Do you want to make perfect masks in Lightroom and get the job done in half the time? If so, you’ve come to the right place. The Lightroom hack in the tutorial below is so simple that it only takes five minutes to explain.

Instructor David Johnston is an accomplished landscape pro who regularly posts basic shooting and editing lessons designed to help nature photographers elevate their skills. His goal for this episode is “to show you a one-button click for perfect masks every time.”

If this sounds too good to be true, read on. Johnston begins with an image he captured in a Texas swamp. It’s a beautiful scene but the photo is a bit flat. His goal is to transform the dull shot into something really special using simple masking to selectively bump up contrast, tonal values, and colors in the right places.

Johnston walks you through the step-by-step process that begins by selecting Lightroom’s Brush icon (you can also bring up the tool by clicking the K on your keyboard). He then describes the various options available, which include modifying the size of a Brush and choosing the appropriate Feathering value for the task at hand.

Lightroom’s Auto Mask option is another key setting, and Johnston explains why he typically leaves it on. In short, “Auto Mask is going to find those different areas as best as possible using Lightroom’s sophisticated AI technology.”

With these and other key settings in place, Johnston begins painting in the background, taking care to avoid “bleed over” on adjacent areas. As he explains, “I’m trying to brighten the background and darken the foreground trees” to make the image stand out.

Now it’s time for the one-click magic to finish the job. Instead of taking the conventional approach by creating a second mask for the foreground, Johnston demonstrates how a single button will duplicate and invert his first mask. In other words, “everywhere it wasn’t brushed in is now automatically brushed in. ”BOOM end of masking!

Johnston also explains how to do a bit of quick and easy cleanup whenever that’s necessary for achieving a perfect result. 

You can watch more of Johnston’s tips and tricks by paying a visit to his popular YouTube channel. And don’t miss another tutorial we posted, explaining how one simple slider may forever change how you edit photos in Lightroom.

Some photographers shy away from employing presets when editing their work because of a misconception that they’re difficult to use. Nothing could be further from the truth, and as you’ll see in the quick tutorial below, you can even create your own custom presets with ease.

Simply put, presets are a collection of previously made edits that are saved as a batch. Then they can be applied to an appropriate photo, or multiple photos, as fast as you can click your mouse

Hence, these timesaving tools are really worth considering if you haven’t already jumped on the bandwagon, whether you purchase an affordable package or make them yourself. As you’ll see, they work their magic in several ways. A common approach is to apply a preset to similar images from the same shoot before importing them into Lightroom or Photoshop.

Once you open the editing program of your choice, you can use the imported images as is, or make a few simple tweaks if that’s what a particular photo requires. In addition to dramatically speeding up your workflow, presets also enable you to establish consistency among a wide range of images, thereby creating a recognizable style all your own.

In the eight-minute tutorial below from portrait pro and educator Justin Laurens you’ll learn everything necessary to use and create presets today. And we guarantee that once you start editing images in this manner you won’t stop,

Laurens demonstrates a five-step formula for getting the job done, saying that, “The secret is how to fine-tune a preset to make it fit perfectly with any image you want to apply it to.” He also explains how to “batch edit photos with lightening speed.”

Be sure to watch this episode until the end, when you’ll learn how easy it is to create presets of your own that will work perfectly with your particular style of shooting.

There’s much more to see on Laurens’ instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to pay a visit and subscribe.

And if you like quick-and-easy tricks, check out the tutorial we posted explaining how to use a simple slider that will change how you edit photos in Lightroom.

Earlier this month we featured a tutorial explaining why low ISO settings can ruin the photo of a lifetime. Today we have another video contradicting conventional wisdom, and you may discover that you’re been making a simple mistake all along.

Many photographers use UV filter filters to reduce the amount of ultraviolet light that passes into a camera. Another so-called benefit is that these affordable accessories also protect the front element of a lens from dirt, fingerprints and damage.

It’s obviously preferable to replace a cracked filter than buying a news lens. But according to German landscape pro Jan Wegener, “Today I’ll show you why using UV filters is such a awful idea, and why it’s actually best to remove them and throw them away.”

Before digging into your camera cabinet and trashing all your UV filters, you should watch the video and learn Wegener’s rationale. By doing this you may feel better about the money you wasted. Wegener provides real-world examples to reinforce his view.

“But what about protecting my lens?” you ask. Well, Wegener has a better solution for doing that too. His main point, however, is what these filters do to image quality, and he put things bluntly: “You can be the best photographer in the world, with the best gear, and a perfect setting. But if you use one of the filters in front of a lens you’re very unlikely to take great images.”

OK, WOW! How can this be true? According to Wegener, inexpensive filters may make a lot of money for camera retailers, “but they come with a steep downside for you as a photographer.” To settle this debate once and for all, Wegener purchased two filters; a cheap one for $30 and a high-end option costing over $100.

Equipped with the filters, a $5,000 100-500mm zoom, and two pro cameras, Wegener headed out in the field for a shootout. His approach was simple: Make the same image without a filter, and two more using both the cheap and expensive filter.

Take a look at his results and see what you think. Personally, I’m going to use my UV filters as beverage coasters from now on. How about you?

You can find many more tips and tricks on Wegener’s YouTube channel. Earlier this month we posted a tutorial on another “image-killing” practice, explaining why low ISO settings can ruin your photos.