Surf photography can be challenging to edit. You are often dealing with bright reflections on the water, dark wetsuits, white spray, fast-moving surfers and dramatic skies — sometimes all in the same photograph.
Getting your Lightroom settings right can make a huge difference.
The good news is that you don’t need complicated editing techniques. A good surf photograph usually benefits from natural colours, controlled highlights, sharp detail and plenty of contrast without making the image look artificial.
This guide explains the Lightroom settings I use as a starting point for surf photography and how you can adjust them for different conditions.
Start With the RAW File
If your camera allows it, shoot RAW rather than JPEG.
RAW files contain considerably more information to work with when editing, particularly in:
- Highlights
- Shadows
- White balance
- Colour
- Exposure
- Fine detail
This is particularly useful for surf photography because the bright water and white spray can easily become overexposed.
A RAW file gives you much more flexibility when trying to recover those highlights.
Step 1: Choose the Correct Lightroom Profile
Start in the Profile section.
For Sony cameras, Lightroom may offer profiles such as:
- Adobe Color
- Adobe Landscape
- Adobe Neutral
- Camera Standard
- Camera Landscape
- Camera Vivid
For surf photography, I would normally start with:
Adobe Color
This provides a good general-purpose starting point.
If the photograph looks too flat, try:
Adobe Landscape
This can give you stronger colours and contrast, which can work particularly well with blue water and dramatic skies.
However, don’t automatically choose the strongest profile.
A heavily saturated image can quickly start looking unrealistic.
Step 2: Correct the White Balance
White balance is extremely important when photographing the sea.
Water can easily appear:
- Too blue
- Too green
- Too grey
- Too cyan
Start with Auto White Balance and then adjust it manually.
As a rough starting point:
Temperature: 5,500–6,500K
Tint: +5 to +15
These are only starting points.
The correct setting depends heavily on:
- Time of day
- Weather
- Camera
- Lens
- Sun position
- Water colour
Don’t edit every photograph to the same temperature.
A cold winter surf session will naturally look different from a sunny summer session.
Step 3: Exposure
Don’t be afraid to adjust exposure.
A good starting point might be:
Exposure: 0 to +0.30
But always judge the photograph rather than following a fixed number.
If the surfer is too dark, increase exposure.
If the white spray is blowing out, reduce exposure.
The histogram is extremely useful here.
Try to keep important highlights from being completely clipped.
Step 4: Highlights
This is one of the most useful adjustments for surf photography.
White foam and spray can become extremely bright.
Try:
Highlights: -20 to -50
This can bring back detail in:
- Spray
- Foam
- White water
- Clouds
- Reflections
Don’t automatically drag the slider all the way down.
Too much highlight reduction can make the photograph look dull and unnatural.
Step 5: Shadows
The surfer’s wetsuit is often considerably darker than the surrounding water.
Try:
Shadows: +10 to +35
This can reveal detail in dark areas without making the entire photograph look flat.
If the surfer is already well exposed, you may not need much shadow recovery.
Step 6: Whites and Blacks
These two sliders help establish the overall contrast.
A good starting point is:
Whites: +5 to +20
Blacks: -5 to -20
Increasing whites can make spray and highlights pop.
Reducing blacks gives the photograph stronger depth.
Be careful with black levels.
If you push them too far, the surfer’s wetsuit can become a featureless black shape.
A Good Starting Basic Panel
For a typical daylight surf photograph, try:
| Setting | Starting Point |
|---|---|
| Exposure | 0 to +0.30 |
| Contrast | +5 to +15 |
| Highlights | -20 to -50 |
| Shadows | +10 to +35 |
| Whites | +5 to +20 |
| Blacks | -5 to -20 |
| Texture | +5 to +15 |
| Clarity | +5 to +15 |
| Dehaze | 0 to +8 |
| Vibrance | +5 to +15 |
| Saturation | -5 to +5 |
These aren’t rules.
Think of them as a starting preset.
Every surf photograph is different.
Step 7: Texture
Texture can be extremely useful for surf photography.
Try:
Texture: +5 to +15
Texture can bring out detail in:
- Wave faces
- Spray
- Wetsuits
- Surfboards
- Water droplets
It generally gives a more natural result than heavily increasing clarity.
Step 8: Clarity
Clarity increases midtone contrast.
For surf photography:
Clarity: +5 to +15
can work very well.
Be careful with high values.
If you push clarity too far, you can get harsh-looking water and exaggerated edges.
I would generally avoid using something like +30 or +40 on a normal surf photograph unless you are deliberately creating a particular style.
Step 9: Dehaze
Dehaze can be useful when shooting through:
- Sea mist
- Spray
- Haze
- Cloudy conditions
Try:
Dehaze: 0 to +8
Small adjustments can make a surprisingly big difference.
Too much Dehaze can make the image look overly processed.
Surf Photography and Vibrance
Rather than immediately increasing Saturation, try Vibrance first.
A good starting point:
Vibrance: +5 to +15
Vibrance tends to produce a more controlled increase in colour.
You can then use:
Saturation: -5 to +5
if necessary.
Remember that Yorkshire and North East water isn’t always bright tropical blue.
Don’t feel that you need to turn the sea turquoise just because you are editing a surf photograph.
HSL: Making the Sea Look Better
The Color Mixer/HSL panel can be particularly useful.
The exact settings depend on the colour of the water in the original photograph.
As a starting point, you might experiment with:
Aqua
Hue: -5 to -15
Saturation: +5 to +15
Luminance: 0 to +10
Blue
Hue: -5 to +5
Saturation: +5 to +15
Luminance: -5 to -15
This can give the water more depth.
However, don’t apply these settings blindly.
If the water already looks good, leave it alone.
Don’t Forget the Surfer
One of the biggest mistakes in surf photography editing is concentrating entirely on the ocean.
The surfer is the subject.
Use Masking to make selective adjustments.
Create a mask for:
The Surfer
You can then slightly adjust:
Exposure: +0.10 to +0.30
Shadows: +10 to +25
Texture: +5 to +15
Clarity: +5 to +10
This can help separate the surfer from the surrounding water.
Use a Mask on the Wave
You can also create a mask for the wave.
Try:
Texture: +10
Clarity: +5
This can emphasise the shape and detail of the wave without affecting the entire photograph.
It works particularly well when you have a clean wave face.
Sky Masking
If you have a dramatic sky, use Lightroom’s masking tools to select it.
You might reduce:
Highlights: -20
and increase:
Dehaze: +5
You can also slightly increase contrast.
Be careful around the horizon.
Poor masking can create obvious halos around the surfer and wave.
Sharpening for Surf Photography
Sharpness is extremely important.
Surf photographs contain lots of fine detail, including:
- Water droplets
- Spray
- Hair
- Wetsuit texture
- Surfboard details
- Wave texture
A useful starting point in the Detail panel is:
Amount: 40–70
Radius: 0.7–1.0
Detail: 20–40
Masking: 50–80
The masking slider is particularly useful.
Hold ALT while adjusting it to see where Lightroom is applying sharpening.
The aim is to sharpen the important edges without aggressively sharpening the smooth areas of the water and sky.
Noise Reduction
If you’ve photographed surfing in low light or winter conditions at higher ISO, you may need noise reduction.
Start with:
Luminance Noise Reduction: 5–20
and adjust from there.
Don’t automatically apply heavy noise reduction.
Too much can remove the fine detail that makes surf photographs look sharp.
Modern Lightroom versions also include AI-powered Denoise, which can be extremely useful for high-ISO surf photographs.
Lens Corrections
Turn on:
Remove Chromatic Aberration
and:
Enable Profile Corrections
This can correct things such as:
- Lens distortion
- Vignetting
- Chromatic aberration
It is particularly useful with long telephoto lenses and images containing strong contrast around the edges.
Cropping Surf Photographs
Cropping is often part of surf photography.
You might photograph a surfer from a considerable distance and then crop the image.
Try to maintain enough space around the surfer to show where they are going.
For example, if the surfer is travelling towards the right, leaving some space on the right side of the photograph can make the image feel more natural.
Don’t automatically put the surfer in the centre.
Don’t Over-Crop
Modern cameras give you plenty of resolution, but cropping too aggressively can eventually reduce image quality.
For example, a Sony APS-C camera such as the Sony A6700 produces a 26-megapixel file, giving you useful cropping flexibility.
However, if you turn a tiny surfer in the distance into a huge subject, you may start losing:
- Detail
- Sharpness
- Fine texture
- Image quality
Getting as close as practical when taking the photograph is still important.
Editing Yorkshire and North East Surf
The sea around Yorkshire and the North East often has a very different appearance depending on conditions.
You might get:
Bright summer conditions
Aim for:
- Natural blues
- Controlled highlights
- Moderate contrast
- Clean skin and wetsuit colours
Grey winter conditions
Don’t be afraid to embrace the atmosphere.
Try:
- Slightly lower saturation
- Increased contrast
- Controlled highlights
- Deeper blacks
- Slightly cooler white balance
Stormy conditions
This is where dramatic editing can work particularly well.
Try:
- Stronger contrast
- Reduced highlights
- Slightly darker shadows
- Moderate Dehaze
- Controlled saturation
The aim isn’t to make the photograph look like a tropical surf image.
The North Sea has its own character.
A Moody North Sea Surf Edit
For a dramatic winter photograph, try this as a starting point:
Contrast: +15
Highlights: -35
Shadows: +10
Whites: +10
Blacks: -20
Texture: +15
Clarity: +10
Dehaze: +5
Vibrance: +5
Saturation: -5
Then adjust exposure and white balance to suit the photograph.
This can work particularly well with dark skies, powerful waves and surfers wearing black winter wetsuits.
A Bright Summer Surf Edit
For sunny conditions, try:
Contrast: +5
Highlights: -25
Shadows: +20
Whites: +10
Blacks: -10
Texture: +10
Clarity: +5
Dehaze: +2
Vibrance: +10
Saturation: 0
This should produce a clean, natural-looking image without pushing the colours too far.
Lightroom Presets: Should You Use Them?
Presets can save a huge amount of time.
However, don’t expect one preset to work perfectly on every surf photograph.
Lighting conditions can change dramatically from one wave to the next.
A better approach is to create several presets, for example:
Yorkshire Summer Surf
Yorkshire Winter Surf
Overcast Surf
Sunset Surf
Stormy North Sea
Black & White Surf
Use the preset as a starting point and then adjust exposure and white balance for each image.
Create Your Own Surf Photography Preset
Once you’ve edited a photograph you really like, save the settings as a preset.
For example:
Howard Senton – North Sea Surf
Include settings such as:
- Contrast
- Highlights
- Shadows
- Whites
- Blacks
- Texture
- Clarity
- Vibrance
- HSL
- Sharpening
I would leave Exposure and White Balance out of the main preset.
Those two settings usually need to be adjusted for every photograph.
Lightroom Editing Workflow
A simple workflow for surf photographs is:
1. Cull your photographs
Remove:
- Missed focus
- Bad composition
- Empty waves
- Accidental frames
- Duplicate photographs
2. Correct the lens
Enable lens corrections.
3. Set white balance
Get the colour of the water and surfer looking natural.
4. Adjust exposure
Make sure the photograph has the correct overall brightness.
5. Recover highlights
Control bright spray and water.
6. Open shadows
Bring back useful detail in the surfer and darker areas.
7. Set whites and blacks
Establish contrast.
8. Adjust colour
Use Vibrance and HSL carefully.
9. Apply masking
Bring attention to the surfer and important parts of the wave.
10. Sharpen
Make the image look crisp.
11. Crop
Improve the composition.
12. Export
Create the final file for your website, social media or client.
My Biggest Lightroom Tip for Surf Photography
Don’t try to make every photograph look the same.
A surf photograph taken at Saltburn on a sunny summer afternoon shouldn’t necessarily look like one taken at Cayton Bay during a freezing winter swell.
The conditions are part of the story.
Good editing should enhance what was already there rather than completely changing it.
The best surf edits normally look natural when you first see them.
You notice the surfer.
You notice the wave.
You notice the spray.
And only afterwards do you realise how much the editing has helped bring the photograph to life.
Final Lightroom Settings Cheat Sheet
For a natural starting point, try:
| Lightroom Setting | Starting Point |
| Exposure | 0 to +0.30 |
| Contrast | +5 to +15 |
| Highlights | -20 to -50 |
| Shadows | +10 to +35 |
| Whites | +5 to +20 |
| Blacks | -5 to -20 |
| Texture | +5 to +15 |
| Clarity | +5 to +15 |
| Dehaze | 0 to +8 |
| Vibrance | +5 to +15 |
| Saturation | -5 to +5 |
| Sharpening Amount | 40–70 |
| Sharpening Radius | 0.7–1.0 |
| Noise Reduction | 5–20 |
Remember: these are starting points, not magic numbers.
Your camera settings, light, weather, water colour and exposure will all affect the final result.
Final Thoughts
Lightroom is incredibly powerful for surf photography, but you don’t need to throw every slider at an image.
Start with the fundamentals:
Exposure → White Balance → Highlights → Shadows → Contrast → Colour → Masking → Sharpening.
Then stop when the photograph looks good.
For Yorkshire and North East surf photography, I would always favour natural-looking water and realistic colours over an exaggerated Instagram-style edit.
The North Sea can produce incredible colours, textures and light.
Your job as the photographer is to bring those qualities out — not replace them.
Shoot it well. Edit it carefully. Keep the ocean looking like the ocean.
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