How to Use the Lightroom Spot removal tool

The Lightroom spot removal tool is a great tool to help clean up a simple edit of a photo. Check out this quick tutorial on using the tool in Lightroom!

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I almost always take my camera with me to the park. Most likely with my Canon 35mm f/2 attached. It’s small, it’s a wide angle, and it’s my favorite walk-around lens( the one I took to Disney).

Even though we’ve been a million times to the same roads, the same trees, the same playground, I still bring my camera because you just never know.  Perfect moments come when you don’t plan to find them. You never know when you might come across a bit of eveycandy that you’ve got to capture. A moment that you want to remember.

In the park near our house, there are many trails that lead here and there. It’s perfect for Pookah since he’s learning to ride his bike.  I’ve photographed him riding his bike down these lanes lots of times. But on this day, the trees had finally bloomed, and Pookah as usual, was riding ahead of us, headless of our instructions to SLOW DOWN!

I was actually yelling  SLOW DOWN LITTLE BOY! When there is was……

My perfect everyday eyecandy moment.

Now, since it was unexpected, and I wasn’t completely prepared, I just put my camera to my eye, framed the shot and pressed the shutter.

I put my camera down and after taking that one photo, didn’t take another one. I enjoyed the park, the walk and chasing after Pookah.

I got home, and here is what I had captured.

Settings: f/3.5 SS 1/250 ISO 800

It was….underexposed. And there was Cdub’s arm AND shoulder in the photo. But I loved the leading lines that the edges of the lane give us leading our eyes into the photo and directly to Pookah, my subject.  It was a great photo. Just needed some work.

So, in Lightroom I cropped the photo( removing most of CDub) and upped the exposure quite a bit.( It was REALLY underexposed!)

But Cdub’s arm is still there. and a few other distractions. The pothole on the left of the photo, the green box on the right and some green thingy all the way at the end of the lane……

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite things about Lightroom: The Lightroom Spot Removal Tool.

It was really easy to use the Lightroom Spot removal tool to remove all of the distractions that didn’t belong in my picture!

And ended up with…

I included this little lesson today because you need to know that not every photo needs a lot of editing. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say most don’t if you practice getting it right IN camera.  But editing has it’s place, and in this case,  I used the tools that Lightroom gave me to ENHANCE my photo to make it my perfect slice of everyday.   Don’t be afraid of editing programs! And you don’t have to have Lightroom to do so( it’s just my favorite and I think it’s great 🙂  ) There are many programs out there at various prices that will fit what you need. Always start with the basics. Because usually, that’s all you need!

So go out, take that photo of that perfect everyday moment, and tweak it if need be. Don’t be afraid! Try it!!!