5 Editing Hacks To Create Special Effects In Lightroom

When there's a will, there's a way.

For someone using Lightroom as their only editing software, this is entirely true.

I have had Lightroom for the past 4 years and only recently discovered how to manipulate certain tools to create special effects. I might have learned about them sooner if I did some Googling or watched a few youtube videos, but that didn't happen.

However, I want to share my knowledge on this subject for two reasons: to help you become better acquainted with Lightroom and to help improve the quality of your photo. With my editing hacks, you'll be able to enhance skies, create sun flares, remove people, clone, and enhance isolated areas in your photos! Sound amazing?? Well, let's get started!

Ever seen the most incredible sky but when you tried capturing it in your camera, the results just weren't the same? Maybe it was a blue sky with beautiful clouds or a stunning orange sunset, yet sadly your photo doesn't show its true beauty.

I've definitely had that happen before, many times in fact! In an attempt to avoid this, I tried underexposing the entire photo to capture the sky, but the foreground would be dark (like a silhouette). When I tried to brighten the image, the image was grainy and the sky would start to lose details.

However, that all changed once I figured out how to use the Graduated Filter in Lightroom. Check out the tutorial below to learn how to utilize this important tool to enhance your skies and more!

Golden hour. You may have heard this term. It is a particular time of day when the natural sunlight is just magical. With this perfect light and the click of your camera, you can capture rich orange tones and beautiful sun flares.

Unfortunately, as a travel photographer, I often don't have the luxury to wait around and take photos at 'golden hour.' There's also the issue of the weather. Depending on where you go, it can be very unpredictable; so sunny, clear skies may be a rare occasion.

That being said, you can still create the illusion of golden hour during postprocessing in Lightroom! Watch below to learn how:

Tip: This is one special effect people tend to overdo by place the sun flare in an unnatural spot or overdoing the brightness of the light. Just keep that in mind when you're trying it out on your own!

We've all been in the same situation before. There's a beautiful landscape you can't wait to photograph, but in the distance, there are people. Of course, you're not going to ask them to move out of your frame but what else can you do?

The solution: Lightroom's Spot Removal Tool with the Clone or Heal Brush! So go ahead and take that picture, even with all those humans, and deal with it later when you edit.

This tool is absolutely amazing! You can use it to remove small things like a zit or a piece of hair in your face or large items like a tree.

Find out how to best use the Spot Removal Tool in my tutorial below!

It may come as a shock to you, but I do not own or use Photoshop. Personally, I find it to be super confusing and an inefficient way to edit many images in one sitting.

However, I wanted to do some cool special effects, like cloning objects, so I had to get creative. Luckily I found a way to do this in Lightroom, and best of all, it's easier than you think!

Once again we will be using the Spot Removal Tool with the Clone or Heal Brush. I swear this tool is magic! Just watch this video below for a step-by-step process.

Many times while editing a photo, I'll find settings that are just perfect for the overall image, except one section. It might be my skin tone is too orange but the oranges in the rest of the image work well or possibly the lighting in the whole picture is amazing but my face has a shadow.

What do you do in the situation when you want to edit one area of an image without affecting the whole? Use the Brush Tool.

Just see how easy it is to use in the video below!

Did you find these tutorials helpful? Let me know in the comments below if you have any ideas for more Lightroom Tutorials.

Cheers! 

Angie xoxo