We’ve all had that experience of eagerly opening what seemed like a promising image in Lightroom, only to be disappointed when we discover that it lacks a certain something. Here’s a short tutorial demonstrating the use of masks and tone curves in Lightroom to bring more impact to your images.
London-based professional photographer Mark McGee knows a thing or two about using Adobe Lightroom to get the absolute most out of the images that he shoots for his clients. Over the course of more than 15 years, he has been shooting mainly portraits for a wide range of clients, including actors, models, singers, directors, choreographers, and musicians—as well as being very much in demand as a wedding photographer.
Like all of us who spend any time behind a camera, Mark recognizes only too well that experience of opening an image in Lightroom, one that you had high hopes for, only to find that it lacks the kind of punch that distinguishes an okay image from a really compelling one. Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, what felt like a potentially exciting photograph when we captured it can appear rather flat or lackluster when we finally get to examine it in Lightroom—even after some post-processing work to enhance its colors and tonality. Something is just missing, and what you have is an image that seems to lack the energy of the scene it captures.
In the video presented here, Mark demonstrates how even a little familiarity and practice with the masking and tone curve features in Lightroom can be invaluable additions to the photographer’s post-processing toolbox when it comes to dialing up the impact in an image. This short video tutorial introduces these essential Lightroom features in a very easy and accessible manner, taking us step by step through the transformation of a rather lackluster image.
If you like this kind of short and to-the-point tutorial, it’s also worth digging deeper into the library of videos on Mark’s channel, as there are plenty of them. They cover not only the use of Lightroom but also other aspects of photography, from lighting and composition to editing—and even color grading for those of you who are interested in videography.
