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While more and more landscape photographers are turning to long telephotos when shooting in the field, the trusty wide-angle is still the go-to choice for most of us. And there’s a good reason: The perspective provided by short focal length lenses is often perfect for capturing dramatic, expansive vistas.

Or as one popular pro puts it: “landscape photographers love the wide-angle lens because it allows us to capture more of the grand scene in front of us.” But there’s a catch: To achieve optimum results when going wide, it pays to use a simple trick that you’ll learn in the quick video below.

William Patino is a landscape photographer based in gorgeous Fiordland, New Zealand where there seems to be spectacular vistas just about everywhere one looks. Most of us don’t have the good fortune to live in such a photographer-friendly locale, but fortunately Patino isn’t shy about sharing techniques that will pay big dividends wherever you live.

Patino summarizes today’s topic in just three words: “Closer, closer, closer.” His straightforward technique is a variant of a rule you’ve probably heard before; namely, the importance of composing landscapes with a strong subject in the foreground—especially when shooting with a wide-angle lens.

So what’s Patino’s big secret? It’s simply this: you may be in the habit of moving close to whatever foreground object you choose (whether it’s a gnarly tree, interesting boulder or even a hiking companion), but there’s a very good chance you’re still not getting close enough. Patino says, “This is a mistake I see photographers make time and time again, and it’s stopping them from capturing the drama that’s in front of their eyes.”

Patino explains the process by demonstrating how to get this just right, by achieving the perfect balance between moving in close and getting so tight that you spoil the grandeur of what’s in the background of a scene.

Along the way you’ll pick up some great tips on composition, including how this powerful technique affects the way you frame different types of scenes.

There’s much more to learn on Patino’s instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to take a look.

On a related note, we suggest you also watch an earlier tutorial we posted, explaining how to avoid three common habits that prevent nature photographers from reaching their full potential.

This tutorial is about a common image-killing editing error that you may be guilty of yourself, and demonstrates how easy it is to fix. It’s all about using the wrong Lightroom slider for certain simple tasks when there’s a better approach that’s just as easy to implement

German landscape pro Christian Mohrle is a very accomplished instructor, and he begins this Lightroom tutorial with a warning: “We’ve all raised saturation to ridiculous levels in an attempt to make colors POP. He notes further that while the resulting image may look good to you, “it’s a dead giveaway that the photo was editing by an amateur.” Ouch!

The good news is that in barely five minutes Mohrle shares a few preferred alternatives that will dramatically improve your results. This particular episode is far easier and less complex than most of those we’ve shared from Mohrle before. In fact it’s so straightforward you can start using yjis technique today.

Mohrle says there’s nothing wrong with raising Lightroom’s Saturation slider to pump up colors if you do so in very subtle amounts. But you’ll also learn why the Vibrance slider provides far more control and sort of prevents you from taking a heavy-handed approach that can really ruin an otherwise promising shot.

At first glance the Saturation and Vibrance sliders appear to do the same thing, but there’s a very significant difference between the two: The Saturation slider adjusts the intensity of all colors in an image equally—and that’s usually not want you want. The Vibrance slider, on the other hand, avoids pumping up the most saturated colors, and only affects weaker tones.

As you’ll see, another benefit of the Vibrance tool is that it works wonders when editing skin tones in people pictures. Mohrle quickly demonstrates everything you need to know for making the transition from the Saturation to the Vibrance tool as appropriate. He also has a few other tricks up his sleeve pertaining to HSL settings and using masks to target specific areas/colors for optimum results.

After watching this video head over to Mohrle’s YouTube channel where there’s much more to learn about shooting and editing outdoor images. 

And don’t miss another tutorial we posted, explaining a very effective Lightroom trick for “shaping light” in landscape photos.