CHAPTER 2

If I had to give you one piece of advice in regard to your photography, it’s this: processing is as important as the capture of the image itself. You can shoot a wonderfully composed image with good detail, but it’s your job to process the image to get the most detail out of it.

Lightroom’s Develop module is deceptively simple. With just a few sliders, you can create some amazing work, provided you understand how each slider works. I want to give you a top-down strategy for how to use the individual sliders in as simple of terms as possible. You can definitely dive deeper if you want, but having an uncomplicated, proven strategy right out of the gate will enable you to make some amazing pictures quickly.

Lightroom’s Develop module will work on both RAW and JPG images, but you will definitely see better gains when you use a RAW file. With a JPG, most of the contrast, color, and sharpness has already been prebaked into the file, so any kind of overexposure or underexposure that you apply will be limited.

This does not mean a JPG file is inferior to a RAW file, though. If you’re happy with the quality of the contrast, tone, and sharpness that you’re getting out of the camera, then congratulations, a lot of your work is done. However, it’s still a good idea to go back and do a little clean up on those images. Let’s get started.