Most beginning photographers are enthusiastic about their new creative pursuit, but sheer passion alone is not enough to get the job done. That’s because practice, a firm understanding of the fundamentals, and appropriate gear are essential if one is to develop their skills.

Today’s tutorial comes from Behind the Tripod, an instructional YouTube channel designed to help novices shorten their learning curve. This episode does exactly that by revealing five of the most common beginner mistakes and explaining how to fix them. So if you’re just getting started and your photos aren’t hitting the mark, this seven-minute lesson is just what you need.

Instructor Steve Mills notes that “beginners tend to make the same mistakes over and over again.” And while errors are expected when pursuing a new passion, your goal should be to not make the same mistake twice. In fact, new mistakes are nothing to be ashamed of and often provide important insights for doing things better the next time around.

At the top of Mill’s list is a failure to understand how to arrive at proper exposures. He quickly covers the basics by explaining how the Exposure Triangle works to get the light right under various conditions with a synergy between shutter speed, aperture and ISO. Once you understand how these key variables interact it becomes easy to nail exposure no matter the situation you confront.

You’ll learn how to confirm exposure in the middle of a hectic shoot, why your camera’s histogram is an invaluable aid, and other camera settings that contribute to the process. Another critical faux pas is ignoring the importance of skillful composition. In short, a beautiful scene doesn’t guarantee beautiful photographs unless you know how to frame a shot for maximum impact. Here too, Mills has some straightforward and very effective tips.

Mistake #3 is choosing the wrong lens for the task at hand by overlooking how different focal lengths can make or break a shot. This doesn’t mean always reaching for a wide-angle lens when photographing landscapes or choosing a long telephoto for wildlife photography. Rather, the point is to determine the specific story you want to tell, and then choosing a lens with that goal in mind.

Fourth on the list is an unfamiliarity with the various camera modes available. As Mills puts it, Auto mode is a safe place to be for new photographers because the camera does all the work. “But learning how to shoot in Aperture and Shutter-Priority modes is a real game changer that will open up a whole new world of creative possibilities.”

Mills’ fifth beginner mistakes is for those of you who don’t understand post-processing tools or are unwilling to make the effort. The notion of “getting it right in the camera” is a nice objective to strive for, but that’s not always possible—for the same reasons iconic film photographers regularly turned to the darkroom to perfect their masterpieces.

If you’re looking for more beginner lessons, Mills’ instructional YouTube channel is a great source. Likewise, we encourage you to check out another helpful primer we posted recently, with a beginners guide to everything Photoshop’s Brush tool has to offer, including a bunch of simple tricks and helpful keyboard shortcuts for speeding up the process.

Yesterday we featured a straightforward guide to using Selective Exposure adjustments to get the light right in complicated images with a wide range of brightness levels throughout the frame. Today’s tutorial from another image-editing expert demonstrates how to take a similar approach with Lightroom’s powerful Selective Color tools.

One of the key benefits to a Selective editing approach that we mentioned yesterday applies to today’s technique, as well as to other enhancements made with this preferred approach. Simply put, that’s because you’ll achieve far more precise results by adjusting specific points within a scene differently, rather than by applying global enhancements that affect the entire image at once.

Selective editing requires the use of masking, and some photographers shy away from this method because of the extra steps involved. But as you’ll see in the following tutorial from image-editing expert Anthony Morganti, all that has changed because of the streamlined capabilities of Lightroom’s new Masking tools.

Morganti is an accomplished photographer and a very popular educator based in Buffalo, NY. Today’s 13-minute primer is a must-see if you’re new to Selective Color tools, whether you use Lightroom Classic, the Cloud version, or Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). And like with yesterday’s video, by mastering today’s technique you’ll be well-prepared for other types of selective editing.

Morganti’s first demonstration image is a nice lakeside shot of a cardinal perched atop a boulder on the shore. The problem is that the colors in the scene are a bit flat and there’s no way to enhance the image in the manner Morganti envisions with the common global approach.

Morganti’s goal is to give this shot a unique look, with a vibrant red Cardinal and everything else in b&w—a creative way to accentuate the main subject and guide the viewer’s eye to the most important part of the shot. His approach is to first make whatever basic global adjustments are required, and the turn to masks and selective adjustments that refine colors to the max.

As you see, the simplicity of the photo makes the required transformation very easy to accomplish. With this understanding under your belt Morganti moves on to more involved examples, and he walks you through the process for getting the job done. The impressive results he achieves with each image will convince you of the superiority of these techniques.

There’s much more to learn about post processing on Morganti’ popular YouTube channel, so be sure to take a look.

And don’t forget to watch the tutorial mentioned above that will enable you to level up exposure adjustments with a very similar technique. Once you get exposure and color corrected to perfection you’re well along the way to creating very compelling photos.

We regularly preach the importance of taking a selective, rather than a global, approach to processing your images. This simply means limiting your adjustments to specific portions of a scene that really need work, instead of making enhancements to the image as a whole.

This technique applies to whatever modifications you make to color values, texture, exposure, and other key variables. By doing this you’ll be able to transform good photographs into great ones, with ideal characteristics that really grab attention. Nowhere is this more important than when editing complicated outdoor photos with a multiple elements and a broad range of brightness values throughout the frame.

The following video from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel deals exclusively with selective adjustments to exposure, and what you learn in barely 13 minutes will have a big impact on every image you shoot outdoors. These tips, like other selective image-editing techniques, require the use of simple masks, but the precise results you’ll achieve are well worth the extra effort.

Instructor Christian Mohrle is a professional German landscape photographer who really know his way around the computer. As with all tutorials he posts, you can download the demonstration Raw file using a link beneath the video and make the adjustments yourself as the necessary steps are explained.

Mohrle always begins with a few basic overall adjustments to prepare an image for the magic that follows. For today’s lakeside sunset scene that means changing the profile to Adobe Landscape which immediately bumps up the shadows and adds more saturation to the shot. Then Mohrle works his way through Lightroom’s Tone panel and uses sliders to increase exposure, bring down highlights to avoid a blown-out sky, and open up the shadows.

Now the image looks quite balanced with more intense colors, and it’s time for selective exposure adjustments that refine exposure to perfection. As Mohrle explains, the goal is to  “brighten or darken the image in certain parts in order to create more depth and interest.” His point is that this task can’t be accomplished effectively by making global adjustments like he did with the preliminary enhancements described above.

Mohrle walks you through the step-by-step masking procedure for getting the job done, and once you understand this technique it will be easy to make selective adjustments to other variables in an image. This versatile method transcends editing landscape photos and can be used with equal effectiveness to improve other type of images shot outdoors.

The lesson wraps up with some straightforward sharpening and color grading, and we’re confident that you’ll be impressed when you view the final result. You can find more powerful editing tips and tricks by paying a visit to Mohrle’s very popular YouTube channel.

We also suggest that you check out an earlier Lightroom tutorial we posted, with a two-minute trick for using the Texture tool to make photos jump off the screen.

Correct technique is essential for fast and precise focus, and sometimes it’s necessary to give your camera some help. That’s because if you focus on the wrong spot within the frame, all is lost before you snap the shutter—even if you use a high-end pro camera with a premium lens.

The interesting tutorial below from British outdoor photographer Nigel Danson reveals the various techniques he uses to nail focus virtually every time. He begins by describing several factors that impede properly focused images and concludes with a discussion of how and when focus-stacking is necessary—which in his view is “not as often as you think.”

Danson takes a fresh approach with this lesson by compartmentalizing his tips for lenses of different focal lengths from 16-70mm. Focusing techniques aren’t usually presented in this manner, but you see how critical this can be. He also defines important terminology that’s relevant for understanding all the methods you’ll learn.

One of the reasons to take a specific approach with different lenses has to do with how depth of field changes from wide-angles to telephotos—greatly reducing the zone of sharp focus as magnification increases—even with small aperture settings. In this regard he also provides the important reminder that every lens is sharpest at one particular aperture, and it’s not difficult to determine what f/stop that is.

You’ll also learn the difference between “acceptably sharp” and optimum sharpness—something that’s important to consider when making compromises between shutter speed, ISO, and aperture settings under a variety of lighting conditions. Other key variables include whether you’re shooting handheld or with a tripod, and if a subject is stationary or in motion.

Danson also describes how “hyperfocal distance” works to greatly increase your odds of success. He defines this concept as “the closest point you can focus on where everything from that point to infinity is acceptably sharp.” As you’ll see, your aperture setting is a key component of this equation.

According to Danson, acceptably sharp isn’t really sharp enough, and the remainder of the video reveals how to take sharpness to the max under varied conditions with different subjects, and with whatever camera and lenses you use. Along the way you learn how lens diffraction and other subtle variables can have a big impact on your results.

We suggest that you take a look at Danson’s instructional YouTube channel for more tips and tricks, especially if landscape and nature photography ring your bell.

And don’t miss the tutorial we posted recently from an equally adept pro on another important component of all great imagery; namely how to shoot perfectly exposed nature, wildlife, and landscape photos in different light.