There’s no better source of wildlife photography techniques than the Pangolin Photography YouTube Channel, a group of experienced safari guides and imaging experts based in Northern Botswana. The images used to illustrate their tutorials often depict big cats and other exotic species, but the advice they provide is also valuable for photographing birds at your neighborhood park, or a “photo safari” at the zoo.

Instructor Janine Krayer spends much of her time teaching workshops and photographing animals in the wilds of Africa. In this 14-minute episode she demonstrates  the “foolproof” method she uses to edit her beautiful imagery in Lightroom or Photoshop. Her five-step workflow is appropriate for photographers of all skill levels and will elevate your photography to a whole new level.

Krayer’s post-production process includes everything from cropping and adjusting color and exposure, to sharpening, masking, and other local adjustments. Her advice is very helpful for editing images with conventional exposures, but she also discusses some tricks for creative effects.

The tutorial begins with a few simple cropping tips for well-composed photos with a compelling sense of balance that emphasize the beauty or imposing stature of a subject. You’ll see how to tighten up a shot by eliminating unnecessary elements at the edges of the frame, and how to rotate an image to straighten a crooked horizon.

She also demonstrates how to determine the best aspect ratio for the image at hand, and why making use of the ruler simplifies these tasks. When it comes to perfecting exposure Krayer turns to the Basics tab to work on the tone of a photo. One of her goals is to “create the largest amount of contrast without clipping the White Point on the right side of the histogram or crushing the blacks on the left.”

Krayer moves on to color grading, with helpful suggestions for fixing images shot at Golden Hour (when animals can be most active) that look a bit too warm. Here you’ll see the advantage of shooting in Raw because Jpegs tend to be more difficult to adjust for a natural look. That’s because these files “simply don’t have enough data left to alter your image in terms of color tones, hues and luminance.”

The tutorial concludes with some great advice for correctly sharpening images without making them look too “crispy,” and a very helpful discussion of masking and other local adjustments to enhance specific portions of a scene. Be sure to check out the Pangolin Wildlife Photography YouTube channel, for more great shooting and editing tips.

We also suggest watching a tutorial we posted recently from another accomplished pro, explaining seven effective tips for shooting awe-inspiring macro photographs.

Today’s Photoshop tutorial addresses a very common problem that many of us encounter when shooting landscapes, environmental portraits, and other photographs outdoors. It occurs when your camera is pointed up or down, rather than flat to the horizon.

In such circumstances you’ll notice a weird perspective in your photos with converging vertical lines, be they tilted trees or crooked buildings in cityscape images and portraits with structures in the background. In this Photoshop tutorial from the popular PHLEARN YouTube channel you’ll learn how to easily fix these problems and other frustrating perspective issues.

Instructor Aaron Nace is an image-editing expert with a variety of helpful post-processing lessons on his channel. Today he demonstrates how to straighten vertical lines, merge layers seamlessly, and use Photoshop’s powerful Transform and Perspective Warp tools. You’ll also discover how Photoshop’s Generative Fill tool can automatically correct backgrounds and remove distortion.

When it comes to portrait photos the trick involves cutting out the subject, fixing the skewed lines, and then placing the subject back in the corrected image. In the case of his first example the buildings in the background converge toward the top of the frame because the camera was pointed upward while Nace shot the portrait. This fix starts by clicking on the Select tab atop the screen, and then choosing Subject from the dropdown menu that appears.

You don’t want to use the Warp tool for this task because it can make faces and bodies look really strange. Instead Nace duplicates the Background layer and drags it to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the screen. He then explains what to do so the subject appears on a plain white layer.

Now Nace creates a new version of the background that doesn’t include his model. He then explains how to use Generative Fill to quickly straighten the buildings. From there it’s a simple matter to add his subject back into the scene.

The foregoing is just one of the tools and techniques you’ll learn how to use in less than 20 minutes. By the time you’re done watching, photos with a distorted perspective will be a thing of the past. You can find more great editing methods like these by paying a visit to the PHLEARN instructional YouTube channel.

We also encourage you to watch another tutorial we posted recently that demonstrates how to use both positive and negative Clarity to edit landscape photos for maximum impact.

How often have you changed lenses when shooting in the field or switched subject matter, say from a landscape scene to a macro or wildlife photo? If you’re like most photographers you do so frequently, which is why the tutorial below is a real game changer.  

Instructor James Vooght is  professional landscape photographer who posts weekly lessons on a wide variety of subjects. In this episode he explains how to master your camera’s custom settings, so you’re immediately prepared for whatever situations you encounter outdoors.

The idea is to helpyou avoid missing a perfect shot because you’re fumbling around to switch gears from one shooting style or scenario to another. Vooght puts it like this: “You’ll learn how to save your favorite settings and transition effortlessly so you can capture the perfect moment. Sound good?

All modern cameras offer the opportunity to create and save custom settings. Once you’ve configured these to your liking you can immediately access the options with your camera’s Custom Functions button or Mode dial. And you can witch from one choice to another in an instant.

Vooght reveals the Custom Settings he uses and describes three situations that may call for one of these options. And because everyone’s shooting styles differ you also see how easy it is to create custom functions that best suit your specific needs.

One of the three Custom Setting on Vooght’s camera is what he uses for everyday landscape photography with a 24-70mm zoom. He also has the camera configured so that it reverts to this “default” option whenever he turns the camera on. That way the camera is automatically set to ISO 400 with a shutter speed of 1/400 and an aperture of f/16. This way he has a baseline exposure that can be quickly modified as needed.

Vooght has another Custom Setting that he uses for wildlife and sports photography. Here the camera is optimized for fast-moving subjects and for whenever focus tracking is required. As you can expect, these settings are significant different from those he employs for static landscape scenes. Here the key is freeing action, with continuous back-button focus and the appropriate exposure options.

The final Custom Setting on Vooght’s camera is designed for long-exposure photography when a sense of movement is desired, like capturing soft-flowing water or cotton-like clouds moving across the sky. Here the settings reflect the fact that the camera is mounted atop a tripod. Thus image stabilization is deactivated, a two-second timer is activated, and his base exposure is configured in a specific appropriately.

By following Vooght’s advice you’ll be very well prepared when situations in the field change or you switch lenses for the task at hand. After watching the video take a look at Vooght’s instructional YouTube channel for more helpful tips and tricks.

And don’t miss the tutorial we posted recently with pro tips for shooting epic outdoors photos with the gear you already own.