Everyone loves rounding a bend in the trail and witnessing a breathtaking, expansive vista, which is why many landscape photographers routinely reach for a wide-angle or ultra-wide lens that enables them to capture as much of the scene as possible in one shot.

According to the folks at Yorkshire Photo Walks, however, this habit may be holding you back by compromising the impact of your compositions. Tutorials from British instructor Tom Marsh often delve into the philosophical and inspirational aspects of shooting in the field, and today he demonstrates why he often shoots landscapes with focal lengths of 50mm or longer.

Here’s how Marsh introduces the seven-minute below: “I’ll teach you how to highlight the essence of a scene and encourage you to sample what you see, rather than attempting to cram everything into the frame.” And it’s all about a discerning eye and employing a longer lens in the appropriate way.

Marsh uses practical examples to illustrate how this uncommon approach enables you to craft attention-grabbing “compact compositions” by getting in tighter on key elements in the scene and concentrating on vantage point and perspective. In fact, you may even find that you can capture two or more successful images from exactly the same spot by shooting with a slightly longer lens.

In this behind-the-scenes episode you’ll watch Marsh decode 360-degrees of stunning landscape and avoid the temptation of capturing as much of the view as possible with a wide-perspective. He does this by “summarizing and compartmentalizing” the scene before him. As you’ll see, “picking out the highlight can lead to much more coherent compositions and ultimately more impactful images.”

He provides a reminder that the average field of human vision is roughly equivalent to that of a 50mm lens on a full-frame camera, which is why wide-angle lenses make objects look much smaller while increasing the appearance of greater distance between foreground and background than what appears with the naked eye.

All of this has implications for the empathy of our photos and often requires us to adjust camera settings appropriately for the specific lens in use. Be sure you check out the Yorkshire Photo Walks YouTube channel for more outside-the-box imaging techniques.

And don’t miss another helpful tutorial we featured earlier on a topic of interest to all outdoor shooters; namely whether you should set your camera’s color space to capture photographs in RGB or Adobe RGB.

Let’s start with a question from photographer and Adobe expert Colin Smith: “Do you ever get spots on your photos from sensor dust or a dirty lens?” Eliminating these image-killing distractions used to be a time-consuming task, but Adobe just made it automatic and effective.

The topic of conversation in this super-simple tutorial from the popular Photoshop Café YouTube channel is the new AI Spot Removal feature that’s now available in Photoshop’s Camera Raw. In the next three minutes you’ll learn how to put the tool to use, streamline your workflow, and avoid hours sitting behind the computer.

We often turn to Adobe expert Colin Smith for quick explanations of software updates, emerging techniques, and helpful new tools. Today’s three-minute episode explains exactly how the timesaving AI Spot Removal tool works so you can start cleaning up your images today.

Remember that this new feature now appears in the current version of Photoshop; it’s not limited to a beta. Smith explains that the tool exits as a Technology Preview in Camera Raw, so here’s how to access it for the first time: Hit the small gear icon at the top right of your screen, and then select Technology Preview at the bottom of a list of options that appears.

Make sure to activate the New AI Features box. It’s important to remember that If this box wasn’t already checked, you’ll then need to restart your computer for the new tool to work it’s wonders.

Smith’s demonstration of the new AI Spot Removal tool is so clear and concise that there’s no need for us to summarize it further. Just hit the “Play” button and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Then head over to the Photoshop Café YouTube channel for more how-to videos on all things Adobe.

We also recommend watching the beginners guide we featured with another post-processing expert who demonstrates how easy it is to use Photoshop’s versatile Pen tool for precision edits with all sorts of photographs.