Guest Author: Neil Zeller
I’m Neil Zeller, a self-taught and technical photo editor who’s been working with Lightroom since the early days. My editing philosophy is simple: I want to bring the photo back to what I actually saw (the thing the camera sometimes struggles to translate), and even more importantly, how the scene made me feel. Every photo I edit is a little story: why I stopped, why I pressed the shutter, and how I can invite the viewer into that exact moment.
Lightroom has always been my digital darkroom. It lets me take RAW images and create balance, focus, and storytelling that lives up to the experience I had in the field. Over the years, I’ve built a workflow that’s efficient, powerful, and, when Lightroom releases something new, it's pretty exciting these days! Two of my favorite tools right now are perfect examples of how far Lightroom has come.
AI Denoise
This one is a dream for nightscape photographers. A single click, a slider adjustment, and suddenly those noisy, grain-ridden night shots are transformed into gorgeous, clean images. Lightroom gets it right. No stars removed. No weird artifacts added. Just clarity. I’ve gone back to images I shot years ago and run AI Denoise on them, and the results are so good I can finally print and deliver them with pride.
Masking Magic
Underneath the simple 'circle' that enables Masking in Lightroom sits a whole toolbox that can change everything about your edits. At first, it might feel a little confusing (the button shifts from a circle to a plus sign, and the menu activation pops up and out to the top of your screen by default), but stick with it.
My go-to tool is the Linear Gradient Mask. It’s the easiest way to separate skies from landscapes. Just click, drag, and suddenly you’ve got a perfectly adjustable area where you can lighten a sky, add contrast to the land, or balance a tricky horizon. The red overlay disappears as soon as you start moving sliders, and then the fun begins. Rotate, feather, and fine-tune the effect until the photo looks like it should have all along.
And that’s just scratching the surface. AI can now select entire categories like sky or water, or even get hyper-specific with things like eyebrows, clothing, and individual people in a group. Yes, even that cousin hiding in the shadows at the back of a wedding photo. One click, and you can bring them into the light.
Make the Ordinary Extraordinary: Lightroom Classic Workshop Nov 21-23, 2025
Want to learn more about Lightroom with Neil Zeller? Join Make the Ordinary Extraordinary: Lightroom Classic Workshop, a small-group, three-day deep dive into organizing and editing your photos, and mastering Lightroom’s newest AI tools — only 8 spots available!
Make the Ordinary Extraordinary this fall! Join Neil Zeller for a hands-on Lightroom Classic Workshop, November 21–23, 2025. Over the course of three days, you’ll master file management, editing essentials, and Lightroom’s newest AI tools while building a repeatable system to keep your photos safe, organized, and polished. With only 8 seats available, this intimate workshop is the perfect chance to elevate your editing skills and confidently bring your images to life.
