Lightroom Classic is a lot better than it used to be
Lightroom Classic has improved so much in the last few years. Here are the main tools I use in my editing. And scroll down to watch some demo videos of these tools in action!
I have a long history with Lightroom. When I started being serious about my photography years ago, I was using Apple’s Aperture as a catalog and main editor. Obviously Apple dropped that product and after a little research and exploration, I landed on Lightroom - and loved it. But over the years I felt like many other apps surpassed it in editing capabilities, and Lightroom seemed content to just sit there and not add new features. So I drifted away.
But a few years ago that changed and boy has Lightroom come a long way in a short time. The masking and color tools are absolutely incredible, and I am back to using Lightroom as my catalog and editing “home base”. Obviously I still use other apps (Luminar Neo is my daily workhorse for editing) but I like to manage everything in LrC and with all these great tools, sometimes I just edit in LrC.
In no particular order, here are some of the features that I love about Lightroom, and that I find myself using on nearly every image:
Luminance Range masks
Color Range masks
Color Mixer with Point Color
Color Grading (essentially a massive upgrade to Split Toning)
Calibration (possibly my favorite color tool!)
These are all great and useful in their own way, and I use most or all of these tools on just about every photo. I truly don’t think you can go wrong if you spend a little time learning all about them, and how to use them.
To that point, I have been creating more LrC videos for my YouTube channel, which you can find in this playlist.
Recently I shared two new videos about LrC, in which I use and demo the tools listed above. Check them out below and let me know what you think! Are you using Lightroom Classic in your workflow?