All good photographers strive to make images that stand out from the crowd, whether they shoot landscapes, sports, wildlife, or another genre. And the best way to do that is by developing a unique (and hopefully recognizable) style you can call your own.

If you’re struggling to find your own visual “voice,” the quick tutorial below will help you do just that, and start producing photos that you find inspiring. Instructor Scott French is a professional fine-art photographer specializing in the urban landscape and architectural imagery. The straightforward tips he provides in just 11 minutes will help you imbue your photos with a personal look.

As French insists, “Developing our own style is one of the ultimate goals we have as photographers, yet it can be one of the most difficult things to achieve.” He says the term “style” goes deeper than a just a specific look, but also involves the way you view the world. In other words, “try to think of it in terms of your personality and character reflected in your photographs.”

That explanation, by itself, may sound rather amorphous, but French follows it up with three practical tips he used himself when first starting out and defining how he wished to pursue our craft.

The first step is what French refers to as “finding your inspiration.” He suggests that one way to do this is by doing a bit of research to discover imagery from other photographers that you really admire. In other words, photographs with which you “connect on an emotional level.”

The idea, of course, is not to rip someone off by copying his or her approach, but rather to use whatever intrigues you as a jumping-off point for creating your own look. French shares how this simple process was immensely helpful to him as he evolved his work. His other two methods also make lot of sense, and will prove helpful to you during your journey.

If you do enough shooting, it’s possible that sooner or later you may stumble upon a personal style on your own. But French’s advice will greatly accelerate this creative process.

There’s much more to learn on French’s instructional YouTube channel, and we’re sure that you’ll find his calm teaching style reassuring and effective. So pay a visit as soon as you can.

And don’t miss the tutorial we posted recently from another accomplished pro recently, explaining how to create dramatic b&w photos by using two hidden Photoshop filters.

Today we’re bringing you the latest installment of a very popular Lightroom Masterclass series from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel. Each episode covers the basics of a single, important task for photographers of all skills levels.

Today’s tutorial is Part 7 of the series and the topic is Lightroom’s Lens Correction settings. You’ll learn how remove chromatic aberration, fix vignetting, apply lens profiles to eliminate distortion, and much more. Best yet, instructor Christian Mohrle explains all the details in lens than seven minutes.       

We suggest downloading the demonstration image using the link beneath the video so you can experiment with these tools as they’re explained. After opening Lightroom’s Lens Correction panel Mohrle explains how it works. As you’ll see, the various enhancements can be accomplished in two ways; automatically with the Profiles menu that includes a selection of lens profiles or by taking a manual approach.

Keep in mind that different lenses require different corrections. Or as Mohrle puts it, “There is no general fix for every lens, as one may distort the image more or in a different way than the others.” Fortunately, most of the time applying Lightroom’s automatic settings through the Profiles menu is sufficient when working with landscape photos.

Mohrle uses a seaside shot to demonstrate how all this works, and he begins with unsightly Chromatic Aberration. As he explains, it’s usually necessary to zoom in on an image and take a closer look to identify problems areas that need to be addressed. In this case it’s ugly colored edges in areas of high contrast that detract from the photo.

You’ll see how to set up the lens profile manually if Lightroom’s dropdown menu doesn’t have what you need, but Mohrle says this is a rare occurrence. With Chromatic Aberration resolved, he moves on to distortion, vignetting, and an explanation of Defringe. In all cases the rehabilitation process is straightforward and easy to accomplish.

You can find earlier episodes in this illuminating series by paying a visit to Mohrle’s YouTube channel, that also include other lessons on just about any other editing task you can imagine.

We also recommend taking a look at the helpful video tutorial we shared from another expert, with a complete beginners guide to using Layer Masks in Lightroom.