It doesn’t matter whether you live in Nebraska, Mongolia, or like me, in the Czech Republic. These places, far from the nearest sea, would be biologically poor and dull without the beneficial influence of islands. The immense biodiversity of this planet is fundamentally dependent on their existence. Without exaggeration, it can be said that islands are the true cradle of evolution.

Sometimes our nature and landscape photos fall shot of the beauty we witnessed through the viewfinder, either because our camera settings were incorrect or we used the wrong approach during post processing. The video below from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel addresses the latter concern with a straightforward color-grading technique that anyone can master in minutes.

Instructor Christian Mohrle is an outstanding landscape photographer and popular educator based in Southern Germany near beautiful Lake Constance. Here’s how he describes today’s comprehensive episode: “This is my four-step Lightroom color grading workflow for making realistic photos that really pop!”

First on the list are a bunch of basic adjustments to the image as a whole that significantly improve exposure and white balance. He begins in Lightroom’s Basic panel and changes the profile to Adobe Landscape which immediately boosts base saturation to reflect his goal of a more colorful result.

The next step involves modifying exposure to achieve a much more accurate balance between highlights and shadows. The necessary changes include increasing overall exposure, opening the shadows, and adjusting the blacks. He also brings down highlights and whites to retain details in the brightest areas of the clouds.

Now it’s time to improve white balance, which Mohrle says is an essential components when editing images like his example. His goal here is to push color temperature in a way that significantly warms up the strong blue tones to convey the sunrise appearance he desires. A simple shift in tint also makes a noticeable difference.

With his original shot greatly improved, Mohrle turns his attention to targeting selective colors in different areas within the frame using masking techniques that are super easy to follow. Then come a few important HSL adjustments that blend these enhancements together.

The remarkable transformation concludes by introducing a very compelling split-toning effect. The instructional PHLOG Photography YouTube channel is a great resource for everyone who shoots in the field, so be sure to take a look.

We also recommend watching last week’s tutorial from another post-processing specialist who demonstrates a straightforward Lightroom technique for transforming ho-hum daytime scenes into breathtaking sunset photographs.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so nervous rock climbing as I did this week. The reason wasn’t really the thirty meters of air below my feet as I hung on the rope, photographing climbers beneath me. The shiver running down my spine had more to do with the camera I was shooting with and the fact that I was responsible for it “with my life.” I have to admit, I breathed a big sigh of relief when I finally rappelled back to the ground with the Leica SL3 still safely in my hands. You’ll soon be able to read my full thoughts on shooting with this unusual camera. For now, let me share one photo from yesterday’s climb—and of course, the latest news from the world of photography.

It’s probably a strange time for me to start a big photo book project – I haven’t been able to do very much photography at all for the last few weeks, since I’ve been busy moving apartments! Not much time to take landscape photos along the way, unfortunately. But in another sense…