The Super Zoom tutorial below doesn’t involve shooting with long telephoto lenses; rather, it’s all about how to use Photoshop’s oft-ignored Super Zoom neural filter. This powerful tool enables you alter the appearance of a photo by zooming in and cropping a portion of the image before Photoshop takes over and adds extra pixels to compensate for the subsequent loss of resolution and detail.

Instructor Len Erickson is a wildlife photographer and author dedicated to sharing his love of photography, and in this episode he demonstrates how this easy-to-use feature works in barely four minutes. This technique works wonders for all sorts of photos you make in the great outdoors.

Like with other neural filters, Super Zoom transformations occur without much intervention on your part because Photoshop does all the heavy lifting. As Erickson says, “you can never get too close and your lens is never long enough.” And that’s where this neural filter comes to the rescue.

Erickson pulls up a nice photo of a colorful bird perched on a tree limb. He determines a tighter shot would be far more effective and quickly gets to work. Conventional cropping merely removes pixels, losing resolution in the process. To rectify that Erickson first clicks on the Filters tab atop the screen, and then chooses Neural Filters from a dropdown menu that appears.

The next step is to select the Super Zoom option within the Photography section in the panel to the right of your photo. As Ericson explains, “this is going to let you zoom in like you used a longer lens without losing the resolution of the photo.” Be forewarned that while you’ll like the results you achieve; it takes Photoshop longer than you might expect to make the transformation.

Erickson says, “I’m not talking seconds, I’m taking minutes”—noting that he has a very fast computer. That said, the interface is very simple, with your image on the left and a small button beneath the thumbnail on the right that lets you specify how closely you want to zoom in. There are also sliders for enhancing details, removing Jpeg artifacts, adding sharpening, and removing noise.

Another nice feature is that you can drag the thumbnail around to refine cropping before choosing the degree of zoom and letting Photoshop get the job done. Take a look at the before/after images and you’ll be quite impressed with the results. After watching the lesson head over to Ericksen’s popular YouTube channel where there’s much more to learn.

We also suggest watching the tutorial we posted recently from another post-processing expert who explains how to easily straighten converging or crooked lines in Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw.

If you’re striving to shoot more impactful landscape imagery you’ve come to the right place, as one of our favorite instructors reveals seven simple techniques that “transformed my photos” as his skills evolved. These techniques are easy to accomplish but will have a huge impact on the quality of your work.

Instructor Nigel Danson is an acclaimed British outdoor photographer who is very generous about sharing the secrets to his success. The impetus for this lesson is an eBook that took Danson years to complete. Writing the book forced Danson to look back and determine what made some of his images work better than others.

The tips he reveals in today’s episode are all about composition, and Danson begins by illustrating why “spacing is so important.” Here demonstrates the importance separating objects within a scene and why you should avoid placing key elements near any edges of the frame. He also has a few good suggestions for properly positioning the horizon.

Danson also discusses how to choose the optimum vantage point—either high, low, or straight on—when composing different types of photos. You’ll also see how to crop images for maximum impact during the editing process when the original shot wasn’t quite right. In essence, the goal here is to capture images with dramatic tension that guides a viewer through the shot.

In that regard Danson says “there are loads of ways to lead the eye” that transcend common notions like leading lines and the Rule of Thirds. He illustrates several less-familiar methods, including how to use elements in the frame to create a compelling sense of balance and direction throughout a scene.

Danson also has some great advice for choosing the optimum focal length for the task at hand. You’ll see why he says, “You don’t have to shoot really wide to include foregrounds in your photos.” He offers an important reminder that the wider you go, the more background elements recede, and that’s not what you want if there’s a towering mountain in the distance.

The foregoing is only a small slice of the tips that Danson provides, and virtually all of them are sure to improve your skills. So take a look and put these simple techniques to work. You can find more great advice for improving your landscape photography by visiting Danson’s instructional YouTube channel.

And don’t miss the tutorial we posted recently from another accomplished pro, explaining how to shoot photos of the urban landscape that really grab attention and make your images stand out from the crowd.

Early last week we posted an overview of what one image-editing expert considers three standout features in the recent update to Lightroom, one of which is the new Blur tool. Today were taking a deep dive into that powerful feature, courtesy of the experts at the Park Cameras YouTube channel.

Park Cameras is a leading retailer in the UK that posts weekly tutorials on shooting and editing techniques, and in this episode lead instructor Gareth Evans explains everything you need to know about using Lightroom Classic’s exciting Blur tool in less than 10 minutes. As he says, “this will add a little something to your images.”

Evans pulls up a tasty photo of a chef, captured at the Kent Cookery School. It’s an interesting casual portrait that he greatly improves by blurring distracting elements in a way that wasn’t accomplished in the camera. Evans explains where to find the Lens Blur panel and gets to work. As you’ll see, this tool is similar to Photoshop’s Depth Blur filter.

The initial step is to click on the Apply button, then Lightroom locates the main subject in a photo—which is very straightforward in this example. Lightroom then quickly applies a depth-of-field effect to the image. Evans explains that this quick technique seems to work best with photos that already have a bit of background blur.

The Blur tool doesn’t really change focus, so you can’t pull things into focus that were originally unsharp. What it does do, however, is further soften out-of-focus areas for better bokeh and an enhanced look and feel. As you’ll see, Lightroom does this in a very sophisticated way.

Evans discusses a number of very helpful control within the panel that help you refine the effect, including a Depth Map of the image that Lightroom create automatically. Other options enable you to modify the amount of blur that’s applied. You can go from subtle to intense and the results appear quite realistic.

If you examine the image closely you’ll see that the blur is variable—stronger in the background and less so in areas closer to the subject—just as you’d expect when relying upon depth of field. Other controls let you modify the shape of “bokeh lights” and other key characteristics to achieve exactly the look you want.

Most of the magic of the new Blur tool has to do with the Depth Map mentioned above, and Evans explains how it works to dramatically transform an image. While you can’t control how Lightroom builds the map, there’s a visual representation that’s very helpful when making any adjustments.

There’s much more to learn on the Park Cameras YouTube channel, where new lessons are posted every week.

We also suggest taking a look at the earlier tutorial mentioned above, explaining what another pro considers the three standout features in the latest Lightroom update.