Clicking the little arrows in the top left and right of the histogram show where you’ve clipped highlights and shadows
Double clicking the name of any slider will bring you back to where it started
You can go Profile -> Enable profile corrections and it’ll adjust the photo based on your camera and lens
Highlights / Shadows
If you hold down “alt” while moving the highlights or shadow slider, it’ll show where they’re clipped. You can also do this on the exposure slider
Blacks / Whites
If you hold down “alt” while moving the blacks and whites slider, it’ll show where you’re clipping those too as you go. This makes it easy to know where to stop clipping
White Balance
Clicking the dropper then selecting what should be a neutral gray in the photo will adjust the white balance for you
Clarity
Most landscape photos look good with a little bit of clarity
DeHaze
Dehaze is GREAT for hazy landscape photos, but it’s hidden down in the “effects” area
Vibrance vs. Saturation
Vibrance will try to keep skin tones neutral and boost the colors more subtle, saturation will increase color strength everywhere
Contrast
If a photo looks a little “hazy” or “washed out” you can increase the contrast to bring back the detail
Gradients
If you have a bright spot in the photo where you don’t want the focus going, you can add a brightness gradient to shift the focus.
The gradient tool in the top right (tall rectangle) lets you add it to the photo and set the details.
You can also make a part of the image brighter if you want more focus going there
Tone Curve
You can try applying an “S curve” by pulling the top up and pushing the bottom down, or vice versa
Distracting Elements
Spot Healing Tool can be used to paint over distracting elements you want to get rid of. If it’s a high-detail area you may have to be more precise in how you paint over it, but you can play around with it till you get it.
This is good for getting rid of lens flare too
Color Flares on Edges
If you get a weird cyan, green, etc. flare around the edges when shooting into the sun, you can go to Lens Correction -> Color and use the tool to get rid of it
Enhancing Sun Flare
Make a radial filter (Circle in top right) around the sun area
You may need to click “invert mask” to make sure it applies within the radius instead of outside of it
Increase the exposure to bring out the sun
Increase the warmth to make it that nice yellow color
Be sure you bring out the blue in the sky too to provide the contrast
Bringing out the sky
You can add a gradient filter to the sky to bring it out without affecting the rest of your photo
You can also decrease the temperature in that gradient to bring out the sky more
You can also use the Dodge tool on the sky to highlight the clouds more
Bringing out specific elements
Use the “adjustment brush” (top right) to add detail to a selective part of the image
Cropping
Always make sure your horizon is level
Sensor Dust
If you see any sensor dust (darker circles in the photo) you can use the “spot removal” tool to heal them
Photoshop
Editing in Photoshop
Right click the photo, click open in Photoshop, then select to do it as a copy with Lightroom edits
Usually want to duplicate the background for editing, CMD+J
When you’re done and exit it, it should pop back into lightroom
Burn Tool (photoshop)
You can use the burn tool in photoshop with the range set to shadows, a low exposure (2-10%), large brush, and 0% hardness to bring out the shadows and contrast in your photos
Dodge Tool (photoshop)
Range: highlights, exposure: 2-5%, large brush and 0% hardness again
Patch Tool (photoshop)
Make another layer again, and then you can use the “patch” tool to cut out little objects you don’t want in your photo
If it’s not behaving the way you’d expect, try changing from “normal” to “content aware” and changing the structure