Today were going to discuss a tool that many experienced landscape shooters consider the pound-for-pound champion of photographic accessories, and it’s the dollar-for-dollar champ too. If your guess is the affordable polarizing filter, you just scored a knockout.

This quick tutorial from The AI Photo Guy demystifies the concept of this powerful tool that many outdoor photographers never leave home without. A simple twist of the filter’s rotating ring is just about all it takes to transform a good photo into a great one. And the proper technique only takes two minutes to explain.

This “essential” filter is particularly beneficial for landscape, nature, and architectural photography. It works by blocking certain detrimental light waves and contributes to capturing photos with vivid colors, while darkening pale blue skies. As today’s instructor says, “the polarizing filter is a versatile accessory that helps minimize glare, improve contrast, and increase overall saturation in photos and videos.”

High quality polarizing filters are sufficiently economical, so don’t make a mistake of saving a few bucks by cheaping out with a bargain purchase. Otherwise you run the risk of degrading image quality. This video discusses the different types of polarizing filters on the market so that you can make an informed choice that suits your specific needs.

By viewing side-by-side comparisons of images shot with and without this amazing tool you’ll immediately understand the tremendous impact the filter makes. The effects are more and more pronounced as you rotate the front ring, and you don’t always want to take things to the extreme. When dealing with reflections, for example, it’s usually preferable to not remove them completely—otherwise you may end up with a dead-looking image.

Throughout this visual guide you learn about other technical considerations that impact the degree to which a polarizer delivers the goods. These include variables that contribute to maximum creative control, like your position relative to the angle of the sun, as well as a few pitfalls to avoid.

Polarizing filters come it two basic varieties, the most common are those that simply thread onto the front of a lens. One way to economize without penalty if you take this approach is to buy a few cheap step-up adapter rings the enable you to mount the same filter on lenses of different diameters—so you don’t have to by individual filters for every lens you use in the field.

Another viable option involves filters that mount to a purpose-built holder that is then attached to the lens. These are some more cumbersome, but they typically come with a set of adapters of various sizes and will accommodate a wide variety lenses and other filters.

There’s much more to learn about shooting techniques and photo gear on The AI Photo Guy’s popular YouTube channel, so be sure to pay a visit.

And when it comes to editing the vibrant landscape photos you shoot, we suggest checking out a tutorial we posted recently that explains why Selective exposure adjustments with simple masks can be the key to stunning nature and landscape photographs.

Yesterday we posted a very helpful tutorial describing five common shooting errors made by novice photographers and how to avoid them. Today’s lesson from the Sightseeing Stan YouTube channel takes a similar approach with regard to post-processing mistakes that can easily ruin your images.

Instructor Stan Borgers is a globetrotting Belgian pro based in Germany’s Black Forest—a beautiful location for shooting in the great outdoors. In this episode he takes a deep dive into the simple editing methods he employs, while demonstrating how to make your images shine like never before.

This Lightroom tutorial is targeted at beginners who will benefit from Borgers’ valuable insights and techniques to create natural, stunning edits that bring out the best in just about every type of photo, from landscapes, nature shots, to wildlife images—and even environmental portraits.  He provides a variety of practical examples for putting these straightforward tips to work. You’ll be able to quickly master what you learn, avoid common errors, and thereby greatly improve your workflow.

The first few mistakes discussed all occur when using tone-adjustment sliders in the wrong way. And it really doesn’t matter if you have Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), Capture One, Luminar Neo, or just about any other software. In all cases you’ll likely find these basic sliders in whatever software you have.

Borgers’ first example is a nice seaside shot, and he demonstrates how to make the necessary enhancements properly, while avoiding potential pitfalls. While dropping bright highlights in the sky he demonstrates why this familiar task is where many mistakes tend to happen. As he explains, “Most modern cameras have such a high dynamic range, with Raw files full of so much data, that we’re able to recover an abundance of information.”

So what’s the problem? According to Borgers it’s the fact that “some people want to recover too much information” with a heavy-handing editing approach that may result in a final image that’s inferior to the original shot. In other words, taking the wrong approach can be worse than not editing the image editing at all.

Borgers moves on to a variety of sloppy edits with other common enhancements, while demonstrating the proper approach to getting the job done. As you’ll see, sometimes the mistake is choosing the wrong tool, while other times the error is using a tool incorrectly.

By following Borgers’ succinct advice, and learning the mistakes made by others, you’ll be able to avoid making these errors yourself. After you’re done watching head over to Borgers’ instructional YouTube channel where you’ll find a wide variety of helpful tips and tricks.

And be sure not to miss the tutorial mentioned above, with a straightforward approach to getting things right in the camera.