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Editing Cheat Sheet: 10 Recipes for Editing in Lightroom

By Gayle Vehar on February 05, 2019 | No Comments

Lightroom Recipes

Lightroom Editing Recipes

Everyone loves a good before and after example, but sometimes, they can leave you wondering exactly how a certain edit was achieved using a particular preset.  In this blog post, I will dive a bit deeper into several edits and tell you exactly how I achieved my final image.

Of course, it is important to remember that presets can and will act differently on various images.  By that I mean, the quality, color, and direction of your light, the choices you make during exposure, and the true-to-life colors existing in your original image will all play a role in how a preset impacts your image.

However, this Lightroom editing tutorial will show you how presets, workflow sets, brushes, and filters can all be used to create beautiful, and easy, edits. 

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Lightroom Recipe #1

It is always good to start with a well-exposed image. On the top is the original, SOOC (straight out of camera) image.  The final edit was achieved with one preset and two brushes.

    • Starting Preset: Wildheart 01 from the The Wildheart Collection.
    • Increased the Exposure to +.35.
    • Finally, I used the Portrait - Skin Smooth Brush also from the Perfect Portrait Brushes over her face.  I also used Portrait - Eyes Whiten and Portrait - Teeth Whiten Yellow to whiten her eyes and teeth.

A quick beautiful edit using just a couple of clicks and presets!

Editing recipes for Lightroom Editing recipes for Lightroom

 

Lightroom Recipe #2

Here is another edit with the same image.  The steps for this edit are as follows:

    • Starting Preset: Wildheart 09 from the Wildheart Collection.
    • Next, I used the Portrait - Add Light from the Perfect Portrait Brushes just over her face.

Again, this edit took just a couple of seconds!

Black and White Lightroom Edit using the Wildheart preset collection Pretty Presets Recipes

 

Lightroom Recipe #3

This final edit of this image shows a warmer, moodier edit.  The steps for this edit are as follows:

    • Starting Preset: Reverie from the Dark and Moody Collection
    • To finish this image up, I used the Portrait - Add Light brush from the Perfect Portrait Brushes over the face just like in the last edit to keep the face the subject. I also added the Portrait - Add Warmth brush over the wedding dress to counteract some of the blue tones that appeared.

This edit took just a few seconds!

Editing Recipes for Lightroom Dark and Moody Lightroom edit

 

Lightroom Recipe #4

Here we have another well exposed, unedited image on the left with the final edit on the right.  For this edit, we went with a subtle pop of color. The steps for this edit are as follows:

    • Starting Preset: Salted 07 from the Salted Collection.
    • Next, I increased the exposure just a little bit (+.15).

From start to finish, this edit took about one minute (and most of that was picking the preset I wanted to use)!

 

Lightroom Recipe #5

Here is another variation on that same image, this time using a preset from the Light and Airy Millennium Collection as our base.  This edit gave us blue-toned greens with a slight bit of desaturation. The steps for this edit are as follows:

    • Starting Preset: Pearldust from the Light and Airy Millennium Collection.
    • Then I reduced the Amount slider above the Presets Panel to 89.

These two clicks took just a couple of seconds!

Pretty Preset Recipes

Lightroom Recipe #6

This next edit will take this image in a slightly different style.  Here I used the Dark and Moody Collection to create a clean, moody edit. 

The steps for this first edit are as follows:

    • Starting Preset: Fiji from the Dark and Moody Millennium Collection.
    • Next, I used the Portraits - Fix Casts Red brush from the Perfect Portrait Brushes over the shadow areas of the skin to reduce a little redness that popped up with the preset.

This was a very easy edit, taking less than a few minutes!

Recipes for Editing in Lightroom 

Lightroom Recipe #7

For our next edit, I went for a more bold, slightly matte edit.  The steps are as follows:

    • Starting Preset: I added South Beach from the from the Light and Airy Millennium Collection.
    • Next, I increased the exposure to +.50 since the images was slightly underexposed to begin with.
    • Finally, I added a few touches using the Perfect Portrait Brushes. I used the Portrait - Eyes Whiten over the whites of her eyes and the Portrait - Skin Smooth over her skin. 

This edit was finished in just a couple of minutes!

Edit Recipes for Lightroom Edit Recipes for Lightroom

 

Lightroom Recipe #8

For this next edit, I went with a warmer edit.  The steps are as follows:

    • Starting Preset: I added Wildheart 01 from the Wildheart Collection.
    • Next, I increased the exposure to +.50 since the image was slightly underexposed.
    • Finally, I added a few touches using the Perfect Portrait Brushes. I used the Portrait - Eyes Whiten over the whites of her eyes and the Portrait - Skin Smooth over her skin. 

This edit was super quick - just a couple of minutes!

Lightroom Recipes for Pretty Presets Lightroom Recipes for Pretty Presets

 

Lightroom Recipe #9

This next edit was created using the Clean Edit Portrait Workflow. This collection was created specifically to allow you to layer presets together to create a custom edit. I am starting this edit with a well-exposed base image.  These are the steps for the edit.

    • Starting Preset: Base 2 | Rich Color from the Clean Edit Portrait Workflow.
    • Next, I added Curve 6 | Deep Matte and Split Tone | All Warm all from the following sections in the Clean Edit Portrait Workflow. 
    • Finally, I adjusted the white balance slightly warmer and decreased the highlights to recover a bit more of the color in her dress.

This edit took under two minutes!

Lightroom Recipes Lightroom Recipes

 

Lightroom Recipe #10

This edit was also created with the Clean Edit Portrait Workflow. This collection allows for endless combinations and completely custom edits.

    • Starting Preset: Pretty Mixer | Fav 5 from Clean Edit Portrait Workflow.  
    • Finally, then I used a couple of brushes included in this collection: PRETTY | Eye and Teeth Whitener on the whites of the eyes and PRETTY | Skin Smoother over the face—not including the eyes, nose or mouth. 

This was an incredibly quick edit!

Recipes for Lightroom Recipes for Lightroom

 

I hope this blog post gives a better understanding and a more in-depth look at how I use the various Lightroom Presets and Brushes from Pretty Presets to create gorgeous, polished images.

Do you have any questions or comments about my 10 Lightroom Editing Recipes?  Leave us a comment below - We would LOVE to hear from you, And PLEASE SHARE our post using the social sharing buttons (we really appreciate it)!

Wildheart Lightroom Presets

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Pretty Presets for Lightroom author Gayle Vehar

Gayle Vehar

Lightroom Instructor

Hi!! I am Gayle. I am a wife to my handsome husband and mom to 4 beautiful kids. In my spare time, I am a photographer and blogger at Mom and Camera. I have a passion for sharing my love of photography with others. I teach local photography classes and regularly share photography tips and tricks on my blog. I hang out there a lot—I’d love you to stop by and visit!

February 05, 2019

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