I was incredibly fortunate to receive a free copy of Adobe Lightroom at the BlogHer conference this summer and I’ve been working my way through it ever since.

Lightroom is similar to Photoshop but is more streamlined to work with only photographs. I thought I would show you some of the features I’ve learned how to use. Like Photoshop, trial and error is the way to go, but the idea is to take small steps to make small changes.

Let’s get started, shall we?


First, we start with the original photo, straight out of the camera, taken when bowling with friends.

I squatted down to skim along the surface of the bowling balls, lined up in the queue. The bowling alley was dimly lit, and this is what I ended up with…

I have it open in the Develop Screen, which is… the one I like to work with? I still haven’t figured out the difference between using Library and Develop, but I like the controls in Develop, so there you go.


First step is adjusting the white balance. I put it to auto just to see what happened and…this is what happened.

Oops. Too blue, isn’t it? Let’s try again and fiddle with the exposure, see if we can see a little more….

That’s much better, and more like the amount of light I remember.


Next, I go to Brightness and Contrast. I like things to be contrasty (that’s the technical term, ya know), and I think it could stand to be a tiny bit brighter. Boost the Contrast and a tiny nudge of Brightness and  we get…

…this. It’s like stepping through a veil, isn’t it? Light is bouncing about everywhere, creating shadows and bright spots.


Next I like to Sharpen, which in Lightroom is the Clarity Slider. Bump that up and we get…

…this. Neat, huh? You can see the texture in the bowling balls now and the lines of the ball return are sharper. 


The last slider I always use is Vibrance, which is similar to Saturation, but a little more subtle.

This last step makes the colors pop, both in the bowling balls and the walls in the background.

Small steps, small changes and the photo looks more like your memory.

So what do you think? Are you a Lightroom user? Photoshop loyal? Sound off!

Coming up, we’ll take a look at presets, finding free ones on the web, and how to make a watermark in Lightroom!

Bri is a student trying to balance her country girl upbringing with her urban girl life. You can follow her adventures and laugh with or at her @ Under the Arch, her home away from home.