How We Produced It: Creating a Dramatic Wedding Environmental Portrait

Pye Jirsa

Overview

In our last article, we demonstrated how we shoot this gorgeous environmental portrait of a bride and groom during their first dance at Pelican Hill. This is a grand shot that incorporates the gorgeous rotunda and the striking skyline. In this Lightroom 4 Preset System tutorial, we will show how we can quickly and easily make this beautiful image more dramatic by using the presets in Lightroom 4.

Original and Final Image

Original Image
pelican-hill-wedding-before

Final Image
pelican-hill-wedding-after

Watch the Video Tutorial on How We Produced It

Lightroom 4 Preset System Mixology

00 MY MIXOLOGY – 10 SOFT PORTRAITS > 11 SP Standard Color
01 BASE ADJUST – 30 CONTRAST > 33 Light Contrast Boost
01 BASE ADJUST – 70 VIGNETTING > 73 Light Vignette

Use the 12 Sky | Cloud | Ocean adjustment brush for the sky to add a more dramatic look. Then, use 12 General | All Purpose adjustment brush on the Rotunda to enhance the detail.

To see how we post-produced it in more detail, please watch the video.

To see how we shot the image, please visit our previous article on How We Shot an Environmental Scene with a Hidden Light Source.

The Lightroom 4 Preset System

The SLR Lounge Lightroom 4 Preset System is designed to enable users to achieve virtually any look and effect within 3-5 simple clicks. From basic color correction, vintage fades, black & white effects, tilt-shift effects, faux HDR, retouching, detail enhancing, and so much more. The sky is the limit with what has been dubbed the most powerful and intuitive preset system available. Click the link above to learn more/purchase.

You can also purchase the LR4 Preset System as part of the Lightroom 4 Workshop Collection.

Pye Jirsa

Pye Jirsa is the co-founder of SLR Lounge and Lin & Jirsa Photography, one of Southern California's most recognized wedding photography studios. He is the creator of SLR Lounge's full educational library and has trained over 20,000 photographers since 2008 across lighting, posing, editing, and business strategy. He is also the co-creator of Visual Flow Presets and has spoken at WPPI, PPA, CreativeLive, Fstoppers, and Adorama.

More articles by Pye Jirsa →

RELATED POSTS

1 laguna beach maternity photos

9 Essential Tips for Beach Maternity Photos

August 04, 2026

Your client is pregnant and wants a beautiful backdrop for her maternity photos. What...

5 Easy Family Photo Poses

August 03, 2026

Great family photographers understand the impact of posing on family portraits. They...

Couples portrait

10 Golden Hour Photography Tips For Better Photography

August 02, 2026

Golden hour gives you roughly 20 to 40 minutes of the most...

Complete Headshot Posing Guide

August 01, 2026

A headshot seems easy enough to photograph. I mean, it’s just a portrait of...