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.

It’s been a while since we featured a boudoir photography tutorial and this 10-minute lesson takes a different approach than the high-contrast b&w techniques we’ve shared in the past. Today you’ll learn how to shoot alluring color indoor portraits with available light.

Instructor Brent McCoy specializes in riské imagery without expensive studio equipment, and all you need for this effective technique is a willing model and a room in your home with windows that provide soft, flattering light.

McCoy illustrates his available light methods by shooting three different looks of a beautiful model with simple equipment—all of which rely upon wide aperture settings to capture as much light as possible, with shallow depth of field to accentuate his subject and separate her from the background.

In the first scenario McCoy poses his subject sitting atop the back of a couch and encourages her to position her body “nice and tall” while moving in close to get tighter and tighter shots.  He tells the model how to position her legs and asks her to turn her face in the direction of light streaming through a large window on the left side of the frame.

For look #2 McCoy has the model stand directly in front of the window and slowly move toward his camera position while striking several provocative poses and he clicks away. Then McCoy changes his vantage point to her side and captures some very nice close up profile shots with a completely different appearance

The final setup in the session occurs in the bedroom where there’s another large widow that illuminates the scene with indirect light while he experiments with several poses on the bed. As McCoy directs the model you’ll see why he asks her to slightly exaggerate each pose—some of which are standing while others are sitting or reclining.

You also learn how simple encouragement and compliments make a model more relaxed as she becomes increasingly confident as the shoot progresses. There’s much more to learn about getting started in Boudoir photography with simple equipment on McCoy’s instructional YouTube channel.

And if you want images that are as pristine as possible be sure to watch the tutorial we featured recently with another pro who demonstrates a safe way to clean a camera’s sensor so that your photographs are free from dust spots and other unsightly artifacts.