If you’re just getting started in landscape photography, or could use a quick refresher, the tutorial below will quickly help improve your skills. You’ll learn a bunch of camera settings and techniques that are responsible for the beautiful imagery captured by one of our favorite instructors.

Toma Bonciu is a Romanian pro specializing in travel, landscape and adventure photography, with an awesome portfolio that backs up the advice he provides. In this episode he takes a unique approach, by using three recent images to explain the methods he used to achieve amazing photos of each scene.

In less than eight minutes Bonciu covers a lot of ground, from configuring a camera properly for different situations, using light to maximum advantage, time-proven compositional techniques, and much more. You can also find links to his workshops, photo tours, and popular ebook in the description beneath the video.

In addition to demonstrating his methods, Bonciu also reveals the thought process behind each of the sample images. He also explains how the manner in which he visualized the scenes contributed to the camera settings, gear, and techniques he employed to capture exactly what he wanted.

Here’s an interesting thought you may want to consider: While watching Bonciu work his magic, think about how you would have photographed each of his three scenes. Then make a mental comparison of the results you envisioned with those that Bonciu achieved.

Bonciu notes that the best outdoor images often require a journey, like hiking into the backcountry until you find a spectacular view. You’ll want to plan the trek so you arrive at the right time of day, with plenty of time to set up your gear, take a few moments to relax, and contemplate what you see before getting to work.

Then it’s time to apply Bonciu’s advice to make the most of whatever you confront. It’s best to work thoughtfully and get two or three awesome images, than rush things and end up with less-impressive photos. So watch the video, jot down a few notes, and be prepared for your next excursion into the great outdoors.

Bonciu offers plenty of shooting and editing tips for eye-popping landscape photos on his popular YouTube channel, so pay a visit and take advantage of what you find.

We suggest you also watch the tutorial we posted from another accomplished pro, with a very helpful checklist for improving your landscape photos.

Adobe updates their software frequently, with powerful new headline-grabbing features and tools. That’s a good thing for all of us, with one exception: sometimes we get so excited about all the new stuff that we forget about tools we used with great success in the past.

The tutorial below discusses one such “forgotten” tool, reminds how to use it, and encourages you to reinstate it in your current Lightroom workflow. This powerful tool is so easy to use that it only takes three minutes to explain.

According to instructor Anthony Morganti, an expert on all things Adobe, “This tool has been available in Lightroom for as long as I can remember, but if you’re like me you probably no longer use it.” As you’ll see, it’s time for you and Morganti to reconsider, because what you’ll learn comes in very handy for removing ugly sensor spots from photos.

To illustrate how this trick works Morganti pulls up a great-looking seaside shot; that is, until you zoom in on the image. Once you do that you’ll notice a bunch of unwanted artifacts, some of which are more obvious than others. As Morganti says, once you print the image all of the sensor spots jump off the page.

So what is the magic tool that helps you find and remove all of these sensor spots, whether they’re obvious or not? Simply open Lightroom’s Healing Tools panel and click on any of the options (it doesn’t matter which one). Then look at the thin toolbar that appears just beneath your image. If it’s not there, simply hit the “T” key on your keyboard that toggles it on or off.

Now it’s time to get to work by clicking on the “Visualize Spots” checkbox in the Toolbar. Once you do that, your color photo temporarily turns into a very graphic b&w image. Now you’ll notice that this makes it significantly easier to see all of the sensors spots that need to be removed. There’s even a slider for adjusting sensitivity, and Morganti recommends setting a high value.

Of course locating these distracting elements is only half the battle, and Morganti demonstrates how to use the Content Aware Remove tool to banish the spots in seconds. Once you’re finished, just uncheck the Visualize Spots box and move on.

Morganti’s instructional YouTube channel is full of easy tips and tricks like this, so be sure to pay a visit.

We also suggest you watch the earlier tutorial we posted from another image-editing expert, demonstrating a simple Lightroom hack that delivers super-fast and precise masks.

Achieving accurate results during the editing process is sort of like rolling the dice if not you’re not working with a correctly calibrated display. In fact, you’re probably better off with a cheap monitor that’s properly calibrated than with a high-end display that’s not.

In the quick tutorial below with professional photographer Matt Granger you’ll learn the importance of this “crucial” task.” You’ll also see to get the job done on the cheap or even for free. Granger notes that, “by calibrating the monitor you’re making sure that what the screen is showing you is actually what’s in the file.”

Granger says the first thing to do, before jumping into calibration, is to make sure you understand a histogram and how it works. As he explains, “The histogram is a graphical representation of what’s in a photo. So if the histogram on your camera looks perfect, but the image appears too bright (or dark) on the computer, that’s a sure sign the monitor needs calibration.

With the aforementioned in mind, it’s obvious that if you make adjustments to a perfectly exposed photo because it looks too bright on an uncalibrated screen, the image in reality will end up too dark. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but here’s the bottom line: you just ruined a photo and wasted your time.

As Granger explains, calibrating the white point, black point, and contrast is just the beginning, as color calibration is “a whole other kettle of fish.” Some high-end monitor’s auto-calibrate according to whatever schedule you set, and there are several full-featured (and rather costly) calibration devices that provide great results.

But as promised above, the emphasis of this episode is inexpensive and free methods for getting the job done, so what you see on the monitor is a reliable representation of the contrast, brightness, color tones, and other variables in your images. And if, like many photographers, you work on a Mac, this process is particularly important for reasons Granger explains.

After watching this very helpful lesson, choose the method that work’s best for you and calibrate your monitor today. Then you’ll be able to process your images with confidence.

There’s a wide variety of helpful photography advice on Granger’s popular YouTube channel, to be sure to take a look and subscribe.

And when is comes to perfect colors, check out the Photoshop tutorial we posted explaining how to easily enhance photos with dull colors.