Most experienced landscape photographers know that once in a while Mother Nature needs a helping if they want to create images with a compelling look. In the quick Lightroom tutorial below you’ll learn a simple edit for adding atmosphere and interest to make images stand apart from the crowd.

Instructor Michael Breitung is a German pro specializing in landscape and travel photography and he’s generous about sharing the secrets to his success. His superb images often owe their impact to the “atmosphere” he adds during the editing process, and after watching this nine-minute episode you’ll be able to do the same.

Breitung relies upon Lightroom Masks to imbue outdoor images with mist and fog in a remarkably realistic way. He reveals the best settings to use when employing one of Lightroom’s Brush tools, and how to fine-tune the appearance of your effect. You’ll also learn how to employ the Auto Mask feature of a brush to easily create convincing results.

The demonstration image was shot on a gloomy day in the forest when a bit of mist moved in and out of the scene, but there’s no comparison between Breitung’s original shot and the far more dramatic effect he created with the tips you’ll learn in the video. His goal is to add more mist to create an ethereal look with significant separation between all the trees in the frame.

Breitung creates a few Masks to give Mother Nature a boost. Interestingly, the first thing he does after selecting a brush is to start brushing outside of the frame. A single click activates his mask, and then he demonstrates how to refine what comes net.

To create the fog Breitung increases the blacks quite a bit and reduces Contrast. Most importantly he significantly brings down Dehaze. Then he drops Clarity, cuts Exposure to accentuate the gloom, and reduces Saturation. He then modifies color temperature for the specific look he’s after.

Breitung says he opts for a warmer effect if there’s some sun in the frame, otherwise he prefers a cooler appearance. At this point the added fog is uniformly applied throughout the scene, but that needs to be rectified because fog typically appears more dense in the background than it does in the foreground.

Therefore, for the sake of realism, Breitung clicks on Invert to temporarily make the atmosphere disappear. Then he selectively paints the fog back in—exactly where he wants it to be. For this step he uses a large Brush along with specific settings that enable him to carefully and gradually build up the effect.  

There are a few most simple steps required to complete the transformation, but the final result is impressive, especially if you compare it to the original shot. There’s much more to learn on Breitung’s instructional YouTube channel, so take a look at what’s available whenever you have some time.

We also suggest watching an earlier tutorial we posted with five pro tips for making epic landscape and cityscape photographs.

Lightroom is so jam-packed with features that it’s easy to overlook a few powerful capabilities when devising your personal workflow. In the quick tutorial below you’ll learn why one accomplished pro says, “The Calibration panel is “the best tool for editing photos quickly and beautifully,” and today he demonstrates how easy it is to use.

Instructor Roy van der Wens is considered one of the most notable wedding photographer in the Netherlands, with a unique style he developed by shooting fashion. He says some photographers shy away from the Calibration panel because “it scares them off,” but insists you can transform any photo into a profession edit by following the straightforward advice he provides in this seven-minute lesson.

It won’t take you long to realize that Roy’s self-taught workflow is as unique as his imagery—with the goal of making image-editing as fast as possible without sacrificing the quality of his results. And Lightroom’s Calibration tools are at the heart of his process. He provides a trio of examples to demonstrate the necessary settings so you can get started today.

The Calibration hack he explains gets the job done “almost instantly” without touching any of Lightroom’s more popular tools. As you’ll see, Roy’s original photos are intentionally somewhat dark, especially when shooting outdoors, for several reasons that he explains. And that’s why he always employs the Calibration panel, while ignoring common tools involving White Balance, color grading, the Color Mixer, and the Tone Curve.

The beautify of Roy’s unique approach is that it works wonders with just about any photo you shoot—even nature and landscape images. He jumps right into Lightroom’s Calibration panel and shows how the magic occurs by simply moving four or five sliders depending upon the specific image at hand.

He notes that this approach “works at the pixel level” which is why it has more impact on a photo than the tools you may be employing in the workflow you developed. Along the way he illustrates how to modify the look and mood of a photo depending upon the effect you want to create.

If the images you’re working on came from the same shoot under similar conditions, there an easy way to retain the setting you used on the first photo you processed and copy them over to the others to save time. And any necessary tweaks to perfect images in the sequence can be quickly accomplished.

The photos you see in this demonstration were shot for wedding clients, but don’t hesitate to try Roy’s quick trick on whatever types of images you capture on your next outing. Then pay a visit to Roy’s popular YouTube channel where you’ll find more helpful shooting and editing tips.

We also recommend taking a look at the tutorial we posted recently in which an acclaimed landscape photographer demonstrates his four-step Lightroom workflow that delivers perfect results every time.

We all know that photography is all about light, and even the best cameras make mistakes rendering what they “see”—yielding images that are either too bright or too dark. If, like most of us, you prefer nailing exposure in the camera (instead of fixing things in post), you’ve come to the right place.

The tutorial below explains how to use your cameras Exposure (EV) Compensation feature to achieve a perfect rending of tones—even under difficult lighting conditions. By understanding how this simple tool can overcome a camera’s ability to capture light, you’ll be able to avoid most common exposure problems from now on.

Instructor Chris Parker is a professional photographer based in Jacksonville, FL, and he explains everything you need to know in barely four minutes. As he says, this powerful feature is for “manually adjusting exposure when your camera doesn’t provide the results you want; or in other words, compensating for the camera’s mistake.”

Using EV Compensation is far easier than it sounds, with only one basic element to understand; namely, the concept of “stops.” In simple terms, a stop is a measure of exposure relating the doubling or halving the amount of light that reaches a camera’s sensor. For example a one-stop shift occurs when switching the ISO setting from ISO 100 to 200.

Similarly, going from f/4 to f/2.8 is one stop, as is using a shutter speed of two seconds instead of one second. With these basics under your belt it’s super easy to use EV Compensation to raise or lower exposure by as many stops as necessary to quickly brighten images that are too dark or doing the opposite.

Most cameras feature a physical button for accessing this critical feature, and it’s typically labeled with  +/- designation. Otherwise, the tool resides within a camera’s quick menu or you can assign it to one of the Function buttons. Once you access the feature you’ll see a simple graph with a zero in the middle, positive stops to the right and negative ones to the left—usually depicted in half-stop or third-stop increments.

Then it’s a simple matter of rotating a dial until your image looks exactly like you want. Hence, a positive number means an increase in light, while a negative number is a move in the opposite direction. All this will instantly make sense while watching Parker’s quick video demonstration.

This helpful lesson is part of Parker’s 14 Episode Camera Masterclass for beginners, and the others are equally straightforward and helpful. You can find a complete list with links to those episodes in the link beneath this video. There’s also a lot more to see by paying a visit to Parker’s instructional YouTube channel.

We also suggest watching the tutorial we posted from another accomplished pro who explains the first thing you should do with a new camera before going out to shoot.