Welcome to The Creative Circle, my friends! My blog where I share everything I’ve learned about photography, editing, and turning creativity into a passion-filled journey. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your skills, this space is for you.
If you haven’t already, you can still join my Creative Circle Letter for free here:
- I’ll be sharing exclusive tips, secret tricks, and behind-the-scenes stories.
- You’ll also get insights into how I turned my passion into a career.
- There might even be free gifts along the way—stay tuned!
Stick around until the end of this post because I’ve got a little surprise waiting for you. Trust me, you won’t want to miss it!
Step-by-Step Lightroom Editing Guide
Here’s the exact workflow I used to create the stunning transformation above:
Step 1: Apply the Off the Grid Preset
Every great edit starts with a solid foundation. For this photo, I used my Off the Grid preset—perfect for cinematic vibes with warm, rich tones and an added dreamy feel.
Presets are a great way to jumpstart your edits, giving you a cohesive look while saving time. Off the Grid not only balances tones beautifully but also introduces a soft, atmospheric quality that enhances the mood of your images. From here, you can make adjustments to fit your unique style.
Step 2: Adjust Basic Settings
Once the preset is applied, it’s time to fine-tune your image. Here’s what I did:
Exposure & Contrast: Adjust these to ensure your image isn’t too dark or too bright. For this edit, I slightly brightened the exposure to make the fox pop and added subtle contrast for depth.
White Balance: Adjusting temperature and tint is one of the most powerful ways to create mood in your photos. I warmed the image slightly to enhance the natural tones of the fox and the grass.
Whites & Blacks: Lifting the blacks and shadows while bringing down the whites and highlights creates a balanced look with better dynamic range. It’s a subtle yet powerful way to make details stand out.
Clarity: Personally, I love reducing clarity slightly (between -10 and -30) for a softer, dreamier look. This complements the Off the Grid preset perfectly by adding to the atmospheric feel. If you’re after even more of this dreamy effect, check out the Orton Effect in Photoshop—I'll be sharing more on this soon in my Creative Circle Letter (join here).
Vibrance & Saturation: Vibrance boosts muted tones without oversaturating already bright colors, while saturation affects all colors equally. I often increase vibrance slightly while keeping saturation low to maintain a natural look.
Step 3: Work with Tone Curves and HSL Sliders
Tone curves and HSL sliders are where the magic happens when it comes to fine-tuning your image’s colors and tones. Together, they give you the tools to create depth, mood, and artistic flair in your edits.
Tone Curves allow you to control brightness and color in specific areas of the image, like shadows, midtones, and highlights:
- The Red Curve: Adjusting reds can warm up highlights (perfect for sunsets) or add a cozy, dramatic feel to shadows.
- The Green Curve: Boosting greens in the midtones enhances foliage and grass naturally without oversaturation.
- The Blue Curve: Adding blues to shadows creates a cool, moody look, while reducing blues in highlights gives a vintage or cinematic feel.
For this edit, I focused on creating a balanced and cinematic look by adjusting the overall tone curve. However, experimenting with the RGB tone curves can take your edits to the next level by letting you refine specific color tones.
HSL Sliders (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) let you target individual colors to make your image pop. For this edit:
- I adjusted yellows to make the grass greener and richer.
- Desaturated the greens slightly for a cinematic tone, keeping the focus on the fox.
- Tweaked the oranges to subtly enhance the fox’s coat without oversaturation.
- Reduced the blues and shifted them towards a more greenish tone for that signature cinematic vibe.
Experimenting with tone curves and HSL sliders together gives you precise control over your colors and tones, letting you craft an image that’s uniquely yours.
Step 5: Use the Calibration Tool
The calibration tool is often overlooked, but it’s incredibly powerful for color grading. For this edit:
- Adjusted the Red Primary hue to add warmth and richness to the fox’s fur.
- Tweaked the Green Primary to make the grass look more balanced and natural.
- Shifted the Blue Primary to harmonize the tones across the image.
Why use calibration? It lets you bring out colors that might not be visible initially and helps you create a polished, balanced look. This tool is perfect for achieving a cinematic style.
Step 6: Add the Final Touches
Masking is one of the most powerful tools in Lightroom and an essential part of my editing workflow. It allows you to isolate specific areas of an image and apply adjustments only to those areas. This precision is what takes your edits from good to stunning, helping guide the viewer’s eye exactly where you want it to go.
For this fox photo, I used several masks to refine the mood and details. Let’s break them down:
Mask 1: Haze at the Top
This mask applies a soft haze to the top of the image. By slightly increasing the exposure, it creates a dreamy, cinematic atmosphere while subtly framing the subject.
Why it’s important: Enhancing the top area draws the viewer’s eye toward the center and adds a natural glow that balances the overall composition.
Mask 2: Darkening the Ground
This mask darkens the foreground of the image by lowering the exposure. It adds depth to the scene and directs attention toward the subject by minimizing distractions.
Why it’s important: A darker foreground naturally anchors the composition and helps the subject stand out.
Mask 3: Enhancing the Eyes
This precise mask targets the fox’s eyes, enhancing their brightness and adding warmth to make them pop. The subtle adjustments bring life and emotion to the photo.
Why it’s important: Brightening the eyes connects the viewer to the subject, making the image feel more alive and engaging.
Mask 4: Highlighting the Subject (Fox)
This mask isolates the fox as the main subject, increasing exposure to add dimension. It ensures the fox stands out beautifully against the background.
Why it’s important: Highlighting the subject establishes a clear focal point, guiding the viewer’s attention.
Mask 5: Haze on the Right (Top)
This linear gradient mask adds a haze to the upper-right portion of the image.
Why it’s important: A haze enhances the atmosphere, creating depth and a more cinematic mood.
Mask 6: Enhancing the Fox’s Face
This mask focuses on the fox’s face, subtly adjusting exposure and color to emphasize its natural features. It’s a final touch that draws attention to the fox’s unique details.
Why it’s important: A refined subject ensures that the photo’s focal point is striking and visually pleasing.
Finally, I added a touch of grain for texture and a subtle vignette to frame the subject.
Before-and-After Transformations
Here are a few other edits that show the power of a consistent workflow:
Closing Thoughts (+surprise)
Editing isn’t about perfection; it’s about experimenting, learning, and finding your unique style. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that small steps lead to big results.
You’ve got everything you need to start—pick up your camera, head out, and see what you can create.
Since this is the start of my Creative Circle blog and email community, I’ve decided to make a cool discount on my All-In-One Preset Pack. If you’re interested, they’re $10 off for the next 7 days using the code WELCOME10. Get them here.
No pressure—it’s just there if you’d like to give it a try.
Join the Creative Circle Letter
Want more tips, tricks, and behind-the-scenes stories? Join my Creative Circle Letter for free here.
I’d also love to see your results—share your edits with me by replying to my emails or tagging me on Instagram (@watchdamien).
Let’s create something amazing,
Damien