We often discuss the challenge of shooting and editing landscapes scenes with a wide range wide range of tones from bright highlights to deep shadows. But there’s another problem you may encounter, and that’s what you’ll learn how to handle in today’s tutorial below from the popular PHLOG Photography YouTube channel.

Instructor Christian Mohrle is a German landscape specialist and a favorite among Shutterbug readers who appreciate his straightforward lessons. The topic of today’s episode is editing landscape scenes with flat dull light and transforming them into something special with a few effects in Lightroom.

Mohrle begins with a seaside shot that has a lot of potential, despite the gray, uninspiring light. His goal for this transformation is to add drama, impact, and a compelling moody look. You can download the Raw file in the description beneath the video and follow along as he describes the process.

The edit begins with a few basic adjustments to create a sold base image for the important steps that follow. He first crops the shot to with skewed lines in mind, and then turns to several simple global enhancements. These include carefully bumping up highlights with a close eye on the histogram to avoid overexposing the photo.

Mohrle also drops shadows quite a bit, increases blacks, brings up whites, and pumps up contrast to give the photo more “punch.” Lastly, he adds texture for more sharpness in smaller details—while dropping Clarity and Dehaze. At this point, the image is looking good.

It’s now time for several selective adjustments to various portions of the scene, which in when the magic occurs. This means masking is next on the list, beginning with a Linear Gradient that Mohrle uses to darken the top right corner of the sky. He also employs a Radial Gradient over the mountain in the middle of the frame—this time to introduce added detail by adding Texture.

The transformation continues with a bit more masking, including an unusual thin-and-wide Radial Gradient on the left side of the horizon to create an interesting “light beam” effect. Importantly, he carefully rotates the mask to match the direction of the light.

Mohrle turns to color grading enhancements once the masking is complete. As you’ll see, the adjustments he makes are really simple, but the result is significant. All that’s left to finish the job is a bit of sharpening and a quick trip to Photoshop to fix the distortion mentioned above.

After watching the video pay a visit to Mohrle’s YouTube channel where you’ll find much more of interest—especially if landscape photography is your thing. On a related note, don’t miss the earlier tutorial we posted explaining why you should use “local adjustments” for the best edits possible.

Among the most popular scenes for landscape photographers this time of year are hillsides of fields painted with colorful wildflowers. The tutorial below from an accomplished pro explains his favorite techniques for getting the job done.

Michael Shainblum is a photographer and videographer based in San Francisco who regularly posts tutorials on various types of outdoor photography. In today’s behind-the-scenes episode you’ll watch him capture an epic California “superbloom” while he shares valuable tips and tricks that you can accomplish with just about any gear you own. You can find a list of the equipment Shainblum prefers in the description beneath the video.

Shainblum’s adventure begins at the base of a hillside festooned with vivid yellow, orange, purple and yellow flowers. Most photographers would pull out a wide-angle lens for an expansive vista like this. Instead, Shainblum grabs a telephoto zoom that enables him to compress the distant hillside, create three unique images, and accentuate the flowers.

A telephoto zoom like Shainblum’s versatile 100-400mm provides a number of compositional opportunities. Shooting at 100mm enables you to capture interesting shapes of the rolling hills in the background. His recommendation for this approach is to frame the shot in so a variety of colors are included in the frame.

Shainblum tends to favor more abstract images, which is why he zooms in a bit tighter. By doing this he creates a photo of the same scene with a totally different look. As he says, “losing the context of the sky makes the image a little more abstract.”

As you may have guessed, Shainblum then zooms in even further to pick out details he finds interesting. Here he creates a compelling photo with shadows and dappled light adding to the impact of the shot.

The three shots Shainblum captured at different focal lengths are really nice, but he wasn’t quite satisfied for reasons he explains. He therefore decided to take all three images together and display them as a triptych, rather than as individual photos.

As he Shainblum says, “Sometimes the story you want to build through your photography isn’t meant to be shared through a singular image. That’s why we put together projects and collections.” In other words, maybe a series involves different subjects at a place, a different context to the scene, or a variety of interesting patterns and colors.

Shainblum recommends that you look through your photos and try to find a few that work in tandem, and we wholeheartedly agree. Then head over to his instructional YouTube channel for more great advice.

We also recommend watching a related tutorial we posted recently from another pro, explaining how to shoot epic landscape photos in bright summer light.

If you’re sort of new to Photoshop we have a welcome treat for you today: Another installment of the popular “Photoshop for Beginners” series from the PiXimperfect YouTube channel.

Each lesson in the series is devoted to one important tool or technique, and the topic of today’s episode is Photoshop’s powerful new Remove tool. In less than 20 minutes you’ll learn how to set up the tool, why it’s so helpful, and the best way to use it for perfect results.

Unmesh Dinda is an internationally popular image-editing instructor who teaches workshops across the globe and has almost five million subscribers to his channel. He says that if he had created this basic series before Adobe’s latest update, the Remove tool wouldn’t have been part of the mix. But now it’s easy enough for anyone to master with great success.

Dinda illustrates the versatility of this much-improved tool by comparing it to Photoshop’s Clone Stamp and Spot-Healing Bush tools to accomplish a simple task. As you’ll see, both alternate methods are cumbersome and often deliver sloppy results that require extra time to refine.

The new Remove tool, by comparison, “changes everything” and works like a charm. It’s important to update to the latest version of Photoshop before you watch Dinda explain how the tool works. Once you’re good to go it’s a simple matter to configure the tool to your liking, and Dinda walks you through the easy step-by-step process.

As he explains, this is an “actual Photoshop tool” that involves input from you, and not a new form of AI magic like Generative Fill. Dinda’s characterization is as concise as it gets: “It’s used to remove stuff. That’s it.” In other words, the Remove tool won’t fill an area with something else, as does Generative Fill, but it’s extremely effective when employed for its intended purpose.

Dinda’s guide is straightforward but complete, and includes helpful keyboard shortcuts for streamlining the process, He provides examples of images for which this method is most productive, and walks you through the various options the tool provides.  Then you’ll see how the tool works to easily eliminate unwanted objects from all sorts of images.

We encourage you to visit Dinda’s instructional YouTube channel where you’ll find more tips and tricks, as well as earlier episodes in the popular series.

And don’t miss the guide we posted from another image-editing expert, explaining how to use Photoshop’s new Gradient tool with real-time visual feedback and more.

Image noise can really ruin an otherwise nice photo with ugly artifacts that appear as random speckles of grain and unsightly variations in the brightness and colors of your shot. It’s a rather common occurrence, shrouded in a common misconception, that’s demystified in the tutorial below.

Duade Paton is a professional nature and wildlife pro based in rural Australia, who regularly posts tutorials on shooting and editing techniques. Today’s episode is a combination of both, as he demystifies the concept of image noise. He demonstrates his tips using an image of a bird, but the simple techniques you’ll learn are appropriate for whatever photos you capture outdoors. 

Paton explains exactly what causes noise in an image, reveals camera settings to reduce it, and debunks what he says is a “misconception that high ISO directly causes noise.” He also discusses how noise-reduction software enables him to use higher shutter speeds.

In simple terms, Paton puts it like this: “Noise is caused by a lack of light hitting the sensor of your camera,” and he uses two examples of the same shot to illustrate that the “the more light the sensor gets the less noise your image will have.” As you know, this is controlled by a combination of the shutter speed, ISO, and aperture settings you choose.

If you’re wondering about the misconception mentioned above, take a look at the next two images Paton pulls up on the screen. One is pretty clean while the other is really noisy, and here’s the surprise: both were shot at the same ISO setting. So why are they so different?

The answer simple. The photo without image-killing noise was captured with bright, direct sunlight, hitting the bird’s eye (and his camera’s sensor), while the other photo was captured in low light before sunrise—requiring processing adjustments to amplify the dark image.

With that knowledge under your belt, Patton proceeds with a variety of solutions. He discusses the ISO settings he uses for different types of wildlife images with lenses of different focal lengths. You’ll also see how he manipulates aperture and shutter peed settings to get the cleanest results possible.

The lesson wraps up with an explanation of how the size and type of sensor in your camera factors into the equation, and the impact of noise-reduction software on the final result.

You can find more helpful tips by visiting Paton’s YouTube channel, and watching a related tutorial we posted explaining how to shoot stunning landscape photos in harsh summer light.