Sometimes we’re out in the field and conditions aren’t great. Either the light isn’t right, or maybe everything you see looks like images you’ve shot in the past. So what to do?

The idea of giving up, going home, and returning on a better day simply doesn’t sit well with most of us. So how about this: Do the best you can and then sit down behind the computer to add some dramatic fog to the scene for an eye-catching effect. In today’s episode from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel you’ll learn how easy this is to do in Lightroom.

German landscape pro Christian Mohrle makes it super simple to follow his advice by including a link beneath the video for downloading his sample image. This enables you to make the adjustments yourself as they’re explained.

The tutorial follows Mohrle’s standard procedure whereby he makes several basic adjustments to an image to prepare it for the selective enhancements that really make the shot. He begins by opening Lightroom’s Basic panel and changing the profile from Adobe Color to Adobe Standard. This simple step immediately lessens contrast which is one key to achieving the effect.

Other preliminary adjustments include using the appropriate sider to further reduce contrast, dropping Highlights for more details in the trees, and cutting shadows to achieve more “punch” in the foreground. Mohrle also reduces blacks, Vibrance, and Dehaze, and adds a bit of Texture and Clarity.

The foregoing steps accentuate a bit of fog that appeared in the original photo, but Mohrle wants to take things further by adding more fog just above the horizon. And this is where masking and selective enhancements come into play for significantly ramping up the atmospheric effect.

Mohrle adds a simple mask over the foreground which he uses to boost contrast and brighten Highlights in this portion of the frame—all while keeping a close eye on the Histogram to avoid overexposure. He also modifies Color Temperature to introduce blue tones to the foreground.  

Next Mohrle places a Linear Gradient over the background and makes several adjustments to the sky. In this step it’s important not to bias tones in a distant tree so that it remains separated from what lays behind. Now it’s time to add an obvious layer of fog above the horizon, and Mohrle walks you through the simple steps.

All that remains to complete the impressive transformation is minimal color grading and sharpening. If you like what you see head over to Mohrle’s popular YouTube channel where there’s much more to learn.

On a related note, be sure to check out the tutorial we posted from another accomplished pro recently, explaining a simple three-step Lightroom technique for turning ho-hum winter landscape photographs into money shots.

A couple days ago we featured an interesting tutorial explaining how to shoot intentionally blurry photos and capture artistic images full of motion and emotion. Today it’s back to a primary goal of most landscape photographers; namely, the best way to maximize sharpness when shooting in the field.

Experienced shooters know that there’s more to this task than fast and accurate focus. That’s because it’s equally important to achieve optimum sharpness precisely where it belongs within the frame. To that end Scottish pro Gary McIntyre demonstrates the three methods he relies upon to get the job done with all sorts of landscape scenes.

You’ll follow McIntyre hike through “a photographer’s playground” under great conditions as he describes a trio of techniques that are easy to accomplish by photographers of all skill levels. He begins astride a stream with his camera atop a tripod while explaining why he wants to focus on a distant tree without worrying about water in the foreground.

McIntyre explains the reasoning behind the camera settings he chooses. Then you’ll see how zooms in on the primary subject and combines manual focus with the camera’s Focus Peaking feature to achieve perfect focus exactly where he wants it. He also sets the camera’s two-second self-timer to avoid camera movement with the slow shutter speed in use.

That’s pretty simple, right? But what should you do if the scene you confront lacks one specific point of focus? That’s when the technique known as “focus-stacking” comes into play. With this approach you shoot multiple images of the scene, without moving the camera—each with a different point of focus.

Usually two or three shots is all that’s required, depending upon the complexity of the scene. By merging these images during the editing process is possible to achieve a sharp background, foreground, and everything in between. McIntyre describes how to modify camera settings accordingly to make the most of this powerful method.

The lesson concludes with a discussion of why, when and how to use back-button focus. McIntyre says he usually employs this method for landscape photography, especially when shooting in the Aperture Priority exposure mode.

This technique requires that your camera permits you to assign the focusing function to a custom button on the back of the camera. And if it does, there are a variety of advantages for doing exactly that. McIntyre noticed his shadow on the rear screen when setting up this particular shot, so he reset the self-timer from two to 10 seconds to give himself plenty of time to get out of the way.  

McIntyre’s popular YouTube channel is a great source of information for landscape photographers, so be sure to take a look.

And don’t forget to watch the tutorial mentioned above, demonstrating how to shoot unique stylized images by embracing the blur.