Lightroom is a powerful and versatile program that has many features. With some practice and knowledge, you can create professional images of the city streets, nightscapes, and night skies. This article will discuss several techniques that you can use to edit your night photos using Lightroom. Assuming you are familiar with Lightroom, I will begin with that assumption. You’re familiar with the Library, Develop, and Basic Panel modules. Check out our Adobe Lightroom Tutorial if that is different or if it’s something you would like to review.
Start by choosing a Lens Profile.
Lightroom makes it easy to enable profile correction. It is a great starting point for achieving the best colors and sharpness. The camera and lens profile are specific to the lens and camera used to capture an image.
Lightroom: White Balance Adjustment
Evening images can be complex. Colors can be affected by conditions such as light pollution, twilight, and the moon’s light.
The WB Temp and Tint slides are at the top of the primary panel. The Temp is moved to the left for a cooler temperature. You can move it to the left to get a more relaxed tone. You can fine-tune the Tint to get the perfect White Balance.
Adjust contrast and exposure.
Adjust the White slider in the Basic panel to restore the detail in the highlights. This will prevent clipping of the bright areas. Set the Black slider to the appropriate level to get the best piece from the shadows.
You can also fine-tune the Exposure and Contrast slides to achieve a vibrant and bold image. Next, adjust the Shades and Highlights to enhance the dark areas further. Please don’t overdo it with the adjustments, or you will have a washed-out or too-dark result.
Customize hue, saturation, and Luminance.
Move the HSL Panel after making adjustments to the Basic Panel. Eight color sliders are available in this section to control Hue and Saturation. These sliders also influence Luminance. If you’re working on a photo of the Milky Way galaxy, try experimenting with the Magenta, Blue, and saturation. You can use Yellow or Red sliders for a natural, complementary look.
Sharpening the image in the Detail Panel
Zoom in at least 100% to see the edges of the image.
The Amount slide sets the amount of sharpening. Zero indicates no sharpening. Sharpening images with lower values will result in cleaner images. So don’t go too far.
Radius is used to determine the size of edges that are sharpened. Images with fine details require a lower setting.
Detail allows you to adjust the way sharpening affects edges. Lower settings reduce blurring. Higher values enhance the texture of the image.
Masking Slider: At 0, sharpening is uniform throughout the image. Sharpening will be restricted to more substantial edges as the number increases.
Reduce noise in the Detail Panel.
The Luminance slide reduces luminance noise. This slider is used to reduce noise.
Detail Sets the noise threshold. Primarily used for images with high noise levels. The higher values keep the point but produce a noisier image. Lower settings make images that are cleaner but without some detail.
The Contrast slide is best for noisy photos. The higher the setting, the more contrast you will get. However, it may also result in noisy areas. Lower values result in a more smoothed-out image.
Color reduces noise in color. Avoid pushing it too hard because it could remove the color you’d like to keep.
Details define the threshold for color noise. High settings can maintain thin edges but may also leave color blotches. Lower values remove the marks but can result in color bleeding.
Remove Chromatic Aberration
This distortion appears as a border of color around the edges of objects with high contrast.
The Lens correction panel can be found directly below the Details panel. Set this panel to manual to adjust the Amount slides to reduce the purple and green aberration.
Adjust the Purple Hue slider and Green Hue to reduce the anomaly further. You can move the endpoints to change the color range.
You can also reduce Vignetting in this panel. You can also increase it if you want to.
You can make fine adjustments to your presence.
Presence settings can be found at the bottom of Basic.
The texture slider can enhance and diminish a photo’s medium-sized details without affecting finer details.
The Clarity slide controls the contrast between the edges of mid-tones. This setting increases the sharpness of an image. Decrease it to soften the image.
The Dehaze slide affects atmospheric elements such as fog or haze, which reduce contrast and obscure details. Slide this slider to the left to decrease the confusion. You can also add moodiness to your photos by moving the slider left.
The Vibrance slide can be used to increase the saturation of an image. This adjustment will preserve colors that have already been saturated and boost colors that need it.