Tag: dslr photo

Popular among both amateur and professional photographers – Lightroom is simple to use with powerful editing tools that help in drastically improving your photographs.

Lightroom allows you to make adjustments/edits to the overall photograph as well as specific areas of a photograph.

In our previous Lightroom Tutorial blog, we explained how to edit photos using Radial Filter in the Develop Module.

Now, let’s explore and harness the power of Editing with Graduated Filters in the Develop Module which allows you to edit specific areas of a photo.

Graduated Filter is very useful in improving landscape photographs, we can use one or more Graduated Filters to edit different areas of the photo.

Below is a Landscape Photograph

We’ll use two Graduated Filters to edit this landscape photograph:

The first one to enhance the Sky.

The second one to enhance the area below the sky (mountains etc.)

1) Editing the Sky with Graduated Filter

Let’s start with a Graduated Filter to enhance the sky – make it bluer.

Click on the Graduated Filter icon

Then, click on the photo and drag it down till the area where the sky ends; you’ll see a set of three parallel lines. (The selected area is till the second parallel line)

For trial purpose, to know the selected area – let’s increase Temp to 100 and see the selected area.

We’ll undo this trial edit by clicking on the Reset button (at the bottom). 

(Alternatively, to see the selected area – you can also check the box ‘Show Selected Mask Overlay’ (below the photo)). 

Now, let’s do the actual edits.

Decrease Temp to -15

To make the sky slightly bluer.

Increase Clarity to 70

To accentuate the sky.

We are done enhancing the sky; click ‘Close’ at the bottom of the panel (the button on the right side of the Reset button).

2) Editing the area below the sky (mountains etc.) with Graduated Filter

Let’s use another Graduated Filter to enhance the area below the sky, make it look sharper and richer.

Click on the Graduated Filter icon.

Then, click at the photo and drag it up till the area where the snow-capped mountains begin; you’ll see a set of three parallel lines. (The selected area is till the second parallel line)

Before beginning with the actual edits, for trial purpose – let’s increase Temp to 100 to see the selected area.

We’ll undo this trial edit by clicking on the Reset button. 

Now let’s do the actual edits/adjustments.

Increase Contrast to 7

To make the dark tones richer and the lighter areas brighter.

Move the Highlights Slider to -100

To darken the bright tones and bring back details in the bright areas of the photo.

Move the Shadows Slider to 100

To reveal details hidden in the darker areas.

Increase Clarity to 40

To accentuate the mountains etc.

Increase Saturation to 80

To increase the color richness.

Increase Sharpness to 50

To make it look aesthetically more pleasing.

Having done enhancing the area below the sky; we’ll click the ‘Close’ button.

Let’s choose the Compare view to see the Before and After photos side by side.

Export the photograph (using Library Module in Lightroom)

You don’t save photos in Lightroom, instead – you export your edited photos.

To export the edited photo, go to the Library Module – choose the Grid View, then select the photo. Click File – Export. 

When exporting the edited photo, you can choose a filename, color space, resolution, pixel dimensions, etc. for the photo as per your need.

In our Lightroom Tutorial blogs, we’ve explained basic adjustments/edits using some of the popular Lightroom tools.

Lightroom has many more powerful tools for post processing. Go ahead and explore Lightroom to advance your editing skills!

Click on the below Image to see the Comic in which the Camera explains Jo how to use Graduated Filter to edit photos in Lightroom with the help of practical examples.

When you do photography: Remember the 5E’s – Explore, Experiment, Experience, Enjoy & Express to develop your own style as a photographer.

Do Share The Learning – Like It, Post It, Pin It, Tweet It!

If you have any tips on how to use Graduated Filter in Lightroom, please feel free to share them in the comment box below.

Did this blog help you with some ideas to improve your photography/editing skills? For more useful photography tips, examples, ideas & inspiration, please subscribe below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

Often the scenes/subjects come out less bright and colorful than we remember seeing and capturing them with our DSLR camera. This is where Lightroom comes to our rescue.

With Lightroom, you can do edits/adjustments to enhance the overall photograph as well as certain parts of a photograph (selective editing) to match the original scene that you shot or make edits to the photograph as per your creative vision.

Since RAW format captures all image data/details recorded by the camera sensor without processing it, (the file size is heavy compared to JPEG) it allows you to bring back lost details in the photograph while editing/processing it in Lightroom.

JPEG is a compressed version of RAW; due to compression, some of the image data may be lost. For instance, White Balance is applied by the camera for a JPEG image and hence it gives you fewer options to modify it while post-processing in Lightroom whereas with a RAW file, you have complete control over White Balance with more options for editing in Lightroom.

In the previous blog, we explained how to edit the overall photo in Lightroom using Basic Panel, Color Panel and Effects Panel in the Develop Module.

Now, let’s take your editing skills to the next level by exploring the Radial Filter in the Develop Module which allows you to do selective editing.

Radial Filter helps in improving portraits of people and animals.

Here’s a Photo of a Resting Camel

1) Radial Filter (editing certain part of a photo)

Click on the Radial Filter icon

(we’ve marked it in blue in the image for your reference).

Now, let’s draw a large Radial Filter (create a mask) over the Camel’s face and body to do edits that improve/accentuate the face and body of the Camel.

In the panel, at the bottom, below Feather – Select ‘Invert Mask’ which will allow you to do edits inside the Radial Filter (face and body of the Camel).  

Note: If you want to undo the edits you made, click on the Reset button (at the bottom). 

Increase Exposure to 0.16

To brighten the area, to see the Camel much more clearly.

Increase Contrast to 7

Increasing image contrast makes the dark tones richer and the lighter areas brighter. (Low contrast images look flat).

We have slightly increased the Contrast as we will do edits with Whites Slider and Blacks Slider later in the Basic Panel.

Move the Highlights Slider to -20

To darken the bright tones and bring back details in the bright areas of the photo.

Move the Shadows Slider to 53

To reveal details hidden in the darker areas without making the photo look overexposed or washed out.

Increase Clarity to 9

To accentuate details and add visual snap to the image.

Increase Saturation to 2

To increase the color richness in the image.

Increase Sharpness to 50

By increasing sharpness, we can transform a soft image into a sharp image and make it look aesthetically more pleasing.

Now, click ‘Close’ at the bottom of the panel (the button on the right side of the Reset button) before we move on to the Basic Panel for further edits.

2) Basic Panel (editing the overall photo)

Now, we’ll use Whites slider and Blacks slider to add contrast by moving them in opposite directions and make the image look richer. (we’ll increase the Whites and decrease the Blacks).

Increase Whites to 7

Decrease Blacks to -19

You can choose the Compare view to see the Before and After photos side by side.

We have explained basic adjustments/edits; you can further explore Lightroom and use its various tool to enhance your photos as per your creative vision.

Export the photograph (using Library Module in Lightroom)

You don’t save photos in Lightroom, instead – you export your edited photos.

To export the edited photo, go to the Library Module – choose the Grid View and select the photo. Click File – Export. 

When exporting the edited photo, you can choose a filename, color space, pixel dimensions, resolution etc. for the photo as per your requirement.

Click on the below Image to see the Comic in which the Camera explains Jo how to use Radial Filter to edit photos in Lightroom with the help of practical examples

When you do photography: Remember the 5E’s – Explore, Experiment, Experience, Enjoy & Express to develop your own style as a photographer.

Do Share The Learning – Like It, Post It, Pin It, Tweet It!

If you have any tips on how to use Radial Filter in Lightroom, please feel free to share them in the comment box below.

Did this blog help you with some ideas to improve your photography/editing skills? For more useful photography tips, examples, ideas & inspiration, please subscribe below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.