Editing is a very vital component of photography; it can transform a lackluster photo into a sensational work of art. Post-production editing is often encouraged to improve the quality of the image. There are various editing programs available in the market; one particular software that a lot of photographers prefer to use is Lightroom. This is because it’s simple and has plenty of editorial tools.
You can use different editorial styles to make your photos look professional. Presets are one of the popular ways that let you enhance the quality of your images with much ease. What’s more,
Visual Flow Lightroom Presets offer some of the most incredible photo editing tools that can be used on various projects. Besides the presets, Visual Flow also has a vast community and educational materials that can help you improve your photo editing skills.
Perfecting your editorial skills in Lightroom isn’t a hard task; with a few simple tips, you can greatly advance your skill level. Here are some helpful points that can catapult your skills.
Correcting White Balance
The human eye is one of the most sophisticated organs; it can automatically adjust itself to see an image clearly in the natural light. The most advanced cameras in the market today still lack such capabilities. Thus, a photographer has the option of rectifying white balance either during a shooting session or in post-production editing. Lightroom gives you the option to tweak the illumination thereby giving your picture a more natural appearance. You can achieve this by either adjusting the Tint or Temperature sliders. The tint slider adds a magenta or green effect while the temperature bar brings a yellow(warm) or blue(cold) effect.
Refining the Saturation and Vibrance
On some occasions, a photo may appear dull and uninspiring; to make the image pop, you can opt to adjust the saturation and vibrance. Tuning these tools will augment the color of an image. The level at which you choose to adjust these two settings depends on the condition of that particular image, your subject, as well as your preference. When using these sliders, always exercise caution as applying too much effect can make your photo appear fictitious.
Get Rid of Unnecessary Dust
It’s always frustrating to discover a picture you took was capture by a lens that contained dust particles. This is especially painful when the image is of uniform color such as the sky. This is why you should always preview your shots after taking them. Thankful, Lightroom can help you rectify this mistake. The spot removal tool can assist you by duplicating other similar areas on that spot. Alternatively, you can also use the heal function which would blend the spot with its environ; this eventually makes the final product to be more natural.
Dodge and Burn
In the course of editing, you may want to do local adjustments; this means that only certain spots in your image will be the ones affected if you choose to lighten or darken them. The dodge and burn tool can effectively help you achieve this effect; it can be accessed by selecting the adjustment brush.
Shadows and Highlight
A common mistake that many photographers make is clipping their images when they try to balance shadows and highlights in their photos. This usually results in the loss of pixel in particular areas, thus appearing as pure black or white. A good practice that can help you avoid clipping your photos is ensuring your lighting is unerring when shooting. However, Lightroom has a few functional features that can help you recover such distorted areas. Balance the highlights and shadows in the respective sliders to enhance the quality of your image.
Conclusion
There are numerous reasons why many photographers choose Lightroom to carry out their post-production duties. The sheer number of editing tools coupled with its ease of use has made it a favorable option. Moreover, the changes that a person makes is added as a layer on top of the original image. This is quite helpful especially for a person who’s learning the program; he or she can simply revert to a particular stage of the editing. It’s always the subtle things that make the greatest difference in editing; therefore, following the simple tips mentioned above will help you hone your Lightroom editing skills.