In this free Photoshop and Lightroom tutorial, follow along with me as I show you how to edit a Rocky Beach landscape photo from start to finish.

I’ve also included step-by-step instructions to make it easier for you to follow along with this Lightroom tutorial.

Download Image – Editing a Rocky Beach Photo (Download the photo here)

Portion of the Lightroom Tutorial

1. Open the Raw file in Lightroom and go to the Develop module
2. In the Basic panel adjust the Temp to 7830, Tint to 14, Exposure to .85, Highlights to -71, and the shadows to 18.
3. Press the Alt (Mac: Option) key and drag the Whites slider to the right till you start to see highlights appear ( I adjusted the Whites to 19). This will give you a good White point.
4. Press the Alt (Mac: Option) key and drag the Blacks slider to the left till you start to see shadows appear ( I adjusted the Blacks to -4). This will give you a good Black point.
5. Open the HSL panel and click on Saturation.
6. Adjust Orange to 24, Yellow to 22, and Green to 18.
7. Open the Detail panel and adjust Amount to 96, Radius to 1.4, and detail to 57.
8. Adjust Temp to 4,881.
9. Open the Lens Corrections panel and turn on Remove Chromatic Aberration and Enable Profile Corrections
10. Open Effects and adjust the Amount to -18, Midpoint to 10, and the Feather to 100.
11. Click on the Graduated filter and draw it on the image as shown.
12. Adjust the Exposure to -.60 and the Clarity to 20.
13. Grab the Brush tool and click on Erase, turn on Auto Mask and paint along the top edge of the hill.
14. Once the edges are outlined, turn Auto Mask off and paint the rest of the hills.
15. Click on the Brush tool again; adjust the Temp to 33 and paint over the rocks to add some warmth.
16. Click on New, adjust the Exposure to .47 and paint on the foreground rocks.
17. Zoom into the bright spot in the hills and grab your brush tool, adjust the Exposure to -.83 and paint over that area.

Portion of the Photoshop Tutorial

1. Add a new blank layer.
2. Grab the Spot Healing Brush tool (J).
3. Turn on Sample all Layers
4. Paint over any spots you want to remove.
5. Go to the File Menu and select Save.
6. Go back to Lightroom

Back to Portion of the Lightroom Tutorial

1. In the Effects Panel, adjust the Amount to -18, the Midpoint to 10 and the Feather to 100.