step by step Essential Edits for landscapes

Use these tools and settings to correct and enhance your outdoor photography

01 Crop and straighten

If your in-camera framing is perfect then great, skip this. But more often than not a crop might be needed. Import the image into Lightroom, then head to the Develop module and grab the Crop tool. Drag the crop box and rotate if required to fix wonky horizon.

02 Correct lens flaws

Colour fringing can occur when bright skies meets land. Here, there’s a greenish fringe. To fix this, go to the Lens Correction panel in Lightroom’s Develop module, click Profile and check Remove Chromatic Aberration. Then, Enable Profile Corrections.

03 retouch marks

When shooting at narrower apertures for landscape photography, any sensor marks will be made worse. Grab the Spot Removal tool and check Visualise Spots at the bottom of the screen. Paint over any marks, then manually move the source point if you need to.

04 enhance tones 05 selective tweaks

Use the Adjustment Brush to lift dark areas, like the rocks. Get it from the toolbar and paint over the area. Then, up the Exposure and Shadows to lift it. Go to the Range Mask controls and set Luminance, hold Alt and drag the white point inwards. This restricts the effect. Go to the tonal sliders in the Basic panel. Hold Alt and drag the white and black sliders. If you hold Alt while dragging these you can see clipped pixels – drag to a point just before they appear. If the sky is too bright lower the Highlights, then alter Clarity and Vibrance.

06 apply sharpening

If you want to make any other local adjustments then hit N and begin painting again. Finally, head to the Detail Panel. Increase the Sharpening Amount to around 120 then hold Alt and drag the Masking slider across to restrict the sharpening to the fine details.