Step by Step selective adjustments

Discover lightroom’s Graduated Filter tool and add punch to your photos

01 Dial in some underexposure

Bring your chosen image into Lightroom’s Develop module, then grab the Graduated Filter tool from the toolbar at the top-right of the interface. Notice that when you click the tool, a set of sliders appears directly below it. These closely resemble the Basic panel sliders, but the difference is that they work in combination with the tool. Set Exposure to -1.17.

02 Drag a gradient

Click-and-drag down from the top of the image to darken the sky. You can hold down Shift as you drag if you want to keep the lines perfectly horizontal. If you want to tweak the gradient, drag the upper or lower lines to change the width of the blend (hold down Alt and drag to move both at once) or drag the centre line to adjust the angle.

03 ADD more gradients

You can add as many gradients as you like. Simply click-and-drag elsewhere in the image to make another, then adjust the sliders below the toolbar to change how the area looks. The tool will remember previous settings, but you can quickly reset everything to default values by double-clicking Effect, or double-clicking individual sliders to reset them.

04 erase the mask

The gradient over the sky here also darkens the lighthouse, but you can exclude it from the effect. Click Brush at the top right (next to New and Mask), then go to the Brush settings below the tool’s tonal sliders. Choose A or B to add to the effect, and Erase to exclude, then paint over the area. Press O to toggle the mask overlay so you can see what’s affected.