I use several versions of Lightroom installed simultaneously on my computer running Window OS. Different versions have slightly different functionality, or different methods of implementing the same functions. Depending on the situation, I choose the version I need. Here are screenshots based on a fairly old version of Lightroom 3.7. I have all versions of Lightroom without Russification, since this is not important to me.

Over a long period of working with the program, I developed my own algorithm for working in Lightroom, which I almost always use. My 5 simple tips will only help those who shoot in RAW format and develop photos in batches.

To thoughtfully develop each photo in RAW format individually, I recommend using original (i.e. native) software. For example, for the Nikon system this is .

0 (zero point). Importing RAW files.

The essence of the action: prepare the workspace for further manipulations with files.

This is the zero, additional point from which work with Lightroom always begins. To start processing photos, you must first import them into the program. I use a quick and simple download: I simply drag all the files into the Lightroom window with the mouse and press the ‘Import’ button. I always import from a directory located on my hard drive. If you import from a flash drive, the import process will be delayed, since the program will most likely first copy all the source files to its special directory.

Import has its own peculiarities. When photos are imported into Lightroom, you can sometimes notice how the preview image changes its color, saturation, and exposure. This is due to the fact that each RAW file contains not only the original information about the image, but also many other additional data. Some of this data is photo previews for quick viewing. Roughly speaking, the RAW file has a built-in thumbnail in JPEG format, which is used for quick viewing photograph taken on the camera display. This JPEG thumbnail is based on the settings specified by the camera. When importing photos into Lightroom, the program displays JPEG thumbnails extracted from the RAW file. After attempting to take a closer look at the photo, Lightroom constructs (renders) a new image directly from the original raw data, using its own presets. Lightroom presets and JPEG thumbnails do not match, which is why the original picture changes before your eyes.

Unfortunately, it is very, very difficult to get Lightroom to accurately replicate all the camera settings. In fact, it is impossible to repeat all the camera settings. Only native software can display a RAW image on a computer in full compliance with what can be seen on the camera display. But in order to minimize the differences between how the picture looks on the camera display and in the program window, I recommend turn off everything in the camera additional functions , which improve the image. For the Nikon system, this primarily concerns the Active function.

All improvements must be made using Lightroom. Using on-camera functions to improve the image only makes sense when shooting in JPEG format, or if RAW files will be processed using native software.

After import, you can add tags, labels, correctly catalog a series of pictures, and configure the sorting of photos in your feed.

Also, you can import immediately using a specific preset, into which you can write the settings listed below.

1. I set the camera profile.

The essence of the action: basic setting for the most correct/beautiful rendering of the original RAW file.

The setting is located at Develop -> Camera Calibration -> Profile -> select the desired profile

In order for the image generated in Lightroom to be as similar as possible to the one displayed on the camera display, Lightroom needs to specify the correct camera profile. In short, a camera profile is a photo management mode that is set on the camera (neutral, saturated, monochrome, etc.).

This is the key point. The correct camera profile allows you to significantly improve the visual perception of the image. Find good profile for a specific camera - very, very difficult.

Lightroom usually has a set of basic profiles: neutral, saturated, landscape, portrait, etc. These profiles very loosely correspond to similar profiles that are set on the camera.

You can search for a profile for your specific camera yourself. Typically, third-party developers create profiles. I'm sure for large quantity cameras, you won’t be able to find a good profile. In this case, you will need to choose the profile that you like the most.

An existing profile can be modified, namely, the color shift in the shadows, offset and saturation of each of the three main channels can be adjusted. After which, you can create a custom preset, writing into it only changes relating to Camera Calibration (when creating a preset, you should only select the ‘Calibration’ checkbox).

2. I set the lens profile.

The essence of the action: get rid of lens shortcomings.

The function is set as follows Develop -> Lens Corrections -> Profile -> Enable Profile Corrections

Everything is simple here. By choosing a lens profile, you can completely get rid of some of the lens' shortcomings. In general This setting allows you to completely cure vignetting and distortion. Also, lenses are treated here. Lightroom has an extensive database of lenses, with which you can “cure” any of them.

If the lens you are using is not in the list, you can correct these parameters manually, and then write the result into a preset that can be applied to all photos.

After this adjustment, the distortions introduced by the lens should be leveled out.

In the future, the lens profile will be applied to each photo.

3. I optimize and expand the capabilities of the camera and lens.

The essence of the action: make the most beautiful/desired image possible through basic exposure and color manipulations.

Everything is very simple here. I usually choose one key photo from a series or even from an entire shoot and configure it according to the main parameters:

• Increasing DD - restoration of lights and shadows (Highlight recovery, Fill light, Dark)
• Adjusting Vibrance
• Increasing saturation (Saturation)
• Clarity Enhancement
• Sharpening
• Noise reduction

The main thing here is not to overdo it. I try to make the photograph “neutral positive” so that all further manipulations are based on the original “normal” image.

Important: The level of a particular setting greatly depends on the camera used and the frames directly taken. For example, I clearly know and understand how much influence this or that slider in Lightroom has on the RAW files of my cameras, but it takes a long time to get used to a new camera and processing its RAW files.

In the future, these settings will be applied to each photo.

4. I synchronize all images using one key photo.

The essence of the action: bring all images under one basic view.

After all the previous manipulations, I synchronize all the photos with the changed settings. This is done very simply. In the 'Develop' section, select all photos in the feed (CTRL+A) and press the 'Sync' button. In the synchronization menu, I click the ‘Check All’ button, then uncheck the ‘White Balance’ (), ‘Crop’, ‘Spot Removal’ checkboxes. The captured parameters should not be synchronized, since each photo has its own individual cropping and spot correction/restoration.

Synchronization is part of batch processing. At the end of it, all photos are adjusted to similar settings.

After this manipulation in the Lightroom feed, all the photos are more or less brought back to normal. The previous four points allow you to “bring the image to zero” - to rid it of the shortcomings of the lens and camera and to push the capabilities of the RAW file to the limit. After these four manipulations, you can begin the real fine processing and prepare the image for the final stage that the client will see.

5. I crop all the photos.

The essence of the action: correct cropping flaws - level the horizon, crop the photo with the correct arrangement of details in the frame, cut out key parts of the photo.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to crop one photo and apply cropping to all photos in the feed. After synchronizing the basic settings I crop all photos. During the cropping operation, I also selectively delete bad pictures from the Lightroom feed.

Important: I highly recommend cropping photos with fixed aspect ratios. The proportions of the classic frame are 3:2. After cropping, all photographs have the same frame proportions and do not differ in any way during viewing. If this is not done, then after cropping you may end up with square photographs and very elongated stripes. This does not correspond to the general style of the photo feed. In addition, during printing, there is a 100% probability that parts of the frame will be cut off or filled with white space. Usually printed on standard sizes, which also correspond to the proportions 3:2. For almost every shoot, I print photographs or edit a photo book; maintaining proportions after cropping is very important to me. To maintain crop proportions in Lightroom, just click on the padlock icon.

After cropping and deleting unsuccessful frames, I have a “polished” set of photos in my feed that can be further manipulated.

Important: I call all specified actions ‘ Go to Zero’, since these simple manipulations allow you to look at an image that is devoid of basic flaws, raw, neutral, like a blank sheet, looking at which you can already carry out further fine processing.

I believe that these manipulations can improve the quality of the original image by 30%. The remaining 60% is the finalization of the image using Adobe Photoshop (Photoshop, not Lightroom).

In my practice, it often happens that after completing just these five points, you can already get an image option that can satisfy both me and my clients. Most often, processing is limited to just these five points, unless there is a need to retouch photographs (eliminating skin imperfections, working with plastic, artistic color correction, etc.).

For me, the most difficult thing in processing is, after bringing all the photographs from a series/shooting into a digestible form, choosing the best ones for fine-tuning them.

6. I export all photos (bonus point)

The essence of the action: get a finished result that can be viewed by any user/client on any device.

In this case, export is the process of exporting photos from RAW format into a format that is suitable for further processing or viewing. If I plan to do nothing else, then I export to a poppy JPEG format. If I plan to further modify photographs in Adobe Photoshop, then I use the 'TIFF' or 'DNG' format. IN Lately I'm lazy, I don't use TIFF and export all my photos directly to JPEG.

Eventually My photo processing process is divided into two stages: processing in Lightroom and processing in Photoshop. Lightroom - for basic settings, restoration of “screwed up” pictures, batch processing of photo feeds. Photoshop – for the final “finishing” of photographs, retouching, manipulation of layers, masks, and more.

Philosophy

I am convinced that a photographer must develop a clear plan of action, a clear concept, a well-thought-out methodology with step by step actions photo processing. Spent technological process greatly speeds up and simplifies the processing and delivery of finished material to the client.

Bottom line. My basic processing process constructed as follows: import -> set camera profile -> set lens profile -> expand camera/lens capabilities -> synchronize selected settings -> crop -> export. I repeat - this is the basic process, the basis from which my processing begins.

Thank you for your attention. Arkady Shapoval.

Adobe Lightroom- a graphic editor designed to facilitate and automate the process of photo processing.

If we compare Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, the latter certainly wins in terms of the ability to apply various effects, processing, retouching and other modifications to photographs.

However, if the main task is to process more than 100 photos in the same style, tighten the white balance, remove glare, add the same effects, then Lightroom will cope with this task faster than Photoshop.

Lightroom ideology

This applies not only to Lightroom, but also to other converters and cataloguers, of which there are a great many.

Basic ideas for working in Lightroom:

– Sources remain untouched
– Photo focus
– Basic tools are always at hand
– Convenient cataloging

In this article, we have collected almost 4 dozen lessons that will help you not only master the basic capabilities of working in Lightroom, but also learn how to independently create presets for batch photo processing.

Lightroom from the Beginning - Lesson #1 Basic Settings

Lightroom from the Beginning - Lesson #2 (Tone Curve)

Lightroom from the Beginning – Lesson #3 HSL /Color /B&W

Lightroom tutorials (lightroom from the very beginning)

Complete Russian course on Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is currently a massive, somewhat clunky software for photo processing with so many tools and functions that they can drive any photographer crazy. However, to put it simply, Lightroom was designed to do just three things: sort images, process them, and export them. Thousands of articles and videos on the Internet and hundreds of books indicate that mastering Lightroom is an important topic for both beginners and experienced photographers. This beginner's guide will walk you through the process of using Lightroom from start to finish, and will also provide tips on the areas that confuse users the most.

This series of articles covers all the basics of working in Lightroom, and if you want to search for a specific term in the article, you can press Ctrl + F to bring up the search box and enter the word you are looking for. If you have never used this keyboard shortcut before, be sure to try it, as it allows you to find faster necessary information in the text of the article.

In addition, for ease of navigation through the sections of the manual, you can use the table of contents:

This guide was created to summarize everything a beginner needs to know about Lightroom, no matter what version of the program they are using.

Hopefully, even if you don't know anything about this software, after reading our guide you will have enough knowledge to understand how to use Lightroom at an intermediate or even professional level.

If you find any of these tips helpful, please bookmark this page for future reference.

For beginners, Lightroom can be very overwhelming, and the goal of this guide is to make getting started as easy as possible.

What is Lightroom?

Lightroom is software for post-processing and organizing images. It allows you to sort photos, edit and export them to any desired format and size. Let's take a little closer look at each of these three functions:

Organizing Images

The most obvious thing Lightroom does is help a photographer organize and organize the photos he has.

Every time you import images into Lightroom, you can see their locations on your computer (as a file structure). This information is displayed on the left side of the program's working screen. Typically, when importing images, you will see something like this:

Photos stored on your computer do not automatically appear in the Lightroom catalog. If you want to add some photos or entire folders to Lightroom, you need to import them. More on this will be said later.

Of course, Lightroom doesn't just show you a file structure with directories where your photos are stored, it also provides many ways to organize and organize your photos.

Photo editing

Lightroom's capabilities extend beyond just organizing and managing your image library on your computer. The most important functionality of this application, perhaps, is the ability to edit captured photos.

Lightroom doesn't offer the same wide range of editing tools as, say, Photoshop, but that doesn't mean its photo editing capabilities are lacking. Many photographers only use Lightroom to edit their footage. Nowadays, perhaps, Photoshop is used more often for graphic design than for photo editing.

Lightroom's image processing capabilities cover all the basics: brightness, contrast, color, sharpness, and much more. In addition, the user has the ability to apply local changes - that is, edit certain areas of the image, while the rest remain unchanged.

In other words, Lightroom was designed for photo editing too. This is not just an additional feature of the program that can be used from time to time, with the main processing done in Photoshop, no. Lightroom is designed to be a photographer's primary tool for post-processing captured images.

Export photos

Most likely, you already have an idea about exporting photos.

For example, you are going to send by e-mail a few new photos for your loved ones or friends. In this case, you may encounter a limit on the size of attachment files that almost all email services have (on average, about 25 megabytes) - that is, you will not be able to send photos in full resolution.

One way you can reduce the size of photos to send by email is to reduce the image resolution. For example, reducing the side of a photo from 4000 pixels to 1000 pixels will result in approximately a 20% reduction in image size. This is one of the tasks that Lightroom does very well.

When exporting, you do not lose the original photo, but get a smaller copy of it. The exported image will have a different file name (or even file type) than the original photo, and you can do whatever you want with it without fear of ruining or losing the original image. Moreover, Lightroom will not let you down even in cases where you do not change the name or directory for the location of the exported image - the program will automatically assign a name to the copy that is different from the original.

To export a photo, simply right-click on the selected image in Lightroom, then go to the Export menu (Export>Export) and select the desired options.

Of course, this is not why Lightroom gets its fame, but either way, you need to know about this feature because it is very convenient.

How is Lightroom different from other image editors?

This is one of the most common questions about Lightroom. Lightroom differs in key ways from other editors on the market today, including Photoshop, so it may work slightly differently than you expected.

For example, when you make changes to your photo in Lightroom, you only see those changes in Lightroom.

What does it mean? This means that if you increase the brightness of a photo in Lightroom, if you open the edited photo in any other image editor or image viewer, you will be surprised because you will not see an increase in brightness. The thing is that when editing in Lightroom, the main image file is not affected and remains completely unchanged.

This characteristic feature Lightroom, its fundamental difference from other editors, which, by the way, cannot be disabled in the settings or in any other way.

So why do professionals choose to use Lightroom if the results of photo editing are only visible in Lightroom?

In fact, such a solution has many advantages.

First of all, let's make a disclaimer that there is an easy way to view images edited in Lightroom outside of the editor. How? You already know the answer - export the edited photo. Any changes made to the original image will be applied to the copy created during export.

So, you can edit a photo in Lightroom, but if you open it in any other application, you won't see any changes. The solution in this case is simple: re-enter Lightroom, right-click on the desired image, select the command: Export> Export and export the photo with the desired parameters. The exported image will contain all changes made. It won't replace the original file, but will create a completely new photo containing all the settings and options you chose when exporting (file name and type, pixel size, compression ratio, and so on).

Why is this solution better than simply editing the original image? Several reasons can be given as an answer, but the most important is that this method of editing is non-destructive (we talked more about graphic editors for non-destructive image processing in the article). You never change anything in the original image file. In Lightroom, there are generally only three tools that can affect the original image: renaming the image file, moving the file to a new directory on your hard drive, and deleting the image. Lightroom leaves virtually no chance for the user to ruin any photo irreversibly and irrevocably!

This is why Lightroom is so popular among photographers - you will never ruin the original photo!

What is the Lightroom Catalog?

No matter what information you read about Lightroom, you will always see the term “catalog”. This is not surprising, since Lightroom is an image cataloging software.

What does it mean? In fact, this is exactly what was said above: Lightroom doesn't actually touch your photos.

Every change to a photo parameter you make when editing it; each image rating; every image import - all this information is saved somewhere, but not in your photos. Where? In the Lightroom catalog.

A Lightroom catalog is a file that contains information about all the changes and adjustments you make to each of your photos. It doesn't take up too much space on your hard drive. For example, a Lightroom catalog file containing information on thousands of photos would only be about 300 megabytes. Impressive, isn't it?

Frankly, working with multiple directories on one computer, or working with one directory on multiple computers can be quite complex. Luckily, you probably don't need to work with multiple directories just yet. If you just want to add multiple photos to one Lightroom catalog, you already know enough to do it.

Photos located on your hard drive (or memory card) are not added to the Lightroom catalog by default—you need to add them to the catalog yourself. How? To add photos to your Lightroom catalog, you'll want to start with the import dialog box.

Getting started: How do I import a photo into Lightroom?

When you launch Lightroom, you'll see a tab in the bottom left corner that says "Import...".

Clicking on it will take you to the import dialog box. The import window may also open automatically when you launch Lightroom or when you connect a memory card to your computer, depending on what options you choose in the Preferences tab in Lightroom's top menu.

The Import dialog is where you can select photos to add to your Lightroom catalog so you can organize and edit them. You'll end up seeing this dialog box very often—every time you copy your captured photos to your computer.

Let's look at the areas of the import dialog in a little more detail.

Left area of ​​the dialog box

The simplest part of the import dialog is the tab on the left side. Here you can choose which photos you would like to open in Lightroom by simply clicking on the appropriate folder (or memory card) in which they are located. Moreover, this tab displays the entire file system of your computer, and not just hard drives and memory cards. So, if you want to import photos located on your desktop, in your Downloads folder, or anywhere else into Lightroom, you can do it without any problems.

Options at the top of the dialog box

At the top of the dialog box, there are several options for importing into the Lightroom catalog: Copy as DNG, Copy, Movie, and Add.

Add(Add) is great if you don't want to move a photo located on your computer to a new location, but just want it to open in Lightroom. This perfect option import if your photos are already stored where you need them.

Move(Move) - This is great for when you're trying to add multiple photos to your Lightroom catalog, but the photos aren't stored in the right place on your computer. That is, if the photos are, for example, on the Desktop, and you want to move them to the directory: Photos>2017_year>May, then by selecting this option, you can move the photos to the desired location, at the same time adding them to the directory Lightroom.

Copy(Copy) – can be used if the photo you want to add to the catalog is not in the desired location, but you do not want to delete it from the current catalog, but want to create a copy of it in the desired location. This option may seem strange, but it is actually very useful. For example, if you're importing photos from someone's memory card, you probably won't want to move the images from the card to your computer (and delete them from the card entirely). Instead, it will be much more convenient for you to create copies of the images you need and place them in the desired location on your computer, and Lightroom will add the copied image file to the catalog.

Copy as DNG(Copy as DNG (Digital Negative) is perhaps the least used copy option. Works the same as the Copy option, but the copy you create will be in .DNG format rather than JPEG, TIFF, CRW, NEF, or any other which was in the original file.

From practice, the Copy parameter is the most convenient, since thanks to it you get 2 copies of photos (for example, on a memory card and on a hard drive), one of which can act as a backup copy.

The Add option, on the other hand, has the lowest potential for practical use because if you select it when importing photos from memory cards into Lightroom, as soon as you remove the card from your computer, the added photos will immediately no longer appear in the catalog.

Right area of ​​the dialog box

If you've never worked in Lightroom, the large number of options and settings located on the right side of the dialog box may be confusing.

However, the main purpose of the panel on the right side of the dialog box is to simply tell Lightroom the directory where you would like to move the photos (copy or copy, like DNG). If you import photos that Lightroom thinks are already located in the desired folder, this panel will not appear.

All other settings located in the tabs of this panel can be used by you at your own discretion. For example, you can rename the files you are going to import (File Renaming tab). Or you can apply preset settings to all imported images, such as sharpening, noise reduction, and metadata.

At the first stage of getting acquainted with Lightroom, you will only need to select the folder into which the photos will be copied. You can change any settings located in the right pane of the import dialog box at any time at your discretion.

Bottom panel of the dialog box

The last element of the import dialog box is the panel at the bottom. The main parameter in it is the Import Preset tab, which allows you to save all the import settings you select in order to use them in the future.

We've figured out how to import images into Lightroom; we'll talk about what happens after import in the next article. Stay tuned!

Contributed by Spencer Cox / Photographylife.com

If you use Photoshop to process photos, you probably know that the same task can be solved with different tools. The possibilities of Photoshop are so great that to achieve the same result, photographers can take different paths and it is difficult to say which path is “correct”.

Lightroom is often called "alternative Photoshop." Just like Photoshop, Lightroom allows you to use different tools to achieve the same goal. The obvious and conspicuous path is not always the best.

The purpose of this article is to tell a few Lightroom secrets and introduce you to alternative, but very convenient ways for solving typical photo processing tasks.

1. Use Luminance instead of Saturation

It often seems that on a clear day it is very easy to take a beautiful photo with a bright blue sky. But if you shoot objects located on the ground, especially in the shadows, then the frame may end up with an overexposed or dim sky.

When processing a photo in lightroom, you usually immediately want to increase the saturation of the sky using Saturation, but this is not always the best solution.

The Saturation slider increases the saturation of all colors at the same time, which can be a problem if the goal is only to increase the color saturation of the sky. Using this slider, you can get other complications, because the saturation will increase where it is not required, for example on the model’s skin.

An alternative option is to use the “HSL / Color / B&W” panel.

In this panel you will see Hue, Saturation and Luminance tabs. In the Saturation tab, you can increase the saturation of only individual colors that are associated with the sky, without affecting other colors.

But again, using Saturation may not give the best results; the colors will become exaggeratedly cartoonish if you overdo it.

A good alternative would be the Luminance tabulator. You will operate not with saturation, but with color brightness. Use the blue Luminance tab slider and you'll get a nice deep color for the sky without affecting the other colors.

You can read more about using Luminance in the article -

2. Combine Adjustment Brushes

The Adjustment Brush is a great tool for changing only certain parts of a photo. One of the biggest advantages of the brush is that, unlike Photoshop, it does not directly affect the image. You can change the settings for changes in the area of ​​​​the brush at any time if you don’t like something or simply delete it.

Even if several brushes were used, combining parameters to achieve best result. For example, to blur a specific area, you can set the brush's Sharphess value to -100. And since this setting does not give a very strong blur, apply the “blur” brush to the same area several times, achieving the desired effect.

To enhance the effect of the brush, after working with it, click on the New button. This will create a duplicate brush with the same settings and you can use it over the first one. Repeat the action as many times as necessary.

Don't forget that these will still be separate brushes. You can select one of them again at any time and change the settings, for example by decreasing the Sharphess value.

Each brush in the photo looks like a circle. By hovering your cursor over it, you will see the area of ​​effect of the brush. To select the one you need, click on it and a black dot will appear in the center of the circle. Now you can change the settings of the selected brush.

3. Quick skin retouching on a portrait

There are many factors that influence how the skin turns out in photographs. For example, the skin may turn out too red and not very smooth.

To fix this, you can use several techniques. You can use together or separately. The main thing is not to overdo it. Best the enemy of the good.

First, you should change the brightness. Especially if the skin is reddish or too dark. Raise the brightness slightly to make your skin tone more natural. An added bonus is that by increasing the brightness, wrinkles and pores on the skin will be less noticeable.

Then it’s worth remembering again about the Luminance tabulator. Try increasing the Luminance value for red and orange colors. This will make your skin lighter and give it a healthier tone.

To make this action even easier, there is a little secret.
Notice that there is a small circle to the left of the Luminance name. Click on it, then move the cursor to the area you want to change. Lightroom will automatically track the colors that are under your cursor.
To change, just move the cursor up or down while holding down the left mouse button.

This secret works in all three tabs Hue, Saturation and Luminance

Also, Lightroom has a wonderful tool that is ideal for portrait retouching - the Soften Skin brush. If you “paint” on the model’s face with this brush, the sharpness will be locally reduced due to the Clarity and Sharpness parameters.

You can set other parameters if you decide that the default ones are not suitable for this case.

Finally, there is another way to get your skin in order. Go to the Noise Reduction tab, which is responsible for noise reduction.
Reducing noise also results in some blur, which can have a positive effect on a portrait.

But be careful. Noise reduction affects the entire image as a whole, and not just its individual parts. Therefore, you can ruin the image as a whole.

4. Changing the grid when cropping

Cropping a photo in Lightroom has hidden features to tweak your composition. Initially, the grid divides the frame into 9 parts according to the rule of thirds. But Lightroom has 6 grid options that you can use when framing.

To view another option, simply press the “O” key (Latin keyboard layout). When you press the Shift-O combination, the grid will be mirrored.

You can also see all possible meshes by selecting Tools > Crop Guide Overlay in the menu.

5. Double toning for a retro photo effect

Split-toning is a very popular way to create various effects. Especially for creating antique or film effects. Similar effects are very actively used by Instagram and many online editors, providing the opportunity to obtain one or another effect “by pressing 1 button”

If you have previously used presets to create retro effects, but pay attention to what settings are set for the Split Toning tab. You'll probably notice that they have the same structure, especially if you look at the Hue values ​​for shadows and highlights (highlights, shadows).

In highlights the slider is moved to the left of the center, in shadows to the right. This situation will almost always give a rather interesting effect.

Try setting Hue to a similar position, and then play with the Saturation and Balance settings. But the result of changing these settings will greatly depend on your photo, more precisely on what is in it and what colors are the priority.

Therefore, double toning is a very creative tool and it is difficult to give any ready-made recipes here.

If you are too lazy to do double toning yourself, creating “antique” effects, you can either use a wonderful plugin

6. Reducing the strength of a preset in Lightroom

One way or another, we all use presets for Lightroom. It's nice to get something special with just a click of a button. But very often, using a preset gives too strong an effect. For example, colors can become exaggeratedly bright, which is not always good.

In such cases, you want to slightly weaken the power of the preset, but Lightroom does not have a standard tool for this action.

More precisely, there are ways, but they are inconvenient. You can manually track by bookmarks which parameters have been changed and reduce the strength of each of them.
The second way is to use Photoshop. You take the original image, make a layer on top of it with a modified one using a preset and change the transparency of this layer, achieving the desired degree of impact.

But there is a third way. Jarno Heikkinen has made a special plugin for Lightroom, which you can easily download from his website Knobroom.com. The plugin is called “The Fader” and it does exactly what we need - it reduces the strength of the preset effect.

Once you download and install the plugin, open the photo and go to File > Plug-In Extras > The Fader
A window will appear where you can select the preset and the strength of its effect on the photo.

7. Photo information

While in the Develop module, press I on your keyboard and information about the photo will appear in the upper left corner of the photo. If you press I again, the information will change.

This can be very useful if you need to quickly view source information or underlying Exif data

In addition, you can configure the information you want to see in this mode through the menu View > View Options
And then in the Library View Options dialog that appears, open the Loupe View tab and select the data that you need most often.

8. "Turn off the lights"

This is a well-known but rarely used Lightroom tool, but it can still be very useful.

When you want to focus on a specific area, use the Lights Out feature. For example, if you select certain pictures from a series. Lights Out will darken all other photos except the selected ones.

If we press L again, the background, except for our selected thumbnails, will become completely black.

This mode is also available in the Develop module. It can be useful to evaluate an image more accurately, without being distracted by interface details and other disturbing elements.

9. Solo mode

There is another very interesting mode of operation of Lighroom called Solo.

Although in general the Lightroom interface is very convenient and well thought out, due to the large number of settings and tools, it can be difficult to quickly find what you need. You can spend a lot of time scrolling through panels and constantly opening and closing them.

Especially for this, Lightroom developers have introduced Solo mode or “single tab” mode. It works very simply - every time you open any toolbar, all others are automatically minimized. This greatly increases the speed of working with the program.

You do not believe? Just try it. We are sure that soon you will not be able to imagine life without this regime.

To enable the mode, right-click on the header of any panel and activate the Solo Mode item in the menu that appears

10. Useful keyboard shortcuts

Finally, in addition to the article about, some useful keyboard shortcuts.

• Automatic transition when Caps Lock. If you press CapsLock, then when you assign a color marker, flag or rating to a photo, you will automatically move to the next photo. This is extremely convenient for the initial selection of images.
• Library Views. Pressing G will show the thumbnails in grid mode. E - Enlarges the selected photo. C is comparison mode, and D is switching to the Develop module for the selected image.
• Quickly hide panels. The F5-F9 keys quickly open and hide the main 4 panels of the Ligthroom interface - top, bottom, right and left.
• Alternate Mode. Pressing the Alt key will put some tools into alternate mode. For more details, see the article ““
• Resetting sliders. Double clicking on any slider will reset its value to its default value. Or when you press Alt you will see a pseudo Reset button - clicking on it will do the same thing.
• Horizontal or vertical alignment. In cropping mode, press the Ctrl key and, without releasing it, draw a line with the mouse, which should be strictly horizontal or vertical. Lightroom will automatically rotate the photo accordingly. This is incredibly convenient for example for leveling the horizon.
• Hide all panels. Ctrl + clicking on the title of any panel in Develop mode will collapse all panels.
• See all keyboard shortcuts. Press Ctrl + / and you will see a box with all available shortcuts for the selected Lightroom module

Original article: tutsplus.com © Josh Johnson

I admit right away that I don’t own any secret technique, I don’t have magic presets, cunning programs, a tambourine, or the like. If I don’t need to do photo editing or assemble a picture from several frames, then, on average, I spend less than a minute processing one photo. My processing method is simple, fast and far from the best quality.
So, first things first.

1. The first stage is the most tedious. Removing bad and unnecessary frames. When I have time, desire and energy, I try to clean photos while shooting (or immediately after) on the camera monitor. This allows you to save space on your hard drive (especially important when traveling) and time when selecting successful shots on your computer. After copying the photos to my computer, I import them into Lightroom and start analyzing them - marking good and bad files. Then I delete the bad photos and start processing. This method is not the fastest, but I have long been accustomed to it.

The second stage is image processing. 99.9% of the time I shoot in RAW format and process almost all photos only in Lightroom. Half the time I spend on photography is removing dust from the sensor. Various cleanings no longer help, it’s time to change the camera itself.

2. The main tools I use are in the Basic panel. In addition, I periodically use the Color tab to control individual colors (most often blue), gradient filters, and always Lens Correction to correct defects in the optical lenses of the lens.

3. Crop tools, dust removal and gradient filters.

4. I don’t process some photos at all and limit myself only to cropping (if necessary).

5. In other cases, I “stretch the RAW” quite a lot in different directions. I won’t tell you which parameter is responsible for which slider (this is the topic of completely different lessons), so I’m just posting my settings in Lightroom.

6. In the case of shooting buildings, before color correction, I make sure to correct the perspective, level the horizon and eliminate optical defects of the lens (distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration).

7. In the third Lightroom, optical defects can be removed automatically if your lens is in the list of ready-made profiles.

8. If your lens profile is not listed, you can correct everything manually, such as removing chromatic aberrations.

9. Next, I perform color correction according to “my taste and color.” After that, I export the image, open it in Photoshop and run the shrink and sharpen script (I'll talk about this at the end of the post).

10. Now a few different examples. Click on the frame you are interested in and view the processing history.
View from the tallest building in the world.

11. Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric station.

12. Caspian Sea in Dagestan.

13. Kuban Sea.

14. Akhshtyrskoye Gorge.

15. Valley of the Inguri River in Georgia.

16. Plitvice Lakes in Croatia.

17. Belaz at a limestone quarry in Lipetsk.

18. Evening street in Khiva, Uzbekistan.

19. Kalmykia.

20. Khiva.

23. The method is very simple and I came up with it myself (although I am sure that I was not the first to come up with it).
In Photoshop, I have several recorded scripts (actions) for a specific format and size of the preview in pixels (left picture).
If you expand any scenario, then everything becomes clear:
- photo reduction to 2000 pixels
- Unsharp Mask
- reduction to 918 pixels
- Unsharp Mask again
- running the script for adding copyright

I have written down the script for adding copyright separately:
- opening an image with copyright (file PNG format with transparency)
- selecting, copying, closing a file
- insertion into the prepared preview, alignment relative to the lower right edge
- reducing copyright transparency

24. Lightroom has a great tool for exporting previews with added copyright and sometimes I use it to save time. This method has two disadvantages - there is no full control over the sharpening settings (only 2 modes to choose from) and there is no way to adjust the degree of transparency of the copyright on each photo.

This is how I process 90% of all my photos. It happens that you have to assemble an image from several frames, stitch a panorama, or do “manual” HDR, but all these cases are individual.
I once talked about stitching together panoramas:

Ask if you have any questions!