How to edit travel photos like @michaelschapter

Recreating travel photographer editing techniques inside Lightroom Classic

In this Lightroom photography editing tutorial you’ll learn how to edit desert photos like @michaelschapter and how to recreate the editing styles of your favorite photographers.

Fun fact:: 80% of the edit happens before you even open up Lightroom!

I’ve said it many times before on this photography blog, and I’m sure I’ll keep saying it. Editing is about enhancing what is ALREADY in the photo. The better the original photo, the better your edit is going to be.

As the saying goes, you can’t polish a turd.

If you start with a photo taken at high noon on a bright sunny day, with a distracting background, poor posing, and sub standard photography gear, you’re never going to be able to recreate the edits of your favorite photographers.

Having the privilege of hanging out with some amazing photographers who have shot with some big brands, I can tell you that the main difference between my “pretty good” photos and their MINDBLOWING shots is mainly the effort they went through to get the original photo JUST RIGHT. Professional travel photographers will get up at 4am to hike the mountain in time for sunrise so that the light is juuuuust right. Then they’ll spend 2 hours taking 200+ shots just to refine their composition and settings so that the photo is a work of art.

Compare that with my lazy butt who gets to the mountaintop at lunchtime and then snaps 4-6 photos. It’s no wonder there is such a difference!

Editing techniques matter, but if your photos don’t look good to begin with, that’s where you should focus on improving your photography first.

Editing Desert & Red Rock Photography

Now that we’ve got the photo-taking out of the way, it’s time to edit your hard earned photos. Inside this photography editing tutorial we’ll take a look at how to recreate the edits of @michaelschapter, and some tips and tricks for recreating editing styles and improving your skills in Lightroom.