Found a simple color grading trick that made my landscapes pop

I was struggling to get my sunset photos to look natural in Lightroom. Everything came out either too orange or too flat. Then I tried matching the highlights to a warm orange and the shadows to a cool blue, just from a tutorial I saw. It took maybe 5 minutes and suddenly my images actually looked like what I saw outside. Has anyone else found a quick adjustment like this that made a big difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

ruby_rivera7623d ago

Wait, are you sure you're not confusing color grading with white balance? Honestly, I see a lot of people jump into split toning when their real issue is just a bad white balance setup. Tbh, if you're getting too orange or too flat, messing with the temp and tint sliders first usually fixes it way faster than trying to match highlights and shadows. Ngl, that split toning trick you found is solid for adding mood, but it can make things look artificial if you push it too far. For natural sunset photos, I keep the WB around 5500-6000K and only use a tiny bit of blue in the shadows, like 5-10% max. Just my two cents, but that tiny correction saved me from a lot of overcooked edits early on.

laura_wright23d agoMost Upvoted

5500K is daylight balanced, but sunset light is usually warmer around 3200-4500K depending on how golden the hour is. Using 5500K might actually make those sunset photos look too cool or flat.

park.abby10d ago

Totally agree with both of you on this one. I actually made the same mistake starting out, where I'd crank up the blue in the shadows thinking it was the secret sauce, but it just ended up looking like a bad filter. Keeping it subtle (like 5-10% max) really is the move, because otherwise you lose that natural warmth that makes golden hour so special in the first place.