Camera Calibration

The Fill Light Slider Isn't Gone — You Just Have to Know Where Lightroom Hid It
Video Tutorials

The Fill Light Slider Isn't Gone — You Just Have to Know Where Lightroom Hid It

Every few months I get a version of the same message: “What happened to the Fill Light slider?” Usually it comes from someone who learned Lightroom years ago, took a break, came back, and found the panel rearranged like someone moved the furniture while they were away. I’ve sent the same explanation so many times I practically have it memorized. So when I came across this KelbyOne tutorial from Matt Kloskowski covering exactly this topic, I felt both seen and a little relieved that someone had put it on camera so I could stop typing it out.

The Lightroom Calibration Secret That Rescues Early Fall Photos
Video Tutorials

The Lightroom Calibration Secret That Rescues Early Fall Photos

Every fall I have the same conversation with myself. I check the foliage maps. I pick a weekend. I drive two hours to some gorgeous mountain overlook. And the trees are either still stubbornly green or they’ve already gone brown and flat. Timing peak fall color feels less like planning and more like gambling. I’ve made peace with the fact that I’ll probably never nail it perfectly, which is exactly why this technique from landscape photographer Mark Denney stopped me mid-scroll when I came across it.

Two Lightroom Moves That Made Scott Kelby's Greece Photos Look That Good
Video Tutorials

Two Lightroom Moves That Made Scott Kelby's Greece Photos Look That Good

There’s a specific kind of frustration I know well: you shoot in a genuinely beautiful location, the light is doing everything right, and then you open the RAW files and they look like a photocopy of what you actually saw. Flat. Gray. Like the camera just gave up. For years, my fix was to spend 45 minutes per image throwing sliders around until something clicked. It worked, but it wasn’t a workflow.

The Lightroom Calibration Panel Is Doing Something Weird to Your Colors (And You Should Let It)
Video Tutorials

The Lightroom Calibration Panel Is Doing Something Weird to Your Colors (And You Should Let It)

There’s a panel in Lightroom that I ignored for an embarrassingly long time. Not because I didn’t know it existed, but because every time I opened it, nothing about it made intuitive sense. The sliders didn’t behave the way I expected. The results felt accidental. So I’d close it and go back to the HSL panel where everything felt safe and logical. I suspect most editors do the same thing, because the Camera Calibration panel has the energy of a mysterious neighbor you’ve never actually talked to.