How to Use the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom

A Post By: Darren Rowse

0Comments

In this video tutorial Trevor Dayley gives a few quick and helpful tips on using the Adjustment brush in Lightroom. If you’re new to Lightroom this is a great place to start to get a little more creative control. Enjoy!

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Darren Rowse is the editor and founder of Digital Photography School and SnapnDeals. He lives in Melbourne Australia and is also the editor of the ProBlogger Blog Tips. Follow him on Instagram, on Twitter at @digitalPS or on Google+.

  • Great video, thanks !

    I’m still struggling to understand why we don’t use ~100% flow to the brush and then modify the exposure slider.
    The effect should be the same, plus when you click on the dot of the adjustment brush on the image, you can directly slide it to increase the exposure.

  • Photondulator

    Well, I guess he doesn’t want all the area he peints to be very bright. He prefers to completely control the shadows and higlights. It may be very important if just increasing the exposure would make it look “fake” because of the non-realistic lightning. But surely there are other ways of doing that.

  • Awesome! Thank you!

    I’m a Car Photographer for http://CustomPinoyRides.com

    I must admit that in one type of photography that I do, motorsports, that is, “spray and pray” on the shutter is considered a best practice because with the intensity of the action, the special moments happen in a snap, and can never repeat themselves.

    So when editing photos, there are times when you get to capture an ideal moment, but not with the ideal lighting conditions. That’s when I find the best use of Lightroom and its adjustment brush. I can target specific areas of certain photos and control the shadows and highlights to create ideal lighting conditions to turn ordinary captured moments into stunning images.

    While I agree that there may be other ways of doing that, especially using Photoshop, but I’ve found Lightroom to be faster when editing hundreds of photos at a time. Though I use Photoshop for those one or two special photos which we use as header or cover photos for articles.

    Just my two cents.

  • Awesome video. Can’t wait to try these techniques!

  • sarah

    This was so.helpful. Thank you so much!

  • Ashley

    How do you change your adjustment brush to “Custom”? Mine doesn’t have that option in the drop down menu… I’m very confused, because my adjustment brush hasn’t been working. It just doesn’t do anything at all.

  • KroEshi

    select any brush preset from the adjustment brush menu and then alter a value and you’ll the preset name change to custom 🙂

  • Anne

    I’m sorry, but he goes so fast, I can’t keep up. I’m a newbie. And, there was something he said to push on pc but I couldn’t understand him. Thanks

  • MartinHughHarvey

    Really well done thanks.

Some Older Comments

  • Penny Sadler July 12, 2013 01:09 am

    Awesome video. Can't wait to try these techniques!

  • THE aSTIG @ CustomPinoyRides.com July 10, 2013 11:37 pm

    Awesome! Thank you!

    I'm a Car Photographer for http://CustomPinoyRides.com

    I must admit that in one type of photography that I do, motorsports, that is, "spray and pray" on the shutter is considered a best practice because with the intensity of the action, the special moments happen in a snap, and can never repeat themselves.

    So when editing photos, there are times when you get to capture an ideal moment, but not with the ideal lighting conditions. That's when I find the best use of Lightroom and its adjustment brush. I can target specific areas of certain photos and control the shadows and highlights to create ideal lighting conditions to turn ordinary captured moments into stunning images.

    While I agree that there may be other ways of doing that, especially using Photoshop, but I've found Lightroom to be faster when editing hundreds of photos at a time. Though I use Photoshop for those one or two special photos which we use as header or cover photos for articles.

    Just my two cents.

  • Photondulator July 8, 2013 04:53 am

    Well, I guess he doesn't want all the area he peints to be very bright. He prefers to completely control the shadows and higlights. It may be very important if just increasing the exposure would make it look "fake" because of the non-realistic lightning. But surely there are other ways of doing that.

  • Yohann July 8, 2013 04:09 am

    Great video, thanks !

    I'm still struggling to understand why we don't use ~100% flow to the brush and then modify the exposure slider.
    The effect should be the same, plus when you click on the dot of the adjustment brush on the image, you can directly slide it to increase the exposure.

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