worry if it darkens more of the picture than you want, just note whether it has adjusted the area that appears to be blown out. If it does not darken, then I suspect that area cannot be reclaimed. Totally blown out is when all details are totally gone. If this works and the areas do darken when you push the sliders to the left, there is another solution - the adjustment brush. Before going there, re-set those sliders so the image is not darkened. If you are not sure how to use the adjustment brush, it is pretty easy. The brush is to the right on the panel under the histogram. Click on it and a dialogue much like the one that you were looking at before will be displayed. Find the whites and highlights sliders and push them to the left, it doesn't matter how far, you can adjust them later. I suggest trying 1/2 way rather than all the way. Then you will want to adjust the brush size so it will only paint where you want it to. Too big will paint a wider area. Go down to the bottom of that first group of adjustments to find the brush sliders. Use the one that says "size" to adjust it. [Have the cursor over the image so you can see the circles that represent the brush.] Then use it to paint the areas that are too bright.

Best to work on the picture when it is enlarged so you can see better where you are painting. If you want to see what is covered, hover the cursor over the little black button that indicates where you first touched down the brush. It will show the area in red.

Hope this helps. If you have other questions or need clarification of what I have written, don't hesitate to ask.

Susan

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Hi Tom,



The short answer is "no".

Once highlights are blown out, there's not much that can be done about it.

That's an extremely difficult shot to deal with, the dynamic range from the dark of night to the bright moon (which is only one to two stops under daylight, since it's reflected sunlight) is simply too great for any camera to handle in a single click. The way I would have handled it is set up the shot for the clouds, then dial in some bracketed shots at - 1 stop and -2 stops to try to keep some more of the detail in the bright moon.

The next problem you're running into is that Lightroom really isn't set up to deal with things like this. LR is a very powerful cataloging, sorting, organizing, search tool and a great batch RAW converter. But it's a very crude and basic image editing and optimization tool. It's actually not designed for that. It's intended to work in tandem with Photoshop, which is the "Mack Daddy" of all image editing and optimization programs. In Photoshop you can combine images with layers or automatically with the built in Photomerge/High Dynamic Range tool. (Personally, with that image I'd do it manually with layers and masks.)

Photoshop Elements 15 is an alternative, a simplified form of Photoshop than can also work in tandem with Lightroom but has a much easier learning curve (built in support, which both LR and PS lack). It also can work with layers and merge images with an HDR process, though it's not as full-featured as Photoshop.

I understand all too well what you're saying about trying to learn to use this software via the Internet. The videos don't cut it for me either. I recommend you buy a book about Lightroom (and whatever image editor you might get). I think it's much easier to work from a text. There are some good ones, too... Scott Kelby, Victoria Brampton, Tony Northrup and others have written some great guides for LR, PS and Elements. The online videos can be helpful learning specific techniques, but I think the books are the place to start.