Most outdoor photographers love shooting at Golden Hour, when soft warm tones bath the landscape before the sun disappears below the horizon. Unfortunately it’s not always possible to control when we come across an epic scene, and sometimes that happens earlier in the day when light is less than ideal.

Fortunately, it’s not particularly difficult to mimic the beauty of Golden Hour with a straightforward Photoshop edit, as you’ll see in the tutorial below from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel. And if you carefully follow the steps, you’ll achieve a very natural looking result.

Instructor Christian Mohrle provides a link beneath the video for downloading his sample Raw file so you can follow along and make the changes yourself. By the time you’re done and compare the before/after photos you will be justifiably proud of what has been accomplished. This simple technique is one you can use with regularity—whether you’re after a sunset look or your image is just flat and uninspiring.

If you’ve followed Mohrle in the past you know that he always begins with a few basic global adjustments to prepare a photo for the selective enhancements that follow. Today his preliminary steps begin with changing the profile from Adobe Color to Adobe Landscape which immediately increases base saturation and restores details in the dark portions of the frame.

Next he opens Photoshop’s Basic panel and uses several sliders to further refine the image. Mohrle first adjusts White Balance to achieve the “intense” sunset colors he has in mind. He also cools off blue tones in the sky and water. Exposure comes next as Mohrle brings down highlights while opening up shadows in the foreground of the frame.

After a few more basic tweaks the image looks much better, and it’s now time for selective masking enhancements that really deliver the wow factor. Mohrle begins with a linear gradient over a dark area in the foreground that still needs some of work. Here he increases Clarity to add much-needed detail.

Next comes a Color Range mask that he uses to target blue areas in the sky and in the water on the right side of the shot. This selection is used to carefully drop exposure, accentuate blue tones, and increase Contrast where it’s lacking. Four more simple masks and these selective adjustments are complete.

All that left to complete the transformation is straightforward color grading, careful sharpening, a bit more glow, and some final cleanup. We think you’ll agree that the results are impressive. You can find more shooting and editing tips on Morganti’s YouTube channel.

You’ll also enjoy watching a tutorial we posted earlier from another image-editing expert, explaining a better way to sharpen landscape photos using a technique he developed himself.

We’d all rather be out shooting photos than sitting behind a computer processing our work, and one great way to finish up edits in a hurry is to use simple keyboard shortcuts to streamline the workflow. This tutorial from one of our favorite image-editing instructors, provides his favorite keyboard shortcuts when masking is the task of the day.

Anthony Morganti is an experienced photo educator and retouching specialist based in Buffalo, New York. The use of masks is perhaps the best way even out the tones in complicated outdoor scenes that include a variety of elements within areas of varying brightness and colors. It can be a time-consuming task. So anything that can hasten the process, like the six keyboard shortcuts you’ll learn today, is very welcome news.

Morganti demonstrates his tricks while editing a seaside photo with a sandy beach in the left portion of the frame, and the blue waters of the ocean on the right. As you can see, one area of the sand is lighter than surrounding areas, and Morganti says this: “what I often like to do when I’m presented with something like this is to make the lighter part even lighter still.” Similarly he often adjusts an image so dark areas are a bit darker.”

Here Morganti does this with the goal of adding both tonal variance and eye appeal to the shot. This involves dodging and burning with a Brush Mask. Instead of opening the Mask panel and choosing the Brush option, here’s a quick keyboard shortcut that will save you some time: Just hit the letter “k” on the keyboard and you’re automatically there in an instant.

While mask selections typically appear in red, what if that area of the scene is red a well, making the masks boundaries difficult to discern? In this instance hold down the Shift key while tapping the letter “o” and you’ll quickly be able to cycle through a variety of other colors for defining the mask.

Morganti also wants to further darken the nearby darker tones which requires a second Brush Mask. The typical approach would involve going to the top of the screen, selecting Create New Mask, and choosing Brush from the dropdown menu. The better way is to hit the “n” key and you’ll get a second blank mask (not a duplicate of the first).

This is just a taste of the time-saving keyboard shortcuts you’ll learn, and you may even want to create a cheat sheet for future reference. There’s also much more to learn by paying a visit to Morganti’s instructional YouTube channel.

And be sure to check out another helpful tutorial we posted recently, explaining how to create attention-grabbing  autumn photos with several unique Lightroom editing effects.

If you’re considering making the switch from a crop-sensor camera to full-frame model we urge you carefully consider the key points of today’s tutorial before pulling the trigger—especially if you’re motivated by achieving images with less noise while shooting under low light with high ISO settings. That’s because despite conventional wisdom the determining factors are more involved than you think.

Instructor Simon d’Entremont is a professional nature and wildlife photographer based in Eastern Canada who regularly posts helpful tutorials sharing the secrets to his success. In this 13-minute video he attempts to navigate and simplify this complicated issue. Be sure to watch until the end because Simon presents some great advice to getting the cleanest images possible in low light with whatever camera you own—regardless of sensor size.

The main question Simon explores is this: “Do larger sensors have less noise and better image quality when used in low light? His view of the truth may surprise you, and he is therefore bracing for some blowback, so take a close look and see what you think. He begins with a quick explanation of what causes the ugly artifacts known as noise, and the effect they have on photos in difference situations.

In basic terms it works like this: the lower the amount of light in a scene he noisier an image will be because of a poor signal-to-noise ratio, i.e. “not enough photons of good light to overwhelm noise from the camera’s electronic systems and the random nature of light.”

Simon isn’t referring to resolution when the explains the ramifications of sensor size with regard to noise. Rather he’s describing the actual physical dimensions of the sensors compared. In this regard a typical APS-C crop sensor measures around 14×16 mm, while the full-frame sensor is 36x24mm—just like a single frame of 35mm film that is almost four time the size of a micro-four thirds sensor with its dimensions of 7x13mm.

Before explaining how the foregoing affects noise, Simon raises another important consideration that has to do with the term “crop factor” as pertains to whatever lens you employ. Thus, a micro four thirds sensor with it’s 2X crop factor captures a significantly smaller image circle than the same lens on an APS-C or full-frame sensor—effectively giving you more reach on the long end of a zoom, and a less expansive view on the short end.

Armed with this information it’s easy to understand how sensors of various sizes affect the noise in an image, a comparison that begins at the 6:35 point in the video. Once you’re done watching you’ll be able to make an informed decison as to whether “stepping up” to full-frame makes sense for you.

Simon’s popular YouTube channel is a great source of important information and techniques, so be sure to pay a visit when you have time.

We also suggest watching a tutorial we posted earlier from another accomplished pro, explaining six easy Lightroom special effects that will take your outdoor photographs to the next level.