No camera or lens is perfect. Whether you're using a smartphone or a high-end DSLR, they all have their quirks and limitations. Fortunately, you don't have to live with them.

You can use Lightroom to fix a lot of the issues you've got with your camera hardware, like dust on the sensor, stuck pixels, or lens distortion. These fixes will improve the quality of your images and save you from having to make an expensive upgrade to a newer camera. Let's get started on solving the most common problems.

The instructions in this guide will work for both Lightroom (formerly known as Lightroom CC) and Lightroom Classic. If there are any important differences, we'll point them out.

1. Dust on the Sensor

Specks of dust on the sensor and bad pixels are two different problems that have the same solution.

Dust can be an issue on interchangeable lens cameras, where the sensor gets exposed to the elements when you're swapping lenses. A lot of cameras have a built-in sensor cleaning function that can help with this, and you can also dislodge dust using a rocket blower (but never blow on the sensor with your mouth as you'll make the problem far worse).

Some specks are more stubborn than others and cannot be easily removed. If you don't want to try a DIY cleaning job or get it done professionally, you can let Lightroom deal with it instead.

  1. In Lightroom CC, open the Develop module and click the Healing tool (or hit Q on the keyboard). In Lightroom CC, the shortcut is H.
  2. Select Heal.
  3. Tick the Visualize Spots option. Drag the slider to adjust the threshold level. You'll normally want to drag it to the left.
    visualise spots in lightroom
  4. Zoom in and scroll around your image. Specks of dust will be easily visible in white.
  5. Adjust the brush size so that it is about the same size as the dust.
  6. Click on or paint over the dust.
  7. Repeat until your image is cleaned up.
remove dust in lightroom

The Heal tool replaces an object with detail and color blended from the surrounding pixels. With elements like dust or dead pixels the defaults should be good enough, and you shouldn't need to experiment with the brush feather or opacity settings, or anything else.

Quickly Remove Dust From All Your Images

Since dust specks will show up in the same place on all your shots, you can copy your dust removal corrections to your other photos quickly. If you're using Lightroom CC:

  1. Click the three-dots menu button on the right and select Choose Edit Settings to Copy.
  2. Select Healing and clear the other options, then click Copy.
  3. Select all the images you want to clean up, tap the three-dots menu, and click Paste to Entire Selection.
create dust removal preset

In Lightroom Classic:

  1. Select the image you've edited in the Develop module.
  2. In the Film Strip view at the bottom of the screen hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) and select the other images you want to copy the spot removals to.
  3. Click Sync, select Healing (unselect the rest), and hit Synchronize.
healing in lightroom classic

You can remove other unwanted blemishes in the same way.

2. Fix Stuck or Dead Pixels in Lightroom

You can fix bad pixels with the same method. A dead pixel is a pixel that no longer receives power, so shows in the image as a tiny black dot. A stuck pixel is worse: it's permanently powered and shows as a speck of 100 percent red, green, blue, or white. A hot pixel is the same but only shows when the sensor gets hot, like when you're taking long exposure shots.

Most cameras can deal with hot pixels in their firmware, and some can tackle dead and stuck pixels too. Lightroom can also automatically identify these bad pixels in an image and blend them out.

If neither option is available to you, use the Healing tool outlined above to remove them from your images.

3. Correct Barrel and Pincushion Distortion

Distortion is another common problem photographers will face. It's a result of the optical design of a lens and is seen in various ways. Lightroom supports lens profiles which can automatically fix these problems. If your lens has a profile, you should make use of it. If it doesn't, you can deal with the problems manually.

Barrel distortion is where straight lines in an image bulge outwards to form the shape of a barrel. It's most commonly seen on wide-angle lenses. Pincushion distortion is the opposite: the lines bulge inwards, and is often seen on telephoto lenses.

Although there are technical ways to check for distortion, the popular method used by many is the "brick wall test." Point your camera square-on toward a wall—using a tripod is best to ensure it's properly upright—and shoot.

fix barrel distortion in lightroom

You'll be able to see if the lines of the wall are straight, or if they curve towards the edges. You can then use the image to figure out how much adjustment your lens needs.

To fix distortion in Lightroom:

  1. Go to Edit > Optics in Lightroom CC, or Develop > Edit > Lens Corrections in Lightroom Classic.
  2. Check the box labeled Enable Lens Corrections or Enable Profile Corrections. If your lens has a profile it should be applied automatically.
  3. If there's no profile, then you can fix it manually. Go to Geometry > Distortion in CC (Lens Corrections > Manual > Distortion in Classic) and drag the slider to the left to correct pincushion distortion, or to the right to fix barrel distortion.
  4. If sliding right, check Constrain Crop to crop any white that may otherwise appear around the edges of the image.
use the distortion slider in lightroom

For prime lenses, you can save your lens corrections as a preset, which we'll explain at the end of the article. That way you'll be able to quickly apply them to all images shot with that lens.

Presets are less useful for zoom lenses. Zooms may have barrel distortion at the wide end, pincushion distortion at the long end, and different levels of either at various lengths in between. You could make lots of presets for different focal lengths, but there's no one-size-fits-all solution.

4. Fix Vignetting

Vignetting is where the physical design of the lens, and/or the angle at which light hits the sensor, causes an image to be darker at the corners. Correction for vignetting can also be applied automatically through a lens profile in Lightroom if there is one. If not, it's very easy to do manually.

Go to Edit > Effects > Vignette in Lightroom CC, or Develop > Lens Corrections > Manual > Vignetting > Amount in Classic. Drag the slider to the right until the brightness of the corners matches the rest of the image. You won't need to go more than a couple of points.

fix vignetting in lightroom

You can apply this correction to a preset as well so that it's easy to apply in the future.

5. Remove Chromatic Aberrations

Another common lens problem is chromatic aberration, where different wavelengths of light fail to converge at the same point, causing the appearance of a color fringe along the edges of certain elements in the image. It usually happens in bright, high-contrast areas.

To remove it, select the Optics option in Lightroom CC or the Lens Corrections box in Classic and tick the Remove Chromatic Aberration option. Lightroom will attempt to fix this problem automatically.

To fine-tune the effect, you can use the Defringe sliders (found under the Manual tab in Classic). Use the eyedropper tool to select the color fringe in your image, then move the Amount slider to desaturate it.

6. Noise

When you open a photo and see random specks of color or variations of brightness at a pixel level, that is image noise. It mostly occurs when you increase the sensitivity of the camera's sensor, such as when shooting with a high ISO setting in low light, or when the sensor gets warm.

Most cameras will apply noise reduction when you shoot in JPEG mode. In RAW, your photos may look far noisier and you'll need to fix them in Lightroom.

photo with noise

There are two types of noise. Color noise looks the worst but is the easiest to fix. The randomly colored specks are simply blended with the colors of the surrounding pixels. The effect on the quality of the image is minimal.

Luminance noise—the variation in brightness of individual pixels—can take on the appearance of film grain and can be attractive in certain shots. Removing luminance noise softens the image, with the effect that fine details get blurred. Noise reduction is about finding the right balance between the two.

  1. Scroll down to the Detail section of the edit panel in both apps to find the Noise Reduction options.
  2. For JPEG images, both settings are at 0 by default. For RAW files, Color is set to 25. That is usually enough to remove color noise.
  3. Zoom into the image and start moving the Noise Reduction or Luminance slider to the right.
    remove noise in lightroom
  4. In Classic, you can recover fine details and add micro-contrast using the Detail and Contrast sliders.
  5. Once you're done you may need to sharpen the image, which may result in some noise returning. If so, repeat the steps until you find a result you're happy with.

Noise reduction is best applied on a per-image basis, or to a group of images shot with the same lighting.

7. White Balance Problems

The white balance setting is essential for getting a camera to shoot accurate, consistent colors. Where our eyes naturally adapt to changes in color temperature from different light sources, a camera cannot. Shots under fluorescent lights will have a cool, blue tint, and those under bright sunlight will have a warm, orange hue. A correct white balance setting removes these color casts.

For most users, shooting on auto white balance is the way to go. It removes the risk of you forgetting to switch the setting from Cloudy to Sunlight just because the weather changed mid-shoot.

auto white balance in lightroom

But auto white balance is not flawless. There will be times when it gets tricked into making an image too warm or too cold. Jump into Lightroom to fix this.

  1. White Balance (labeled WB) is the first option in the Basic box in Lightroom Classic. In CC, it's under Edit > Color.
  2. If you're working with RAW files, click the drop-down list to see a full range of white balance presets. Choose the one that matches your shooting conditions and it should be okay.
  3. In JPEG, you will need to fix it manually. First, click the eyedropper icon.
  4. Zoom into the image and use the eyedropper to select a neutral color. Ideally, this would be gray, but can be anywhere the RGB values are roughly the same.
    correct white balance in lightroom
  5. Click on your selected part of the image and the white balance will change. You may need to do it a few times to get the result you want.

8. Exposure

Visit any gear forum and you'll find people describing how their camera's metering is off, and that every shot is under or overexposed by maybe a third of a stop. The obvious workaround to this problem is to leave the exposure compensation dial set permanently to +1/3 or -1/3 (or whatever) to correct for it. If that doesn't work for you, you can do it in Lightroom instead.

In Lightroom, the numbers on the Exposure slider correspond to stops of light. Dragging the slider to +1 increases the exposure by one stop, the equivalent to doubling the amount of light.

fix exposure in lightroom

You can do it in the Library module in Classic, too. The single arrows in the Quick Develop box correspond to 1/3 of a stop, and the double arrows a full stop.

Create a Preset to Make Common Changes Quickly

A lot of the problems we've outlined are things you'll encounter time and again. You can create presets in Lightroom to make them quicker to solve—a preset saves your edits so you can apply them to other images.

  1. Start by making the basic edits to your image—removing dust, fixing vignetting, and so on.
  2. In Lightroom CC, go to Edit and click the Presets button, followed by the Plus (+) icon. In Classic, click the Plus (+) icon and select Create Preset from the Presets panel on the left.
  3. Now give your preset a descriptive name and select the edits you want to include in it. Deselect the other boxes.
    create presets in lightroom
  4. You can have several, specific presets for things like "Remove Vignette" or "Fix Exposure", or have a single one that includes lots of edits.
  5. Click Save or Create to finish.

To apply a preset, open an image or select multiple images, and simply select it from the Preset panel. You'll see a quick preview of the effect when you hover your mouse pointer over it. You can use more than one preset per image.

Make Easy Photo Fixes in Lightroom

All these fixes are easy to do, and they all help to overcome the limitations of your camera. Given that none of us have an unlimited budget, we're all going to have some gear that doesn't work as perfectly as we'd like. And the less time you have to spend worrying about your hardware, the more you can enjoy going out and shooting.