Video Tutorials

LUTs Explained: How to Color Grade Your Videos the Peter McKinnon Way
Video Tutorials

LUTs Explained: How to Color Grade Your Videos the Peter McKinnon Way

Every editor I know has a folder somewhere called something like “finals_FINAL_v3” and inside it, footage that looks technically fine but emotionally flat. Sharp, exposed correctly, maybe even well-composed. And yet it feels like a screenshot instead of a frame. That gap between “recorded” and “cinematic” is exactly what LUTs are designed to close, and it’s something I think about constantly, even though my main home is in Lightroom editing stills.

White Snow, Warm Mess: 7 Lightroom Fixes That Actually Work on Winter Photos
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White Snow, Warm Mess: 7 Lightroom Fixes That Actually Work on Winter Photos

Every January I open a folder of winter shots and think the same thing: why does my snow look like a gas station slushie? Sometimes it’s blue from a clear sky acting as a giant overhead reflector. Sometimes it’s that flat, greenish-gray you get from overcast light. Either way, the camera captured it faithfully and Lightroom handed me a problem to solve. Winter editing isn’t hard in the way that, say, compositing is hard.

How to Merge HDR Photos in Lightroom (Without Making It Look Like a Nightmare)
Video Tutorials

How to Merge HDR Photos in Lightroom (Without Making It Look Like a Nightmare)

There’s a specific kind of frustration that hits when you’re standing in front of a stunning landscape, you nail the composition, you fire the shutter, and then you open the file later and half the image is either blown out or buried in shadow. Your eyes handled the scene beautifully. Your camera did not. This is the dynamic range problem, and it’s one of the most common reasons a photo that felt incredible in the field ends up looking flat or broken on screen.

From Flat RAW to Film-Style Masterpiece: Using Lightroom and Photoshop Together the Right Way
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From Flat RAW to Film-Style Masterpiece: Using Lightroom and Photoshop Together the Right Way

Every time I open a fresh RAW file, I’m reminded of the same uncomfortable truth: the camera lies. Not in a dramatic way, but in a flat, uninspiring, “did I even take this correctly?” kind of way. RAW files are intentionally unprocessed, and that blank-slate quality is either your best friend or your worst enemy depending on whether you have a clear workflow to get from capture to finished image. For years, I treated Lightroom and Photoshop as two separate tools I’d open at different times for different jobs.

The Alt/Option Key Tricks in Lightroom That Changed How I Edit Every Photo
Video Tutorials

The Alt/Option Key Tricks in Lightroom That Changed How I Edit Every Photo

There’s a specific kind of frustration that comes from spending twenty minutes dialing in the tone of a photo, getting the shadows exactly right, nailing the contrast, and then realizing you also need to reset just the clarity and texture sliders because you went a little heavy-handed. The Reset button in Lightroom wipes everything. You’re starting over. For a long time, I was clicking through my History panel like it was a time machine, trying to claw back a specific moment in the edit.

How to Fix Converging Verticals in Lightroom Using Guided Upright (And Actually Control the Result)
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How to Fix Converging Verticals in Lightroom Using Guided Upright (And Actually Control the Result)

Shooting architecture while traveling is one of those things that looks easy until you get home and open Lightroom. You tilted the camera up to fit the building in the frame, and now every vertical line is falling inward like the walls are slowly closing in. The automatic Upright options in Lens Corrections do an okay job, but they’ve always felt like a negotiation you’re losing. Lightroom picks the reference points, and you just hope it chose wisely.

Bridge Meets Lightroom: What Actually Happens When Your Workflows Collide
Video Tutorials

Bridge Meets Lightroom: What Actually Happens When Your Workflows Collide

There’s a particular kind of panic that hits when you realize you’ve been editing photos in two different programs and you have no idea which one is “winning.” I’ve been there. You’re browsing a folder in Adobe Bridge, you make a quick tweak in Camera Raw, and then you open Lightroom and stare at the screen wondering why nothing looks right. It’s not a fun place to be, especially mid-deadline.

Adobe Finally Did It: Adaptive Presets, AI Noise Reduction, and Preset Intensity Are Here
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Adobe Finally Did It: Adaptive Presets, AI Noise Reduction, and Preset Intensity Are Here

Every few months, Adobe drops an update and I spend an embarrassing amount of time testing it before I actually sit down to edit anything. This latest round of changes to both Lightroom and Lightroom Classic is different, though. These are not UI tweaks or subscription upsells dressed up as features. These are tools that solve problems I run into on real editing sessions, the kind where I’m trying to separate a subject from a background without spending twenty minutes painting masks by hand.

Lightroom Classic 10.3: The June 2021 Update Features You Actually Need to Know
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Lightroom Classic 10.3: The June 2021 Update Features You Actually Need to Know

Every few months Adobe drops a Lightroom Classic update and I do the same thing: skim the release notes, feel mildly confused, and then go looking for someone who actually tested the new features in a real workflow. For the June 2021 update, version 10.3, that someone was Matt Kloskowski. His breakdown cuts straight to what changed and why it matters, which is exactly the kind of tutorial I can actually use between sessions.

The Lightroom Mobile Camera Is Actually Good Now (Here's What Changed)
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The Lightroom Mobile Camera Is Actually Good Now (Here's What Changed)

I’ll be honest with you: for a long time I treated the Lightroom Mobile camera like that bonus disc that comes with a box set. Technically included, but never actually used. My default camera app got the shot, Lightroom did the editing, and that was the whole pipeline. Then I started noticing the RAW files I was working with from my phone felt limited in a way that had nothing to do with my editing.

Black & White Processing in Lightroom: How to Make Moody, High-Contrast Edits That Actually Hold Up
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Black & White Processing in Lightroom: How to Make Moody, High-Contrast Edits That Actually Hold Up

There’s a specific kind of photo that color ruins. You’ve got strong light, deep shadows, a subject with real presence, and the moment you look at it in color, it just… deflates. The tones fight each other, the sky goes muddy orange, and any grit you felt on location disappears into a sea of competing hues. I’ve been there more times than I want to admit, usually staring at a RAW file at midnight wondering why a shot that looked incredible in person looks like a stock photo from 2009.

Adobe's AI Denoise Tool Put to the Ultimate Test: An ISO 12800 Aurora Shot
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Adobe's AI Denoise Tool Put to the Ultimate Test: An ISO 12800 Aurora Shot

There’s a specific kind of dread that hits when you open a raw file the morning after a shoot and realize you were working at ISO 12,800 in near-total darkness. I know that feeling well. It’s the same feeling I had the first time I edited press shots for my band under a single kitchen light with a copy of Lightroom I barely understood. High ISO noise isn’t just an aesthetic problem.