Complex landscape scenes can be extremely difficult to capture and edit because of the many elements and tonal values involved. Today’s tutorial from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel reveals the “biggest mistake” you can make when editing these types of images.

This error is extremely common among inexperienced Lightroom users and instructor Christian Mohrle puts it bluntly: Limiting yourself to global adjustments is a huge mistake “because different areas need different treatments.” Hence the importance of selective enhancements with masks to balance out exposure values and colors throughout the frame.

Mohrle is an acclaimed German pro specializing in landscape photography, and he’s just as adept behind the computer as he is when looking through a viewfinder. His post-processing technique is somewhat unusual because it follows a two-step approach. He first applies global adjustments to create a solid “base image,” and only then does he turn to masking and selective enhancements that contribute to the ultimate result.

Oftentimes Mohrle adds a bit of color grading, sharpening, and a final cleanup up before his transformation is complete. As always there’s a link beneath the video for downloading today’s sample image so that you can follow along and make the changes yourself in real time.

This demonstration shot has a number of issues in need of attention, from an overly bright sky, a very dark foreground, a bright midrange, and distant mountains that deserve to be accentuated. And as Mohrle explains, “editing images like this globally is a nightmare.”

The key to most of Mohrle’s videos is the assortment of enhancements that he applies in a specific order—and you’ll learn plenty of that today as you watch him work his magic. But the real takeaway in this particular episode is understanding the hierarchy he follows to maximize the interplay between preliminary basic adjustments, local enhancements that follow, and the final tweaks to color and sharpening.

Mohrle’s strategic approach admittedly takes a bit more time, but it’s the only way to go if you’re striving for maximum impact and image quality. In fact, you may even consider modifying your workflow accordingly.

The PHLOG Photography YouTube channel is a great source of shooting and editing advice for landscape photographers of all skill levels, so be sure to take a look.

We also recommend watching an earlier tutorial we posted demonstrating another pro’s technique for capturing spectacular nature and landscape photographs with an iPhone.

Over the years we’ve discussed why some photographs are more compelling when converted to b&w and how some processing methods are more complicated than others. And this holds true for landscape scenes, portrait photos, nature images, and other popular genres.

Today’s Lightroom Classic tutorial from photographer Julieanne Kost reveals what to look for before converting color images to monochrome, and then she demonstrates several techniques for converting color to b&w with precision and control. You’ll also learn how easy it is to complete the task of creating a vintage look in the process.

Kost begins In Lightroom’s Basic panel and explains how the Saturation slider can be used to quickly strip all color from a photo. She then notes that “Lightroom has several other tools that will allow us to convert our images with a lot more control. She then proceeds to explain how they work and which option may be best depending upon the specific photo at hand.

The first approach involves using one of Lightroom’s several B&W Presets. These include specific options for portraits, as well as adding B&W Styles. You can hover your cursor over any of these presets to see a preview of what to expect before deciding to applying it. There’s also an icon on the panel that enables you to see the different adjustments that were made. This particular feature can be toggled on or off.

Kost moves on to creating manual monochrome conversions that ignore presets altogether. This approach provides maximum control because it allows you to make important decisions while adjusting an image for the specific effect that you desire. You can opt for soft and moody, compelling high contrast, along with a number other powerful effects.

This process begins by changing the Lightroom profile to Adobe Monochrome for a standard look. You can explore  a variety of other b&w profiles within Lightroom’s Profile Browser where you’ll find options for more or less Contrast and controlling Dynamic Range by lifting or lowering the blacks.

There are even Profiles for emulating the effect that occurs when adding color filters to the front of a lens. And there’s a straightforward method for refining the look according to your taste by making a few simple adjustments.

The video concludes with a step-by-step demonstration of giving your b&w conversion an interesting vintage look that really sets it apart. Sometimes this means adding a vignette, while other techniques involve customizing Saturation and Luminance values to impart a strong vintage appearance.

Kost is an acknowledged expert in all thing Adobe, and we encourage you to visit her instructional YouTube channel where you’ll find helpful videos on just about any post-processing technique imaginable.

We also suggest checking out a related tutorial we featured recently with another image-editing specialist who explains why your b&w photographs are disappointing and how to bring them to life in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw (ACR).