Highlights and shadows can be the bane of landscape photographers who often confront scenes with a wide range of tones that exceed the density range of their camera. Today’s quick tutorial from the folks at How to Use concentrates on the former, with a straightforward Lightroom method for eliminating blown-out areas within the frame.

While this Lightroom technique is helpful for editing all sorts of photos that include overly bright elements, it’s particularly useful when photographing sunset and sunrise scenes when a prominent sun makes it difficult to arrive at a correct exposure throughout the frame.

Photographer Nathaniel is Lead Instructor at the How to Use YouTube channel, and he puts it simply: “Highlights are crucial to fix” if you want to create compelling outdoor photos with perfectly balanced tones.

Nathaniel’s sample image is a sunset scene captured on the beach in beautiful Venice, CA. It looks really good except for a common problem—the sun appears almost white and is totally devoid of detail. The first thing to do is pull up the histogram and evaluate the exposure from highlights to shadows and everything in between.

The shadow areas look fine, and Nathaniel walks you through a straightforward process for pulling details out of the sun. Slightly dropping the highlights is the initial step and you’ll notice details beginning to appear in the sun—both in the sky and in the foreground reflections. At this point it’s important to use a gentle approach and avoid taking things too far.

Next Nathaniel carefully reduces overall exposure and contrast, while slightly boosting the shadows that have become darker. Now you can pick out a surfer in the waves. He also adjusts the whites and slightly modifies blacks. Nathaniel explains why he doesn’t employ Lightroom’s Tone Curve for this specific task.

The image is significantly improved, but the transformation is only halfway complete. Nathaniel turns to the Color Mixer for a few quick enhancements that keep the image looking very realistic. He pumps up the reds tones, reduces saturation, and adjusts Luminance to further improve the effect.

Now it’s time to dig into Lightroom’s lens corrections, and you’ll see how enabling Profile Corrections makes a huge difference in how the image appears. He also uses Lightroom’s Color Calibration panel to further refine the reds. As with all of his adjustments, Nathaniel reveals the specific settings he uses.

Many of us would be pleased with the image as it now appears, but Nathaniel is a perfectionist and makes several more quick adjustments to perfect the edit to his satisfaction. Quick, easy, and very effective.

There’s much more to learn on the How to Use YouTube channel, so pay a visit and elevate your skills. We also suggest watching the recent tutorial we posted, explaining how to use the Eyedropper for perfect Curves adjustments in Lightroom.

Here’s a great tutorial for those of you who shy away from people pictures due to the misconception that a studio, expensive lighting equipment, or advanced skills are required to capture impressive portraits.

Photojournalist Sean Gallagher begins with a question, followed by an insightful answer. What you’ll learn will provide enough confidence for you to capture impressive portrait photos of loved ones, family and friends, and interesting strangers you meet throughout your travels.

So here’s the question: What makes a compelling portrait? According to Gallagher, “A good portrait reveals what a person looks like, but a great portrait reveals who they really are.” Gallagher is a photojournalist and documentary photographer/filmmaker who has produced fine work for National Geographic, The Guardian, and the Pulitzer Center among others. So he knows of which he speaks.

Gallagher refers to his style as “environmental portraiture”—unencumbered by all the gear that you may have found intimidating. A camera, lens, and natural outdoor light is all you really need—apart from the five important tips that Gallagher reveals. He’s a very adept visual storyteller as you’ll quickly discern.

What’s the key to creating an excellent environmental portrait? According to Gallagher, “it’s not just to focus on the person within the frame, but to also take into consideration the background and surroundings of the subject.” He explains that these additional elements can reveal things about who the person really is, where they live, and where they work.” In others. In essence, this is what storytelling is all about.

A common technique is to move in close and set a wide aperture to isolate a subject against an out-of-focus background.  This method can certainly be effective, but Gallagher’s approach is pretty much the opposite. Hence one tip is to “give your subject breathing room and more space.” He provides a few compelling examples of how this style enables you to reveal more about a subject.

Gallagher illustrates why it’s also critical to “pay attention to the details,” whether or not you’re familiar with a subject. In this regard, it’s often the “little things” that faithfully depict the true essence of someone’s character. He demonstrates why this suggestion is particularly important when shooting his style of portraits with a wider perspective.

The foregoing tips all contribute to telling a story which is what makes Gallagher’s imagery to captivating, and he has more advice to impart on this essential topic. He also provides several helpful ideas for getting creative during the process. He puts it like this: “You don’t always have to use the same lens, camera position or angle when you’re making portraits.”

So think about the position of your subject within the context of their surrounding so that they reveal something about themselves that’s unique. Sometimes that may be a simple as framing the person with a natural element within the frame.

There’s a lot more to see and learn on Gallagher’s interesting YouTube channel. And on a related note, be sure to check out the tutorial we posted with another pro who describes several ways to pose female subjects for alluring portrait photographs.  

Most photographers understand why the Curves tool is so effective for achieving optimum tonal adjustments with just about any photos you shoot. Today we’ll let you in on a little secret that enables users of all skill levels to employ Curves to the max for quick and precise results.

This straightforward method relies upon the Eyedropper to set points on the Curves you want to change, and the points you want to leave as they are. This way you can limit the impact of the Curves to specific tones that need work.

Pro Landscape photographer Scott Davenport is also a very adept instructor with an uncommon ability to simplify image-editing tasks that often seem difficult. In this episode it only takes him five minutes to demonstrate the advantages of the oft-ignored Eyedropper tool when working with Curves.

Davenport uses Lightroom to demonstrate this effective trick, but the technique also works with ON1 Photo Raw, On1 Effects, or any other editor with both a Curves tool and an Eyedropper. He provides an overview of the powerful Curves panel, just in case it’s not part of your current workflow, so you can begin using it today.

His sample image is a seascape photo with a lot of potential, and he walks you through the simple step-by-step procedure for turning it into money shot with a little help from the Eyedropper. His goal is to emphasize rock formations in the foreground by leaving shadow areas alone while accentuating midtones.

Texture and Clarity are also part of the equation, but all the heavy lifting is quickly accomplished by selectively targeting the rocks with Curves—specifically by clicking in the Dropper to get the job done. So what does he want to change? “In this case I want to raise the Luminance and increase the brightness of certain tones.”

But here’s the key: He also wants to “protect” other areas of the scene without sacrificing detail throughout the frame. You’ll see how he samples various tones, and then select a specific tone (or tones) that need adjustments.

Of equal importance is understanding how to select other tones that you want to protect, i.e. those you don’t want to change—like the dark, lowest portion of the large rock formation closest to the camera. You can also use this method to protect highlights if that’s what’s required for an image at hand.

Davenport sums up the lesson like this: “It’s a very powerful technique that’s not hard to do. Use the Picker, work visually, and have fun.”  After watching the video take a look at his instructional YouTube channel where you’ll find many more straightforward tips and tricks.

And don’t miss the earlier tutorial we posted from another image-editing expert who demonstrates a simple Lightroom Spit-Toning technique that can transform good landscape photos into great ones with better colors and contrast.