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10 Lightroom Tips You Should Know

Learn 10 great tips for Lightroom!

Adobe Lightroom is one of the most used image editing apps out there. Available for iOS, tvOS, Windows, Android, and macOS, the app is popular among both professionals and DIYers. However, despite being so common, some of its best features and tools are usually overlooked. 

To make sure you get the best out of this tool, we have covered the ten best lightroom tips. 

 10 Lightroom Tips You Should Know

Let’s get started:

#1 Auto Tone

This underrated feature is ideal for newbies and beginners who don’t know how and where to start editing their pictures. 

Auto-tone, available on the top right column above exposure, when selected, edits your image automatically based on what the software thinks is a good edit. 

It by no means gives you a finished product but provides a good head start.

#2 Resetting

What if you made certain edits but want to reset your last step? Clicking the reset button given on the bottom right will take you back to square zero, hence it may not be the right option. 

Fortunately, this mighty software comes with a resetting feature that can be activated by double-clicking on it. Doing so will make it go back to the last point.

#3 Grid Overlays

This amazing tool complements the cropping feature. It comes with a number of different grid overlays that provide the user with the necessary information to crop their image based on the dimensions they need it for. 

After you open the crop tool, press the ‘O’ button on your keyboard to move through different grip overlay options and choose what fits you.

#4 Lights Out

By pressing the ‘L’ button on the keyboard, you can isolate the photo you are working on by dimming the background. This gives you a clear perspective of the image by removing all the visual distractions.

Go ahead, inspect the picture, press the ‘L’ button again, and you will get a complete blackout.

#5 Level Out

This tools purpose is to level your horizon out. Photographers use this to precisely change the orientation of the image such that it aligns with the zero-degree line.

It can also be done by changing the angle manually, but that will not give you the level of precision that you need.

#6 B & A

Lightroom allows you to analyze your images by providing a before and after result on the same window so that you can see how far you have come. 

It can be accessed by pressing a small ‘Y’ button at the bottom left of the window.

#7 Clipping

As the name suggests, this tool allows you to capture areas that fall outside the minimum and maximum range of a certain aspect such as exposure, shadows, etc. 

To activate this feature, press the button ‘J’ on your keyboard. 

You might not see any changes right away, but if you tweak the exposure or shadows to the maximum, you will see the clipped areas.

#8 Radial Brush Adjustment

There is no better tool than Radial Brush Adjustment to highlight a focused area of an image. 

You can use this tool to create a new lighting setup for a specific shot with the help of an adjustment layer. 

The tool can be accessed by pressing the oval button on the top right of the window and then selecting exposure from the drop-down menu.

#9 Size Up

This might sound like a pretty boring and useless tip, but it can help in improving the precision and accuracy you work with. 

Lightroom, by default, comes with a very narrow editing panel, which causes even a little change in the slider to have huge results.

Hence, dragging the editing panel to the left will give you more room to move the cursor for tiny adjustments.

#10 Organize Yourself

Lightroom comes with a pretty extensive organization system that allows users to mark images, which can help differentiate between good and  bad shots. Some of the most common organization methods are:

  • Marking your shots from 1 to 5 by pressing the respective button, 5 being the best.
  • Pressing buttons 6,7,8, or 9 on your keyboard changes the outline of the image thumbnail to help you identify shots. 
  • Pressing ‘P’ flags the shot as a pick and pressing ‘U’ unpicks it. 

We hope these tips will make it easier and more fun for you to use the app.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comment section below!

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