5 Minute Edit - Adding Drama to Your Photos in Lightroom!

In this video we approach using radial filters in a different way, using them as a light source rather than a local adjustment. Using this simple technique can bring life to a photo that potentially wasted away in your library forever.

If you'd like to follow along in a text based version of this tutorial check out the article I wrote on Fstoppers here:

Thanks for watching and please feel free to share the edits you come up with! I would love to see some before and after of your own photos.

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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:46 Discovering Radial Filters
2:43 Tutorial Start
10:28 Conclusion

[tacituskilgore]

Broooo, your editing vids are among the very best on the Tube.
And you're far easier to watch than McKinnon.

[alexdumitrescu]

I have no idea how I came upon your videos, but I gotta say, awesome tutorials man! Learned so much from them :thumbsup:

[MaryDeanDotCom]

I am making Christmas cards with my landscape photos, but many are looking blah in print. So I googled “how to make landscape photos more dramatic” and presto, it took me right to your tutorial. Can’t wait to try it. Thanks.

[-kentonwilson]

Enjoying your videos. Pertinent tutorials that are like hidden gems “between” the sliders. Thanks!

[melodyphillips]

Love your soothing style, and the background music added to that. I always know I can go to Pete's channel for high energy!

[Jackie_Tikki_Tavi]

That is going to help so much with so many sky segments I have that I feel I rob them of their diffused glow, especially if they're overblown in the original and I need to turn them down but they end up blue/gray.

[dracherb]

Just stumbled on this lesson Alex...gotta say I love your presentation style! As always I've learned something new. Keep 'em coming!

[MD-fqxl]

Fab Thank you so much!! I'm aLR beginner and hadn't discovered yet that you can use the brush within the radial filter, amazing!! Can't wait to get messing with it

[Tjphillips]

So dope man, I’ve got a stack of Switzerland photos from last year with clouds hugging the mountains. Hyped to go edit them now

[diegoruorui]

Aweosmw editing and photo too! The last photo of the city you showed definetly deserve an editing video too, the mood, the light and the fade in the blacks are awesome!!

[SangheiliSpecOp]

I just wanted to comment on how relaxing your videos are. Its a whole different vibe from the other super hectic vids out there, like a certain youtuber mentioned in the comments below lol. I can tell this is a passion for you!

edit: if only I knew that the backslash key was the before and after button hahaha. I also thought that radial filters were limited to being inside the image, I never thought to zoom out and create a filter. I am a newbie with lightroom, and have created some great looking photos, but it's nice to learn some new stuff.

[g.ndylan]

Great Intro! I like this video, please make more videos like this one. Also is a good feature add the description into the youtube timeline. Great job man

[LanNinja]

Nicely done Alex. Good technique to accentuate the light. Thanks!

[EightTwoFourWeddingStudios]

Great video man. More of these types of videos would be great

[greggv]

Hi Alex, coming back to your videos (I replayed it sometimes and discovered new stuffs), just a question about the image @10:48; I really love the rendering you did, how do you create this soft contrast (with a bit of pink in the shadow if I'm not wrong)
Again thanks for your channel ! real inspiration for me

[nicolasnantais]

Great video man! Stumbled on your channel on my recommended channel and boy I do not regret clicking on it! Your videos are top quality man, keep it up!

Small question for you: I've been using the similar technique for dodging and burning, but sometime I feel bringing up light in certain areas make it look fake. How would you go about deciding where/what angle to put your filter on to make it look natural?

[shutupavi]

Unsubbed from Peter a long long time ago. Do your thing bro

[KirilVarbanov]

Alex, great videos, thanks. One additional comment from me: photographers should strive to crop their photos in standard formats, such as 4x5 or 16:9, etc. Working with a magazine, newspaper, agency or a gallery and any custom crop would not be appreciated. Of course, sometimes this is not entirely possible, so what you did was OK.

[TKettle]

Great video with a nice presentation. I guarantee I'm gonna be watching more of your vids. I'm curious about the Adobe landscape profile.

From googling, it seems like a lot of people use this. However, I don't seem to have it as an option. If I go into "Preferences>Presets" I can see it in a drop-down, but I don't have the option to apply it in the develop module.

Any chance someone could be of some help? Would love to try it to see how it helps my editing process.

[kristianarntsen]

I think It was better before the crop. Maybe crop some of the bottom. The before, showed more scale. Great video!