Two Ways to Color Grade Highlights and Shadows Using Lightroom

Lightroom recently added some new tools for color grading, and there are now multiple ways to warm up the highlights, add a cinematic touch to the shadows, and more. This excellent video tutorial will show you two different ways to selectively color grade your photos in Lightroom.

Coming to you from Anthony Morganti, this great video tutorial will show you two different ways to color grade photos in Lightroom, using both the Color Grading panel and channel curves. Though you will normally want to make it a subtle effect, adding a bit of warmth to the highlights or a little bit of blue or green to the shadows can be the sort of stylistic touch that really finishes off a photo. Both methods here work well and have their own pros and cons. Using the Color Grading panel provides a very quick and intuitive way to add these finishes. On the other hand, using channel curves is not as intuitive, but allows a higher level of control over exactly what luminance values are graded. Whichever method you prefer, it is well worth learning to take more creative control over your images. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Morganti. 

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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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