This photo has local editing from Lightroom

Southwest,Zion,sunrise,zion Canyon

Notice the impact of the morning sun on the above Photo

Here is the original prior to editing

Southwest,Zion,sunrise,zion Canyon

The picture below from Bryce Canyon is the original

Bryce Canyon,Southwest

And the modified copy

Bryce Canyon,Southwest

Notice the increased definition in the sky and greater contrast in the red rock formations.

I was teaching a Lightroom (LR) class the other night, and I was struck by some of the creative things some of the students were doing.  Lightroom is a great product in that it is easy to use and you can do an awful lot in either correcting issue, bringing the photo back to what you remember when you took it, or in being creative.

Lightroom has a circular gradient tool, similar to the circular marquee tool in Photoshop.  I have used this in the past when working with people as it is quite powerful, and can dramatically improve people photos.  For people, the formula is to decrease the exposure of the whole photo from .5 to 2 stops.  Then use the circular gradient tool (with the invert box checked) to put spot lighting on the faces.

What some of my students were doing though, was to use the circular gradient with sunrise/sunset photos to enhance the sun and the glow from the sun.