Landscape Photography III: Pro Editing With Lightroom & Photoshop

• Clicking the little arrows in the top left and right of the histogram show where you’ve clipped highlights and shadows
• Double clicking the name of any slider will bring you back to where it started
• You can go Profile -> Enable profile corrections and it’ll adjust the photo based on your camera and lens

• Highlights / Shadows
• If you hold down “alt” while moving the highlights or shadow slider, it’ll show where they’re clipped. You can also do this on the exposure slider
• Blacks / Whites
• If you hold down “alt” while moving the blacks and whites slider, it’ll show where you’re clipping those too as you go. This makes it easy to know where to stop clipping
• White Balance
• Clicking the dropper then selecting what should be a neutral gray in the photo will adjust the white balance for you
• Clarity
• Most landscape photos look good with a little bit of clarity
• DeHaze
• Dehaze is GREAT for hazy landscape photos, but it’s hidden down in the “effects” area
• Vibrance vs. Saturation
• Vibrance will try to keep skin tones neutral and boost the colors more subtle, saturation will increase color strength everywhere
• Contrast
• If a photo looks a little “hazy” or “washed out” you can increase the contrast to bring back the detail
• Gradients
• If you have a bright spot in the photo where you don’t want the focus going, you can add a brightness gradient to shift the focus.
• The gradient tool in the top right (tall rectangle) lets you add it to the photo and set the details.
• You can also make a part of the image brighter if you want more focus going there
• Tone Curve
• You can try applying an “S curve” by pulling the top up and pushing the bottom down, or vice versa
• Distracting Elements
• Spot Healing Tool can be used to paint over distracting elements you want to get rid of. If it’s a high-detail area you may have to be more precise in how you paint over it, but you can play around with it till you get it.
• This is good for getting rid of lens flare too
• Color Flares on Edges
• If you get a weird cyan, green, etc. flare around the edges when shooting into the sun, you can go to Lens Correction -> Color and use the tool to get rid of it
• Enhancing Sun Flare
• Make a radial filter (Circle in top right) around the sun area
• You may need to click “invert mask” to make sure it applies within the radius instead of outside of it
• Increase the exposure to bring out the sun
• Increase the warmth to make it that nice yellow color
• Be sure you bring out the blue in the sky too to provide the contrast
• Bringing out the sky
• You can add a gradient filter to the sky to bring it out without affecting the rest of your photo
• You can also decrease the temperature in that gradient to bring out the sky more
• You can also use the Dodge tool on the sky to highlight the clouds more
• Bringing out specific elements
• Use the “adjustment brush” (top right) to add detail to a selective part of the image
• Cropping
• Always make sure your horizon is level
• Sensor Dust
• If you see any sensor dust (darker circles in the photo) you can use the “spot removal” tool to heal them

Photoshop

• Editing in Photoshop
• Right click the photo, click open in Photoshop, then select to do it as a copy with Lightroom edits
• Usually want to duplicate the background for editing, CMD+J
• When you’re done and exit it, it should pop back into lightroom
• Burn Tool (photoshop)
• You can use the burn tool in photoshop with the range set to shadows, a low exposure (2-10%), large brush, and 0% hardness to bring out the shadows and contrast in your photos
• Dodge Tool (photoshop)
• Range: highlights, exposure: 2-5%, large brush and 0% hardness again
• Patch Tool (photoshop)
• Make another layer again, and then you can use the “patch” tool to cut out little objects you don’t want in your photo
• If it’s not behaving the way you’d expect, try changing from “normal” to “content aware” and changing the structure