There are different schools of thought when it comes to post-processing. There is a more purist mentality where a picture should be as it was taken (or there or thereabouts). There is definitely merit in this kind of thinking, focusing more on technical skill in the moment in order to capture the image in a certain way. Still, I personally feel that photography can be regarded as more of an art form in the sense that you have the means to manipulate a photo in a certain style that can be quite emotive for an audience, pulling their focus to various aspects of an image, or creating a sense of the fantastical, or any such feeling that the artist/photographer desires. And of course, there’s everything in between.

And at this point, I must point out that I am not talking about Photoshop where an image can be so completely manipulated as to become something different entirely. Although again, there is definitely space for this sort of thing. I am talking about the more moderate editing that is Lightroom Classic, not to be confused with Lightroom CC which is more about storage and cataloguing with not nearly the editing power of Classic.

Now, there are myriad ways to skin this particular cat and you can find some excellent tutorials from various photographers around the world to learn their techniques. But these basics should be helpful. So after all of that, let’s just dive into it!

Global Adjustments

Global adjustments in Lightroom Classic affect the entire image uniformly. They are an essential first step in post-processing, providing a foundation upon which more detailed edits can be built. I have seen many tutorials where you are advised to watch the histogram in the top right corner of the panel. I’ve never found this to be the natural way of understanding an image for me and so I just go by what I feel works, playing with each slider and trying to avoid anything too drastic that completely throws the image off of kilter.

One neat trick that I have found is the dropper tool to gauge the correct temperature and tint of an image. Click on the dropper tool and then find a point on your image that you believe should be the cleanest truest “shade” of white and click there; the temp and tint will automatically adjust.

Select the dropper tool

Move that to a point that should be white and click

Notice how much warmth has been injected into the image. Not only that though, the tint has moved from -3 to +2. This may seem like a small change but tint is a very sensitive slider and small increments make huge changes to an image.

Thereafter pull out some shadows, tone down the highlights, enhance the whites and darken the blacks to create a greater depth of tone, just doing what you feel is right. I personally prefer to move the highlight, shadows, white and black sliders individually rather than using the Tone Curve as I feel you have greater control over the changes but ultimately both amount to the same thing.

There is some quite extreme use of the sliders here but I was happy with the result. I later added some masks to enhance the image further but that will be explained below.

Delving into Local Adjustments and Masks

While global adjustments set the overall tone and mood of an image, local adjustments allow for more precise control over specific areas. This is where Lightroom’s masking tools come into play, offering a range of options for targeted editing. The latest updates to Lightroom have included some incredible masking capabilities that I encourage you to take advantage of.

• Graduated Filter: This filter simply creates a line in the image up to which there is a gradient of application of whatever you choose to encourage or discourage. Great for bringing out foregrounds or backgrounds.
• Radial Filter: Similar to the graduated filter, the radial filter applies adjustments within a circular or oval area. It’s perfect for highlighting subjects or creating vignettes. For example, you can brighten the area around a subject’s face to draw more attention to it.
• Adjustment Brush: The most flexible tool in the local adjustments arsenal, the adjustment brush allows for freehand painting of adjustments onto the image. This is useful for detailed corrections, such as brightening specific areas, adding sharpness to particular features, or even reducing noise in shadowed regions.

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  Here I selected the eyes and then used a preset called “Iris enhance”

I combined it with another brush that was focused on the eye shine only. I increased the exposure and highlights by a touch to really make that eye shine pop!

I was very happy with the end result. The dark chestnut coloured eyes of Wild Dogs and Cheetah are often hard to show off but it worked in this instance.

Now, these three masks were already powerful enough and could be used in different ways but now LR has introduced some really powerful masks into their product:

• Select Subject: Where once you’d have to painstakingly paint through almost every individual hair follicle and erase and add and erase and add etc etc, now Lightroom will choose your subject for you, usually with extreme accuracy. And if there’s anything it misses then you are able to add in or remove using the brush tool.

Here you can see that the subject choice was not perfect…

But no problem, I just go to the mask in the top right corner, choose subtract and choose brush meaning I will subtract from the original mask using the brush tool. You could also subtract using linear gradient or any other mask of your choice. This is where masking can become extremely powerful; combining and subtracting masks in really creative ways.

And then voila! By painting out the outer sections the subject mask can be refined. One could also have chosen to paint in the back of the Wild Dog but I knew the mask would be very subtle and so did not bother.

• Select Background: This is essentially just the inverse of the Select Subject.
• Select Sky: Incredibly useful when you want to enhance the sky, dehazing it to bring back clouds into the image or if you want to lower the temperature in order to bring back a bit of blue into a sky which may have been blown out.
• Select Object: I have not played with this enough but you paint over an object in the image and it will use AI to understand the exact borders of the object you want to choose and select it for you.
• Select Colour Range: This is an interesting tool that I haven’t used much but I have included one instance where I found it to be really useful in an image.

Here is an example of an image that was taken in very poor light (You can see the ISO is up at 5000). Initially the image is already improved by just adjusting the sliders…

But then I tried out an interesting mask, choosing that particular colour range of the water, which is highlighted by the colour red here. You can see the water (or rather the colour of the water) is chosen at the point of the dropper tool.

I then ramped up the warmth quite drastically to imitate rising sun reflecting on the water and was quite happy with the result! It is far from the perfect image but with a few tweaks it can become quite striking.

• Select Luminance Range: Very similar to select colour range but this will choose all areas of the image that are at the exact same luminance level and then allow you to work on those areas. I would think this would be useful in an image that has areas that are blown out or too dark.

Practical Tips for Using Local Adjustments

1. Subtlety is Key: It’s easy to overdo adjustments, leading to unnatural-looking images. Use the feathering option to soften the edges of your adjustments, ensuring they blend seamlessly with the surrounding areas.
2. Use Masks Judiciously: While masks are powerful, they can also be complex. Take the time to experiment and learn how each type of mask affects your images. This will help you make informed decisions about when and how to use them.
3. Combining Adjustments: Often, the best results come from combining global and local adjustments. Start with a strong global adjustment foundation and then refine the image with local adjustments. Adding and combing masks (local adjustments) in all sorts of ways opens up an array of creative possibilities! This layered approach ensures a cohesive final image.
4. Practice: The only way to get your head around it all is just to practice practice practice!

Finally, here is an example of how much detail is hidden in a dark image. Obviously it helps to capture in RAW too as there is a lot of detail hidden away in those images that just needs to be pulled out!

We’ve covered a fair bit already but haven’t even touched the colour mixer; Hue, Saturation and Luminance changes, detail enhancement or diminution, lens blur (a crazy new feature that can change an f/5.6 lens into a f/2.8) and many other features that can really make an image pop. Ultimately though, it’s all about point 4 above, just practice and get to know the features and of course, just have fun with it!