Editing forest scenes in Lightroom Classic can quickly become tricky because of stark contrasts between shadow and light. Knowing how to handle this complexity can elevate your landscape photos from average to exceptional.
Coming to you from Gareth Evans with Park Cameras, this practical video addresses the complexities you face when editing high-contrast forest images in Lightroom Classic. Evans demonstrates how to tackle the issue of underexposure, often necessary to avoid blowing out highlights in bright sunlight. He thoughtfully explains his preference for starting with darker exposures, revealing how subtle adjustments to highlights, shadows, and white balance can effectively balance difficult lighting conditions. The technique of bracketing exposures without a tripod is also briefly covered, underscoring how adaptability can improve your workflow in less-than-ideal shooting scenarios. Evans’ discussion about why auto white balance struggles with forest images is particularly insightful, showing you exactly how small adjustments toward magenta can dramatically improve an image's overall color harmony.
The video becomes even more useful as Evans walks through detailed adjustments, employing subtle tweaks in Lightroom's calibration settings. Rather than drastically altering the image at once, Evans emphasizes the cumulative power of small, deliberate changes, a critical approach for fine-tuning complex images. He takes advantage of masks to guide viewer attention effectively, demonstrating how targeted adjustments to exposure and clarity can shape and control viewer perception. These techniques are essential if you want to elevate your editing from simple correction to intentional storytelling.
As Evans progresses, he showcases how radial and linear gradients can create depth, guiding the viewer’s eye along the forest path. His method of balancing foreground darkness with a brighter focal point illustrates thoughtful editing in action. You’ll learn how intentional adjustments can enhance the inherent visual appeal of forest compositions, transforming challenging lighting into striking, nuanced results. Additionally, Evans introduces a helpful workflow tip: creating a virtual copy to safely experiment further without losing the progress you've already made. He briefly explores Lightroom’s adaptive color presets, highlighting how built-in AI can occasionally provide useful alternatives or inspiration.
Throughout, Evans doesn't overwhelm you with jargon or complicated techniques. Instead, he keeps the process accessible and transparent, clarifying why each adjustment matters and how they cumulatively build toward a more visually compelling image. This thoughtful approach emphasizes practicality, teaching you not just what adjustments to make, but how to approach editing more deliberately, especially in scenarios where the lighting initially seems overwhelmingly problematic. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Evans.
And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out our latest tutorial, "Photographing the World: Japan II - Discovering Hidden Gems with Elia Locardi!”
Nice tutorial, thank you for sharing, particularly nice to see some of the newer LR features in action that I have not worked with yet.