A common problem when shooting outdoor scenes full of bright highlights and deep shadows is arriving at a proper exposure. The quick tutorial below from the PHLOG Photography instructional YouTube channel explains a Photoshop HDR editing technique that’s easy enough for users of all skill levels.
Instructor Christian Mohrle is a German pro, specializing in landscape photography, who regularly posts Photoshop and Lightroom tutorials for turning good images into great ones. In this episode he uses a panorama shot to explain his HDR tips, but his advice works wonders for balancing the tones in any outdoor photos you shoot.
Mohrle’s goal for this image with very dark foreground is to create a bright, dreamy, Golden Hour effect while retaining a subtle look. If you’ve watched his videos in the past you know this strategy is different from his usual approach of accentuating vibrance and saturation in a more significant way.
Mohrle always begins his edits with several global adjustments to create a solid base image for the masking and color grading steps that follow. He first changes the profile to Adobe Landscape which immediately boosts saturation and brightens the darkest parts of the shot. He then increases exposure to further lighten the image, while dropping the highlights to avoid an overexposed sky.
The image now looks much better, and it’s now time for masking. Mohrle uses a Color Range mask to adjust green highlights in the foreground without affect the sky and mountains in the background. The then applies another Color Range mask to target blues in the sky and add a bit of contrast.
After adding a linear Gradient to introduce more details in the foreground, the next step is color grading the shot to match his vision. He first increases yellow saturation in the HSL panel. The next steps are bumping up green Luminance to brighten the foreground and dropping blue Luminance to darken the sky.
Mohrle finishes the color grading with split-toning, using warm saturated colors on the highlights. He begins the final steps in the transformation with Photoshop’s Lasso tool and Content Aware Fill to eliminate gaps toward the corner of the image that resulted from the panorama merging process.
Mohrle lastly adds a subtle glow effect to the top of the photo using Gaussian Blur and a simple lighten blending mode. Compare his before/after images and you’ll be very impressed.
There’s much more to learn on Mohrle’s YouTube channel, and in the tutorial we posted earlier, explaining another pro’s composition trick for more compelling landscape photographs.
If you were taught to always shoot at the lowest ISO setting possible, join the club. But as you’ll see in the enlightening tutorial below, this is one of those “rules of photography” that’s meant to be ignored.
In fact, one of our favorite teachers insists that “this may be one of the most dangerous piece of advice in photography.” So why’s that? He says always using the lowest ISO, typically ISO 100, “is single-handedly responsible as the biggest reason for poor photos that I see when people ask for advice.”
Simon d’Entremont is a professional wildlife and nature photographer based in Eastern Canada, and you can already understand that he’s not shy about debunking conventional wisdom. In less that 12-minutes he demonstrates why bumping up ISO settings may be the best thing you can do to improve your photography.
Simon explains that, unlike aperture and shutter speed, “ISO isn’t a source of light.” Instead he suggests thinking of ISO as a volume knob that a camera uses to lighten or darken exposure. He then defines “signal-to-noise ratio” as a way of understanding that “it’s the fact that a photo is really dark in the first place that really creates noise.” In other words, high ISO settings reveal, but aren’t responsible, for noisy images.
If you’re still not convinced take a look at the images in the video. Then you’ll be willing to embrace higher ISO settings—particularly under certain conditions that Simon describes. So how high it too high? That depends upon your camera, the size of its sensor, and a few other considerations. Most experts try to avoid the two highest ISO settings that are available.
With theory out of the way Simon turns to practical applications for high ISO settings, while admitting there are times when a lower ISO can be a great idea. Of course, ambient light levels and whether or not there’s a tripod available factor into the equation.
There are many situations in which high ISO settings enable you to make great photos that are properly exposed, like when photographing fast-moving subjects. This approach also minimizes the prospect of unsharp photos due to camera movement when you’re shooting handheld.
Simon demonstrates other applications for high ISOs, like when fast shutter speeds are necessary to freeze action or smaller apertures are used to accentuate depth of field. As he says with a sly grin, “In my genre of photography, namely wildlife, high ISOs are just part of the business.”
After watching the video take a look at Simon’s popular YouTube channel for more great advice on all aspects of outdoor photography.
And be sure to check out a tutorial we posted earlier, explaining why you should forget the Exposure Triangle and use another pro’s technique instead for better photographs.
