Editing Cheat Sheet: 10 Recipes for Editing in Lightroom

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. 

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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 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 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!

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)!