Today’s modern image-editing tools enable us to turn good photos into great ones, and even transform a subpar shot into one that’s quite special. But there’s a common mistake made by beginners and more advanced shooters alike; namely excessive processing that can really kill a photo.

We’ve said it time and time again: don’t overcook your photos with a heavy-handed approach. This advice applies to numerous processing tasks, two of which are discussed in the quick video below. We encourage you to pay close attention, because heavy-handed editing is often worse that no editing at all.

Educator Matthew Cuda is a professional wildlife and nature photographer, and he’s really good behind the computer—in large part because he always takes a subtle approach. In this episode he discusses a couple of detrimental editing mistakes he says he sees all time. One is going overboard with Lightroom’s Denoise tools and the other is over sharpening photos to the point that they’re crispier than potato chips fresh out of the fryer.

Cuda pulls up an overprocessed image of a black vulture in flight, to demonstrate these problems. Then he explains how to get the job done right. The photo was shot at ISO 20,000 with the exposure bumped up by 1.5 stops. As he explains, the image was captured with a Sony A9, “which is a fairly low-noise camera,” but you’re really up against it when shooting with these settings. In other words, “this isn’t a hill you want to die on.”

Zooming in on the shot reveals ugly noise and artifacts that cause some photographers to jump into Lightroom’s Develop module, click on Denoise, and move the slider far to the right. Unfortunately, doing that further degrades the image in predictable ways that Cuda explains. This isn’t to say that Denoise AI is merely an image-killer, as long as you use it with restraint on an appropriate photograph.

The second, and often related, big mistake that happens all too often is that these same photographers take sharpening to the max in an attempt to reclaim all the detail they just destroyed. Doing this simply piles one problem top another, with the result that the image becomes totally unusable.

Cuda demonstrates how to do things properly for an effective compromise between minimizing noise without smoothing out all the important small details in a shot. Anyone who has ever cooked oysters understands the importance of doing so carefully on low heat, and much the same applies when cooking your images.

There’s much more to learn about shooting and editing on Cuda’s instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to check it out and pay attention to his advice.

And speaking of taking the proper approach to processing your images, don’t miss the earlier tutorial we posted from another expert, explaining a better way to convert color images to b&w, with common mistakes you should avoid.

We’ve all captured what we thought was a great photo, only to pull it up on the computer and discover it’s not nearly as compelling as expected—particularly when shooting outdoors when there are several challenges to overcome.

Sometimes the problem can be easy fixed with a bit of thoughtful cropping, but other times you confront converging vertical lines or bland colors because your exposure settings missed the mark. Today’s Photoshop tutorial from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel explains how to correct these issues and more with some straightforward adjustments in Photoshop.

Instructor Christian Mohrle is an accomplished German landscape photographer whose image-editing tutorials are very popular among Shutterbug readers. The video below demonstrates his approach for transforming ho-hum late-day images into those that are really special.

Mohrle begins with a bland panoramic photo that was shot after the sun dropped below the horizon, and, frankly, it needs a bunch of work. His primary goal is to pump up the colors while maintaining a realistic look, but there are other issues that require attention. As always, there’s a link beneath the video for downloading the Raw file so you and Mohrle can make the fix together.

The lesson begins with some rather significant cropping to achieve more dynamic framing, and the wide format of the photograph provides plenty of flexibility. The next step is an initial correction of the shewed perspective of the buildings that gives the strange appearance as though they’re leaning outwards. He quickly uses Photoshop’s Geometry tab for a first pass at this task, which he refines later in the lesson.

Next are a few very basic adjustments to prepare the image as much as possible for the selective masking enhancements that follow. These including changing the profile from Adobe Color to Adobe Landscape, improving exposure in the Lights Panel, and a few other quick tweaks. Now it’s time for straightforward masking to improve the image even further.

The real magic occurs as Mohrle demonstrates several color grading enhancements that provide a truly stunning look. He also employs careful sharpening before further refining the remaining distortion of the buildings.

All that’s left to complete the transformation is a quick fix for lens flare and the addition of glow to the bright area of the sky. He provides all the important settings for each step of the process. The difference between his before/after images is truly remarkable.

You can find more editing tips and tricks for editing landscape images by paying a visit to Mohrle’s’ instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to take a look.

And on a related note, check out the tutorial we posted recently from another accomplished outdoor photographer who explains how to edit sunset photos in Lightroom, with free presets included.