This is by far my facourite mask to use, which is why today I am sharing it with you! With this you can create dreamy, soft looking images in under 30 seconds!
What is it?
The effect I am talking about is of course, the soft glow effect. I’m sure you’ve seen this effect all over social media and wondered: “How can I add this to my own photos?”
Well, now I have the aswer for you.
First I want to say that this effects has it’s limits when done in Lightroom but it’s a much simpler way to do it than Photoshop. If you’re interested in the Photoshop version, just search up “Orton Effect” and you should find plenty of tutorials for it!
Personally, more often than not, I just end up using the Lightroom version, because it just so easy to do and still looks really good.
How to achieve the effect in Lightroom
To achieve the soft glow effect in Lightroom:
Open up the masking panel
Select new mask and pick the “Luminance Picker” tool
Click on the highlights of your image.
Make sure the Luminance Range looks like this:
Then go into the effects section and decrease the clarity to -20 to -30 and increase the texture to 20 to 30. higher value creates stronger effect.
(Optional) Increase the exposure and temperature slightly
This will create a really nice soft glow with just one simple mask. The best thing about this is that it won’t affect the shadows or midtones. It will only affect the highlights.
Lightroom settings overlay
There’s also some news I wanted to talk about. If you’ve been following me on Instagram I’m sure you’ve seen these Lightroom overlays I’ve been using to showcase my edits.
Now I have released a free version for everyone to use. The only requirement is to have Photoshop.
Full version of this pack is coming in the future with multiple different design variations, all Lightroom panels & new features.
Download and try it out now for free!
See you next week!
I write a new blog post once a week. There are also plenty of valuable blog posts to read already published so do make sure to check those out if you're interested!
I would also appreciate any feedback on the Lightroom overlay pack if you do decide to try it out.
For now, I’ll see you again next week!
