Tutorial: How to retouch an urban photo with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom?

Since the last update, following the Adobe Max 2021 conference, Lightroom has been enriched with very advanced tools such as Adobe Sensei, a AI which automatically detects and selects the subject or sky in your photo. And as always, you have the option of importing presets (presets) from other renowned photographers or saving your own for use on other shots.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is truly a must have software for photographers looking for quality, precision and performance. Note also that you can benefit from 40% off all Adobe Creative Cloud software and in particular Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Editing urban photos is the foundation for learning to master Lightroom, as it not only allows you to use the basic settings, but also to use the sky mask or linear gradient depending on the composition of your photo. Changes of colors harmonious, sharpness improvement and noise reduction will also be applied if your urban photo is, as in our example, taken during a sunset. Sun.

Now let’s practice!

How to edit an urban photo with Lightroom?

Start by opening your photo in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and making basic adjustments in the menu Lights namely: increase the contrast and the shadows, lower the highlights, increase the whites and very slightly the exposure and add a little black. The photo has already gained in depth and contrast with these few adjustments.

Then go to the Effects settings to increase clarity to bring out some bright details and avoid falling into the trap of the too dark photo that lacks detail.

Small interesting detail in Lightroom, the symbol of a small eye appears when parameters have been modified in the various settings menus. This makes it possible to remember the elements already treated and to return to them more quickly.

Now that these basic adjustments are complete and the base for our photo is ready, let’s move on to color processing. Our photo has a rather bluish cast and a little yellow should be added. To do this, go to the Color menu and use the Color tool Grading. We could have used the tool Mixer colors and target yellow tints to accentuate them or blues to reduce them, but the Color Grading tool is more interesting and faster in this case. In the first color wheel that corresponds to the midtones, slide towards the yellow and green hues to decrease the blues. You can also play with the shadow color wheel. But always stay in the nuance and lightness.

Then let’s move on to work on the sky which is well loaded, as we like them. There are details of clouds to highlight here. In our photo where the sky is very well defined with the horizon line, you have the choice between creating a sky mask or creating a linear gradient. Everyone has their own little habits. Me, I’m going to use a sky mask for this photo.

Note that the sky turns red, but this is only to show you the area of ​​selection recognized as being sky. When you change the settings on the right, the colors will return to “normal”.

We will be able to increase the texture, to accentuate the details of the clouds, and lower the highlights so as not to “burn” our sunset. You can also lower the exposure a bit and increase the clarity.

I now want to darken the lower part of my photo so that the eye is drawn to the center of the photo and the sunset. For that, I’m going to create a new radial gradient mask and, so that my selection isn’t in the circle, I’m going to invert my gradient.

So as not to create too sharp an outline, I’m going to increase the feather slider so that my intermediate gradient area is wider and therefore the changes are more diffuse. You have the choice between using the cursor in the right column or the materialization of the circle, or both to be even more precise.

Now darken your selection slightly by lowering the highlights and whites, but increasing the shadows a bit to keep the detail in that area.

With all of our treatments, we brought out the noise in the photo. To correct this, exit the masks panel to reopen the basic settings panel. Unfold the Detail menu and increase the Noise reduction slider, but not too much so as not to blur the photo.

Of course, this tutorial is here to teach you how to use Lightroom and not just train you on the specific theme of urban photography. Then it’s all about style and taste. Do not hesitate to follow other tutorials to learn how to master Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and sharpen your artistic talent for photo editing. And if you are not yet lucky enough to have this software, take advantage of the 40% discount on the entire Creative Cloud range, you will not regret it !

Article written in partnership with Adobe