Fix your landscapes in Lightroom
Discover the essential processes that make any landscape photo look great
For the beginner photographer, photographing the landscape is a great option. You simply need to be there and take the shot. You don’t need to direct anybody, build a set or set up lights: all you need to do is figure out the best time and show up. Sunrise and sunsets are classic subjects to shoot, but even a drive in the surrounding countryside can yield a good crop of photos.
As time passes, you learn to judge the light better and improve your photography. Even a beginning photographer can take an amazing shot: it’s the consistency of shooting amazing shots that comes with experience. From that point, editing can have a huge impact on your photos. It won’t make a mediocre shot good, but it can make a good shot better.
Let’s tackle some of the common issues that can happen when you’re beginning and want to improve your landscapes. These include aspects like wonky horizons and fixing the exposure, as well as enhancing the contrast and colour.
Crop the photo
Press R, or click on the Crop Tool icon in the toolbar below the Histogram. In macOS hold Cmd, on Windows hold Ctrl; then click and drag along the horizon. Here we’re using the base of the mountains as our reference for the horizon level.
Extend the dynamic range
As the photo has no areas clipping initially, drag the Blacks slider to the left until you see a colour appear in the left triangle of the
Histogram. With the
Whites slider, drag it to the right until you see clipping on the right of the Histogram. Move both back slightly until the clipping has gone. With this photo, it’s Blacks at -30 and Whites at +66.
Enhance the tones
One great editing trick to improve the dynamic range of your photo is to bring Highlights down to -100. Next, bring your Shadows slider to +100. This evens out the balance between the tones. This photo also needs some work to remove haze, so set Dehaze to 40.
Boost the colour
Finally, for colour, use Vibrance and Saturation. Vibrance tends to increase the blueness of a photo, so for landscape photos, mixing in Saturation gives a better balance of colour increase. Here it’s 27 for Vibrance and 10 for Saturation.