Shaping the Story: Controlling Light & Shadow with Lightroom

In this tutorial, we visit a quiet village tucked deep in the Sacred Valley of Peru and explore how a thoughtful series of masks in Lightroom can guide the viewer’s eye exactly where we want it. After the broad, global adjustments to set the tone, we use masks to incrementally refine the light — brightening the the village at the valley floor, downplaying the towering peaks to leverage natural framing, and subtly lifting the shadows in certain mountains to reveal more detail and sense of place.

Each mask builds on the last, and together they shape the mood and help tell the story of this hillside village. As I enable each mask, you’ll see how controlling the balance of light and shadow gives you control over the narrative – and how even a few small, carefully placed masks can dramatically enhance the storytelling power of a photo.