Most beginning photographers are enthusiastic about their new creative pursuit, but sheer passion alone is not enough to get the job done. That’s because practice, a firm understanding of the fundamentals, and appropriate gear are essential if one is to develop their skills.

Today’s tutorial comes from Behind the Tripod, an instructional YouTube channel designed to help novices shorten their learning curve. This episode does exactly that by revealing five of the most common beginner mistakes and explaining how to fix them. So if you’re just getting started and your photos aren’t hitting the mark, this seven-minute lesson is just what you need.

Instructor Steve Mills notes that “beginners tend to make the same mistakes over and over again.” And while errors are expected when pursuing a new passion, your goal should be to not make the same mistake twice. In fact, new mistakes are nothing to be ashamed of and often provide important insights for doing things better the next time around.

At the top of Mill’s list is a failure to understand how to arrive at proper exposures. He quickly covers the basics by explaining how the Exposure Triangle works to get the light right under various conditions with a synergy between shutter speed, aperture and ISO. Once you understand how these key variables interact it becomes easy to nail exposure no matter the situation you confront.

You’ll learn how to confirm exposure in the middle of a hectic shoot, why your camera’s histogram is an invaluable aid, and other camera settings that contribute to the process. Another critical faux pas is ignoring the importance of skillful composition. In short, a beautiful scene doesn’t guarantee beautiful photographs unless you know how to frame a shot for maximum impact. Here too, Mills has some straightforward and very effective tips.

Mistake #3 is choosing the wrong lens for the task at hand by overlooking how different focal lengths can make or break a shot. This doesn’t mean always reaching for a wide-angle lens when photographing landscapes or choosing a long telephoto for wildlife photography. Rather, the point is to determine the specific story you want to tell, and then choosing a lens with that goal in mind.

Fourth on the list is an unfamiliarity with the various camera modes available. As Mills puts it, Auto mode is a safe place to be for new photographers because the camera does all the work. “But learning how to shoot in Aperture and Shutter-Priority modes is a real game changer that will open up a whole new world of creative possibilities.”

Mills’ fifth beginner mistakes is for those of you who don’t understand post-processing tools or are unwilling to make the effort. The notion of “getting it right in the camera” is a nice objective to strive for, but that’s not always possible—for the same reasons iconic film photographers regularly turned to the darkroom to perfect their masterpieces.

If you’re looking for more beginner lessons, Mills’ instructional YouTube channel is a great source. Likewise, we encourage you to check out another helpful primer we posted recently, with a beginners guide to everything Photoshop’s Brush tool has to offer, including a bunch of simple tricks and helpful keyboard shortcuts for speeding up the process.

Yesterday we featured a straightforward guide to using Selective Exposure adjustments to get the light right in complicated images with a wide range of brightness levels throughout the frame. Today’s tutorial from another image-editing expert demonstrates how to take a similar approach with Lightroom’s powerful Selective Color tools.

One of the key benefits to a Selective editing approach that we mentioned yesterday applies to today’s technique, as well as to other enhancements made with this preferred approach. Simply put, that’s because you’ll achieve far more precise results by adjusting specific points within a scene differently, rather than by applying global enhancements that affect the entire image at once.

Selective editing requires the use of masking, and some photographers shy away from this method because of the extra steps involved. But as you’ll see in the following tutorial from image-editing expert Anthony Morganti, all that has changed because of the streamlined capabilities of Lightroom’s new Masking tools.

Morganti is an accomplished photographer and a very popular educator based in Buffalo, NY. Today’s 13-minute primer is a must-see if you’re new to Selective Color tools, whether you use Lightroom Classic, the Cloud version, or Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). And like with yesterday’s video, by mastering today’s technique you’ll be well-prepared for other types of selective editing.

Morganti’s first demonstration image is a nice lakeside shot of a cardinal perched atop a boulder on the shore. The problem is that the colors in the scene are a bit flat and there’s no way to enhance the image in the manner Morganti envisions with the common global approach.

Morganti’s goal is to give this shot a unique look, with a vibrant red Cardinal and everything else in b&w—a creative way to accentuate the main subject and guide the viewer’s eye to the most important part of the shot. His approach is to first make whatever basic global adjustments are required, and the turn to masks and selective adjustments that refine colors to the max.

As you see, the simplicity of the photo makes the required transformation very easy to accomplish. With this understanding under your belt Morganti moves on to more involved examples, and he walks you through the process for getting the job done. The impressive results he achieves with each image will convince you of the superiority of these techniques.

There’s much more to learn about post processing on Morganti’ popular YouTube channel, so be sure to take a look.

And don’t forget to watch the tutorial mentioned above that will enable you to level up exposure adjustments with a very similar technique. Once you get exposure and color corrected to perfection you’re well along the way to creating very compelling photos.