Adobe Lightroom Classic CC & CC: Photo Editing Masterclass

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to rank photos with 1 to 5 stars, flag photos, and label photos.

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to use Lightroom's face tagging feature.

Let's do a quick check for learning with a short quiz.  

Let's jump right in!  In this fast lesson I'll give you an overview of everything you'll probably need.  In the following lessons we'll slow down and go one function at a time.  If you're already a Lightroom ninja, you can watch this lesson to get a brief refresher.  If you're new to Lightroom, then just enjoy this lesson an don't worry about mastering each adjustment.  The next lessons will let us slow down and cover everything in detail.  By the time you're done with this 4:59 lesson you'll have been exposed to the features I use most in Lightroom.  You'll be able to navigate through these features and know which features you'll want to use on your images.  Let's go!

Adobe Lightroom Crop and Straighten: Have you ever had a pic that wasn't straight?  It's the worst.  You spend all this time trying to get it straight and you always feel like your guessing.  Stop guessing and see how you can nail it.  Get perfectly straight horizons in no time flat with a few simple tricks and tips.  You'll also see how you can set and hold aspect ratios as you crop out unwanted parts of each image.  You'll love how quickly and easily you'll be able to get the perfect composition after you're done with this 10:38 lesson.  I promise, you'll learn something new so don't skip it!

Adobe Lightroom Tone: What do you think the single most important feature in Lightroom is?  I think it's tone.  Tone let's you really take creative control of your image. The tone refers to the Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks.  Don't use the auto button, take create control of you images.  The best part?  You can correct one image then apply that correction to an entire batch saving you time and energy.  You won't want to miss this fast but complete session on Tone in Adobe Lightroom.  

Use a raw image (DNG) and follow along as we create a custom white balance

Adobe Lightroom White Balance: It's the first step to any professional image.  The white balance of an image is how warm or cool the image is.  Warm images are yellower and cooler images are bluer. There is a simple slider as well as a dialog box in Adobe LIghtroom that lets you adjust this key adjustment.  You can also select an eye dropper located next to WB and click in the image.  There's a dialog box that let's you auto dismiss and show loop.  You can use these features if you're spending a lot of time white balancing.  We'll show you how to move through the process quickly.  

Hint, hint... it's a grey card.  You'll learn how to use it by hitting the W key then clicking on your grey card.  Don't have a grey card?  Open Photoshop, create a new document, click edit-fill, contents-color, enter S:0 B82, click OK, print.  Congratulations, you've got a free 18% grey card.  

Download and unzip the zip file in additional resources

Adobe Lightroom Presence: Find out what clarity does and when you want more clarity and when you want less.  Vibrance is different than saturation and it's a better tool in many situations.  Vibrance lets you adjust the intensity of color for just those colors that are less intense.  Saturation, on the other hand, makes a more global adjustment to color intensity.  That means it makes a color adjustment to all the colors which can lead to some unflattering and unnatural colors in your image.  That's why I prefer vibrance.  Decrease clarity to make this look like a soft painting, increase clarity to give images a grungy sort of punch.

Tone Curve in Adobe Lightroom: The tone curve is another intermediate way to adjust the tone.  You can select from several different ways to interact with the curve from preset zones, to independent points.  The zones are better for simple, minor adjustments.  Using the independent points is a more advanced and powerful way to adjust tone, but you can get hideous results if you make adjustments that are too extreme.  In this lesson you'll learn the tone curve and by the time we're done you'll be able to use that curve in several different ways to adjust your exposure.  

Congratulations, you're about 25% complete.  Keep it up, you're doing great!

Hue, Saturation, and Luminance in Lightroom.  This set of adjustments is perhaps one of the most advanced and powerful in all of Lightroom.  You can make selective adjustments to the hue, saturation, and luminance by adjusting these attributes for a given color range, or by clicking an area of a  pic and dragging up or down.  Why should you care?  You can finally make your skies bluer, darker, and more stunning with a very easy adjustment.  Want to change someone's shirt or dress color?  Here's the tool to do it.  Don't miss this powerful set of tools!  By the time you're done you'll be able to use the HSL panel to make creative and corrective adjustments in Lightroom.

Split Toning in Lightroom: Split toning is an adjustment that lets you color your highlights and your shadows separately.  Why would you want to do this?  Highlights should be warm (yellow) and your shadows should be cool (blue).  Instead of just making your entire image warmer (which would make your shadows warm).  I recommend you use split toning to warm up the highlights and cool the shadows.  It is a more accurate and realistic adjustment and will set you apart from most photographers who don't know about split toning.  By the time you're done with this 5:21 lesson you'll be able precisely apply split toning to get stunning and accurate colors in the bright and dark areas of your photo.

Details in Lightroom: The details panel in Lightroom lets you do two key things.  The first is the sharpen an image.  This is some very cool stuff.  The sharpening lets you pick how much sharpening (amount) and where to apply the sharpening (radius).  Set the radius to the left for portraits because that will give you softer, more flattering sharpening that works for portraits.  Slide radius to the right for landscapes or architectural photos.  Next up is noise.  Noise is either color noise (different colors where it should be a solid color) and luminance noise is where the color is uniform, but the brightness varies.  You can correct both independently in LIghtroom and it's so easy.  Adobe has done a great job making these corrections super fast and easy in Lightroom.  By the time you're done with this lesson you'll be able to make smart choices to sharpen and remove noise in your images.  Your images will look sharper and will have less noise.    

Noise, you know, those pesky artifacts in your image that create either 1. luminance or 2. color noise. No problem, in this lesson you'll see what both types of noise are and how you can remove both of them quickly and easily in Adobe Lightroom.  

Lens Correction in Lightroom: No lens is perfect, the good news is that you can correct your photos to remove the distortion (volume deformation) and chromatic aberrations (color artifacts) using the lens correction feature.  The good news?  Adobe makes is so easy.  Just select your make, model, and profile.  Lightroom is smart enough to handle the rest.  This feature doesn't do too much if you're shooting with a focal length of 100mm or above, but for lower focal lengths, especially 35mm and below, it's a very powerful correction.  When you're done with this lesson you'll be able to make lens corrections to your images.

Adobe updated camera calibration and process versions - in response here is an updated lecture to explain the changes and how you as an editor should respond.  Included is a downloadable zip file with a raw image.

Update about Adobe Lightroom Camera Calibration

Camera Calibration in Lightroom: Have you ever wondered why your images look different in Lightroom?  Why they don't match the back of your camera?  It's because your camera's profile doesn't match the profile Lightroom is applying.  So, what can you do?  Simple, apply your camera's profile right in Lightroom.  That's right, Lightroom can make your images look exactly like they did on the back of your camera.  Pretty cool! In this lesson you'll learn how to make your images look like they did on your camera by applying your cameras built in profiles in Lightroom.  

Learn how to make photos look the same on your computer and phone. 

Check for learning on the Basic section of Lightroom

It's time to put your new skills to work.  Let's do a practice activity to reinforce your new skills!

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to use the local adjustment brush to adjust just a portion of your photo (wherever you brush).

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to use the radial filter to edit just a portion of your video - inside or outside of a circle mask.

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to editing just one side of your photos with graduated linear filters.

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to remove blemishes in Lightroom.

Learn how to use the range masks to specify where you make photo adjustments.

Time for a quick check on learning

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to save photos from Lightroom.

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to add and edit watermarks for your photos.

Let's pause for a quick check for learning.

You're half way through the course.  Keep it up!

Edit a landscape with a moon in Adobe Lightroom. Dark foregrounds and light backgrounds are a real challenge for photographers.  With great dynamic range in your modern cameras, how you can you bring that detail out?  In this 10:54 lesson you'll follow along as we deal with these challenges and more.  By the end of the lesson you'll be able to use the tools we've covered in this course to create a stunning landscape image.  We'll use some basic and intermediate editing techniques to make a great

In this lesson you'll follow along as we deal with a pretty clean horizon line and a dark road and bright sky.  Watch as we balance everything out using some simple Lightroom tricks.  By the time you're done with this lesson you'll have a better idea how to tie these tools together to create a great landscape.  

Editing an image with a flash can be tricky.  In this lesson we'll show you how you can edit a flash photo image and create depth and interest in you work.  By the time you're done you'll be able to make selective adjustments and create punchy outdoor portraits using flash.  It's a basic to intermediate edit appropriate for photographers who have made it this far in the course.

Here's another flash photo edit, this time with a group.  Follow along as you learn how to deal with bright, orange sunsets, flash lighting, and groups.  By the time you're done you'll know a few new tricks for group flash photo editing.  You'll also see how the skills you've learned can be used together.  

This is a naturally lit image that's going to get a more cinematic look.  Follow along as you see how we can turn a flat image into an elegant, cinematic style image.  You'll know how to color grade in Adobe Lightroom after you're done with this lesson.  You'll also know how to make stylist choices and create a strong mood and feel to your shots.  

In this 5:31 lesson you'll learn how to use Adobe Lightroom for branding or corporate images.  You'll learn how to match an existing websites color scheme with the HSL tool.  The result is an image that a business can use for branding and web use because all the colors and hues are consistent with their existing brand.  

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to stitch together multiple photos right within Lightroom to create a panorama.

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, we'll learn how to remove noise from a dark image.

Join me for another fun activity to reinforce your new ability!

Introductory lecture for Lightroom CC including 25 high resolution files.

Let's explore Lightroom CC and understand how it's different than Lightroom Classic CC

Let's import our first round if images in Lightroom CC

Learn to create albums and folders and to organize your images effectively

Learn to rate and sort images and Adobe Lightroom cc

Learn to edit images to get the best from each image you take. Learn to create a masterpiece using Adobe Lightroom cc tools.

More tips on editing in my room

Learn to crop so that your image looks straight and exactly the way you envisioned it

Learn to heal and clone using the most advanced techniques available to photographers today

Learn brush tool adjustments in Lightroom cc so that you can make local adjustments effectively

Learn to use the linear gradient tool so that you can make local adjustments with the linear gradient technique

Learn radial gradient techniques so you can make your images come to life

Adobe Lightroom Mobile Introductory Lesson.  That's right!  Adobe has a mobile version of Lightroom.  Think it's just for viewing your collections?  Wrong!  It's a full photography, editing, and mobile sharing system.  It's an incredibly simple, powerful, and professional mobile editing system.  It also lets you sync between desktop and mobile across the cloud.  You can have your portfolio right on your phone so you can show people your work without having to download high resolution images on your phone or referring people to your website.  It's all your images in one place, always.  

Syncing in Lightroom Mobile.  In this 7:39 lesson you'll learn how to setup your Lightroom mobile to sync between your desktop and mobile.  Don't accidentally erase your images, follow along as we sync your photos.  See how to make, sync, and manage your images.  Don't worry, the desktop images aren't stored on your phone, they are just displayed on your phone.  It's all on the cloud and it's wonderful.  You'll thank Adobe after you see all the features they've packed into this system.

Editing in Adobe Lightroom Mobile.  Adobe Lightroom Mobile is a full mobile editing system.  It has great presets, powerful adjustments, and selective adjustments.  It has many of the features of the desktop version packed into your mobile device.  You can adjust exposure, contrast, filters, radial, and graduated filter adjustments and more.  You'll be amazed how powerful this great mobile editing software is.  Your mobile shots will never look better.  By the time you're done with this lesson you'll be able to perform basic and intermediate photo edits on your mobile using Adobe Lightroom.  

Organizing in Adobe Lightroom Mobile.  Create, organize, and master your collections in Adobe Lightroom Mobile.  The best part is everything you do on Mobile transfers to desktop and vice versa if you set it up properly.  By the time your done with this lesson you'll be able to organize and access your photos across all of your devices.  

Time for a quick check for learning.

Many mobile images suffer from dark faces and bright backgrounds.  See how to fix both problems quickly and easily with a few bold Adobe Lightroom edits so your pics looks epic.

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to use Lightroom presets.

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to find free presets, download them, and install them.

Time for a check for learning

Way to go, you're about 75% complete.  You're almost done!

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to brighter eyes and make teeth whiter.

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to remove red-eye due to camera flash in Lightroom.

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, we'll learn how to quickly soften skin to make portraits look better!

In this lesson of the Lightroom course, you'll learn how to remove pimples and wrinkles in Lightroom.

After the cameras stopped rolling and I sent these images to my client... here's the result, "Thank you for the quick turn around!  We are going through photos now.  There are lots of great shots to choose from.  Thanks for such a great job!" 

In response to Molly's question about skin tones. Here is how I would fix this image's color temperature.