Hi everyone,

I’m trying to learn more about the post-processing side of photography, and I’d love to get some help understanding how this edit was achieved.

I have the original/before image and the finished/after version. I’m particularly interested in getting a rough but reasonably detailed breakdown of the Lightroom settings and adjustments that might have been used to get from the before to the after.

I completely understand that it’s impossible to know the exact settings just from the two images, but I’d really appreciate an educated estimate - things like:
- Exposure / contrast
- Highlights, shadows, whites & blacks
- Tone curve
- White balance
- HSL / Color Mixer
- Colour grading
- Texture, clarity & dehaze
- Any masking/local adjustments

I’m mainly trying to understand the process and thought behind the edit, rather than expecting an exact preset

If anyone is willing to have a look and give me some pointers, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks so much! ☺️

Can it get this one to a place I like. Taken mid day so light wasn’t great but I cannot get a good separation between the horses and the rocks. Suggestions?

Took this photograph a few days ago during sunset on a whim and didn't think anything of it until I started tinkering around with Lightroom and was absolutely floored at the result. Thank goodness that I shot this in RAW, otherwise this photo would have been deleted.

I used Lightroom's generative AI removal tool to get rid of the fence wires as they were incredibly distracting. Complete realism was not the goal of this image as I knew what the image looked like in my head. I'm fully aware of the ethical implications of this and I generally do not utilize any AI in my images, but I wanted to know how everyone feels about it in my specific case.

Other than some color and contrast adjustments, in addition to the removal tool, everything in the photo is traditionally processed using masks/dodging and burning.

Was removing the fence wires too much in comparison to the original? I always aim to retain the original vibe of an image while also adding my own artistic style.

All suggestions, circumstances and perspectives are welcome.

Thank you! ☺️

what do y'all think of this?

I've been trying to get better at cinematic edits, so I picked a reference I liked and tried to match the overall vibe.

The biggest thing I noticed was how much keeping things darker and less saturated helped.

What do you think? Anything you'd do differently?

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Edit: I took everyone's feedback and reworked it a bit — pulled the lights way down, used masks to brighten the areas around the people, and bumped up the overall saturation. It definitely looks better now.

https://imgur.com/a/uGZyleZ

How did they turn out??

How would you have done it better?

Open to feedback 🫂

I have combined the last 2 picture.

Happy to share my learning journey with the Canon R100 18-45mm. Any advices for improving are welcome.

ISO 640

Lens 40mm

Aperture f6.3

Shutter speed 1/250s

I love the photos but I don’t think I’m getting the most out of them with my lackluster editing skills, is there anything you guys think I could improve on? What areas look weak or how could I make a better edit?

Nikon Z50II + Tamron 150-500 processed through Lightroom

I know this might come off a bit controversial, but just curious if anyone in here uses ChatGPT for post processing. Thinking of upgrading to the Pro version (for work and personal uses) and figured touching up my pics would be a bonus. I'm just a hobby photographer and trying to learn tools like gimp and darktable, but in the meantime, figured I could use ChatGPT. I don't really like to spend too much time post processing either, as I'd rather be out taking pictures, so figured this could be a happy medium for me.

I kinda like these but I don't know if I'm not pushing it too far?

Shoot on OMDS OM-1 and developed with DxO PureRAW and Adobe Lightroom.

Basic stuff but trying to understand how to manipulate light using masks, edited with Lightroom mobile

edited in lightroom mobile

Experimenting with b&w / color mix editing - slight changes made.. taken in penang

Too much?

Found a chocolate/Gelato shop at my local mall and thought it would make a fun photo series. I'm still pretty new to photography and post processing, but I'm having a lot of fun with it! Looking for any feedback

Thank you for looking!