I was re-organizing my Lightroom catalog as I do each January; my catalog is simply too large to have everything on C: drive. While moving 2022 to my Storage drive, I noticed that I was missing a few years in Lightroom but I still had the files on disk. After re-importing them, I was curious what I could do with my current skillset.
I wanted to make sure I chose an image that had good composition but could use a bit of work on the post production end. Long exposures being one of my long-time favorites, I chose the image below from April 30, 2015.
![picture from 2015 in my early days of photography ofthe edmonton legislature building with trails of car's brake lights from long exposure](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cd0f58_5722a88bb2944c3b92c99f3278d7cfe6~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_680,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/cd0f58_5722a88bb2944c3b92c99f3278d7cfe6~mv2.jpg)
The trails from the brake lights are well defined. The Legislature building is slightly off center per rule of thirds. The tree in the upper right helps to provide a bit of foreground and create more depth to the image.
However, the exposure is a bit dark. The "No Parking" sign below the tree is very distracting. Since this photo was taken with the tripod on a hill, I had difficulty making sure it was flat and the resulting image is not quite level.
The exposure was very easy to fix. When I was first starting out, I had a self-imposed rule that I wouldn't use any of the automatic features. Perhaps that was beneficial, because it forced me to get familiar with what the various sliders do. These days, I have no qualms about using the "Auto" features in Lightroom at least as a starting point. It produces quite good results and is so much faster.
![close up of the tone control in adobe lightroom showing zero adjustments](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cd0f58_f040bb3d7aa0421ca402f1053234ce3c~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_277,h_401,al_c,q_85,enc_avif,quality_auto/cd0f58_f040bb3d7aa0421ca402f1053234ce3c~mv2.png)
![close up of the tone control in lightroom after Auto adjustment has been applied](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cd0f58_95e1d2976e6b4ac5922b60e349c87ac3~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_273,h_392,al_c,q_85,enc_avif,quality_auto/cd0f58_95e1d2976e6b4ac5922b60e349c87ac3~mv2.png)
When I first started, I didn't use Photoshop at all. These days, I use it almost as much if not more than Lightroom, especially with restoration and colorizing. A little bit of work with the " spot healing" brush tool on the magical "content-aware" mode and the annoying sign is gone. The tool sometimes makes strange artifacts. There are some minor artifacts. However in this case, they blend in naturally with the clouds.
![close up of the spot healing brush tool in photoshop](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cd0f58_cbc2aae409604de6a6d44cb71fa24db4~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_223,h_123,al_c,q_85,enc_avif,quality_auto/cd0f58_cbc2aae409604de6a6d44cb71fa24db4~mv2.png)
![right side of the original image with the no parking sign removed](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cd0f58_180e2dd96e4e4e0683f79d59ca74faf9~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_570,h_767,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/cd0f58_180e2dd96e4e4e0683f79d59ca74faf9~mv2.png)
Back in Lightroom, I still wasn't totally satisfied with the pole on the far right of the frame.
![right side of the image with the pole cropped out](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cd0f58_60aeb55c17ad4380ae848eaef9df267d~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_386,h_762,al_c,q_85,enc_avif,quality_auto/cd0f58_60aeb55c17ad4380ae848eaef9df267d~mv2.png)
I adjusted the cropping ever so slightly and we're done.
![final image with adjustments as described in the post](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cd0f58_4a94683023014430994c5eb5a401847b~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_690,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/cd0f58_4a94683023014430994c5eb5a401847b~mv2.jpg)
The final image has much better exposure and contrast, particularly in the shadowy parts like the trees. The minor annoyances are also corrected.
I had fun with this and will likely do more. I'm not sure if I'll create a post like this for each image. I will post the before and after on my Facebook page at a minimum. https://www.facebook.com/BRPhotographyCanada/
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