If you’ve never captured photos at night we’re going to help you change that today with a quick tutorial on using the iPhone’s Night Mode to shoot dramatic long-exposure images when your “real” camera is at home.

Those of you who’ve tried this technique with a DLR or mirrorless camera are already part way there, because the concept is pretty much the same when using a smartphone. You just have to understand a few settings and have a small tripod or other camera support at the ready.

Instructor Travis Whirley specializes in mobile photography and cinematography tutorials for users of all skill levels. In this episode he demonstrates how to shoot photos with exposures as long as 30 seconds, and his straightforward tips take barely two minutes to explain. The cool thing about tackling this task is that the iPhone’s sensor will automatically detect and turn on Night Mode based upon the brightness of your scene.

These techniques work well indoors or out, like when capturing portraits in a dimly-lit room—or shooting street scenes or landscape photos after dark. Cityscapes offer particularly great opportunities because scenes that look boring during the day are often transformed into sparkling tableaus once the sun drops below the horizon.

Whirley closes the blinds and turn off the lights in his room so that it’s virtually dark. And lo and behold, the iPhone automatically activates Night Mode and provides a half-moon icon for confirmation. There are off/on buttons on the left and right of the screen, and the iPhone lets you know the shutter speed required for the task at hand.

So what do you do next? Simply tap the shutter button and you’ve automatically captured a great shot. Whirley describes the portrait of his dog like this: “We have a pretty dynamic photo that actually looks great, and it’s bright in all the right places.”

If a photo doesn’t reflect the specific mood you have in mind, you can manually adjust the exposure up or down with a simple slider above the shutter button. And remembers that camera or subject movement results in blurry images, so be sure to support your iPhone and encourage your subject to remain still.

Whirley also has a workable tip for shooting handheld when the required exposure isn’t too long. Simply take a deep breath before snapping the shutter and don’t release your breath until after capturing the shot.

If you shoot stills or videos with your phone, make sure to visit Whirley’s instructional YouTube channel where there’s much more to learn.

And don’t miss the tutorial we posted from another accomplished pro who provides a variety of solid tips for shooting alluring portrait photographs of inexperienced models.

Ugly Dust Spots can really spoil a photo, whether they’re caused by a dirty lens or a sensor that’s overdue for a cleaning. Unfortunately, conventional post-processing repairs don’t always do a perfect job—especially when the artifacts are difficult to notice at first glance.

This Lightroom quick tip demonstrates a unique way to use the powerful Visualize Dust Spots tool in tandem with a seemingly unrelated tool  to find ALL the ugly distractions that need to be removed from a photo. The surprising method demonstrates why Lightroom’s Dehaze slider is an ideal complement to the existing Visualize Spots slider when using the Healing Brush to get the job done.

Landscape photographer Pablo Garcia is one of our new go-to sources of fast, easy, and effective image-editing techniques that are accessible to novice Lightroom users. In this episode he demonstrates how to resolve the common task in less than five minutes so you can rid photos of dust forever more.

Garcia captured his first example—a snowy high-key image of a bison in Yellowstone National Park—and he says, “At first I thought I was basically done.” But then he pulled Lightroom’s Dehaze slider all the way to the right, and he began to see dusty areas he failed to catch when first examining the photo with the standard Visualize Spots slider. This is a key observation if you intend to make big prints.

Here’s Garcia’s explanation: “Using Dehaze works really well to boost contrast in photos with seamless, smooth backgrounds.” He explains why he doesn’t recommend limiting your spot removal effort to this simple adjustment, but rather calling on Lightroom’s Visualize Spots slider as well to locate the artifacts. Then it’s a very simple task to achieve a super clean photo.

Garcia’s second example is a much different type of shot, but it also has what appears to be a smooth featureless background—this time it’s light gray instead of white. But once again, by boosting Dehaze to increase contrast there are noticeable spots that need to be removed.

You’ll see a couple more images, each with a different look, and they’re all significantly improved by the simple step-by-step method that Garcia recommends. In all cases he started his edit with the Visualize Dust Spots tool, following by the Healing Brush to eliminate obvious problems, while missing quite a few spots.

He also discovered other unwanted small elements in the scene once the Dehaze tool came into play. Here’s a very important reminder when taking this approach: When you’ve located all the spots and cleaned up the image, don’t forget to reset the Dehaze slider to the default neutral position.

There’s much more to learn on Garcia’s informative YouTube channel, so be sure to pay a visit.

We also recommend watching a tutorial we posted recently from another image-editing expert who demonstrates how to rehabilitate underexposed landscape photographs with a bit of help from Lightroom.