How to Edit Photos in Lightroom: Step-by-Step Guide by Pro Wedding Photographer

As a professional photographer, often capturing a great image is only half the battle. In post-production, you can refine, enhance, and transform your images into the final product you imagined when shooting it. Adobe Lightroom is the go-to tool for many photographers and me, offering a powerful suite of features that make it possible to elevate your photos from good to great.

I’m Paul, a UK-based wedding photographer, and in this guide, I’ll walk you through the essential steps and tools on how to edit photos in Lightroom. Whether you're new to Lightroom or looking for a few tips, this guide will help streamline your workflow and produce better results.

Watch Our Lightroom Editing Tutorial on YouTube

If you prefer learning through visual demonstrations, check out our Lightroom editing tutorial on YouTube. It’s a great way to see these techniques in action and follow along step-by-step.

Lightroom vs. Lightroom Classic

Lightroom and Lightroom Classic are both part of Adobe's suite of photo editing tools, but they serve slightly different purposes. Lightroom (often referred to as Lightroom CC) is a cloud-based app that allows you to edit photos on multiple devices seamlessly, making it ideal for photographers who need flexibility and access from anywhere. Lightroom Classic, on the other hand, is a desktop-focused application designed for those who prefer a traditional, more robust editing workflow.

For this guide, I will be using Lightroom Classic, as it provides more comprehensive features and control for professional wedding photographers.

Preparing for the Editing Process

Back up Your Images

Before you begin editing, make sure your images are safely backed up. Shooting weddings means capturing some of the most important moments in people’s lives, and losing those photos could be catastrophic for your reputation and career. I always write my photos to two memory cards during the day. Once I’m back at my computer, I have three copies of each file: my working files, one backup drive, and one stored off-site, which in my case is a cloud backup.

Cull Your Photos

With thousands of images captured during a wedding, culling is a critical step. This process involves selecting the best photos from your shoot. There are several ways to efficiently cull your photos:

Cull within Lightroom: Use Lightroom's rating and flagging system to quickly sort through your images. Smart Previews can speed up this process by allowing you to work with smaller versions of your photos.

External Culling Programs: If Lightroom’s culling feels sluggish, consider external programs like Photo Mechanic. These are designed to handle large batches of photos with minimal lag, making the selection process faster.

AI Culling Tools: Newer AI tools like Aftershoot can automatically analyze and select the best images from your shoot, significantly speeding up the culling process.

Organize Your Photos

A well-organized photo library is essential for an efficient workflow. Create a logical folder structure, such as organizing by year, client name, or event type. Within each client folder, keep subfolders for RAW files, selected images, and final exports. Consistent organization will save you time and help you focus on editing rather than searching for files.

Set Up Your Physical and Digital Workspace

Your workspace should be both comfortable and efficient. Invest in a good chair, a spacious desk, and proper lighting to reduce eye strain. In Lightroom, use Solo Mode in the Develop module to keep your workspace clutter-free by collapsing panels you’re not using. This allows you to concentrate on the tools relevant to your editing process.

Pro Tip: Customize Lightroom’s panels by right-clicking and choosing "Customize Develop Panel" to hide tools you rarely use, keeping your interface clean and streamlined.

Mastering the Editing Process in Lightroom

1. Import Your Images

Start by importing your images into Lightroom. During import, you can add metadata, keywords, and copyright information to protect your work and make future searches easier. You can also choose to create Smart Previews, which allow you to edit images faster without needing the full-sized file. 

Below, see the image that I’ll be editing in this walk-through.

2. Basic Adjustments

The foundation of any edit begins with basic adjustments:

• Exposure: Adjust to correct overall brightness.
• Contrast: Adds depth to the image.
• Highlights and Shadows: Recover detail in bright and dark areas.
• Whites and Blacks: Set the dynamic range.
• Clarity: Adds mid tone contrast for a punchier look.

These basic tweaks create a balanced, polished appearance, setting the stage for more detailed edits.

Pro Tip: Use the ‘J’ key to toggle the clipping warning, which shows you where the image is too bright (highlighted in red) or too dark (highlighted in blue).

3. Cropping and Straightening

Perfect your composition using Lightroom’s Crop Overlay tool. Use the rule of thirds grid to align key elements. If your horizon is tilted, use the Straighten tool to correct it.

Pro Tip: Press the ‘R’ key to quickly enter the crop tool. Press ‘X’ while in crop mode to toggle between landscape and portrait orientation.

4. Color Correction and Enhancements

Color correction is vital for achieving a consistent look:

• White Balance: Adjust the Temperature and Tint sliders to control warmth or coolness. Presets like Daylight or Shade can be great starting points.
• Vibrance and Saturation: Enhance colors, but avoid over-saturation, which can make images look unnatural.
• HSL Panel: Adjust specific colors to keep skin tones and other elements looking natural.
• Tone Curve: A more advanced method to control colour rendition and contrast more accurately.

5. Fine-tuning, Masking, and Local Adjustments

Fine-tune your image with local adjustments using:

• Adjustment Brush: For precise control over specific areas.
• Radial Filter: Apply adjustments in circular or elliptical areas.
• Graduated Filter: For gradual changes over a linear area.

Use masking to ensure adjustments affect only targeted parts of the image.

Pro Tip: Use the ‘O’ key to toggle the mask overlay on and off, making it easier to see where adjustments are applied.

6. Sharpening and Noise Reduction

Enhance image quality with sharpening and noise reduction:

• Sharpening: Use the Detail panel to bring out fine details. The Masking slider can help protect areas that don’t need sharpening.
• Noise Reduction: Increase the Luminance slider to reduce grain, especially useful for low-light images.

Pro Tip: Hold the Alt key (Option on Mac) while adjusting the Masking slider to see which areas are being affected by sharpening.

7. Final Touches

Finish your edit with these final adjustments:

• Spot Removal Tool: Remove distractions or imperfections.
• Vignette: Add a subtle vignette to draw attention to the subject.
• Soft Proofing: If printing, check how the image will look using different color profiles.

Pro Tip: Use the ‘F’ key to view your image in full screen and spot any remaining issues.

Using Presets for Editing Photos

Lightroom presets are pre-defined editing settings that can be applied to your photos with a single click. 

They allow you to achieve a consistent look across multiple images quickly, saving you time during the editing process. Presets can adjust various elements, such as exposure, color balance, contrast, and more, to help you create a particular style or mood. You can create your own presets or use ones developed by other photographers. They act as a great starting point for more refined editing. 

Lightroom Presets vs. Aftershoot AI Styles

While Lightroom presets are a fantastic way to apply a consistent look to your photos, Aftershoot AI Styles take this a little further still. With Aftershoot, you can either create your own AI profile based on your editing style/preset or choose from a variety of styles available in the Aftershoot marketplace. By utilizing Aftershoot AI Styles, you can automatically apply edits that match your preferred look across your images, saving lots of time and effort.

Conclusion

Mastering photo editing in Adobe Lightroom is a powerful way to elevate your work and create stunning images. By following these steps, using smart workflow strategies, and integrating tools like Aftershoot, you can streamline your editing process while maintaining creative control. With practice and attention to detail, your edited photos will consistently impress, capturing the essence and emotion of each moment you shoot.

Pro Tip: Familiarize yourself with keyboard shortcuts to speed up your editing process. For example, press ‘D’ to jump to the Develop module, ‘G’ to return to the Library grid view, and ‘\’ to see a before and after view of your edits.