Software How To

You may think you know Lightroom, but do you really know Lightroom? Software pros have been using Adobe Lightroom for so long they know some editing secrets you can only dream of.

While we all strive to capture awesome photos in the camera, it’s often possible to make a great shot even better with a few post-processing enhancements. But image editing is a mixed bag, and you can actually degrade a nice photo if you’re sloppy on the computer.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “destructive editing” occurs when you process an image in a way that overwrites the original file and there’s no way to undo the adjustments once the image is saved. In other words, if you make a mistake, you’re out of luck.

Anyone who has used Photoshop knows that it’s an extremely comprehensive tool, and because of that it enables you to accomplish just about any task you desire.

Outdoor scenes often appear less impressive on the computer than they did through the viewfinder, and the problem never seems to be better colors and contrast than we remember. The opposite is usually true, which is why most photographers edit their work.

The Luminosity Mask is a versatile image-editing tool, enabling you to make selective tone-based adjustments to specific portions of an image. In other words, you can modify highlights, shadows, or midtones in one area without affecting other parts of a photograph.

One of the challenges we all face as photographers is conveying the excitement of action scenes in a still image. In the eye-opening tutorial below you’ll learn an easy method for bringing life to outdoor images with a little help from Photoshop.