In this video, we’re going to use Luminarᴬᴵ to walk through and create a street photography template, and then we’re going to batch process this series of images to create a cohesive look. To follow along during this tutorial, download the exercise files and download Luminarᴬᴵ (you can use the code SLRLOUNGE for $10 off!) to edit with me!
Video: Street Portraits Portraits Using Luminarᴬᴵ
Instead of fine-tuning from the start, we’re going to take a different approach to post-production here. Typically, whether you use Lightroom or Capture One, you’re used to making small tweaks and adjustments to the base settings. For this tutorial, we’re working backward, starting off with the broad vision of the photograph and then working on all the nuts and bolts.
Step 1: Create a Template
We’re going to start with a template which is basically a collection of settings that will either be your starting or ending point for your image, just depending on how far you want to take them. Each template acts as a stylistic edit so select one that works best for the style intended for the image. If you want to create your own Template you can do so too.
Step 2: Modify LUT
You can start the edit out with an existing Template or if you head over to the Creative panel and select ‘Mood’ you’ll see a selection of LUTs. A LUT is a mapping of colors which is essentially the same as color grading your photography. For this edit, we are going to use ‘Long Beach’. we can adjust the amount of the preset in terms of the overall color and contrast.
Step 2: AI Editing
Next, head to the Enhance AI section and add in a little bit of Accent AI. This is going to just add a bit more ‘oomph’ to the image they really don’t explain to me what’s going on behind the hood I just know that it adds a little special sauce that I like).
Rewind: AI-Based Landscape Worfklow Via Luminarᴬᴵ
Step 3: Base Editing & Tweaks
This is what I was mentioning earlier, that we’ve essentially flipped the post-production process on its head. Typically this step comes first and then we spend a little bit more time finessing them with more stylistic edits. I’m going to pull down my highlights because I want my white point to be fairly low. I also want my black point to gray out and then I will start adding contrast selectively by adding another point on the curve as shown above. At any point, I can adjust the contrast by pulling down the Shadows or pulling down the Highlights, so if I pull down the Shadows it’s going to increase Contrast and if I pull up on the Shadows it’ll decrease Contrast. It works the exact same way for Highlights. This is what contrast is doing, it’s essentially stretching apart the whites and blacks in an image the bright areas and the darker areas by pulling apart making them more exaggerated. What I like about Luminarᴬᴵ ‘s Smart Contrast is it really looks for areas that are not people, it’s looking for more of the background.
Rewind: AI-Based Batch Portrait Workflow via Luminarᴬᴵ
Step 4: HSL & Color Toning
The real mood and feel for these cinematic-type edits are all in the tone curve and the HSL panel. You can see I did some major tweaking to accentuate and tone down certain colors to give the image more of a trendy and popular teal/orange vibe. If you wanted to add a second layer of toning you could always add in an additional shadow/highlight split tone look, but I’m happy with it right there.
Step 5: Save New Template
In the bottom right corner of the screen, you’ll see three dots that allow you to save this edited template as a new template. Now, if we go to Templates and select the Star icon in the top right corner you’ll see the new template under ‘User Templates’.
Step 6: Batch Process
Going back to the catalog side, I can actually select any of the other images I can go to templates and apply this cinematic street template, and you’ll notice that it gets a really cool tone and look over all the images. If we go back to the catalog view you can see this nice consistent cohesive look between all the images.
Final Edits
We hope you enjoyed this tutorial showcasing some of the powerful and resourceful tools offered in Luminarᴬᴵ for cinematic street portraits! If you haven’t already check out our previous tutorials covering how we use Luminarᴬᴵ for portrait and landscape editing. If you want to try out Luminarᴬᴵ you can use the code SLRLOUNGE for $10 off!
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