Lightroom, one of Adobe’s signature photo editing tools, might seem intimidating if you aren’t a photography professional, but new interactive tutorials are here to teach you how to make any photo look stunning. What makes these tutorials unique is that instead of watching the editing happen on a second screen, viewers are inside the application seeing sliders move and buttons pressed in real time as the expert edits the photo. Each step comes with written instructions and explanations for why each edit was chosen. Amazing photographers, including New York based food photographer Andrew Scrivani, have created tutorials to help amateurs learn to be Instagram all-stars.
The best part? All of this is free! Lightroom offers apps for Android and iOS at no charge. Users can upgrade to the paid version for additional features including cloud storage.
A recent workshop paired photographer Andrew Scrivani and chef Jehangir Mehta together to teach food writers about Lightroom, food styling, and how to reduce waste while still ending up with the perfect photo. Scrivani’s best tip for improving food photography in Lightroom? “For food shots, it is terrific to learn how to use the basic sliders for exposure, color and contrast. Just those beginning tools will show you great results and help you build confidence to dive deeper into the tools to enhance your shots even more.” You can learn from Scrivani in his tutorials on the Lightroom app.
Mehta prepared dishes that used parts of ingredients that would commonly be wasted. At his restaurant, Graffiti Earth, Mehta and his team do things like make mousse and ice cream out of food scraps like plant stems or used coffee grinds. One of his dishes for the workshop included a mousse made from fish heads, and the second used broken scallops, which are damaged scallops that would normally be tossed back by fishermen. Mehta encourages chefs and home cooks to make soup often because it’s a great way to use up ingredients.
One more piece of advice from Scrivani – how can you take good photos in a poorly lit restaurant? “Go to a better lit restaurant.” More info about new features from Lightroom can be found here.
