Do the outdoor photos you capture often appear dull and uninspiring, failing to convey what you saw through the viewfinder? Fear not, because this Lightroom tutorial from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel explains how to bring them back to life with Lightroom’s oft-ignored Color Range Masks.

Instructor Christian Mohrle is an acclaimed German pro who is equally adept behind the computer as he is with a camera up to his eye. You can download his sample Raw with a link beneath the video and follow along as he demonstrates how to unlock the power of today’s powerful masking technique.

Mohrle begins by merging multiple photos to create a panoramic shot, and he walks you through the straightforward process. As you’ll see, the result is promising, but needs some work to balance out a wide range of tones that can’t be fully corrected with adjustments to the overall scene. Hence, the necessity of selective enhancements to various areas within the frame.

The next step involves a few global adjustments that create the best possible base image for the masking magic that follows. These begin in Lightroom’s Basic panel by changing the profile from Adobe Color to Adobe Standard. Doing this immediately lessens contrast and brightens up the darkest areas in the photo.

Other preliminary enhancements include modifying White Balance to correct a heavy green cast and introducing more warmth. He also tweaks the exposure for more details in the sky, makes further adjustment to contrast, and increases clarity, texture, and vibrance.

The image is greatly improved and it’s now time for selective enhancements using Lightrooms Color Range Masks. The intent is to target blue tones in the sky and river in the foreground, accentuate green highlights in the midrange of his composition, and work on gray tones further back in the upper middle of the scene.

Mohrle demonstrates the straightforward steps required to accomplish these tasks. Then all that’s left to complete the impressive transformation is some final color grading and judicious sharpening. Mohrle’s before/after images prove the effectiveness of this easy-to-emulate technique.

Be sure to check out the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel for more helpful lessons like this one—especially if landscape photography is your thing.

We also recommend watching a tutorial we featured earlier with another post-processing expert who demonstrates a foolproof focus-fix technique for creating sharper landscape and nature photographs with a realistic look.

If you’re new to wildlife and nature photography or just want to elevate your game, today’s video tutorial is exactly what you need. In either case, this step-by-step guide to “essential” camera settings will set you on the path to success.

Be sure to grab your camera and follow along so you can experiment with these options as they’re explained by long-time pro Mike Patterson of the First Choice Photo YouTube channel. In barely 12 minutes you’ll have the knowledge you need for capturing breathtaking photos of birds in flight and animals on the ground—even in challenging situations.

Patterson says that the settings he recommends “allow me to shoot faster without setting the camera in advance, get more consistent results, and capture the sharpest and most dynamic shots every time.” He also discusses the importancw of keep tracking of any changes you make and understanding the practical reasons for the specific configurations involved.

The wildlife settings you learn are appropriate for whatever camera you use whether it’s a full-frame or crop-sensor DSLR or mirrorless model. He also discusses how the focal length of a lens factors into the equation. You’ll also learn how to create one or more custom settings that can be accessed quickly aa the need arises.

In other words, the advice in this episode is pretty much universal for shooting birds or other type of living subjects in the field. Patterson is a strong proponent of shooting in Manual mode with a simple twist. Take a look at the approach he recommends before you start worrying about the so-called “complexity” involved.

Patterson then dives into the best ISO settings for various scenes you may confront, and how to avoid potential problems with these settings and the other advice he provides. You’ll also learn the benefits of shutting off adjustment dials after everything is properly configured for the task at hand.

Back-button focus is a technique used by many experienced outdoor photographers, and Patterson discusses when and how this works to achieve the sharpest results possible. He also explains the importance of using exposure compensation and locking your camera’s custom Program modes

Once the video concludes pay a visit to the First Choice Photo YouTube channel where you’ll find more helpful techniques for shooters of all skill levels and photographic genres.

And don’t miss insightful tutorial we featured recently that reveals another pro’s 10 “must-have” photography accessories that won’t break the bank.

A toucan peers out of its nest and seems ready to take flight at any moment. I wait eagerly in the hide, my finger on the shutter button, determined not to miss the moment when it flies out and spreads its wings. Cut to an hour later. I blink, I open my eyes, and the toucan leaves the cavity. My panicked brain processes what happened, then sends information through my spinal cord and a few peripheral neurons to my index finger, which finally presses the button. Damn, too late! But it didn’t have to be like this. Many of today’s cameras solve the problem of human reaction time with a feature known (among other names) as Pre-Release Capture. Let’s take a closer look at it today.

Beginning Lightroom and Photoshop users tend to become so enamored with all the transformative tools that they often go overboard with post-processing effects, which is a sure way to ruin an otherwise nice shot. As you’ll see in this tutorial from instructor Johny Spencer, there are six warning signs that your edits are overcooked.

Spencer is a professional nature and landscape photographer working for Australia’s National Park Service, and he readily admits that he took a very heavy-handed approach when first starting out. This is a common beginner mistake, and it’s time you embraced subtlety like he did if you want to enhance photos while retaining a pleasing and realistic look.

This 12-minute episode covers everything from unnatural colors to over-the-top sharpening so you’ll be able to edit like a pro by dialing things back and avoiding garish and unrealistic effects. Spencer begins with a common mistake made when attempting to open up shadows in dark areas of a scene to enhance detail and definition.

This faux pas often occurs when taking an HDR approach that involves shooting multiple frames of a scene, each at a different exposure, and merging them in the hopes of achieving one perfect shot with correctly balanced tones. When doing so you may end up with a very flat result, and a quick glance at the histogram provides the telltale sign of this error.

Spencer demonstrates a quick fix as he does with the other glaring mistakes discussed, and the next one involves the other end of the tonal scale when you mess up the highlights of a shot by attempting to repair the blown-out appearance of a bright, sunny sky. By pulling down the brightness values too far “you’ll get a weird halo around the sun, the ethereal glow is lost, and the image will look really bad.”

Other problems and solutions include clumsy White Balance adjustments, overcooked contrast, amping up saturation beyond reasonable levels, over-sharpening, and introducing too much texture and clarity. You’ll quickly learn how to spot these mistakes, learn how to properly evaluate an image, and edit photos with thoughtfulness and intent.

After watching the video head over to Spencer’s instructional YouTube channel where you’ll find many more pro tips and techniques for elevating your skills

We also suggest watching an earlier tutorial we featured with another post-processing expert who demonstrates how to transform boring landscape photographs into spectacular shots with a beautiful, natural-looking, glowing sunset effect.