Photography is all about maximizing light, and landscape photographers are always at the mercy of prevailing conditions. The quick tutorial below demonstrates how to make necessary adjustments in Lightroom when Mother Nature fails to cooperate.

German landscape pro Christian Mohrle is a favorite among Shutterbug readers for his straightforward shooting and editing tutorials that are illustrated with inspiring photos. For today’s episode he uses a rather flat panorama shot, but his tips apply to just about any photos you shoot outdoors.

We suggest that you download the sample image using the link beneath the video so you can follow along and make the adjustments yourself in real time. Mohrle’s goal is to add a dramatic mood, and he begins with a few basic enhancements to prepare the photo for what follows.

The first step is changing the profile from Adobe Color to Adobe Standard. This provides more control over contrast. As Mohrle says, “The poor contrast is what makes this Raw file so boring. He also brings down exposure, drops the highlights, and pumps up the whites to further increase contrast and slightly brighten the image.

Now the image looks more like what Mohrle envisions, and he completes the global adjustments by slightly raising blacks to increase details in the shadows, and increasing vibrance, clarity, and texture. He quickly straightens the skewed image, and now it’s time for selective adjustment to specific portions of the scene.

This next step involves a simple masking technique that begins with a liner gradient to adjust clouds in the top left corner of the shot. A quick Luminance Range mask further improves this area of the photo. Another mask over the foreground improves brightness and whites.

All that’s left to perfect the image is a bit of sharpening and color grading. For the latter he heads to the HSL panel for targeted adjustments to brightness, luminance, and specific colors. A quick cleanup in Photoshop and the transformation is complete.

You can find an abundance of landscape photography tips by visiting Mohrle’s instructional YouTube channel, so pay a visit and subscribe.

And don’t miss the earlier tutorial we posted with a Lightroom trick for fast and precise HSL adjustments.

Whether you’re a beginner or a more advanced shooter it’s likely that a few “bad habits” are stifling your growth and preventing you from realizing your true potential. Today we’ll discuss how avoiding three common impediments will greatly expand your skills when shooting in the field.

Instructor Kevin Nordstrom is a professional photographer and educator with an interesting YouTube channel dedicated to helping others improve their nature and wildlife imagery. He does this by bringing you along on his picturesque adventures, while discussing the day’s topic as the excursion progresses.

Today’s episode is somewhat different from his others, in that it’s not primarily about gear, camera settings and the like, but rather a discussion of three habits that may be holding you back. While this episode is devoted to nature and wildlife photography, Nordstom’s principles apply equally to just about any type of images you shoot outdoor.

At the top of the list is a familiar habit among outdoor photographers, especially those who like to remain dry and comfortable; namely, the urge to say at home when mother nature doesn’t cooperate. As the intrepid among us know all to well, stalwart photographers make many of their best images in really lousy weather.

As Nordstrom’s hike continues along the marshes of Lake Erie, he discusses another habit that can easily slow your growth. This one is for those of you afflicted with a dreaded malady known as “GAS” (the official medical term is “gear acquisition syndrome).” While it’s nice to have a new camera every year with the latest technical innovations, Nordstrom says you should consider keeping the camera with which you’re already familiar, and ivest in better glass or a focal length you lack.

Or even better and much less expensive, according to Nordstrom, is to not spend any money on new stuff, and instead spend more time honing your craft by experimenting with different styles, practicing what you know, and refining newly learned techniques.So what’s habit #3? Watch the video and find out.

Nordstom’s YouTube channel does include videos relating to technical matters too, so head over there and take a look.

Another way to improve your nature photography is to watch the tutorial we posted awhile back, with the ultimate guide to freezing motion in action photos.

When it comes to image editing, most people probably think of commercial applications like Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, or Phase One’s Capture One Pro. And indeed, these are by far the most popular. On the other hand, there are some serious open-source photo editing programs that can replace commercial programs for many people. Should you try an open source program for photography? Read on to find out!

It’s not uncommon to return from a daylong photo shoot with dozens if not hundreds of images or more. And that means spending hours behind the computer separating rejects from potential keepers before you can begin editing.

Yesterday we featured a tutorial explaining a “hidden” Lightroom tool that makes precise HSL edits a breeze. Today you’ll learn two equally obscure modes for culling images quickly so you begin processing the money shots as soon as possible.

Today’s tutorial comes from Photo Kitchen, the host of a popular weekly series with simple shooting and editing techniques for photographers of all skill levels. The timesaving tricks you’ll earn about in the tutorial below involve using Lightroom’s unfamiliar Survey and Compare modes.

Instructor M.D. Welch is so enthralled with the power of these rather “hidden” tools that he says, “You’re going to wonder how you lived without them this long.” And we bet that after watching this 10-miniute lesson you make the Survey and Compare tools part of your everyday workflow.

Narrowing down images from many to just a few can be a rather odious task if you don’t know this trick. Welch show how it works by first selecting the Survey, and then the Compare modes, from the dropdown Menu in Lightroom’s View panel. As you’ll see, Welch shot tons of images of fly fishermen at Pyramid Lake—with the hope of  “capturing that decisive moment.”

With multiple images on the screen, Welsh selects Survey mode and reveals a few keyboard shortcuts for customizing the view. This approach is sort of reminiscent of the old days when you grabbed a loupe and placed a bunch of 35mm slides on a light table to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The difference is the Survey method is faster and offers more control. For example, once you click on the “X” in the lower right corner of an image you want to remove, Lightroom shuffles the remaining shots and enlarges them on the screen. By doing this Welch culled his selection from eight images to three in just a few seconds.

As you’ll see, there’s more that you can do within the Survey mode to facilitate and speed up the process. Then Welch demonstrates the equally fast and powerful Compare mode, which helps you finalize the culling process

There’s much more to leach on Welch’s instructional YouTube channel, so pay a visit and subscribe. And for another “hidden” Lightroom tool check out yesterday’s tutorial with a really good trick for making fast and precise HSL edits.