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Check out Mytour's article on Mastering Photo Post-Processing in Lightroom to learn how to handle and edit photos in Lightroom.
Post-processing photos is a crucial feature for Lightroom users. It's a way to make your photos more beautiful and captivating. To discover more tricks using Lightroom, explore articles on Mytour.
If you haven't downloaded and installed Lightroom yet, you can download the Lightroom photo editing tool to your device.
Guide to Post-Processing Photos in Lightroom
Follow the steps below to post-process photos in Lightroom:
Step 1: Import the photo files
In the Library module, import your photos into Lightroom. Optionally, you can apply existing import settings or use dedicated shortcuts, especially when dealing with a large number of photos.
To apply existing import settings, in the Lightroom window, access the panel on the right, then go to the Apply during import tab. Navigate to Develop settings => User presets and select the preset you want to apply.
After importing the photo files, access the Develop module.
Step 2: Adjust the white balance
There are numerous ways to adjust the white balance. If the image uses a neutral color palette, you can utilize the Eyedropper tool. In this guide, as the image lacks a neutral reference, Mytour will move the slider under the White Balance section to balance the color palette in the photo.
Step 3: Adjust highlights and shadows
The skin tone of the model in the photo appears slightly bright, while the hair and background are a bit dark. To balance the colors of the objects in the photo, we need to adjust the highlights and shadows. If necessary, we can fine-tune these settings later.
Step 4: Enhance vibrance and saturation
Next, use the sliders under the Presence tab to increase vibrancy and saturation in the image. Then, move the Whites slider to the right to enhance the portrait and make the skin tones look more vibrant.
Step 5: Crop the image
We can crop the image at any position as desired for the best composition.
Step 6: Refine and smooth the skin
Zoom in on the skin area for adjustments, blurring blemishes, scars, or wrinkles. Choose the Brush tool and customize any settings you want to apply. Although preset settings can be used for skin retouching, teeth whitening, ... these settings may make the photo look less natural.
Adjust the Clarity slider to around -35 or -40 (increase Contrast to +35 and Highlights to +15 or more, to maintain contrast and transition the subject's face from the background to a Flat tone), increase Sharpness to +20. These options and settings may vary based on the subject's skin in your photo and the type of effect you want to apply.
The example below applies these settings to create a more even skin tone and a brighter, smoother appearance.
Reducing the Clarity slider further merges the layers, making the image completely 'flat,' as if there were no layers. So, we can increase Contrast, boost shadows, and enhance highlights to balance. Keep the Feather and Flow options at 100%.
Step 7: Fine-tune adjustments
Below the image, check the Show selected mask overlay box (or use shortcut O) to precisely see which part of the image is affected by the Adjustment Brush. Still using the Adjustment Brush, click on the erase brush tool and remove brush effects around the eyes, mouth, and hair.
Step 8: Edit the eyes
Zoom in on the subject's face in the photo, then use the Adjustment Brush to sharpen and enhance the eyes for a sparkling look. A small note is that increasing Clarity will darken other areas in the photo. To balance, we will adjust the Exposure slider.
In this example, Mytour enhances the saturation of the model's eyes a bit to make them look greener.
Step 9: Adjust lip color
Moving on to the subject's lips in the photo. In this step, we apply similar techniques as with the eyes to adjust the lips, fine-tuning the brush, clarity, and increasing saturation.
Step 10: Whiten teeth
To edit and whiten teeth, we continue using the brush tool, decrease the Saturation slider percentage, and slightly increase the Exposure tool percentage.
Step 11: Edit hair and background color
In the final step, we need to adjust the hair color and brighten the background a bit to reduce the contrast between the face and the background color.
You can see the before image (left) and after image (right) after different editing approaches:
Here, Mytour has guided you through the post-processing steps in Lightroom. If you're unfamiliar with how to Import photos in Lightroom or export and save photos in Lightroom, you can refer to some articles available on Mytour for more detailed instructions.
Before post-processing photos, it's essential to know how to Import photos in Lightroom, meaning importing photos from your computer's hard drive to the program's interface. If you're not familiar with how to Import photos in Lightroom, you can check our detailed guide.
