We thought we’d start the day with a fun short-and-sweet” technique for embellishing photos with sunstars captured in the camera. So pull up a chair, watch the two-minute video below, and see how it’s done.

Sunstars and nighttime starbursts can add some oft-needed oomph and pizazz to all sorts of photos. It’s like putting a little twinkle in the eye of whatever scene you’re about to shoot.

Perhaps you’ve captured sunstars yourself. But admit it: Did you do so intentionally, or did the affect occur inadvertently? Most photographers (myself included) fall into the latter category when sunstars appear in photos thanks to a lucky confluence of camera settings, the lens in use, and the aperture you choose.

Instructor William Patino is an accomplished landscape photographer based in New Zealand, with a knack for simplifying interesting shooting techniques. In this quick episode he demonstrates a straightforward process for capturing eye-catching sunstars in a predictable way.

The technique boils down to three essential elements, the first of which is the proper source of light. In this regard it’s important to shoot when the sun isn’t diffused by a clouded sky, and camera  position relative to the sun may factor into the equation.

Exposure settings are another critical consideration, and here it’s is necessary to choose ISO and shutter speed to arrive at a small aperture which is ultimately the key to capturing sunstars with regularity. Patino says f/11 often works, but he recommends f/16 or f/22 when conditions permit.

The third, and Patino say his most important tips, is to frame the scene in a way that an object (like a tree) partially obscures the sun so that the sunstar “bursts around the object.” Watch how Patino combines these three simple elements to get the job done.

There are many more simple tips and tricks on Patino’s YouTube channel, so take a look and subscribe.

We also suggest you watch the tutorial we posed recently from another pro, explaining how to “shape light” for more dramatic landscape photos.

Photo By Jennifer Carr

Today’s Photo of the Day is “Short-Eared Owl in Flight” by Jennifer Carr. Location: Burlington, Washington.

“A short-eared owl skims the ground in search of a vole in western Washington in the late afternoon sunlight,” describes Carr. “This photograph showcases my motivation as a photographer because I set a goal for 2023 to seek out and photograph an owl in the wild. I purchased a new lens, practiced on some local birds and studied autofocus settings. I researched owls, consulted with birdwatchers and other photographers and found that there was a location nearby where short-eared owls regularly hunted in the winter. I had expected to need to visit multiple times before successfully photographing the owls, but they were readily on display!”

Want to get your images in the running for a Photo of the Day feature? Photo of the Day is chosen from various galleries, including Assignments, Galleries and Contests. Assignments have weekly winners that are featured on the website homepage, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To get your photos in the running, all you have to do is submit them.

The post Photo Of The Day By Jennifer Carr appeared first on Outdoor Photographer.

The past month has been special for Shutterbug readers thanks to the weekly installments we’ve posted of an amazing free Lightroom masterclass from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel. Part 1 covered the basics. #2 dealt with masking, and last week’s episode explained the finer points of using Lightroom’s Tone Curve.

Today’s fourth installment of the 10-part series demonstrates how to achieve perfect color in landscape photos by using Lightroom’s HSL panel. The term HSL is an acronym for Hue, Saturation and Luminance. All three are important to understand if you want to achieve images with beautiful, natural looking colors when processing your work.

Instructor Christian Mohrle is an exceptional German landscape photographer with a passion for helping others improve their imagery. As you’ll see, each of these elements affects the colors with your photos in different ways. And when used properly it’s simple to to give an image whatever look you desire.

Mohrle explains that Hue refers to the actual color itself; i.e. red green or blue. “This particular slider enables you to easily change the color of specific areas in a photo. So by modifying green tones, for example, you can transform summer foliage into autumn colors.

Saturation works differently by modifying the intensity of a color (making it either stronger or more subdued). With these sliders in Lightroom’s Basics panel the idea is to target colors individually—bring them up or down to suit your taste.

The term Luminance pertains to the brightness of colors. And these sliders let you make certain areas of a photo brighter, others darker, while leaving some portions of the shot untouched if need be. Mohrle says, “Think of a blue sky: with Luminance controls you can target the blues to make them darker with mpre contrast and drama.”

Mohrle demonstrates how easy all this is to accomplish, and he discusses all the key HSL settings necessary for making your outdoor photos really stand out.

If you missed one or more of the three previous episodes of this ongoing series, head over to Mohrle’s YouTube channel where they’re easy to find. He has numerous other videos on a wide variety of topic—all devoted to shooting and editing photos captured in the great outdoors.

We also suggest you watch another tutorial we posted recently, explaining a pro trick for shooting amazing landscape photos with a wide-angle lens.

Some photographers have been slow to embrace Lightroom, while others gave it a try and went back to Photoshop. But this trend is changing as more and more shooters become aware of the powerful new tools Adobe has added to Lightroom in recent updates.

Instructor John Pedersen is a professional landscape photographer with a portfolio full of gorgeous images captured in the Pacific Northwest. Until recently he bounced back and forth between Photoshop and Lightroom, depending upon the task at hand. Then he discovered a new feature in Lightroom’s Healing tool that convinced him to make the switch.

The deal breaker is an upgrade called Content Aware Removal that makes Lightroom’s Healing tool similar in functionality to how it works in Photoshop. So these days when Pedersen opens an image that needs a bit of Healing, he no longer makes a time-consuming “round trip” from Lightroom to Photoshop and back.

As Pedersen says, “This tool provides intelligence to removing unwanted objects. Instead of sampling an existing area of the image, which can cause unwanted artifacts, it samples the surrounding pixels to create new information to repair the areas you select.” In this straightforward episode you learn how this works in barely 10 minutes.

Pedersen begins his demonstration of the step-by-step process in Lightroom’s Library module with a Golden Hour scene of Oregon’s iconic Face Rock just off the coast. He says, “One of the things I often do with beach photographs is clean up the sand.” Lightroom’s new-and-improved Healing tool is perfect for this task.

As you’ll see, this simple technique enables Pedersen to quickly make pristine seaside imagery by removing footprints, discarded junk, and other distracting elements that can ruin an otherwise great shot. While watching the video think about all the other uses for this simple method, from images of city bustling streets, sporting events, and just about any other outdoor photos you shoot.

What you’ll lean in this video will save you considerable time and effort when banishing distracting elements from photos. And perfect results are very easy to accomplish.

After watching this lesson head over to Pedersen’s instructional YouTube channel where you’ll find more helpful advice. And be sure to watch the earlier tutorial we posted, explaining a Lightroom trick that makes perfect HSL edits a breeze.