Today we’re bringing you the 10^th installment of the popular Master Lightroom Classic series from British wedding photographer James Feaver who recommends that you make sure your software is up to date before following along.

Lightroom Classic’s latest Lens Blur tools lets you enhance images in a variety of compelling ways that are often difficult to achieve in the camera depending upon the task at hand and the lighting conditions you confront. There are also some interesting effects for quickly modifying the look and feel of an image.

Feaver describes the topic like this: “Lightroom’s Len Blur is a brand new tool that allows you to customize and change the depth of field and plane of focus within a photo.” You’ll need to update Lightroom Classic to at least version 13.0 to take advantage of these new capabilities. Feaver also notes that, “because this is an early access tool you may discover a few temporary glitches.”

According to Feaver you can achieve professional results Lightroom’s Lens Blur panel in its current form, and he provides several examples of how everything works so you can add it to your workflow today. He’s working within the Develop panel where you’ll find the new Lens Blur options between Transform and Effects.

Feaver notes that the adjustments you make can take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes depending upon the speed of your computer and the complexity of the photo at hand. He’s using a new high-end Mac so the effects he applies are completed quickly after clicking on “Apply.”

You’ll see how blur is applied automatically and learn several ways to refine the result. There’s a Blur Amount slider that simply controls the strength of the blur—not depth of field. He recommends not exceeding a value of 50, otherwise you may end up with an unrealistic look.

Another important slider is labeled Bokeh, with five options and a Boost slider. Beneath that is where you’ll find the Focus Range control, which Feaver describes as “the crux of what Lightroom’s Lens Blur tool really does,” so pay close attention to how he puts it to use. Unlike the Lens Blur tools found in Photoshop or other editors, Lightroom “creates a depth map and then applies blur according to how close or far it is from the plane of focus.”

The foregoing is just a taste of the methods described in the video, so be sure to watch until the end and maybe take a few notes. The use of this new panel is quite straightforward, but there are plenty of capabilities to remember. But once you get the hang of it the techniques will become second nature.

Be sure to pay a visit to Feaver’s instructional YouTube channel that has plenty more to offer. And don’t miss a tutorial we posted earlier, demonstrating three quick steps for eliminating ugly banding from photographs in Photoshop.

We can summarize the following tutorial in five words: “Don’t believe everything you think”—at least as pertains to the “necessity” of using ISO 100 whenever possible when photographing nature and landscape scenes. Camera technology has changed dramatically since this became a common mantra, and one pro says it’s time to reconsider the outdated rule.

The video below from the Landscape Photography University YouTube channel reveals “the ISO truth that landscape pros know” and why it just may be holding your photography back. Instructor David Johnston is a landscape photography expert who says, “My passion is to provide tips and tools to level up the success of your photography.”

This episode kicks off with a blunt question: “Have you believed the lie that you have to shoot at ISO 100 for the best landscape photography?” He aims to reveal a new “truth” about this claim and how you can use it to dramatically boost your results. And he does so in less than six minutes.

Johnston provides a brief overview of the Exposure Triangle for the novices among you and discusses the interplay between ISO and the other two variables—namely, aperture and  shutter speed—while dispelling a  few myths. He says the ISO setting “is like a volume knob that you turn up on your sensor.” The point of this analogy is that you can raise or lower ISO to create a brighter or dark photo if other variables remain unchanged.

But what about the notion that raising ISO increases image noise? According to Johnston, “the noise is already there, even in low ISO photos.” In essence, “raising ISO just impacts the electronic sensitivity to noise that already exists in your photos.”  At this point you may be asking yourself, “why don’t I just take photos at ISO 100 like everyone tells me to do and just raise exposure during post processing”?

Johnston has a few reasons why that approach can be counterproductive in certain situations. He illustrates his view with several photos captured at different ISO settings. You may be surprised at the image quality and noise characteristic of ISO 100 images as compared to those when he “cranked up the knob.”

Other topics in this eye-opening video include the implications of ISO during the editing process and the interaction between ISO and shutter speed. He also discusses ISO and raising exposure, when and how to use Auto ISO, and how the ISO setting you choose affects the manner in which you crop photos.

We suggest keeping an open mind while listening to Johnston’s remarks if you consider them controversial, because you may want to revise your thinking on this important topic. Then head over to his popular YouTube channel where you’ll find more thought-proving tips and techniques.

We also suggest watching another tutorial we posted with an unassailable truth; namely the necessity of cleaning your camera’s sensor and other important gear, with a safe way to get the job done.

Setting your camera to bracket exposures can help nail a shot when photographing landscape scenes in uncertain light. Yet, as you’ll see in the tutorial below, sometimes this popular technique is merely a waste of time.

Instructor Mark Denney is very accomplished pro who posts weekly tutorials on important landscape photography skills. In this episode he explains what he says, “professionals know about bracketing that beginners ignore.”

Denney admits that when first starting out he fell into the trap of “over-exposure-bracketing” that in some situations wasted a lot of time. Or has he puts it: “Don’t get me wrong, bracketing undeniably has its place in the photographer’s toolkit. But it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution to achieving a perfect exposure.”

In today’s lesson Denney demonstrates how to determine if it’s necessary to employ this technique. He also explains how recent advancements in digital-imaging technology factor into the equation when shooting in the field. His suggestions will accelerate your technique and may even prevent you from missing a fleeting moment.

Denney organized this lesson into four parts: When not to bracket, when you may want to bracketed, when you must bracket, and how to tell the difference. He also insists that you’ll become a far better photographer by using in-camera exposure bracketing, rather than relying upon post processing to get the light right.

In basic terms, the decision you make is all about understanding your camera’s limitations, the relationship between light and shadow, how to view the scene before you, and the proper way to read the camera’s histogram. By understanding these variables you’ll work faster, improve your skillset, and become a far more confident photographer.

Denney illustrates his advice with several images that fit into his no, maybe and yes, categories while explaining all the details. By the time the video concludes you’ll now exactly what Hamlet meant when he said, “To bracket or not to bracket. That is the question.”

Be sure to visit Denney’s Instructional YouTube channel often, where you’ll find helpful tips and tricks on a wide variety of shooting and image-editing techniques.

We also encourage you to watch the tutorial we posted from another expert recently, explaining why and how Color Calibration can be the secret to beautiful landscape photographs.