Are you tied of spending hours tweaking sliders or relying upon presets that rarely seem appropriate for the specific task at hand? If so, this straightforward Lightroom tutorial is guaranteed to save you serious time whether you’re editing Golden-Hour mountains, misty forests, or unimpressive skies that are lacking in drama.
The topic of this eye-opening video with notable landscape photographer Mark Denney is Lightroom’s Adaptive Color Profiles that he refers to as smart, built-in tools that eliminate guesswork by analyzing an image and instantly applying a natural-looking base edit tailored to your scene.
Denney describes how this innovative capability works, when and how to use it, and important considerations to keep in mind. He also provides a link in the description beneath the video for downloading his free PDF guide that does a thorough job of breaking down each profile to help you understand the differences and determine which option to employ when.
As you’ll see, these Adaptive Color Profiles will not only streamline your everyday workflow, but they often deliver superior images than those that can be achieved with the enhancements you’ll been making with Photoshop’s conventional legacy tools. Denney wraps up his demonstration with this: “If you want faster edits, better results, and less frustration in Lightroom, this is where you should start.”
Denney’s robust YouTube channel boasts over 400 how-to videos that have over 29 million views by 300K avid subscribers who appreciate his thoughtful approach to photographic education.
We also recommend watching a tutorial we posted earlier with another image-editing specialist who demonstrates a simple step-by-step workflow for combining standard post-processing adjustments with Photoshop’s powerful new AI Harmonize tool to create realistic composite photographs that will quickly grab attention.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term “clipping” it’s time we brought you up to speed and revealed how easy it can be to prevent this common occurrence from spoiling the quality of images you shoot in the field. Today’s concise explainer from the Souvenir Photo Pros YouTube channel explains everything you need to know in two minutes flat.
Clipping occurs when portions of a photo lose detail, with overly bright highlights that are totally blown out. This issue is equally problematic in reverse when shadows are underexposed and “crushed”—appearing totally black. In either case, this familiar exposure mistake is a recipe for disaster.
According to our unnamed instructor, “This is a sign that your camera couldn’t capture enough information in those areas, and once the detail is lost you can’t get it back.” The problem is particularly acute when photographing complex landscape scenes or environmental portraits with a wide range of tones that exceed the density range of whatever camera you use—a key specification that varies from one model to another.
One of three basic camera settings are usually the culprit: namely, incorrect aperture, shutter speed, or ISO. When you get things wrong two things may happen, the first involves pure-white highlights (like a blown-out sky) without any texture let alone even a hint of clouds that are possible to restore.
When shadows are clipped, on the other hand, “they go pitch black, and whatever details were there completely disappears.” As the episode proceeds, you’ll learn how to configure the camera properly and use a few simple techniques so that the images you make will be accurately balanced and properly exposed.
The Souvenir Photo Pros YouTube channel is a great source of easy-to-follow instructional videos that solve common problems that you may encounter in the field.
And don’t miss the related tutorial we featured recently with another accomplished outdoor shooter who demonstrates a unique method for capturing perfectly exposed photographs without advanced technical skills or high-end equipment.
