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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:04 Set your Crop
1:45 Recover sky detail
2:29 Exposure and Contrast
3:19 Tone Curve
4:13 White Balance
5:15 Colour Mixer
7:14 Colour Grading
8:41 MPB
10:15 Dodge and Burn
20:57 Sharpen Subject
22:45 Finalise
23:32 Final Thoughts
24:19 PARABLE magazine
24:50 Credits
Music licensed with Epidemic Sound:
‘Crossing the Rubicon’ by Jakob Ahlbom
In this video: after making portraits with three close friends back in South Africa in my previous video, I gave myself the challenge of editing them using only Adobe Lightroom, including all the colour grading and light shaping I would usually do in Photoshop. These are the techniques I used.
#portraits #adobelightroom #photographyediting
Comments
31 responses to “How I Edit Portraits in Lightroom (Start to Finish)”
Wow that was so good.
I wish I lived in England to have a mentor like you
I like how you go for a more naturalist edit. I think photos look better that way.
I like the way your Photoshop brain kicks in and you keep saying, “I am going to add another layer.”
At this point for me and this is a journey as I have to often remind myself, I would rather get a secure handle on the operation using Lightroom first and then gravitate the the more complex platform of photoshop which I am paying for. Otherwise, I will like many of us feel overwhelmed and not use either. So, with respect to this video, thank for pacing it well and showing how masks and brushes actually are fairly straightforward to use. Thanks again…
I'm always amazed at the attention to the little details that pros are aware of. These are subtle changes, but they add up. I'd like to wrestle with attention span and learn to work at this level.
Where is the female model from the thumbnail ????????? Nice clickbait
Thank you Sean, if ever there was an example for less is more than this is it. Nice composition to begin with and subtle adjustments to make this portrait stand out. Enjoyed the vid 👍
I discovered your channel few days ago and I truly love how you “serve” information to your audience. I decided to watch all of your 184 videos – 1 video per day or so haha. You are the first content creator that I felt the need to do so
crop has always been my biggest limiting factor, with how clients and myself really want photos that fit on instagram but the photos are not always the strongest in their 4:5 or 1:1 (instagram compatible crop). its a instagram problem really but instagram has by far the most reach… how do you handle this?
I was just thinking today that I really only use PS for dodging and burning and it would be nice if I could avoid having to leave LR. Thanks for pointing out the flow option and the wonderfully subtle editing tutorial!
Thanks Sean. I do think it's worth noting that Lr selections are not as accurate as Photoshop's. So if you make changes to your mask using the various contrast or sharpness settings, they can easily produce unwanted halos. Not a problem for social media images, but they would shine out in a print
Great video, Sean. Happy Christmas to you!
Coming from threads! This was really helpful, I do most of what you did but I learned a few tricks like warming up colors individually I never thought about it like that, gives more control. I also liked your idea of decreasing the flow. I really dislike increasing clarity on people skin, so I do something similar but in reverse, I invert the mask you did and do negative clarity and texture on everything but the subject ! Just an idea in case other people also dislike increasing those sliders you can also reverse it and do it in negative. Overall awesome, really helpful !
01:08 I dont think this is Lightroom CC , but the Cloud Version of LR which in my opinion is less powerfull than CC
Such a clear and helpful perspective. I'm still learning Lightroom and am excited to try some of these techniques out next time!
This is exactly the way I edit and work on my photos. Cool video
Great job Sean! All the best for the new year!
Great Video. Would like to know what percentage of images Sean would go to so much detail in editing? Also does Sean use presets for general editing. But realy informative
Thanks Sean, fantastic video!
Less is more.
Are people still using lightroom?
Quedó genial
How meticulous and clear you are in your explanation of working in Lightroom. It was a lot to take in but it was well worth it. Already I’m thinking of how I could use your skill set in my work. Thank you for the inspiration.
Thank you for sharing these useful tips. I use lightroom classic only as I am not too familiar with photoshop. I plan to expand my knowledge of photoshop moving forward. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas 😇
Happy Christmas Sean! Informative and thorough tutorial as always…editing is an art of it's own!!! LR for me at first was highly intimidating (and still is to a degree as there are so many layers to dive into and learn) and it was easy to just hit "auto" and be semi-happy with the result. Then I became dangerous with my "YouTube" education 😉 Learning what masks were and then discovering the saturation/texture/clarity sliders and without direction or purpose, created an image that looked good to me at that time. Looking back, the images and edits were awful & over-processed, however, it is really interesting to see the growth and how my own editing skills have developed since. At the end of the day we all have to start somewhere, and most importantly, not allow us to become disheartened within our own photography journey. It's easy to compare our own personal work to others and feel less than. As with anything in photography, it takes time and ALOT of practice to not only hone our photography skills, but to also figure out who we are as photographers, what stories we want to tell through our images, and how to edit those images to help best convey those stories. It's a constant learning process and evolution which doesn't happen overnight, however, this is part of what makes photography so rewarding and enjoyable! So with that, I just want to thank you Sean for sharing your time, wisdom, and knowledge with all of us!
Excellent video & loved the delicacy of the edit.
It’s probably my ocd, but I would have removed the vertical artifact/grass frond on the left side of the image, I found it distracting!
Many thanks & very best wishes for Christmas & 2026
It's always a good idea to see how other work, especially with software you think you know well. I rarely take photos to Photoshop these days, Lightroom has improved to the point where I don't need to. But, good to watch this.
Very useful video using Lightroom for portrait editing. Some of the changes you made with the sliders are so subtle that are easy to miss. This will take lots of practice. Thanks.
Brilliant advice
Excellent will watch again and again ! Tx
Thank you teacher, this is what I want to do recently
Merry Christmas, Sean!