Photoshop How To

Whether you edit photos in Photoshop, Lightroom, or another image-editing program, it’s almost impossible to avoid making mistakes on occasion, and this holds true for both amateurs and pros. Robust editing software can be quite complicated, and no one is perfect. Right?

The tutorial below, brought to you by Adorama TV, discusses five very common processing mistakes and explains a quick fix for each. While intended for beginners, these tips may also prove helpful for more advanced users—especially those who need a quick refresher.

This seven-minute lesson is another episode of the Mastering Your Craft Series by SLR Lounge—an instructional site led by founder and educator Pye Jirsa who regularly shares real-world advice designed to help you improve your shooting and editing skills.

Whether your mistakes are due to inexperience, or because you get too ambitious with your edits, what you’ll learn below should solve many problems. Jirsa is using Lightroom Classic for this demonstration, but his suggestions work fine with whatever software you have.

Jirsa introduces mistake number one with this blunt warning: “Stop overcooking your Raw edits.” Here he reinforces a notion we mention from time to time ourselves; namely, a heavy-handed approach can be worse than no editing at all. So please, be subtle with your adjustments, because you can always added a little extra spice later if necessary.

Mistake number two involves “fixing that dust” whether you’re printing for an album or just posting to social media. As Jirsa says, “nothing ruins a beautiful image like leaving sensor dust marks on the photograph.

You’ll have to watch the video to see the other three careless mistakes, and learn Jirsa’s simple methods for fixing each error. Trust us: you’ll be very glad you did.

There’s much more to see on the AdoramaTV YouTube channel, so be sure to check there often. We also strongly suggest you become familiar with the SLR Lounge website, if you haven’t done so already.