How To Bring a Photo to Life in 5 Simple Steps (Sponsored)

With 617K followers, it’s safe to say that architect, interior designer, and photographer Vicky Navarro is an Instagram phenomenon. Her playful, whimsical photographs find enchantment in everyday life, spent exploring with those close to her. Navarro’s instantly-recognizable aesthetic—light, airy, and fanciful—transports us effortlessly to wherever in the world she might be on any given afternoon, whether it’s an urban jungle or rustic paradise. We asked her to share her behind-the-scenes process in transforming a photograph with potential into a true show-stopper. For this tutorial, Navarro chose to use Adobe Lightroom.

Vicky Navarro: “In 2015, I started to work with one of my best friends, Gaby Muñoz, best known as Chula The Clown. She had a lot of projects as a scenic clown around the world. We went to the forest with a bunch of talented people, friends, and musicians. Since she invited me to this adventure, I knew it would be magical. Every character in this fairytale had a lot of details in their costumes, makeup and instruments. Each scenario was created under the direction of Gaby, but eventually the forest always gave the mystical touch of each scene. So this is the result.

“First of all, I like to start with the light of the photos. In this case, the photo is a little bit dark so I turned up the intensity of the light with the exposure and contrast and turned down the shadows.

“Then go to DETAIL and adjust sharpening to highlight facial features.

“I used Adjustment brush to emphasize the light of the main character with radial circle in the face. Then, with a new radial circle, I was able to darken the background by adjusting contrast and exposure.”

“Then I deleted some defects in the makeup with spot removal, adjusting size and opacity.

With Tone Curve, I made the photo even darker. It´s okay if you want to go back and see if the tones and feeling of the photo are the one you want. Finally, I edited the temperature to make it cold.

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