I can’t help but feel there are easier ways

There are countess reasons you may want to modify certain colors in a photo whether it was captured indoors or out. Perhaps a landscape image looks really great, except for a dull or lifeless sky. Or maybe you want to change the background used for a macro photo to make it more complementary to the tones in the subject.

This technique is often used to enhance portrait photos for more pleasing skin tones or to accentuate the color of a model’s eyes. In all cases the goal is to make these adjustments without biasing tones elsewhere within the frame. Hence, you need to understand why selective coloring is the best way to accomplish your goals.

Photographer Julieanne Kost is a highly acclaimed educator, author, and expert at all things Adobe—posting straightforward tutorials that create impressive transformations with a minimum of fuss. In this seven-minute episode she demonstrates several methods for accomplishing “selective coloring” in Lightroom that are appropriate for users of all skill levels.

Kost begins with an interesting photo shot on the street and demonstrates several quick ways to use Lightroom’s masking tools to make localized color adjustments for a significantly more impactful image. Her goal for the first example is to retain the red tones on the front of a wall and enhance brown benches in the foreground while deemphasizing distracting colors on the back side of the wall.

She begins in Lightroom’s Color Mixer Panel with the adjustment set to HSL. She then clicks on the left side of the Saturation slider to desaturate all of the colors within the scene. You’ll also learn how to use the Luminance slider when you want to modify how the colors were converted to grayscale.

Now it’s a simple matter to select the Targeted Adjustment tool, click and drag in the image, and uses a Brush mask to bring back some of the reds and oranges exactly where Kost wants them to appear. She walks you through the simple procedure and explains a variety of settings and options for getting the job done with precision.

Kost repeats the process with three bird photos and a landscape shot, each of which present different challenges with regard to enhancing color using masks for selective enhancements, just so you’ll understand the versatility of this useful Lightroom technique. And in all cases her transformations are quite impressive.

Kost’s popular YouTube channel has almost 60K avid subscribers and we suggest that you join the club and elevate your post-processing skills.

And don’t miss last week’s video tutorial in which another image-editing expert demonstrate why Versions is a vastly underrated Lightroom tool and a “must-have” for your everyday workflow.

There are numerous reasons why experienced landscape photographers avoid shooting wide open and prefer stopping down the aperture to f/8 or f/11— even if that means bumping up the ISO setting. So why does a German landscape pro advocate for faster glass when he rarely shoots at maximum aperture?

Instructor Christian Irmler spends most of his time capturing beautiful outdoor imagery in his home country of Austria and at the most gorgeous locations throughout Europe. Today’s episode offers a few shooting techniques but is more concerned with choosing the right glass for your next adventure in the field.

Irmler’s point is that faster lenses offer several significant advantages beyond the fact that they gather more light than slower glass at the widest f/stop setting. He admits that f/2.8 lenses are heavier and more costly than their slower counterparts, but he describes multiple reasons why the extra heft and expense is well worth it to him.

One key benefit is that “f/2.8 lenses tend to have much better build quality,” an important consideration when subjecting gear to the rigors of outdoor photography.” An overall boost in image-quality can also be expected, “with a much higher range of usable apertures” for shooting under a wide variety of lighting conditions.

Irmler discusses the important concept of “image diffraction” which describes how images tend to sacrifice sharpness when stopped down—especially if you’re shooting with slow, budget lenses. The point at which diffraction starts to kick in varies from one lens to another, but this fact helps explain why users of budget lenses often express disappointment with image quality at f/16 and beyond.

With the foregoing in mind Irmler recommends testing your lenses to learn how far you can safely stop down and still achieve acceptably sharp and detailed results. Irmler provides a link to an earlier lesson in which he explains exactly how to conduct a simple evaluation so that your don’t push things too far. This information is particularly helpful when shooting without a tripod.

At this point you’re halfway through the video and there’s much more to learn, and Irmler uses his stunning imagery to illustrate the power of his tips. The bottom line is that you have two options to pursue: Either invest in better lenses or follow Irmler’s suggestions for squeezing out every ounce of quality from those you already own.

Irmler’s instructional YouTube channel is a great source of gear information and shooting techniques for everyone who wants to improve their results when capturing photos in the great outdoors.

And don’t miss last week’s tutorial from another accomplished outdoor photographer who demonstrates how not to let bright, sunny days with harsh light ruin your landscape photographs.

It’s the end of September, which means it’s the perfect time to head out and photograph the deer rut, now in full swing. But if the idea of misty, chilly mornings in temperate forests doesn’t appeal to you, hop on a plane to the tropics. I’ve chosen one tropical animal as a teaser for an upcoming article, and at the same time, as a biological puzzle. Can you identify the bird hiding its head under its wing? If not, don’t worry, you’ll find out soon. In the meantime, enjoy your regular dose of weekly photography news.