So you spend what seems like ages editing a photo with all your usual tricks, tools, and techniques, but no matter how many adjustments you make to exposure, color, and other key variables the image never seems to feel finished. If this frustration sounds familiar, today’s quick tutorial from instructor Steve Arnold will simplify your shots and provide the final bit of polish every photo needs.

Arnold is a professional landscape photographer who employs a “game-changing” mindset that goes like this: “At some point the task of turning a great shot into a gallery-worthy masterpiece is not about what more you can put into it, but rather about what you can take out.” In other words, less is oftentimes more.

In this episode Arnold demonstrates one simple thing you can do to every single photo, regardless of genre, to create portfolio-quality photos with every edit. In short, and there are three simple changes you can make to your workflow for impressive transformations every time.

Arnold’s approach is all about striving for simplicity and removing distracting elements from the frame. This task is particularly important when editing complicated landscape photos, busy street scenes, and other complex images without an obvious focal point that can easily confuse the viewer.

Think of it like trying to make sense out of a mind-boggling Where’s Waldo illustration and you’ll get the idea. In other words, “the more you can remove distractions, the more key elements in an image will stand out.” Arnold demonstrates how to rid photos of unnecessary distractions, whether they’re large objects or little stuff like dust spots, specular highlights, stray hairs, or small branches in the background that compete for attention.

Arnold starts with the small stuff by saying this: “The surprising thing about tiny distractions is that you may not even consciously notice them, but you’ll notice the big effect they have after being removed.” By following his advice for eliminating these wayward elements your images will appear far more polished and complete. One very helpful tool is Photoshop’s Spot Healing Brush and you’ll learn how easy it is to use.

Larger distractions can be even more problematic when trying to tell a story and guide the viewer’s eye to exactly where you want it to go. Fortunately, though, they’re just as easy to get rid of if you use the proper tools in the manner that Arnold suggests. What we’re discussing here isn’t the popular style of minimalist photography, but simply cleaning up a shot so that everything within the frame serves a purpose.

Arnold’s instructional YouTube channel is a great source of information for landscape shooters, but there are also tutorials like this one that will significantly improve just about any image you capture.

And don’t miss a tutorial we featured recently from another accomplished pro who explains a common mistake photographers make when sharpening images and a better way to do things right.

A basic understanding of color theory is essential for capturing and editing all sorts of photos, be they landscapes, street scenes portraits, and pretty much everything else unless you’re shooting  in b&w. This holds true whether your intent is to depict exactly what you saw through the viewfinder or want to change the look and mood of an image during the editing process to achieve a particular effect.

Instructor Maarten Schrader is a professional travel photographer and an image-editing expert whose comprehensive tutorials provide step-by-step techniques for better imagery and creating a recognizable style of your own. This “essential” episode runs 20 minutes. So we suggest taking a few notes for future reference.

Some of Schrader’s advice is admittedly subjective, but as he says, “you have to understand the rules before you break them. I love working with color because it’s where we give life, character and style to our images.”  His goal for this lesson is to demystify the “science” behind color with practical examples and clear illustrations for putting these creative principles to work.

Schrader begins with a discussion of how certain colors play an important role in the emotions of a viewer. As he says, the color orange conveys a feeling of happiness, greens and blues tends to have a calming or contemplative effect, while other colors affect our mood in different ways.

Of course, the task of darkening or brightening colors with Vibrance, Saturation and Luminance tools also factors into the equation. Schrader also demonstrates how objects, props, clothing, and other colorful elements will help accentuate whatever feeling you’re trying to convey.

The concept of “hue” is another key component of color theory, and Schrader explains that the handy Color Wheel is made up of various hues, with subtle variations between the different tones. But here’s the twist: There are actually multiple Color Wheels—one based upon RGB values (red, green, blue) that is of particular importance to photographers and Lightroom/Photoshop users—with others that are more useful to painters, graphic artists, and print makers.

Color Temperature is another key post-processing variable and Schrader walks you through everything you need to know. And then there’s the notion of Color Harmony that illustrates how certain colors are extremely impactful when used in combination (while others tend to clash). You’ll also learn how to balance color to achieve a natural look, and how to edit an image to convey a specific feeling or mood.

Shrader’s instructional YouTube channel is full of helpful image-editing videos, so be sure to take a look when you have time to explore.