For the second demonstration, I specifically selected a much more challenging photograph. The shot of Lower Manhattan is way underexposed plus, I took it on an overcast day and, as a result, it has no contrast or colors.
To make it presentable we have to fix the exposure, recover shadows, increase contrast and saturation.
Please, follow the workflow I outlined in Using Lightroom Presets With the Landscapes lesson to edit cityscape photograph.
Here are the exact editing steps I used to achieve the final look:
- Gentle Wave preset
- 03 Exposure +++
- 09 Open Shadows +++
- 13 Contrast ++
- 17 Clarity ++
- 21 Vibrance ++
- 24 Saturation +
- 32 Vignetting ++
Here is the Lightroom Preset Editing Formula for this shot where each number inside the brackets represents a specific ADJUSTMENT from the TOOLKIT collection:
Gentle Wave (03, 09, 13, 17, 21, 24, 32).