Muddy photos--what am I doing wrong?

Question

Hello all,
I'm a newish Lightroom user. I feel that my photos usually look very muddy around the edges/details when zoomed in in Lightroom.
I am attaching an example that I shot RAW using Canon 5D Mark II with the 24-70mm lens. Is it something I'm doing wrong either when shooting or with post processing?
Thanks so much for any answer.

Answer 1

Basics are not adjusted optimally, consider:
Exposure: Left (you got the whole thing, including midtones shifted too far rightward - highlights are getting jammed and blacks are unhinged).
Contrast: Left (it's a high contrast photo, with little need for midtone contrast, so it seems contrast reduction is called for - will help lift shadows and control highlights without excessive use of highlights & shadows sliders).
Highlights: Left (to preserve highlight detail).
Shadows: Right (to bring light into the woman's darkness).
Whites: Right (to keep dress bright and maintain sense of "contrast", and expand highlights for dress detail).
Blacks: Left (to get rid of that muddiness , and maintain sense of "contrast"). Note: with -contrast & +shadows, -blacks should not make the bottom end too dark.
Clarity to taste...
PS - As you know, you can also use tone curve for fine-tuning tonal distribution, but consider doing most of the heavy lifting with the basics.
PPS - Consider a touch of paint too, to perfect - e.g. +exposure -contrast in darker regions around face/hair - as long as -blacks is strong enough, this should not result in muddiness (or you could "cheat" and use a radial gradient instead of paint ).
Also, consider clicking auto-tone to see what Lr would do with it - can often be highly educational .
Summary: this is a photo that warrants full dynamic range, in my opinion - ideally there should be some black clipping and some white clipping. Within that dynamic range, basics, tone curve and local supplementation for most pleasing tonal distribution...
eh?
UPDATE:
I processed the jpeg screenshot and found a pleasing result by:
* dropping exposure a little bit (not as much as I expected would be needed).
* decreasing contrast a lot.
* increasing whites a lot.
* decreasing blacks a lot.
* minimal -highlights
* minimal +shadows
* one big radial gradient over shadow side (her right) of face (+exposure).
* one small radial gradient over other (her left) eye (+exposure).
* No clarity required.
* Bumped saturation (often helps restore "presence" when reducing contrast to satisfy tonal goals).
Points:
* Minimal use of shadows slider eliminated the harsh look and obviated need for -clarity.
* lowered exposure, coupled with -blacks assured -contrast did not result in loss of "clarity".
* strong -highlights not necessary once exposure dropped, and minimizing it kept photo looking "bright", despite reduced exposure (along with +whites).
* Indeed, all of this left the bride's face too dark, but that's what locals are for - a couple radial gradients and photo looks bright enough all around, with no muddiness.
About me: I'm not a super photographer, so I have to make up for it using Lightroom .
UPDATE #2:
You also asked about shooting - a little fill light (e.g. via flash or whatever else may have been handy, in this case on-axis (e.g. pop-up) would probably have been fine) would have helped and probably eliminated the need to use locals.
Just remember to remove the lens hood before shooting (wider angles) with on-camera flash, or else it casts a nasty shadow (I forget that regularly, so - note to self if not to you...).
Rob
Message was UPDATED (twice) by: Rob Cole