Holding down shift and dragging up or down will keep the filter horizontal, dragging from the left or right will keep it vertical. If you want the filter to be parallel to the edge of the image, try holding down the shift key while you drag the filter across the image. The transition will begin where you start dragging and stop where you release it. Place the cursor at the point of the image that you want the effect of the filter to begin, then drag it in any direction. In the Develop module (D), select the Graduated Filter tool (M). I’m going to give you some Graduated Filter tips to speed up your workflow and show you how you can use the tool more creatively to make your landscape photos look amazing.

Its uses are only limited by your imagination. There is more to the Graduated Filter tool in Lightroom than just darkening bright skies, though. ND grad filters transition from clear to dark, allowing you to darken part of the image by placing the filter in front of your lens when taking photos.īeing able to apply this effect in post-production gives you a lot more flexibility in the way the graduated filter affects your image. The Graduated Filter is basically a Lightroom filters tool that allows you to apply the effect of a physical graduated neutral density (ND grad) filter digitally in Lightroom. Very few of my images make it out of Lightroom without having applied these Lightroom filters in some way. The Graduated Filter is one of the tools that I use more than anything else when editing landscape photography. Related course: Effortless Editing with LightroomĪdobe Lightroom’s local adjustment tools are some of its best features.

Lightroom 4 graduated filter tutorial