Bad Lighting Lightroom Tips!

How to edit photos with bad lighting in Lightroom

Editing photos with bad lighting in Lightroom can be tricky. With these Lightroom Quick Tricks, you’ll learn how to fix high contrast blown out images and maximize dynamic range in your photos, using Adobe Lightroom & Lightroom Classic CC. These quick lightroom tricks and tips will help you editing photos with harsh lighting, blown out skies & fixing presets that don’t work the way you’re hoping! We’ll take a look at several photos from a wedding taken on a bright, sunny day with harsh light and harsh shadows, and how you can use a couple quick tricks to maximize dynamic range without making your photo look weird, unnatural or HDR.

Download FREE samples of our presets! Follow these links:
https://shop.signatureedits.com/moody-vibes-sample-preset/
https://shop.signatureedits.com/clean-and-classic

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hey guys Ryan here at signature edits
and today we are going to look at
editing your photos when they were taken
in super harsh lighting bright blown out
highlights super high contrast
environments let’s take a look at what
we can do to get the very most out of
our bright lit photos let’s do it
[Music]
all right so today we’re just going to
be taking some photos from a recent
wedding that we did and this wedding
took place in a beautiful area but
unfortunately the photo shoot was at
noon and the ceremony was at around two
o’clock when the Sun was high up in the
sky here so you can see we’ve got really
harsh shadows super super bright
highlights things are blown out and what
can we do because when we apply the
presets as you would they look okay
however you’re gonna find that things
look sometimes a little bit crushed a
little bit nasty what can you do to make
this the best possible image you can so
let’s start at this image here first I’m
just gonna apply a few presets and show
you a few things you can do when you are
using presets to get the most out of
them so what I like to do is expose for
most of the image so the skin obviously
looks really weird and terrible here but
what I’m looking for is the background
is the background pretty much what I
wanted to be exposure wise yes so now
I’m going to take this adjustment brush
and we have some signature edits brush
is included with all of our packs but if
you don’t have that it doesn’t matter
because today we are going to be just
using contrast that’s it just taking our
contrast down one hundred and then we’re
going to paint on the skin and I found
this is an amazing little trick that you
can use when you’ve got blown out
backgrounds you just paint a little bit
on the skin here take the contrast to
wait now I’m going to hold alt I’ve got
my auto mask on my eraser and I’m just
going to click and hold on the mountains
here and you’ll see that it’s masking
out erasing the mask from the mountains
so that it’s just on her skin so here’s
before here’s after great so now you can
see that the skin looks a whole lot less
weird and if we want it just to make
sure it blends a little bit more we can
add some white so that’s just going to
up the contrast a little bit while at
the same time brightening the image
overall so we’re not gonna do it that
far
there we go here’s without and here’s
with as you can see it makes it look a
lot more natural already then I’m just
going to dial back the contrast a little
on the preset and we’re looking pretty
good so here’s just the stock preset and
here’s after our changes it looks pretty
good hey let’s keep going so that
contrast trick is the number one thing
that I do when I’m working with skin
tones and I’m
the rest the image looks okay but the
skin looks way way too dark and you’ll
find that’s pretty common here so the
image is where we want it but again the
skin on the couple year is way too dark
so let’s just zoom in here and do the
same thing just grab this brush contrast
all the way down I’m just gonna paint
right on their skin I’m not gonna worry
about their hair the hair doesn’t matter
as much to me just the skin here you can
see I’ve missed I’ve been a little
sloppy in my mask no problem hold down
alt to get to my eraser and there we go
we’ll just automatic off of there so
that we’re just affecting the skin good
press o again and that’s going to show
me without that red helpful thing on
there add a little bit of whites to
brighten it even a little bit further
great and now one last thing that I’m
going to do with this particular image
is we do have here a nice add texture
water sky pop brush or cloud enhancer I
could try that too I’m just gonna brush
on this guy here get a little bit more
detail out and cloud enhancer doesn’t
seem to be doing anything too helpful so
we’re gonna try our water sky pop great
and that’s pretty intense so we’re just
going to you erase it off this mountain
first of all take my flow down on my
eraser just erase it off here or draw it
on by accident that works too as long as
we’re blending that’s my main concern
and then you can actually hit your
adjustment layer brush right in the
corner there take your mount back and
that’ll just make it more subtle so
let’s make a virtual copy here this is
before there’s after now you can see
that the edge is getting pretty
brightened as a result of the lens
Corrections the edges of this vignette
here that’s a little bit too much for me
actually I find sometimes it goes too
far so I just take my vignette and I’ll
take it down to maybe like 50 percent
correction great let’s move on to some
of the brighter photos still so this one
is kind of your worst case scenario
you’ve got super dark shadows in here
under this tent and then in the
background we’ve got some super blown
out highlights now it looks alright with
our basic signature edits preset applied
however let’s see what we can do to take
it a little bit further the first thing
I’m going to do is this little trick I
call it the actually I don’t call it
anything I just take the contrast all
the way down take my whites all the way
up and my blacks all the way up and then
I take my exposure down and for some
reason I don’t really know why I find it
tends to look pretty natural and then
it’ll maximize the dynamic range in this
image so I’ll take my contrast up just a
little bit to taste it depends on the
image with that I’ll just take the
contrast up until it looks where I want
it to be and let’s just compare so here
is just a stock preset before and after
and we’ll brighten this up just so it
matches so you can see you’re getting a
little bit less harsh shadows a little
bit of those highlights are recovered by
doing that and it still looks natural so
that’s one of the really nice things
about working with these particular
presets you can use that whenever you
find a super high contrast situation so
I’m actually going to just copy those
settings so I don’t have to do it on my
future photos by hand so for instance
here is with our preset apply and here’s
with our changes we’ll take our blacks
up whites up contrast down exposure down
and then contrast just to taste great
once again here is the stock preset and
that’s with our changes so you can see
it’s just a nice basically high contrast
situation version just by doing that
once again I’ll make a virtual copy this
one to begin with so here’s our preset
before and then we’ll do our preset
after this trick blacks up whites up
contrast down and exposure down you’ll
see how much more of the sky we’re
getting back by doing that trick super
super helpful and if you find you want
to add a little bit of contrast in
another way you can do that sometimes is
teeny bit of da’s will go a long way so
again here’s before oops here’s before
and here’s after so just a super wait to
get your highlights back and maximize
the dynamic range in your image just
take your preset blacks up whites up
contrast down
then you adjust your exposure from there
and white balance is another big one so
this one you can see is pretty blue or
maybe you can’t see it that’s alright if
we zoom in here his head is more bluish
gray than it is actually gray so we’re
just going to take the white balance up
you’ll find that affects your colors a
lot so if things aren’t looking right
the first thing that you should try and
adjust is your exposure and your white
balance great moving on here I’m just
going to take this copy pace you can see
the big difference it makes
and again ting my contrast down exposure
down perfect again here’s my stock
preset take my blacks up whites up
contrast down and lower the exposure and
now you can see this one looks pretty
crazy why because the white balance is
really off it’s way too warm so we’re
just going to cool it down and if you
find that even this trick is to contrast
here with the contrast all the way back
down just take your white dial it back
where you need to yeah now we’ve got a
really nice-looking image so here is
just this talk preset and with our
adjustments so it’s a really nice way
rather than just taking your contrast
down on the preset which doesn’t quite
do the same thing you can adjust that
quick little trick to maximize your
dynamic range in your photos I hope this
was helpful if you have any questions
please let me know if you have a thought
leaving the comments below don’t forget
to Like and subscribe if this was
helpful for you and I will see you in
the next video
hey if you want to download a free
preset from either our Genesis west
coast or moody vibes packs I will leave
links in the description below make sure
to check those out and give these a try
all right take care
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