Control The Light, Own The Narrative
When you take command of light in your edits, you take command of the story your image tells. In this tutorial, I review a sequence of Lightroom adjustments to control tone, shape contrast to a blue-hour skyline and bridge scene from Portland, Oregon to better guide the viewer’s eye. The “before” version has tremendous potential — inky blues in the sky, deep shadows under the bridge, and scattered highlights in the skyline reflecting across the water — but the visual story can be stronger.
Using targeted local adjustments to refine the light and shadow, crafting the real structure of the scene. A few carefully-placed masks accentuate key elements in the composition, with balanced counterparts to downplay the sky and water. One of my favorite finishing tweaks is adding a little pop to the amber light playing about the bridge supports.
It’s all about taking control of the light — because when you control the light, you control the narrative. Watch for my new video course that’s all about understanding light and shadow and how the tools in Lightroom empower you to craft stronger images.
Blue Hour, Portland, Oregon
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Sometimes you commit to a landscape composition, but the moving elements never come together perfectly in a single frame. The best wave might be in one photo, while another has better texture or movement elsewhere in the scene.
In this video, I’ll show you how I selected three seascape photos and blended their strongest elements using simple layers and masks in Photoshop. The masking is straightforward, and the same idea works in any editing software that supports layers.