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We spend a lot of time talking about workflow, specifically your Lightroom workflow – what can we say, we love Color Correction and providing you with wedding photo editing tips. In our Online Training: Advanced Lightroom Skillsets, workflow expert Jared Platt took an in-depth look at Lightroom and provided you with advanced tips for mastering Lightroom.

Advanced Lightroom Tips

We’ve highlighted the Top 5 Advanced Lightroom Tips you can implement into your post-production workflow to save you time and energy.

1. Create default styles

One of the beauties of Lightroom is the ability to create default settings when you import images into the program. If you always increase the clarity and add a split tone to your images, rather than manually doing that to each image, this can be applied to a group of images when they are imported into Lightroom. By taking a little extra time to determine which sliders and tools you are constantly using and creating a default style, you will save time in the long run.

Quick Tip

You can create specific default styles for each camera that you import images from for even more consistency.

2. Calibrate your Screen and Camera

While calibration can be a tedious process, you will not only save yourself time editing, but you will also ensure that your images look the way you want them to. You can calibrate your camera to match it to your import settings in Lightroom, ensuring that the images look consistent as they go from your camera into Lightroom. Make sure to calibrate your screen as well so that the color you see in Lightroom is accurate.

3. Implement Tone Curves

The tone curve is a great tool that can be used to make advanced adjustments to your images and really help achieve your Signature Style that your clients love. By using the point curve, you are able to adjust certain parts of an image without affecting the adjustments made in the Basic Panel, which makes it simple to apply additional edits to the color-corrected images you receive back from ShootDotEdit.

To gain even more control over your images, you can use the tone curve to work with individual color channels to really customize your look.

4. Develop custom presets

Creating a style for your images that is unique to your brand will attract ideal clients to your business. Once you receive your color-corrected images back from ShootDotEdit, this is the prime time to add your special touch. Remember, being unique with your style does not mean it needs to be time-consuming – creating presets will become your best friend in Lightroom.

Determine what adjustments you are adding to your color-corrected images from your photo editing services to personalize them and create a preset for them. If you have a signature black and white look, you can make a preset for this as well! Once you take the time to develop presets, it’s a piece of cake to apply the presets to a batch of images with a click of a button by using the spray can tool.

“If you spend a little extra effort now, it will save hours upon hours in the future. You need to invest now to make your future more enjoyable.” – Jared Platt

5. Master Retouching

Even if you have perfected your Photoshop skills, think twice before taking images into Photoshop for edits. Lightroom has become more advanced over the years and has some powerful tools when it comes to burning, dodging, retouching skin tones for clients, and cloning. Jared recommends trying to complete all of your edits in one program rather than bouncing from Lightroom to Photoshop. If you do feel the need to use Photoshop on items such as major skin smoothing, only learn the specific tools you need to complete this so you can be as efficient as possible.

By mastering a few advanced Lightroom techniques, you can quickly maximize your time and energy in your post-wedding workflow. Learn additional tips and tricks from Jared Platt when you access our free Online Training: Advanced Lightroom Skillsets! Click on the banner to access the Online Training and learn from one of the industry’s experts!