Beginner Learning

6 Lightroom Tips for Windows 10 to Make Your Photos Look More Professional

With social media, apps, and smartphones with cameras all enabling us to unleash our creativity, we are constantly looking for ways to make our pictures stand out. Back in the day, only professional photographers were in on the tricks of the trade, therefore, you had to pay a certain amount of money to get pristine pictures. Luckily, with incredible applications like Lightroom, we can be the professional photographer for free. So, on that note, follow these 6 Lightroom tips to create professional-looking snaps.

1.  Make Photos Pop with Tone Sliders

The ton panel includes 6 sliders: Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, `Whites, and Blacks. These all accentuate the colors of your photo. Many people are familiar with the first 4 and utilize their abilities to enhance a picture. However, to really make your photos pop with these tone sliders, make the most of the white and black sliders. These are a surefire way to make your photo stand out, give your subject the forefront, and give your background better structure.

2.  Use the Tone Curve to Emphasize a Subject

Tone curves are all the rage right now because they ensure the subject of the photo draws the eyes in immediately. Tone curve emphasizes the focal point of the photo by applying subtlety to the surroundings for a great contrast. For instance, say you wish to take a picture of a meal and want the food to be the focal point. By subtly toning down and blurring the background, the eyes will immediately feast on the meal in the photo, making the color of your meal pop and giving the food structure. 

If you want to take your photos to the next level, you can now choose to utilize the benefits of the Lightroom applications by installing the one that appeals to you the most. For instance, some people find that using Lightroom Classic, the desktop-focused digital photography product is better suited to them when they are editing large photos with plenty of background material in the scenery. While the cloud-based application, simply titled Lightroom, offers mobile access as well, making it easier for someone to brush up their photos. To understand which application is more suited to your needs, you can compare them and determine which of the two would help you the most. Many seasoned photographers enjoy all the tools provided in Classic; however, the accessibility offered from Adobe’s Lightroom application has made it easier for photographers to edit from any interface.

3.  Fade Colors with Tone Curve

Similar to emphasizing the subject of a photo by blurring the background, you can also use a tone curve to fade colors in the background to give the focal point more depth. For instance, you can consider going for the faded look, which is why many professional photographers do to make their subjects stand out. Black and white photos particularly benefit from this tool as it gives a gorgeous aged-aesthetic by fading out the blacks of a photo and turning them into a soft, dark gray.

4.  Use Vignette to Enhance the Focal Point

Vignette is one of the lesser-used tools in Lightroom, which is why so many photography enthusiasts are missing out. Vignette is great when paired with design ideas like fading colors with a tone curve to age your photos and make them look more unique. Vignette can also be used with any other type of look to distract the eyes from the edges of the picture and turn their focus to the subject in the center.

5.  Clean it Up with Spot Removal 

Most people’s favorite editing tool on Lightroom that really makes every photo look professional is the spot removal tool. Spot removal is a time-saver, especially if your actual surroundings aren’t camera-ready. You can smooth out your photos and even remove clutter from a living room selfie with this gem. If only it worked to clear out our homes in real life!

6.  Polish and Glow with Split Toning

A special technique that all the pros use when editing and polishing up photos comes from the spit toning tool. Split toning provides your photos with a more vibrant look, polishing them up with what you can consider to be your very own JLo-glow tool. No colors in your pictures can ever be deemed dull with split toning allowing you to play with the highlights and shadows of a picture, giving you a little shine and shimmer.

These cool tips and tricks will allow you to have a photo feed to die for. Use all the great tools offered in the Lightroom app to create the style and ambiance you want for your online photo album or social media page. Either way, your photos will surely turn heads with the perfect blend of tone curving, color fading, spotless subjects, and emphasized focal points.

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