All landscape shooters know that the quality of light can make or break a photo. In fact, sometimes an uninspiring scene photographed with spectacular illumination has more impact than an epic scene shot during harsh, midday sun.

But what about those times when you’re traveling to a destination, the sun is high in the sky, and you come across a vista that simply can’t be ignored? In the interesting tutorial below from the Haitowerix YouTube channel you’ll discover simple ideas for making the most of such situations to capture eye-catching photos.

Instructor Aitor Alegre Celaa is an accomplished German photographer with plenty of success in making beautiful images what the light isn’t right. In this quick episode he provides simple advice for getting the job done, by changing up your approach when shooting the field. It’s pretty much a matter of doing things a bit differently with the gear you already own.

Celaa calls his tips “gamechangers,” and they’re particularly helpful this time of year when the sun rises really early, and sunset is really late—meaning you can’t always be in a perfect location to capture the fleeting moments of Golden Hour. He says, “sometimes I feel like a zombie if I awake early enough to shoot the sunrise.”

His first idea for making the most of harsh light is a simple matter of shooting in b&w. While midday tones often ruin the effect of color images, that’s not true with monochrome photos. Celaa explains why harsh light can create deep shadows and bright highlights that “add a dramatic touch to your photos,” if you follow his advice for handling intense light.

In most cases the striking contrast under these conditions is just what you need when shooting in b&w. He demonstrates how to use negative space for simple compositions when taking this approach. You’ll also learn the camera settings Celaa prefers for maximizing the appearance of images with a clean, minimalist style.

Another idea that works really well is shooting tight shots of brightly lit flowers. The trick here is carefully composing the scene in a way that the background is in the shadows. By exposing for brightly lit flowers in such situations, the background will almost go black, thereby making your main subject really stand out. This immediately directs a viewer’s eye to exactly where you want it to go.

Celaa calls his third tip “the most important idea.” You’ve likely heard this one before, but it’s definitely worth repeating. Bottom line: with a quick change in tactics, you’ll be able to capture money shots any time of day.

The Haitowerix YouTube channel was created as a haven for outdoor photographers who wish to expand their skills, so take a close look for more tips and tricks.

We also encourage you to watch the tutorial we posted on a similar topic, with another pro’s approach to landscape photography when you can shoot at Golden Hour.

If you’re familiar with Lightroom’s frequently ignored Dehaze tool, there’s more to it than adjusting a slider if you want the best possible results. And if you’ve never used this powerful and easy-to-use tool, now is the time to start.

According to Adobe this simple tool enables you to remove (or add) “atmospheric haze” from an image, including undesired elements like fog, smog or mist. And while doing so you can enhance parameters like color, tone, and exposure. If some atmospheric effects are desired for the look you want, you can also accentuate them as needed.

Instructor Anthony Morganti is one of our go-to sources for straightforward image-editing tutorials, and in the episode below he demonstrates how to properly Dehaze a photo for your specific needs. The technique he reveals is simple enough for Lightroom users of all skill levels, and it take barely three minutes to explain.

Morganti begins with this important clarification: “When you move the Dehaze slider (either to the left or right), you’re greatly affecting the tone and color of the image,” even if that’s not what you intend. Therefore, if you’ve already edited a photo for these elements before applying Dehaze, some of your earlier adjustments will be changed or undone—requiring you to go back and make tone and color enhancements again.

Morganti’s recommendation, if you don’t want to get caught in this time-consuming loop, is to use the Dehaze slider “as early in your workflow as possible, preferably it should be the first thing you do.”

The demonstration image is a tight shot of a lion that’s and had lens corrections applied, as well as a crop from horizontal to vertical. It’s obvious the photo is really hazy with muted, unappealing color—with an overall flat look.

Morganti illustrates the common problem by moving the Dehaze slider to the right as you might expect, and as he does so contrast greatly increases. That may a good thing, but here’s the rub: the image also become much more saturated, with unrealistic orange tones that adversely affect the edit—as suggested above.

You’ll then learn how to employ Morganti’s favored approach to eliminate haze, and enhance saturation, vibrance, exposure, without making adjustments more than once. His method is about as simple as it gets. It’s all about doing things in the proper order, with a few extra tricks added to the mix.

You can find a wide variety of post-processing lessons on Morganti’s very popular YouTube channel, so be sure to take a look.

And don’t miss an earlier tutorial we posted from another editing expert, explaining the best way to process sunrise photos in Lightroom for spectacular results.

Well-developed composition skills are vital for all forms of outdoor photography, and perhaps no more so than when shooting the urban landscape. That’s because cityscapes are jammed full of buildings, pedestrians, and vehicles—making proper framing a challenge.

In the behind-the-scenes video from Paris, French pro Serge Ramelli offers several great tips for making sense out of the chaos, so you know what elements to keep in a shot, and which ones to exclude. Shooting on an unusually cold day in May, Ramelli describes his approach like this: “Composition is the art of telling a story though a photo.”

That’s a difficult, if not impossible, task to achieve if there’s so much going on that a viewer doesn’t know where to look. Unless he’s using long exposures Ramelli prefers to shoot hand-held, unencumbered by a tripod, so he can move around easily while scouting  location—in this case the iconic Eiffel Tower. When the light isn’t right, he settles on a composition, and returns when conditions improve—perhaps at Blue Hour later in the day.

Ramelli explains the gear  he uses, with lenses of widely different focal lengths, so he can capture very different images of the same scene. He always begins with “classic” views of notable structures, but then moves on to less-familiar views with a unique twist. That may mean photographing the backside of a famous building or shooting from a unique perspective—either high from a rooftop or low to the ground.

There’s some good advice on camera settings, in addition to the seven composition tips Ramelli reveals, and he includes exposure information on the photos in the video. Ramelli tries to shoot at ISO 100 whenever possible, and he likes to slightly underexpose his shots. You’ll also see why he almost always uses his camera’s Spot Focus mode.

Ramelli takes advantage of leading lines for his first shot, but he waits until tourists move out of the frame, “because in this instance they’re not part of the story I want to tell.” He excludes other objects, for much the same reason, as he continues moving around the tower while capturing more images.

Next, Ramelli creates a totally different image of his subject by moving to the other side of a famous nearby bridge and uses this structure as an object to frame the Eiffel Tower for an interesting “frame- within-a frame” effect. This is just a taste of the pro tips you’ll learn by watching the lesson—with valuable advice that you can try in the city where you live.

Ramelli’s popular YouTube channel includes lessons on landscape, travel, and cityscape photography, so be sure to pay a visit.

And don’t miss the tutorial we posted earlier, in which another pro contradicts Ramelli by saying, “stop shooting at ISO 100.”

Adobe has been busy updating Lightroom, making this popular editing software more effective, faster, and easier to use. The quick tutorial below from Photoshop Café explains how to improve your workflow with a trio of new capabilities.

Instructor Colin Smith is a favorite among Shutterbug readers who appreciate the straightforward manner in which he keeps us informed whenever Photoshop and Lightroom updates are released. Today he walks you through what he considers “the three top new features in Lightroom version 12.4.”

Not only will Smith’s picks enable you to achieve better edits, but they’re simple enough for anyone to use, as evidenced by the fact that they only take five minutes to demonstrate. The first new feature is called Grain in Masks, and Smith pulls up a seascape photo with grain in the sky to walk you through the rehabilitation process.

Smith starts in the Develop module and creates a Linear Mask to illustrate how blurring the background is one common fix. But here’s the problem: the sky no longer matches the grain in the rest of the image. This is where the new Grain in Masks tool comes to the rescue. As you’ll see, there are three sliders under the Effects tab for adjusting Texture, Clarity and Dehaze.

Immediately below you’ll also find Grain sliders that control Amount, Size, and Roughness. Smith demonstrates how to use these simple tools to remove or add a slight bit of grain to various portions of an image so that the photo has a uniform appearance. Check out his before/after images and you’ll be impressed.

The second new Lightroom feature on Smith’s list is Visualize Colors, and he demonstrates why it’s “super useful.” This one is somewhat hidden within the familiar HSL panel, but the ALT/Option keystroke unlocks the new capabilities. Let’s say you’re adjusting saturation, for example. By using this keystroke Lightroom will hide all the colors other than the one you’re adjusting with its slider.

The same holds true when working with the Hue and Luminance sliders. There’s also a Targeted Adjustment tool at the top left of each HSL section that enables you to click and drag within the image to quickly make whatever color adjustments you desire.

Saturation Recovery is Smith’s third favorite new feature, and you’ll have to watch this lesson to see what it can do. Let’s just say is involves using Curves and is just as simple and effective as the tools outlined above. You can master these three new features in no time, and your edits will be more effective as a result.

Smith’s instructional YouTube channel is loaded with helpful lessons like this, so pay a visit and check back often.

On a related note, be sure to watch the tutorial we posted from another pro recently, explaining more details about using Lightroom’s updated Curves tool to solve Saturation problems.