Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw give you plenty of powerful tools to enhance your images, but some adjustments can do more harm than good if used incorrectly. Over-processing is easy to spot—crushed shadows, unnatural contrast, and an artificial look that takes away from the image instead of improving it. Three sliders in particular tend to cause the most damage when misused.
Coming to you from Blake Rudis with f64 Academy, this helpful video highlights the dangers of relying too much on the dehaze, texture, and clarity sliders. These tools are meant to refine details and enhance contrast, but applying them globally can quickly push an image too far. Dehaze, for example, is often used to add drama to skies, but it can oversaturate blues and introduce harsh contrast across the entire frame. Texture and clarity, designed to enhance midtone contrast, can make an image look overly sharp and unnatural when applied at full strength. Instead of making the photo better, they can create a heavy-handed, artificial effect.
A smarter approach is to use these tools selectively. Rudis demonstrates how to apply dehaze only to the sky, preventing the color shifts and contrast issues that happen when it’s used across the whole image. He also shows how texture and clarity work best when applied to specific areas, like foreground details, rather than the entire photo. By using masks and local adjustments, you get the benefits of these sliders without the unwanted side effects.
For even more control, Photoshop offers better alternatives. Rudis explains how to replicate dehaze effects using curves, giving you finer adjustments without the extreme saturation shifts. High-pass sharpening, combined with blend modes, can create the same micro-contrast effects as clarity and texture but with more precision. These methods take a little more effort but result in a cleaner, more natural-looking image. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Rudis.
