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5 Extremely Helpful Lightroom Tips and Tricks
by Keenan Hursh
Adobe Lightroom is by far the most popular and widely used photo editing application out there. This relatively easy-to-use software can completely transform your photography and bring your images to a whole new level.
I use Lightroom religiously and this is my go-to tool for all photo editing. I’ve been using it for years through many updates and iterations and I’m constantly amazed by just how powerful and capable this application is.
That being said I find that I am constantly learning new things about Lightroom and learning tips and tricks to make my workflow better and more efficient. On top of that, this application has a lot of moving parts and can be quite complicated and difficult to navigate, especially when first getting started.
In a previous article, I discussed 10 powerful Lightroom tips and tricks that will transform your photo editing capabilities. Definitely check that article out if you haven’t already. Today I’m going to continue the story with 5 additional tips and tricks that I didn’t include in that original article.
Here are 5 extremely helpful Lightroom tips and tricks:
I use Lightroom religiously and this is my go-to tool for all photo editing. I’ve been using it for years through many updates and iterations and I’m constantly amazed by just how powerful and capable this application is.
That being said I find that I am constantly learning new things about Lightroom and learning tips and tricks to make my workflow better and more efficient. On top of that, this application has a lot of moving parts and can be quite complicated and difficult to navigate, especially when first getting started.
In a previous article, I discussed 10 powerful Lightroom tips and tricks that will transform your photo editing capabilities. Definitely check that article out if you haven’t already. Today I’m going to continue the story with 5 additional tips and tricks that I didn’t include in that original article.
Here are 5 extremely helpful Lightroom tips and tricks:
The Straighten Tool
This is an excellent way to make sure that your images aren’t crooked and that they’re perfectly straight every time. I’m sure many of us have used the “Crop Overlay” tool before to either crop our images or to manually attempt to straighten them. For those who are newer to Lightroom, this tool is located directly beneath the histogram in the “Develop” module. It’s the second option from your left and has a cropped square in the middle with two curved arrows around it. When you open this tool you can now crop your image however you’d like and you can also rotate it to make an image more straight.
This is an excellent way to make sure that your images aren’t crooked and that they’re perfectly straight every time. I’m sure many of us have used the “Crop Overlay” tool before to either crop our images or to manually attempt to straighten them. For those who are newer to Lightroom, this tool is located directly beneath the histogram in the “Develop” module. It’s the second option from your left and has a cropped square in the middle with two curved arrows around it. When you open this tool you can now crop your image however you’d like and you can also rotate it to make an image more straight.
But a neat little trick, that I didn’t know about for the longest time, is that you can actually just quickly draw a line and Lightroom will rotate the photo based on that. This is much quicker and simpler than painstakingly rotating an image until you think it’s spot on. To do this simply click the ruler icon to the left of the “Angle” slider. Then you simply need to click on a section of your image and drag a line across it while holding down your mouse. Once you have drawn this line you can release the mouse and Lightroom will automatically rotate your image based on the line. You can draw a line that either horizontally or vertically lines up with your composition and Lightroom will do the rest.
Widen your Editing Panel
This is a very simple and basic tip but it can make a world of difference when editing your images. Anyone who has used Lightroom, even for 5 minutes, will know that when editing images you spend a great deal of time moving sliders back and forth. This is how you change the values for different effects. To be honest, these sliders are very small and it can often be very difficult to make minute and fine adjustments. A great way to work around this and give yourself more editing control is to simply widen the editing column to the right of your image which will make all of your sliders wider. This makes it much easier to finely control your edits. I especially recommend this tip if you have a larger screen or monitor to work with.
This is a very simple and basic tip but it can make a world of difference when editing your images. Anyone who has used Lightroom, even for 5 minutes, will know that when editing images you spend a great deal of time moving sliders back and forth. This is how you change the values for different effects. To be honest, these sliders are very small and it can often be very difficult to make minute and fine adjustments. A great way to work around this and give yourself more editing control is to simply widen the editing column to the right of your image which will make all of your sliders wider. This makes it much easier to finely control your edits. I especially recommend this tip if you have a larger screen or monitor to work with.
Use the Calibration Panel
This is another relatively simple tip, or really more of a recommendation, but a great way to quickly edit the look and feel of an image is to use the “Calibration” section of the Develop module. I never used to use this and did all of my color correcting and editing either in the “Basic” section or the “HSL/Color” section. It’s totally okay to fine-tune the colors in your image this way but by using the “Calibration” section, which is down at the very bottom of the Develop module, you can quickly and effectively change the colors in your image all in one place rather than going back and forth. I will oftentimes do all or most of my global editing and then mess around with some of the sliders in this section to explore alternatives.
This is another relatively simple tip, or really more of a recommendation, but a great way to quickly edit the look and feel of an image is to use the “Calibration” section of the Develop module. I never used to use this and did all of my color correcting and editing either in the “Basic” section or the “HSL/Color” section. It’s totally okay to fine-tune the colors in your image this way but by using the “Calibration” section, which is down at the very bottom of the Develop module, you can quickly and effectively change the colors in your image all in one place rather than going back and forth. I will oftentimes do all or most of my global editing and then mess around with some of the sliders in this section to explore alternatives.
Resetting Sliders
This is probably the simplest tip in this article but it’s one that I use all the time and one that I didn’t know about for a while. Let’s say you’ve spent quite a bit of time making many edits to an image and you want to divert one slider or one effect back to the original starting point. Of course, there is the large “Reset” button at the bottom right-hand corner of the develop module but this will reset all of the sliders and settings back to zero. You can also, of course, manually slide an individual slider back to zero or even double-click the number to the right and type zero in. All of these options work but by far the fastest and simplest way to reset a slider to zero is to simply double click on the word to the left of it. This will instantly reset that effect or slider back to its starting point.
This is probably the simplest tip in this article but it’s one that I use all the time and one that I didn’t know about for a while. Let’s say you’ve spent quite a bit of time making many edits to an image and you want to divert one slider or one effect back to the original starting point. Of course, there is the large “Reset” button at the bottom right-hand corner of the develop module but this will reset all of the sliders and settings back to zero. You can also, of course, manually slide an individual slider back to zero or even double-click the number to the right and type zero in. All of these options work but by far the fastest and simplest way to reset a slider to zero is to simply double click on the word to the left of it. This will instantly reset that effect or slider back to its starting point.
Slash Key Before/After
My fifth and final tip in today’s article is another incredibly simple but incredibly helpful one. I find that it can often be quite easy to over-edit an image and take things a step too far. Of course, this is different for everyone and really depends on personal tastes and preferences but I never think it’s a bad idea to compare your edit to the original image.
There are several ways of doing this and one of the most helpful is a direct side-by-side comparison. You can do this by clicking on the icons in the bottom left corner of the main image window. You can compare two images to one another or compare an edit to the original image in multiple ways. This is useful but another very useful, quick, and easy way to accomplish the same thing is to simply switch back and forth between the original image and the edited version with the click of one key. All you need to do is press and hold the “backslash” key to reveal the original image. When you release it you will go right back to your current edit.
Alright, that’s all I have for you today. If you’re interested in learning more helpful Lightroom tips and tricks, then definitely check out this previous article. As always, I sincerely hope this information has been helpful and informative, and I wish you all the best of luck when it comes to editing your images.
Until next time!
My fifth and final tip in today’s article is another incredibly simple but incredibly helpful one. I find that it can often be quite easy to over-edit an image and take things a step too far. Of course, this is different for everyone and really depends on personal tastes and preferences but I never think it’s a bad idea to compare your edit to the original image.
There are several ways of doing this and one of the most helpful is a direct side-by-side comparison. You can do this by clicking on the icons in the bottom left corner of the main image window. You can compare two images to one another or compare an edit to the original image in multiple ways. This is useful but another very useful, quick, and easy way to accomplish the same thing is to simply switch back and forth between the original image and the edited version with the click of one key. All you need to do is press and hold the “backslash” key to reveal the original image. When you release it you will go right back to your current edit.
Alright, that’s all I have for you today. If you’re interested in learning more helpful Lightroom tips and tricks, then definitely check out this previous article. As always, I sincerely hope this information has been helpful and informative, and I wish you all the best of luck when it comes to editing your images.
Until next time!
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AUTHOR
Keenan Hursh is a Photographer, visual designer, and creative story teller based out of Bozeman, Montana. He draws inspiration from his frequent excursions into the natural world and always brings his camera along to capture whatever adventures he finds himself in. Keenan is passionate about documenting and sharing fleeting moments from the natural world and focuses primarily on wildlife, landscape, and adventure photography.
When it comes to gear, he primarily shoots digital with his Canon EOS R5 and EOS 6D mark ii but also has several 35mm film cameras that get out every now and then.
At a very young age, Keenan started bringing a camera along on his excursions and immediately fell in love with the art of photography. He started out with his parent’s cheap point and shoot and has continuously improved his craft and gear refining his shooting style and producing more compelling and intriguing images.
Growing up in the foothills of Boulder, Colorado, surrounded by mountains and wilderness, Keenan has developed a deep passion for many outdoor activities. When he’s not out on a shoot or using his camera, Keenan enjoys skiing, climbing, hiking, backpacking, cycling, whitewater rafting, and paragliding. If he’s outside, away from the distractions of society and civilization, he’s in his happy place.
Keenan studied Emergent Digital Practices at the University of Denver while minoring in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Since earning his degree in 2019 he was worked with a wide range of clients, companies, and organizations throughout his career. Apart from photography he specializes in content creation, writing, brand development, and graphic design.
You can view Keenan’s portfolio on his website at www.keenanhurshmedia.com
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"Backcountry Journeys offers guests the unique opportunity to explore our natural world from behind their own lens. We run a selection of hand-crafted Photo Tours, Workshops & Safaris connecting passionate people to exceptional experiences. Locations worldwide.
All Images & Content are property of Backcountry Journeys Photography Tours, Workshops & Safaris LLC - Copyright 2024
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