I can no longer count how many times I’ve been asked “How do you edit your photos?” or “What do you use to edit?” aka “What app?”

Well, in today’s post you will finally get the answers you’ve been seeking because I’m about to let you in on the process. If you make it to the end, a reward will be waiting for you.

What you need for today’s tutorial:

Adobe Lightroom Classic CC (desktop/mobile)

Basic Lightroom knowledge

Desktop / Phone

Bread *optional, for snacking

Ready? Try to keep up!

Import Files into Lightroom

This is done by selecting “File” > “Import Photos and Videos” > Location of your files.

After import, switch from “Library” to “Develop” which is located on the upper-right hand side. Shouldn’t be hard to miss.

I always make it a point to shoot in RAW because it gives more room when editing and making adjustments to my photo. If my photo is underexposed or overexposed, I still get to bring back most or some of the details back. The file size is much bigger compared to JPEG but I’d say it’s worth the space it takes up.

I highly recommend shooting in RAW.

Tip: When I go through my photos to select which ones I want to edit, I usually give it a 5-star rating to indicate that I’ve selected this photo for editing later on.

You can do this by selecting the photo/s and pressing “5” on the keyboard.

After that, I select the dropdown menu of Filter which is located on the lower-right hand side and set it to “Rated” which filters out the non-rated photos and only shows the photos I gave a 5-star rating making it easier and faster for me to edit because I usually have so many photos. So instead of trying to remember the file name of each photo I want to edit, I do this method instead.

Editing & Making Adjustments

I’ve already created my own presets from scratch (which I’ll be sharing) and saved them in Lightroom for future use — you can find these on the left side of the screen under “Presets“.

Having presets is convenient because it shortens the amount of time you take for editing since it does most of the work for you already. All you need to do is make a few adjustments here and there.

These adjustments can be made on the settings which can be found on the right side of the screen. It contains Basic, Tone Curve, HSL, Split Toning, etc.

They all play different roles and it’s best to play around with them in order to achieve your desired output.

And yes, I do touch all of them except Lens Correction and Camera Calibration.

The one I tinker around with the most is HSL. Simply changing the values of each component can already make a huge difference in your photo.

Just be sure to not overdo it because it can be pretty easy to get carried away and end up with a tacky, overly saturated photo with crazy hues.

Not. Pretty.

Export

And that’s basically it! Once you’ve made your preferred adjustments, you can now save/export your image and upload it on the interwebz.

Select “File” > “Export…” and a pop-up window will show up where you can choose where to export your photo, change the file name, image size, etc. Once everything is set, click the Export button again and you’re done!