Lightroom - Intro Lesson

For this course you will be learned how to use Adobe Lightroom CC to develop your image. It's the industry standard and can greatly enhance your photography.

Let's get started!

PART 1:

Click HERE for a link to the RAW file used in this tutorial.

Although this is only one photographer's workflow, consider using it as a starting point in your own future edits. You'll be doing a lot of these this year!

SUMMARY OF EDIT SUGGESTIONS:

Once you've imported images into Lightroom (File > Import), move to the Develop tab (found at the top of the page) and select an image to work on.

Along the right panel, you'll see all these editing options. The ones you'll use most are BASIC, HSL, DETAIL, LENS CORRECTIONS, and EFFECTS.

Here is a summary of Anthony Morganti's suggestions on how to approach editing a LANDSCAPE photograph (like the example in the video above). Note that this is not necessarily the best approach for portraiture or indoor photography.

STEP 1: Open up the Basic panel.

(These are the settings used in the tutorial video...this is only a guideline!)

STEP 2: If the image has obvious problems with white balance, adjust the Temp slider.

*** TIP: If you double-click the word beside a slider, it will re-set to its original setting. ***

STEP 3: If the entire image is obviously over- or under-exposed, adjust the Exposure slider. ONLY do this if the ENTIRE image has flaws.

STEP 4: To bring out more detail in the sky, lower the Highlights value (possibly all the way to -100)

STEP 5: To bring out more detail in the dark areas of the image, raise the Shadows value (possibly all the way to +100)

STEP 6: To add a bit more detail and sharpness, raise the Clarity value. Clarity is actually "mid-tone contrast" but gives the impression of sharpness.

STEP 7: Adjust the black and white levels. The simplest way to do this is to get the "technical" white and black points. To do this, SHIFT-DOUBLE-CLICK on the word "Whites" and "Blacks". You can then adjust to taste.

Another way to do this is to ALT-CLICK-and-drag the Whites and Blacks sliders until just a bit of white or black pops out. Some people prefer blacks that are darker than the technical black point so this lets you go further than that if you'd like.

STEP 8: Adjust Saturation and/or Vibrance. Don't raise them too much, though! Vibrance will saturate only those colours that are not already considered saturated. Saturation will intensify ALL colours.

STEP 9: You're done with the Basic panel for now. Close it up and switch to the HSL/Color/B&W panel.

STEP 10: In order to bring out blue skies, click on HSL (Hue/Saturation/Luminance), slightly raise the blue saturation, and slightly decrease the blue luminance value.

STEP 11: Time to sharpen the image. Open up the Detail panel.

STEP 12: Add some sharpening (somewhere around 70 to start), and add a bit of noise reduction to compensate (around 40). Remember, the more sharpening you add, the more noise you get. Likewise, the more noise reduction you add, the softer your image becomes. It's a fine balance!

STEP 13: Open up the Lens Corrections panel and click on AUTO.

STEP 14: If you want to add a vignette, open the Effects panel and move the Amount slider slightly to the left (maybe around -12). Adjust to taste.

STEP 15: Look at your image and review any adjustments that need to be tweaked!