Many of you have likely used the radial filter tool in Lightroom before, but have you ever used it to paint light on your images? In this video, I go over how to create light in your image to add local contrast and completely change an image from dull to portfolio worthy. 

I genuinely find this technique helpful when I’m looking for images I may want to spend a few hours on; however, sometimes, the results I get from using this tool are amazing by themselves. Many of us might not have time to spend hours editing every photo we want to share to our social media feeds, and this can be a tool that produces really powerful results for little time invested. Your results will vary depending on the photo, of course, especially if the photo you’re editing really only has one area of focus. The photo I used in this example had many spots to highlight and manipulate, so it really showcased how much you can push an image; just keep this in mind with your own photos. I actually used this technique in a tutorial recently to gently highlight four areas of my panorama image.

Just as I state in the video, remember that this isn’t the only method to do something like this, and there are many more time-consuming methods such as luminosity masking or even painting with brushes in Lightroom. Regardless, this method and technique can stand on its own if you simply remember to not push your images too far and be subtle with your edits.

As always, thanks for watching, and I’d love to see your results below!