Effective Tips on Using the Lightroom Adjustment Brush

Lightroom is a software full of useful tools, but more often than not I see photographers not taking full advantage of them and resorting to do simple edits in other programs such as Photoshop. I put together this short 7 minute video covering some useful tips on using one of my favorite tools to quickly enhance my photos in Lightroom - The Adjustment Brush. I have also included a list of keyboard shortcuts below for those who enjoy them as much as I do.

The adjustment brush in Lightroom is one of those tools that can be an extremely effective way to make quick fixes to your photos without having to bring them into another editing program. While I don't use it on every photo it is something I will use to draw eyes to certain areas of my images by adding exposure, sharpness, or even changing up the color temperature. Be sure to check out the video to see how I use it. Here are some useful keyboard shortcuts when using the Adjustment Brush.

(K) - Open Adjustment Brush Menu
([ or ]) - Decrease or Increase Brush Size
(Shift [ or Shift ]) Decrease or Increase Feather Size
(1-9) - Easily Change the Flow of the Brush
(O) - Turn on painted area to see where you brushed.
(Shift - O) - Change color of painted area.
(Alt or Option) - Turn your brush into an eraser tool.

One trick I love doing and talk about in the movie is creating a contrast of color temperature in my photos by warming them up and then painting cooler temps on the skin or using the magenta slider to brush out green tones from a photo. As a wedding photographer, I often will have a beautiful picture of a bride but part of her dress is in the shadows and the white dress now has a blue tint to it. Using the adjustment brush I can quickly warm up that area of the photo on the dress and shift it from blue back to the natural white color of the dress. Hope the video was useful and you were able to pull a tip or two out of it.