A Simple Guide to Editing Colors in Adobe Lightroom

For most photographers color is a crucial element of their work and one that can have a huge influence on the quality of the final result. There are many ways to manipulate color in post-production, so here is a simple guide for using Adobe Lightroom for that purpose.

It's easy to overlook how important color is to an image. I, of course, enjoyed color when I began photography, and I was aware of when the colors looked great and when they didn't, but it took a while before I realized just how big a role they played. In fact, I would go as far as to say it wasn't until I was creating adverts for products that I truly engaged with the issue.

How you edit your colors in post-production will dictate a number of important outcomes. Firstly — and one I exploit the most — is how color affects the mood of the image. For me, it's as simple as more blues equating to a more moody image and more oranges as more upbeat, at least usually. Exposure underpins these outcomes, but color is just as important. Then, as you venture into more nuance, you can put your stamp on your work with familiar color workflows that tie all of your work together or even make collections congruent.

Long story short, color is crucial and you ought to take any and all education on it you can get!

Rob Baggs's picture

Robert K Baggs is a professional portrait and commercial photographer, educator, and consultant from England. Robert has a First-Class degree in Philosophy and a Master's by Research. In 2015 Robert's work on plagiarism in photography was published as part of several universities' photography degree syllabuses.

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