Improperly exposed photos are the bane of all kinds of photographers, especially those who shoot outdoors where a wide range of tones may exceed the density range of your camera. We posted a tutorial earlier today explaining a simple method to remedy this problem by using Photoshop’s Dodge and Burn tools to make dark areas lighter and light areas dark to arrive at a balanced result.

But pros often use a somewhat more involved approach that offers additional control for avoiding crushed shadows and blown-out highlights, and also enables you to enhance other key variables at the same time. There are a few more steps involved, but in most cases the extra effort pays big dividends.

While we can’t guarantee that you’ll achieve professional-quality photos by following the advice in the tutorial below, it’s a pretty sure bet that your landscape photos will be more compelling than ever before.

Austin James Jackson is a self-taught landscape photographer who regularly shares the tips and tricks he employs for capturing eye-catching landscape imagery. Rather than shooting a single photo, and using Photoshop’s Dodge and Burn tools to even out tones, Jackson captures multiple images of the same scene a few minutes apart, at different exposures, and merges them during the editing process to create one super shot.

The common approach is to shoot the base image with the exposure setting recommended by the camera, as well as two others—one slightly underexposed and another somewhat overexposed. As Jackson says, you can expect the combined final image to “show off the best light in addition to the best clouds which usually don’t appear at the same time.”

Jackson also promises that whether you’re a beginner or a more advanced photographer, “learning this exposure-blending trick is going to help you elevate your photography to take even better photos.” And the advice you glean is not only appropriate for landscape imagery, but for just about any outdoor images you shoot that have a wide range of tones from deep shadows to bright highlights.

Jackson walks you through his straightforward shooting and editing techniques in less than 15 minutes. We’re pretty sure that after a bit of practice, this will become one of your go-to techniques.

We encourage you to spend some quality time on Jackson’s instructional YouTube channel, especially if landscape photography is your thing, because there are a variety of helpful shooting and editing tips like those you see here.

And don’t forget to watch the tutorial mentioned above, so you can also give dodging and burning a try.

Dodging and burning is a traditional darkroom technique that can be used with great success using software in today’s digital era. These easy-to use tools enable you to selectively adjust different areas of an image to arrive at a balanced exposure.

Photoshop’s Dodge tool is used to lighten dark portions of a scene, while the Burn tool darkens areas that are too bright. As you’ll see in the tutorial below from the Joy of Editing YouTube channel, the more you paint over a specific area with either tool the lighter or darker it becomes.

These straightforward techniques are often necessary with outdoor scenes, when the difference between highlights and shadows exceed the density range of your camera. When done properly during the editing process, dodging and burning can eliminate the need for more complex methods like shooting and merging multiple images of the same scene.

Accomplished photographer Dave Kelly is also an adept instructor, and in today’s tutorial he explains a simple approach for harnessing the power of these tools. He discusses making adjustments to two key variables and provides helpful keyboard shortcuts for speeding up the process.

There are a variety of ways to dodge and burn photos, some more complicated than others. In this episode Kelly keeps thing simple by demonstrating how to maximize results with a primary emphasis on opacity and flow adjustments (individually or in tandem) to the Brush tool.

As Kelly explains, this particular approach will get the job done with a minimum of fuss. For those who want to take a deeper dive after mastering these techniques, Kelly provides a link in the description beneath the video to a complete workshop on this important topic.

After watching the video below, how about this: Pull up a couple old images with crushed shadows, overly bright highlights, or both, and use the techniques you just learned to make everything just right.

There are numerous editing tips and tricks on Kelly’s instructionalal YouTube channel, so be sure to pay a visit and subscribe.

You may also want to check out an earlier tutorial we posted, explaining how to make dull photos POP with a straightforward Photoshop technique.