Lightroom Tips & Tricks - 16 Hidden Features For Classic CC

13/9/2019 Lightroom Tips & Tricks | 16 Hidden Features for Classic CC
 e.g. Fuji, Nikon, lens
LIGHTROOM TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR

WORKFLOW
Last Updated: June 28, 2019
T
his article on Lightroom Tips for Classic CC is co-authored by freelance photographer Polina
Rayonova and the author of Lightroom Mastery Adam Welch. It also includes various additions by
myself the editor.
Adobe Lightroom is one of the most widely used pieces of image editing software on the planet.
Despite the emergence of numerous alternatives and Adobe’s restrictive subscription pricing
model, it continues to be the de-facto industry standard for everyone from beginners to seasoned
pros.
https://shotkit.com/lightroom-tips/ 1/17
Lightroom is a relatively simple way to get your photos from looking dull in their RAW state to a
share-worthy JPEG, but under the bonnet lies a whole suite of powerful features.
In this article, let’s delve deep into a selection of Lightroom Tips to really supercharge your editing
experience to create a more ef cient and enjoyable work ow.
[Haven’t got a copy yet? Check out this guide on how to buy Lightroom.]
16 Time-Saving Tips for Lightroom Classic CC

1. Fast & effective image rating
When you’re working on an extensive project which involves hundreds of images, you rst need to
rate them in order to decide what’s worth editing afterwards. That’s sometimes not an easy task at
all.
The regular (long) way of doing this is by clicking each individual image, then clicking again to give it
the desired rating and clicking one more time to move on to the next one. The more time you spend
doing it, the more discouraging it can feel…
The good news is that there’s a faster and more effective way to go through all of your photos. You
just need use the numbers 1-5 on your keyboard to apply the rating you want!
Pro Tip: If you leave the Caps Lock key on while you’re doing this, Lightroom will automatically
advance to the next photo each time you add a rating. That can save you lots of time and be a real
game changer in your work ow!
2. Fine tuning local adjustment lters
Local adjustment lters come in very handy if you need to change a certain part of your image
without affecting the entire photo.
For example, you may want to emphasize your subject and make it stand out by brightening it up a
bit. You can also make the sky look darker if you’re looking for a more dramatic effect.
All of this can be easily achieved with the Graduated Filter tool or the Radial Filter tool. After you
use these tools, though, you may nd that you’ve applied them outside the desired areas and need
to clean them up a bit.
To do that, go to the lter and click on ‘Erase’ under the ‘Brush’ panel. There, you can re ne the
brush’s size, feather, and ow.
When you’re ready, simply grab the brush and erase the parts of the lter that have spilled over
into areas you don’t want it to affect.
3. Online gallery for real-time client proo ng
When working with clients, it’s very important to maintain clear communication – not doing so is
the root of con ict!
Lightroom offers a great way of keeping things in order and making sure that you and the clients
are all on the same page.
In order for this to work, you rst need to make sure that you are synced with Lightroom Mobile.
After that, you have to create a collection of the images you want to share. The last step is to make
sure you click on the button that says ‘Make Public’ at the top right corner of your screen to make it
visible to the clients.
Once you do this, you’ll see that a link is generated. This is the online gallery that you can share
with your clients.
This hidden feature is super helpful, because if any changes are made, the clients are able to see
them in real time. Plus, they get to comment on the images and let you know what they like.
4. Adjust the preset strength
In our digital world, analogue photography is slowly and steadily fading away for many reasons.
Nevertheless, there’s one thing left from this age that we all love: the cinematic look.
In pursuit of adding this desirable pinch of movie magic, countless Lightoom presets have been
created. Lightroom offers a great opportunity to apply such lters to your photos, but there’s one
problem: they’re usually too strong and punchy.
There’s a way to tone down the effect, and it’s free for download: it’s called the Fader Plugin.
Once you’ve it installed and chosen the preset that you’d like to work with, you can select ‘File
Plugin Extras Fader’ (it will appear when you have it downloaded).
A pop-up box will appear with an opacity slider – play around with it and you’ll soon gure out the
perfect preset strength for your needs.
5. Be more precise when moving the sliders
Have you ever felt that the sliders in Lightroom sometimes tend to jump too quickly, making it hard
for you to be as precise as you wish when editing your images?
Well, there’s a quick and simple x for that: you can expand the Develop Module, making all the
sliders in it longer and less sensitive.
To do so, just click on the edge of the Develop Module and drag it until it’s a big as you need it to be
to clearly see what you’re doing.
You can also hover your cursor over any of the sliders and press the Up and Down arrows on your
keyboard for some ne tuning. If you hold Shift while pressing the Up and Down arrows, it’ll adjust
the slider in a larger increment – hat tip to Contrastly for this smart tip.
6. Enabling Solo mode
You can take advantage of Solo Mode if you like to keep your workspace tidy. If you enable it, you’ll
only see one window at a time in the Develop Module.
For example, when you’re working on the ‘Tone Curve’, all the other panels will automatically be
hidden, as in the image above.
What you need to do in order to turn on the feature is to right click on the header of any of the
editing panels, then select ‘Solo Mode’ – do the same to turn it off again.
This tip is particularly useful if you’re working on a laptop, or any screen with con ned space.
7. Using masking when sharpening
This next hidden Lightroom tip is connected to the Alt/Option key, which is quite rightfully called
the “Secret Weapon of Lightroom”.
When it comes to sharpening, its power lies in allowing you to visualize the effect very precisely.
Just hold down the ‘Alt/Option’ key and start moving the sharpening slider. You’ll see a black and
white rendition of your image.
The black areas are not affected by the sharpening, but the white ones show you exactly where
you’re applying the lter. This gives you much more control, and allows you to focus on sharpening
the subject of your image rather than anything in the background.
8. Matching tonal exposures
This is truly a great feature and it can seriously up your photography game. Imagine that you have a
sequence of images which were shot in Aperture Priority and the exposures end up being
signi cantly different from one another.
That inconsistency needs to be addressed, but what happens when you try to copy the Develop
settings from one photo to another?
Since the images have different exposures, some will appear darker or lighter after you’ve synced
Develop settings – the entire sequence won’t look consistent.
To x this, you’ll need to click on the image with the exposure you like, then select the rest of the
images from the collection you’re working on.
After that, go to ‘Settings’ and select ‘Match Tonal Exposures’. When you do this, you’ll nally see
the result you desire.
9. Add the fade effect to your photos
Trying to replicate lm on digital les is without a doubt very trendy these days. To achieve this
effect, you’ll need to follow a few simple steps in Lightroom.
First, you have to open the ‘Tone Curve’ and make sure ‘Linear’ is checked. After that, you’ll need to
place just a few points on the line and make a subtle S-shaped curve – see example image above.
The magic appears when you click on the bottom left point and drag it upwards. As you do this,
you’ll see the effect, but be careful – changing its position a lot will lead to unrealistic results.
10. Begin editing with the right colors
This one is a great tip that you should integrate into your usual work ow. When you import an
image into Lightroom, pay attention to the Camera Calibration section before you even begin with
the basic adjustments.
You will nd that by default, each photo is set to be on a color pro le called ‘Adobe Standard’. You
need to change it to an option from your camera (like Camera Portrait, Camera Standard, Camera
Landscape and so on).
This will revive the colors you lose due to the default pro le of Adobe Standard. It’s a great starting
point when you edit your photos, and it’s a good habit to develop!
11. Edit directly with the histogram
The histogram is simply a graphical representation of the luminance values within a photo and how
they relate to each other.
While there is no “correct” histogram, it does become useful for determining ideal exposure
consistency. Did you know you can actually adjust the histogram directly in Lightroom Classic CC?
The histogram is divided into ve individual sections. From right to left they are: blacks, shadows,
exposure (mid-tones), highlights, whites (see above image).
Each of these represent difference areas of luminance within your photo. As you scroll over the
histogram each section will highlight and the corresponding adjustment slider in the basic
development panel will also be indicated.
To adjust the histogram, all you need to do is hover over the section you want to adjust and then
click and drag to the left or right or alternatively top or bottom. You can do this directly with any of
the of other luminance section of the histogram.
12. Adjustment Mask Colour Options
Whenever you use a local adjustment tool in Lightroom such as the radial or graduated lter or
adjustment brush, you have the ability to ‘Show selected mask overlay’.
This is just a colourized mask that helps you visually see where your local adjustments are being
applied.
Did you know you can change the color of your local adjustment mask overlays to suit your taste,
or the background colour of the photo you’re editing?
To cycle through the adjustment mask overlay colors, rst make sure the ‘Show selected mask
overlay’ at the bottom of the window is ticked. Then, simply use the keyboard shortcut ‘Shift>O’ to
change the mask colour.
You can choose from: red, green, white, black or no colour at all.
13. Visualise spots to ne-tune your edits
The visualize spots feature is exactly what it sounds like it should be: a method for us to visualize
discern unwanted spots of dust and dirt within our images.
You’ll nd it at the bottom of the view window when using the ‘spot removal’ tool.
Once ticked, the visualize spots feature will instantly transform your photograph into a funky black
and white outline that resembles an impressionist charcoal drawing – Lightroom chooses areas of
higher contrast and paints them white.
The result is that we can see unwanted artifacts much better. Use the slider to control the
sensitivity and once you’ve removed the spots just untick the box to return to the normal view.
14. Customise your Identity Plate
The ‘Identity Plate’ is the image/writing in the top left hand corner of your Lightroom window – by
default it should say ‘Adobe Lightroom Classic CC’ and your name.
Did you know you can actually customize your identity plate to use custom logos and graphics in
place of plain text? Here’s how:
First, click on ‘Edit>Identity Plate Setup’. This brings up the identity plate editor. It’s here where you
will make all your changes. Then choose ‘Personalized’ in the drop down options, and on the next
screen you can go crazy with a custom graphic or just styled text.
You can even change the appearance of the module menus at the top right of the screen as well in
the exact same way you created your personalized nameplate.
15. Duplicate your Local Adjustments
Here’s a little tip for Lightroom Classic CC that surprisingly few people know about. If you’re like
me and use a multitude of local adjustments in your editing then you’re going to love this.
Instead of starting from scratch each time you want to create another graduated or radial lter, try
duplicating the lter you already have and then just adjust it to your current need.
All you need to do in order to duplicate a local adjustment is to right-click the locator pin and select
‘Duplicate’.
Duplicating your local adjustment lters can save you a load of time in your editing.
16. Speed things up with Smart Previews
Speed up Lightroom by making just 1 change!
Editor’s comment: The rather long-winded video above was something I made a couple of years
ago for Lightroom 6, but it still applies today.
By using ‘Smart Previews’ and disconnecting your main external drive (or disassociating it), you’re
able to force Lightroom to use the Smart Previews before looking for the original les.
The most recent version of Lightroom offers you to tell the software to use Smart Previews when
both options are available, but this still means you’ll lose a fraction of a second each time it has to
‘check’ whether both are present.
There are lots of other things you can do to help speed up Lightroom – I’ll be expanding on these in
a seprate post very soon.
Want to Learn More Lightroom Classic CC Tips?
There are so many ways to make our Lightroom life a little bit easier if you know where to look.
Don’t be afraid to explore the space when you’re editing and nd out all the little treasures this
powerful software has to offer.
If you want to learn more about all the glory that is Lightroom be sure to check out Lightroom
Mastery: A Complete Guide for Working in Lightroom Classic CC – a 230+ page ebook packed to
the brim with knowledge, advice, and training material to help you master Lightroom Classic CC.
Lightroom Mastery shows you how to use Lightroom to its full potential; not by droning repetitions
of someone else’s editing style, but through teaching you the basic premises of the software using
easy to understand, real-world language that will unlock your potential for learning.
It’s also kept updated with every new release of Lightroom, so it’s perfect to keep your nger on
the pulse of all the latest features.
More Lightroom Tips Coming Soon!
I hope you enjoyed these 15 useful Lightroom tips. Be sure to bookmark this article, as we plan to
add to it in the coming months with more more features that can help speed up your editing
work ow.
Feel free to leave a comment below with any of your favourite tips and tricks so we can all bene t,
and be sure to join the Shotkit Facebook Group to continue the discussion.
Also be sure to check out our friends over at Phlearn for a sample of other great Lightroom
tutorials.
Happy editing!
Disclaimer: All recommendations are impartial and based on user experience, with no bias to the products
or the brand. The products in this post may contain af liate links.
Polina Raynova
Hi there! I’m Polina, a freelance photographer, always on the look out for creating simple images
with powerful impact.
http://polinaraynova.com
   
Copyright © 2019 Shotkit // We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an af liate advertising program designed to provide a means
for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and af liated sites. // Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to
change. Any price and availability information displayed on Shotkit at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.

Lightroom Tips & Tricks - 16 Hidden Features For Classic CC

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Lightroom Tips & Tricks - 16 Hidden Features For Classic CC

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

13/9/2019 Lightroom Tips & Tricks | 16 Hidden Features for Classic CC

 e.g. Fuji, Nikon, lens

LIGHTROOM TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR

16 Time-Saving Tips for Lightroom Classic CC

2. Fine tuning local adjustment lters

3. Online gallery for real-time client proo ng

4. Adjust the preset strength

5. Be more precise when moving the sliders

6. Enabling Solo mode

7. Using masking when sharpening

8. Matching tonal exposures

9. Add the fade effect to your photos

10. Begin editing with the right colors

11. Edit directly with the histogram

12. Adjustment Mask Colour Options

13. Visualise spots to ne-tune your edits

14. Customise your Identity Plate

15. Duplicate your Local Adjustments

16. Speed things up with Smart Previews

Speed up Lightroom by making just 1 change!

Want to Learn More Lightroom Classic CC Tips?

More Lightroom Tips Coming Soon!

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen