Photoshop How To

Today we’re bringing you the latest installment of a very popular Lightroom Masterclass series from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel. Each episode covers the basics of a single, important task for photographers of all skills levels.

Today’s tutorial is Part 7 of the series and the topic is Lightroom’s Lens Correction settings. You’ll learn how remove chromatic aberration, fix vignetting, apply lens profiles to eliminate distortion, and much more. Best yet, instructor Christian Mohrle explains all the details in lens than seven minutes.       

We suggest downloading the demonstration image using the link beneath the video so you can experiment with these tools as they’re explained. After opening Lightroom’s Lens Correction panel Mohrle explains how it works. As you’ll see, the various enhancements can be accomplished in two ways; automatically with the Profiles menu that includes a selection of lens profiles or by taking a manual approach.

Keep in mind that different lenses require different corrections. Or as Mohrle puts it, “There is no general fix for every lens, as one may distort the image more or in a different way than the others.” Fortunately, most of the time applying Lightroom’s automatic settings through the Profiles menu is sufficient when working with landscape photos.

Mohrle uses a seaside shot to demonstrate how all this works, and he begins with unsightly Chromatic Aberration. As he explains, it’s usually necessary to zoom in on an image and take a closer look to identify problems areas that need to be addressed. In this case it’s ugly colored edges in areas of high contrast that detract from the photo.

You’ll see how to set up the lens profile manually if Lightroom’s dropdown menu doesn’t have what you need, but Mohrle says this is a rare occurrence. With Chromatic Aberration resolved, he moves on to distortion, vignetting, and an explanation of Defringe. In all cases the rehabilitation process is straightforward and easy to accomplish.

You can find earlier episodes in this illuminating series by paying a visit to Mohrle’s YouTube channel, that also include other lessons on just about any other editing task you can imagine.

We also recommend taking a look at the helpful video tutorial we shared from another expert, with a complete beginners guide to using Layer Masks in Lightroom.