Lightroom Totorial: How to Edit and Organize your photos

Adobe Lightroom CC Guide

is document requires Adobe Lightroom CC 1.1. Technical instructions may dier depending on your version.

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

Edit and organize photos

With easy-to-use sliders, filters, and quick adjustment tools, the Lightroom CC interface makes it

simple to create photos that look just the way you want. Edit your full-resolution photos at home,

school, and beyond — on mobile devices, the web, or your desktop. Organize your photos into

albums or sort by date to find them easily. Changes made on one device are automatically applied

everywhere else (Figure 1).

In this guide, you’ll learn how to edit photos in Lightroom CC using the six main editing controls—Light, Color, Effects,

Detail, Optics, and Geometry. You’ll also learn how to organize photos into albums or folders, assign keywords, and

rate and flag photos.

Using Edit controls

Using the Edit controls in Lightroom CC is easy to master. Be sure to experiment widely with the tools and options to

see how your images are affected by each of the settings.

Figure 1 Edits on one device are automatically applied to other devices

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

is document requires Adobe Lightroom CC 1.1. Technical instructions may dier depending on your version.

You can access the Edit controls in the individual photo Detail view. In the Edit panel, the edit controls are organized

under various panels that you can expand/collapse to access those controls. To help you visually understand the effect

that each of these edit controls produces in your photo, this section provides accompanying images and descriptions to

illustrate each of the editing concepts. To see these images as animations, please visit Adobe Help Edit Photos.

To begin editing a photo using any of the Edit controls:

1. Start Lightroom CC.

2. If you’re in Photo Grid view or Square Grid view, select the photo that you want to edit (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Square Grid view (top) and Photo Grid view (bottom)

Photo Grid view

Square Grid view

Detail view

Selected photo

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

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3. Click the Detail view icon in the toolbar at the boom to open Detail view (Figure 3).

If you’re already in Detail view, select the photo that you want to edit from the filmstrip appearing at the bottom of

your current selection.

Note: The Edit controls are only available in Detail view.

4. To bring up the Edit panel in Detail view, click the Edit

buon at the upper-right corner (Figure 4).

The Edit control panel opens displaying headings and

disclosure triangles for each of the Edit controls.

Figure 4 Detail of the Tools panel

Figure 3 Detail view

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

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5. Expand and collapse the Edit panel to access controls organized under — Light, Color, Eects, Detail, Optics, and

Geometry and review their dierent seings and options (Figure 5).

6. Select one of the edit controls and make an edit to a photo. Some Edit controls provide automatic or advanced

options. For example, you select the Auto buon in the Light panel to automatically apply the perfect combination

of Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, and other seings to an image (Figure 6).

Be sure to experiment with all the options. Edit controls are explained in more detail in the sections that follow.

Figure 5 From left to right: Light, Color, Effects, Detail, Optics, and Geometry controls

Figure 6 Detail view and Edit controls panel

Auto button

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

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Light

Using the slider controls provided in the Light panel, you can adjust the overall tonal range of your image.

Exposure Contrast

Exposure controls the brightness of your photo. Move

the slider to the left to make the image darker; move it

to the right to make the image brighter.

Contrast determines the contrast between light and

dark colors. Move the slider to the left to flatten the

contrast; move it to the right to make the contrast more

dramatic.

Highlights Shadows

Highlights slider controls the brightness of the lighter

parts of your photo. Move the slider to the left to darken

highlights to recover details; move it to the right to

brighten them and reduce details.

Shadows controls the brightness of the lighter parts of

your photo. Move the slider to the left to deepen

shadows; move it to the right to brighten them and

recover details.

Whites Blacks

Whites slider sets the white point of the image. Move

the slider to the right to make more colors appear

completely white.

Blacks slider sets the black point of the image. Move the

slider to the left to make more colors appear completely

black.

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

is document requires Adobe Lightroom CC 1.1. Technical instructions may dier depending on your version.

Advanced light-editing options include using the Tone

Curve (Figure 7). The Tone Curve in the Light panel gives

you greater control over the tonal range and contrast in

your photo. For more information, see Adobe Help

Fine-tune the tonal scale using the Tone Curve.

Color

Use the slider controls in the Color panel to fine-tune color in your image:

• Set White Balance by choosing a preset option or specifying a neutral area in the photo with the White

Balance Selector.

• Fine-tune the white balance using the Temp and Tint controls.

• Adjust the color saturation (vividness) using the Vibrance and Saturation controls.

• Convert the photo to Black & White using the B&W buon.

• Fine-tune individual colors using the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance (HSL) sliders.

Temp Tint

Temp determines how cool or warm the colors appear

in your photo. Move the slider to the left if colors are too

yellow; move it to the right if colors are too blue.

Tint determines how green or purple the colors appear

in your photo. Move the slider to the left if colors are too

purple; move it to the right if colors are too green.

Figure 7 Editing the Tone Curve

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

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Vibrance Saturation

Vibrance increases the saturation of lower-saturated

colors more than higher-saturated colors, which can

help prevent skin-tones from looking unnatural.

Saturation boosts the saturation of all colors equally.

Move the slider to the left to de-saturate colors, move it

to the right to boost saturation.

Effects

Apply effects to your image - Clarity, Dehaze, Vignette, and Split Toning.

Clarity Dehaze

Clarity changes the contrast around the edges of objects

in your photo. Move the slider to the left to soften

portraits; move it to the right to make landscapes more

clear.

Dehaze adds or removes atmospheric interference.

Move the slider to the left to add simulated haze; move

it to the right to remove haze.

Vignette

Vignette makes the outer edges of the photo lighter or

darker. Adjust the Feather, Midpoint, Roundness, and

Highlights sliders to achieve a desired effect.

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

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Split Toning

An advanced effects-editing option is Split Toning. Using the Split Toning controls in the Effects panel, you can create a

split tone effect in which a different color is applied to the Shadows and Highlights in your photo. For example, you can

colorize a monochrome photo or apply special effects, such as the look of cross-processed film, to a color photo

(Figure 8).

Figure 8 Split tone effect created on a monochrome image.

To create a split tone effect in your photo:

1. Open an image in Detail view that you want to add a

split tone eect.

2. In the Light seings, click the Auto buon to auto-

matically balance the image levels.

3. In the Color seings, click the B&W buon to auto-

matically convert the image to monochrome.

4. In the Eects seings, click the split tone icon

(Figure 9) to view the Split Toning controls

(Figure 10).

5. Set the Hue and Sat (Saturation) values by individu-

ally selecting the Shadows or Highlights swatches,

then dragging the corresponding controls point to

select a color in the color ramp. Note that Hue sets

the color of the tone; while Sat adjusts the intensity of

the color.

6. Set the Balance slider (Figure 10) to balance the

eect. Move the slider to the right to favor the select-

ed Highlights color; move the slider to the le to

favor the selected Shadows color.

Figure 9 Edit controls panel, Effects settings

Split Tone

button

Figure 10 Split Toning settings

Balance slider

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

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Detail

Using the slider controls provided under the Detail panel, you can sharpen your photo to enhance edge definition and

bring out detail, as well as remove image noise that can degrade image quality. Image noise includes luminance

(grayscale) noise, which makes an image look grainy, and chroma (color) noise, which is usually visible as colored

artifacts in the image. Photos taken with high ISO speeds can have noticeable noise.

Sharpening Noise Reduction

Sharpening means to sharpen details. Click the

disclosure triangle to adjust Radius, Detail, and Masking

controls.

Noise Reduction reduces luminance noise across

overall detail and contrast.

Color Noise Reduction Grain

Color Noise Reduction controls color noise and

speckled color tone smoothness.

Grain adds film grain to an image. Use controls to

change size of particles, roughness, and regularity of the

grain.

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

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Optics

Camera lenses can exhibit different types of defects at certain focal lengths, f-stops, and focus distances. You can

correct and/or minimize these issues using the options provided in the Optics panel.

Correct chromatic aberration

Chromatic aberration appears as a color fringe along the edges of objects (Figure 11). It is caused by the failure of the

lens to focus different colors to the same spot, aberrations in sensor microlenses, and by flare.

To repair chromatic aberration:

1. Open an image in Detail view that you want to correct for chromatic aberration.

2. In the Optics seings, select the check box to automatically correct blue-yellow and red-green fringes in your

image (Figure 11).

Chromatic aberrations are removed from the photo.

Enable lens corrections

Advanced optic-editing options include using the Enable Lens Corrections setting. Lightroom CC includes numerous

lens profiles, which can be used to correct common lens aberrations such as geometric distortion and vignetting. The

profiles are based on metadata that identifies the camera and lens used to capture the photo and then compensates

accordingly. For more information, see Adobe Help Enable Lens Correction.

Figure 11 Edit controls > Optics settings (left) and original photo (center). Zoomed area of the photo with

blue/yellow fringing (upper-right), and after fixing chromatic aberration (lower right)

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

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Geometry

A close distance to the subject, as well as certain types of lenses, can distort perspective and make straight lines appear

bowed, tilted or skewed in your photos. You can correct for these issues using the controls in the Geometry panel.

The Upright control provides four automatic perspective correction options - Auto, Level, Vertical, and Full, as well as a

manual Guided option (Figure 12). After applying Upright, you can refine the adjustment using the Manual Transform

sliders.

To choose an Upright mode to correct perspective:

1. Open an image in Detail view that you want to correct

for perspective.

2. (Recommended) In the Optics seings, select the

Enable Lens Corrections checkbox (Figure 13) and

leave profile settings as is.

Note: Enabling lens corrections is highly

recommended, before processing the photo with the

Upright modes.

Figure 12 Original photo with distorted geometry (left) Geometry settings (center), and image with corrected perspective

Figure 13 Edit controls panel, Optics settings

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

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3. Navigate to the Geometry panel. From Upright

menu, choose an option to apply the correction to the

photo.

• Guided: Allows you to draw up to four guides on

your photo to customize perspective correction.

If you chose the Upright mode as Guided, do

the following:

1. Click the Guided Upright Tool icon

(Figure 14) and then draw the guides

directly on your photo.

2. Once you have drawn at least two guides,

the photo transforms interactively

(Figure 15).

• Auto: Corrects both vertical and horizontal perspective while balancing the overall image, preserving as much

of the visible image area as possible.

• Level: Corrects horizontal perspective.

• Vertical: Corrects horizontal perspective.

• Full: Combines all Upright correction types to automatically correct perspective.

4. Cycle through the Upright modes until you nd the preferable seing.

All the Upright modes correct and manage distortion and perspective errors. The best setting varies from one

photo to another. Experiment with the modes before deciding on the best possible mode for your photo.

Figure 14 Edit controls panel, Geometry settings

Guided

Upright Tool

icon

Figure 15 Three guides drawn over the photo using Guided Upright Tool.

Guides

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

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5. (Optional) When correcting the perspective of a

photo, you may get white areas near the image

boundaries. To prevent this, select the Constrain Crop

option to automatically crop the photo according to

the original dimension (Figure 16).

6. Use Manual Transforms to ne-tune the perspective

corrections - Distortion, Vertical, Horizontal, Rotate,

Aspect, Scale, X Oset, Y Oset (Figure 17).

Figure 16 Edit controls panel, Geometry settings

Figure 17 Edit controls panel, Geometry settings with

Manual Transforms

Manual

Transforms

icon

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

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Organize your photos

Lightroom CC offers many ways to organize and find your photos (Figure 18). You can manage your photos as albums

or stacks; or organize them using keywords, metadata, flags, and ratings. Finding and filtering photos is also easy.

To add your photos to an album or a folder:

1. In Photo Grid view or Square Grid view, select the My

Photos icon to open the My Photos and Albums

panel (Figure 19).

The My Photos and Albums panel opens (Figure 18).

Figure 18 Organize your photos in Lightroom CC

Album Folder

My Photos Search bar Filter

Keywords InfoRatingsFlags

Figure 19 My Photos icon

Edit and organize photos with Lightroom CC

is document requires Adobe Lightroom CC 1.1. Technical instructions may dier depending on your version.

1. In Photo Grid view or Square Grid view, select the

image or images you want to include in the album.

2. In the le pane that opens, click the + icon and then

click Create Album (Figure 20).

3. In the dialog box that opens, enter a name for the

new album and click Create (Figure 21).

4. To add more photos to the album, select photos from

the grid and drag them to the album in the le pane.

5. To organize albums into folders, click the + icon, give

it a name, and then click Create Folder. Lightroom CC

lists the folder in the Albums area.

6. Drag one or more albums under the folder.

7. If necessary, create subfolders and add albums to

them.

To assign keywords, and rate or flag photos:

1. In the Photo Grid or Square Grid view, or in the Detail

view lmstrip, select one or more photos.

2. Click the keywords icon in the lower-le corner of the

screen (Figure 18).

3. In the Keywords panel (Figure 22), assign one or

more keywords to the photos and press Enter (Win-

dows) or Return (Mac OS) to apply.

4. To rate and ag photos, select one or more photos in

the Photo Grid or Square Grid view, or in the Detail

view lmstrip.

5. Click a ag to set photo(s) as a pick, and click the stars

to set a rating for the photo(s) (Figure 23).

Figure 20 Create Album button

Figure 21 Create Album button

Figure 23 Flag and rate photos in the grid area

Figure 22 Keywords panel

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Search and filter photos

Aside from searching photos by metadata and keywords, Lightroom can also find and display photos based on the

objects in them. For example, you can quickly search for all photos that have “flowers” or “cars” in them. Adobe Sensei

is a new and developing tech that uses the power of machine learning to automatically apply searchable keywords. To

learn more about this exciting new technology, please visit Adobe Sensei.

To search photos:

1. In the Search bar, type a search term. For example,

with the Winter Animals collection, you might type

“bison” (Figure 24).

The results are presented in the Photo Grid, Square

Grid view, or in the Detail view.

In this particular case, the keyword “bison” was not

applied to the images but rather was automatically

generated by Adobe Sensei technology.

To filter photos:

1. Click the lter icon next to the Search bar (Figure 25) to quickly lter photos by:

• Ratings Use the star icons to view photos rated at, or higher than, a certain star rating (Figure 25).

• Flags Select agged, rejected, or unagged.

• Keywords Use the drop-down menu to choose from a list of available terms.

• Cameras Filter by camera used to shoot the photos.

• Location Filter by geotags applied to the photos.

Figure 24 Results of keyword search

Figure 25 Filtering photos by star rating

Filter

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