All About the Graduated Filter in Lightroom

Most people think of Photoshop as the place where serious editing takes place, but you might be surprised by just how much you can get done using only Lightroom. This great video will show you how to use one of Lightroom's most useful tools, the graduated filter.

Coming to you from Lucy Martin, this helpful video shows how to use the graduated filter in Lightroom. If you're new to Lightroom, the graduated filter allows you to apply a variety of adjustments (and combinations thereof) and then have them taper off along a linear path (though you can rotate that path to any angle you please). You can also adjust the rate of the falloff, allowing you to create very gradual or quicker shifts. This is useful when you want to apply an effect or an adjustment to an area of the image without the transition being blatantly obvious. For example, you might use this to darken a sky and gradually taper off the adjustment as you cross the horizon line. It's a quick and powerful way to take control of your edits using Lightroom, and it's definitely worth learning. Check out the video above for the full rundown! 

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Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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Don't forget you can also use the range mask to target certain tones. It works well for something like a scene with a mountain and you only want to work on the sky.