HDR editing in Lightroom opens up a broader range of light to work with, especially in the brightest tones. But once the editing is done, there’s one more step that matters just as much — export.
Because if the export isn’t handled correctly, all that extra dynamic range never makes it beyond Lightroom.
In this tutorial, I walk through the Export panel and focus on the two decisions that determine how your HDR image will be seen: file format and where the image will be displayed. Lightroom gives you several options — JPEG, JPEG XL, and AVIF — and each comes with different levels of HDR support depending on the platform or application.
The good news is that many modern web browsers are ready for HDR content, and some platforms are catching up as well. Others are still limited. If you’re publishing to your own website, it’s worth taking a moment to confirm what your provider supports before choosing a format.
Enabling HDR output itself is straightforward — just check the box. The real question is choosing a format that matches your intended use so your image displays the way you expect.
This video breaks it down in practical terms so you can move from edit to export with confidence — and make sure the light you worked to bring out is actually what your audience sees.
Duck Creek Lake, Utah
Contact Scott to commission a print or license this image.
Keywording can make photographs easier to find, but it can also become an endless exercise in describing everything visible in every frame. You can keep the work manageable by asking one question: could Lightroom already find this photograph without the keyword?
The most useful keywords add information you cannot recover from capture data, ratings, location fields, or other existing metadata. That may be a subject, a familiar place name, a mood, a dominant color, or another idea you expect to search for later. The goal isn't to build the largest vocabulary possible. It is to add metadata that earns its keep.
Right after a shoot, you know where you made the photographs. A few years later, that may not be nearly as obvious. Adding location information while the shoot is still fresh gives you another durable way to find photographs and understand where they were made.
You don't need to type city, state, and country into every photograph. If the camera records GPS coordinates, much of the work is already done. A GPX track log or, when necessary, Lightroom Classic's Map module provides other ways to add the location. The goal isn't exhaustive geographic metadata. It's enough useful information that you won't have to reconstruct it later.
A group of photographs can belong together without every frame needing equal space in Lightroom Classic. Several variations of the same composition, panorama segments, exposure brackets, or a rapid burst can quickly fill Grid view with photographs you don't need to see individually all the time.
Stacks keep those related photographs together while letting one useful photograph represent the group. I use them so the other photographs remain available when I need them without adding unnecessary visual clutter to my catalog.
Lightroom Classic gives you five stars for rating photographs, but those stars aren't very useful if their meanings change from one shoot to another. A consistent system lets you know what a three-star or four-star photograph means without rethinking the definitions every time you rate a new group of photos.
My rating system ranges from photographs I keep primarily for sentimental reasons to photographs I consider strong enough to print. You don't need to use the same definitions I do. The important part is giving your ratings stable meanings you can apply consistently over time.
Lightroom Classic's Import dialog asks many of the same questions every time you bring in photos. Rather than rebuilding those settings for every import, you can save the choices that stay consistent in an import preset.
The preset doesn't eliminate the decisions that change from shoot to shoot. It gives you a reliable starting point, so you can concentrate on the source, destination, and other details that actually need your attention.
Lightroom Classic's Import dialog presents plenty of choices, but one of the most important decisions is straightforward: where are your photos now, and where do you want the original files to live after the import?
Copy, Move, and Add each handle the original files differently. Once you understand what happens to the physical files and what happens in the Lightroom catalog, choosing the right import method becomes much easier.
A complicated subject can take a little work to mask well. Once you've made that selection, what else can you do with it? Quite a bit, especially when you want to give your subject more separation from a busy background.
Using a mossy tree as an example, I explain how Lightroom's Duplicate and Invert lets you build several adjustments from one refined mask. You can shape the background and guide the eye while protecting the light on your foreground subject.
A photo workflow can fall apart when you cannot tell what has been finished and what still needs attention. That becomes especially frustrating when photographs from the same shoot are at different stages.
My six-step Lightroom Classic workflow uses color labels to give every photograph a clear next action. Whether a photo needs rating, location information, keywords, developing, or sharing, I can see where I left off and continue without retracing my steps.
A regular Collection lets you choose which photographs you want to see together. A Smart Collection works differently. You describe the photographs using criteria such as ratings, keywords, location information, or camera metadata, and Lightroom Classic gathers the photographs that match.
The real advantage is that the group isn't static. As photographs enter the catalog or their metadata changes, they can automatically appear in or disappear from a Smart Collection. The rules keep working as the catalog changes.
A useful keyword hierarchy connects specific details to broader ideas. When you apply a keyword for a specific location, a particular lighthouse, or a birthday celebration, Lightroom Classic can also associate the photograph with the broader places, subjects, or events that contain it.
Synonyms extend that efficiency by connecting one keyword to alternate names, related terms, or other languages. A hierarchy can give you broader and narrower ways to search your own library. I use synonyms primarily to help other people and search engines find exported photographs without requiring me to enter every variation separately.