One of the biggest challenges when photographing expansive landscape scenes is that they often include such a wide of tones that it’s almost impossible to achieve balanced exposures with a single shot in the camera. Today you’ll learn how to remedy this problem in the following beginners guide to exposure bending.

This easy-to-master technique involves merging multiple images of the same scene to create a single image with balanced tones from the highlights to shadows. In other words, this powerful approach enables you to capture a much wider dynamic range than a single exposure is able to achieve.

Instructor Neil Medland is a professional landscape photographer and image-editing specialist based in Australia. In this quick behind-the scenes episode you’ll watch him shoot the necessary images in the field, and then he walks you through a very basic exposure-blending technique using just two images that’s well within the skills of inexperienced Photoshop users.

His first shot was exposed for the sky which rendered the foreground extremely dark, while another shot exposed for the foreground blows out the sky. A quick look at the merged image illustrates the power of this technique that everyone should understand now.

Medland is working on the seashore with his camera atop a tripod under difficult light and he walks you through the necessary camera setting for the two shots he captures at different exposures. He carefully times the first image and snaps the shutter just as waves crash ashore. He says that “by focusing roughly halfway into the frame everything should be nice and sharp.”

He adjusts the aperture to achieve a half-second exposure for reasons that become obvious as he proceeds. He exposes his second shot for the sky by increasing the shutter speed until no clipping is evident in the sky. After repeating the process as the light becomes lower, Blue Hour is rapidly approaching, colors are beautiful, and Medland settles on two images that will make an ideal merge.

Now it’s time grapple with dynamic range and Medland demonstrates how exposure blending and “an extreme HDR blend” provide options for accomplishing the intended goal. In some complex situations it may be necessary to blend three or four images, but the process works exactly the same.

There are other helpful instructional videos available on Medland’s popular YouTube channel, so be sure to pay a visit and explore.

And don’t miss the tutorial we featured recently with another accomplished pro who demonstrates a quick post-processing hack for boosting the impact of reflections when photographing landscape scenes that include ponds, lakes, waterfalls, or streams.

The typical goal of most landscape photographers is to capture an image with a broad range of tonal values, with properly exposed highlights, dramatic shadows, and everything in between. This tutorial from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel demonstrates a different style that will really make your images stand out from the crowd.

High key photography is a unique stye that eliminates shadows and emphasizes bright tones to create dreamy images with minimal contrast and an ephemeral look. Instructor Christian Mohrle is a highly acclaimed landscape photographer and post-processing expert based near beautiful Lake Constance in Southern Germany—and a favorite among Shutterbug readers.

Today’s nine-minute episode demonstrates everything you need to know about capturing high key images in the camera and enhancing them in Lightroom—thereby adding a moody new style to your repertoire. Winter is the perfect time to experiment with this approach, especially when a snow-covered scene is complemented with cloudy gray skies.

Misty mornings and bright sandy beaches are also great subjects for this uncommon technique. Be sure to download Mohrle’s sample Raw file so you make the Lightroom adjustments yourself as they’re explained. His take on the versatile concept is this: “In essence you’re trying to create a minimalist image that feels clean and harmonious with highlights that are almost overwhelming.

Image capture is the first thing on the agenda, and Mohrle demonstrates why the camera’s histogram is an essential tool. Mohrle recommends shifting the graph as far to the right as possible without totally blowing out the shot. You may have heard this technique referred to as UTTR, an acronym for “expose to the right.”

Mohrle also describes the benefits of slower shutter speeds (even if you have to increase ISO), and why an aperture setting of f/11 to f/16 is helpful for maintaining sharpness within acceptable limits. He also displays several of his high-key images for a bit of inspiration.

The remaining portion of the lesson reveals a simple post-processing workflow that further enhances the look of high-key imagery. Mohrle begins with a few global adjustments to the entirety of the frame, thereby creating the best possible base image for the localized enhancements that follow,

Mohrle explains how to employ masks to modify different portions of the photo, independently of one another, for achieving a perfectly balanced result. He concludes the impressive transformation with a bit of thoughtful color grading and very judicious sharpening. There’s much more to learn about capturing and editing landscape photos on Mohrle’s instructional You Tube channel.

And don’t miss our recent tutorial with a contrary approach that relies upon a Midtone Contrast post-processing trick for adding more punch to landscape photographs that appear dull and washed out.