Lightroom editing, color grading & visual storytelling

Video Tutorials

Fake Warmth, Real Results: What Matt Kloskowski's Photo Makeover Taught Me About Saving a Flat Shot

There’s a specific kind of photo that shows up in my editing queue more than any other: technically fine, emotionally flat. Good composition, bad light, shot at the wrong time of day. The kind of image where you know something is there but the raw file just doesn’t show it yet. For years I’d muscle through these with heavy-handed contrast moves that never quite worked. Then I started paying closer attention to how editors like Matt Kloskowski approach the problem, and it shifted the way I think about the entire process.

July 12, 2026

Video Tutorials

The Sun Glow Trick Lightroom Pros Don't Talk About (But Definitely Use)

There’s a specific kind of frustration that comes from looking at a landscape photo and knowing something is off, but not being able to name it. I ran into this constantly early on, editing press shots for my band because nobody else was going to do it. The sun in a shot would look harsh and stamped-on, like someone pasted a bright circle onto the sky rather than actually photographing one.

July 12, 2026

Video Tutorials

Lightroom's Book Module Just Got a Lot Less Annoying — Here's What's New

Photo books have always been one of those Lightroom features I wanted to love but kept abandoning halfway through. The cell-based layout system felt like it was designed by someone who had never actually tried to build a visually interesting spread under deadline pressure. I’d drag a cell, watch it snap somewhere useless, try to nudge it, and eventually just export everything to InDesign and move on with my life.

July 12, 2026

Video Tutorials

The Mobile-to-Desktop Lightroom Workflow That Actually Works for Travel Photographers

There is one workflow problem that used to wreck me every time I came home from a trip. My phone camera roll is a disaster of food photos, screenshots, and actual keepers all jumbled together. My Sony files are sitting on a card. And somewhere between those two worlds is a batch of photos I genuinely care about, waiting to get lost or forgotten. For a while my solution was “deal with it later,” which, as any photographer knows, is code for “never deal with it.

July 11, 2026

Video Tutorials

How to Fake a 35mm Film Look in Lightroom Using a Masked Gradient (Peter McKinnon's Best Trick)

There’s a specific problem I kept running into with digital photos that were supposed to feel vintage. I’d pile on the grain, drop the contrast, pull back the clarity, and the result still looked like a digital photo wearing a Halloween costume. Something was off. The scene felt sharp in a way that film never is, too evenly exposed, too present. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to figure out what was missing, and honestly, the answer was sitting in a Lightroom panel I was already using for other things.

July 11, 2026

Video Tutorials

Fix a Flat, Boring Photo in Lightroom: Scott Kelby's Intermediate Workflow, Step by Step

There’s a specific kind of photo I used to dread editing. Not a disaster shot, not a total throwaway, but the mediocre middle-ground image. Flat light, a blown highlight somewhere it shouldn’t be, colors that look like they were processed through a wet sock. The kind of file where you open it in Lightroom, stare at it for thirty seconds, and then go make coffee instead. I’ve got a whole folder of those from the early years, back when I was editing press photos for my band because nobody else was going to do it.

July 11, 2026