Developing in Lightroom: Where Do I Begin?

As easy as it is to deal with sliders in the Develop module of Lightroom, it could be daunting for beginners where to start. Which slider do I move first? Your first clue is how the tools are laid out in Lightroom; you could use the tools in succession from left to right, then top to bottom. At least, that was the original intention.

So, if we begin in the Tool Strip [Fig.1-1] at top-right of the Develop module of Lightroom, we see the tools laid out this way, left to right: Crop Overlay, Spot Removal, Red Eye Correction, Graduated Filter, Radial Filter, and finally the Adjustment Brush, and the obvious flow of questions is in this order: Do I need to crop? Do I want to clean up the image? Is there a red eye I have to deal with? Do I need to use the Graduated and Radial filters? Are there any specific areas in the photo that I have to adjust locally?

Then from there, you go top to bottom with the right-hand panels: Basic, Tone Curve, HSL/Color/B&W, Split Toning, Detail, Lens Corrections, Effects, and Camera Calibration applying the edits as you go.

That is, if you’re just beginning with Lightroom. After a while, you will understand that it does not have to be so, you don’t really need to work in that order. Some images will need to go through the whole nine yards, yes, but some will do fine with just a few tonal adjustments, and you can jump from tool to tool depending on what a particular picture will need in terms of enhancement. That’s the beauty of Lightroom, it’s not complicated.

But there is a general idea that should guide you to be efficient: start with global edits—the ones that affect the whole frame of the picture (exposure, contrast, white balance, etc.)—then go to local adjustments, the ones that you apply specifically to just one particular area of the picture, e.g., brighten up a dark spot and that spot alone. You go global to local. Reason is that your global edits may be applicable to a whole bunch of pictures shot under the same conditions and you do this in the batch process—you synchronize your edits through a whole bunch of pictures. This speeds up your workflow. Another reason is that you can save the series of global edits as a preset that you can use for future pictures. Get that? You can save an editing style as a preset and use it again later in one click. Do you like the look of your edit? Save it as a Preset!

So, there is no set procedure in developing your images in Lightroom, there is no correct order in using the Develop tools. You can jump from tool to tool depending on the photo you’re developing, but be guided by doing the global edits first, then the local edits, for reasons of efficiency.

However, I’d like to point you to some favorite starting points:

1. You can start with the Develop Presets on the left panel; hover your cursor on a preset’s name and the preview in the Navigator panel will show how that looks. If you like it, click on its name and the preset is applied to your image. From there, you can develop it some more.

2. You can also start with the Camera Calibration panel [Fig.1-3] at the bottomright of the Develop module, a later addition in Lightroom that’s why it’s at the bottom. You want the latest Process (2012) and you can choose your Profile if you shot raw.

3. My favorite starting point is Lens Corrections [Fig.1-2] where I have a check mark for Enable Profile Corrections in the Profile sub-panel. I like how this corrects barrel distortion for the lenses I use, so I actually bake it in as an Import preset, such that it is applied as I import my images.

From those starting points, you may jump from tool to tool as you see fit. Developing images in Lightroom is really easy, it should be easy because it was meant to be that way. The developers of the 2006 Shadowland project, precursor to Lightroom, meant this to be an easy-touse software for photographers. If you’re new to Lightroom, start with what makes sense to you. Maybe you can start with just a few exposure and contrast adjustments and proceed to more edits later. How much should I move my sliders? The simple answer is by how much your image needs it. You can see what you’re doing in Lightroom because the image changes in real time as you move the sliders. Do not burden yourself with a complicated workflow, you do that later when you gain confidence as you gain experience, and you gain experience only by using Lightroom more often. Yeah, use it often and make it the center of your workflow as a photographer. You can use thirdparty plug-ins from within Lightroom, you can even switch to Photoshop itself from Lightroom, it’s seamless, but make Lightroom the heart of your workflow. It’s meant that way. Lightroom is really the best workflow software out there for the photographer. Chris Malinao teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF (Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation), a nonprofit organization that offers yearround workshops in Basic Photography, Advanced Photography, Wedding Photography, Strobist Lighting, Food Photography, Photoshop, Lightroom, and other specialty photography workshops. For details, please visit www. photoworldmanila.com.