If you want your photos to stand out with a bold, cinematic feel, creating a darker aesthetic can help you achieve that. Here's how to achieve that in Lightroom.
Coming to you from Christian Möhrle - The Phlog Photography, this practical video breaks down the process of creating a darker and moodier scene using Lightroom. Möhrle begins by selecting an artistic profile to adjust the color palette, enhancing the warm autumn tones while keeping the look balanced. He reduces the profile’s intensity to 55%, revealing a natural mix of green, yellow, and orange hues. Adjusting the exposure and shadows is the next step, darkening the overall image without losing detail in the highlights. He uses the histogram as a guide, ensuring no critical areas are underexposed. A small amount of clipping in unimportant areas is acceptable, he explains, but it’s something to monitor closely.
To refine the image further, Möhrle tweaks highlights, shadows, and whites, achieving a balanced contrast. He introduces texture for sharpness and reduces clarity for a softer, dreamier effect. The interplay of these adjustments creates a blend of detail and glow that defines the scene’s mood. Möhrle also adjusts the temperature and tint to cool the overall tone, countering overly green areas. Finally, he increases vibrance and saturation slightly to make the colors pop without overdoing it.
For more targeted edits, Möhrle uses Lightroom’s masking tools. A radial gradient is added to create a soft glow at the top of the image, drawing the viewer’s eye downward. Another radial mask highlights the road in the scene, subtly guiding attention to its leading lines. Möhrle employs linear gradients to darken distracting bright areas in the foreground, ensuring the focus stays on the main subject.
To add a final touch, Möhrle uses the calibration tab to fine-tune the image's color palette. Slightly adjusting the primary hues and boosting their saturation introduces vibrancy without overwhelming the moody aesthetic. He completes the Lightroom process with sharpening and detail adjustments, keeping the image crisp but natural. Möhrle then moves into Photoshop for cleanup, removing distracting elements like stray branches and leaves. Using tools like the spot healing brush and generative fill, he simplifies the scene, making it cleaner and more polished. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Möhrle.
And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out our latest tutorial, "Photographing the World: Japan II - Discovering Hidden Gems with Elia Locardi!”
