There’s often the belief that creating a fully polished photo requires the use of Photoshop at some point in the process. However, Lightroom is itself a very powerful program, and often, one can create a finished image using only it. Here’s how to do just that with a landscape photo.

Coming to you from Unmesh Dinda of PiXimperfect, this video will show you the full scope of local adjustments in Lightroom while guiding you through processing a landscape image. People often view Lightroom as a program built around global adjustments, and while that’s certainly a large chunk of its purpose and function, its local adjustments are actually fairly capable. I especially appreciate when I can finish a photo in Lightroom, as it means less moving between programs and just managing a single file. As Dinda mentions, be sure to pay attention to the direction of the light in your original shot; the idea is not to work counter to what’s there, but to tastefully enhance it. On that note, remember that in general, just like Photoshop, less is more. If you overdo something, you can always grab that adjustment’s handle and change the settings whenever you please.