The end of the year is fast approaching, and (partly inspired by Jason’s article a couple of days ago) I figured it was a good time to reflect on my photography for the year. I decided to look back and pick my five favorite images from the year. When I say favorite, I don’t mean my five best images – only one of the five below would make that list – but rather the ones I look back on the most fondly, usually because of the story behind them or the people I was with when I took them.

This article shares my experience using the versatile Nikon Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 S lens. I won’t discuss performance in numerical terms, or detail its dimensions and physical characteristics. You can find that helpful information in the original Photography Life review. Instead, I’ll focus on…

There are a variety of reasons that outdoor photographs may appear flat and lifeless, even when a location is spectacular. Maybe you used the wrong camera settings, or perhaps the light just wasn’t right. In either case, today’s Photoshop tutorial demonstrates how to transform images from meh to WOW by employing easy-to-use Dodge and Burn tools during post processing.

This tutorial comes to us from Photos on the Bay, an instructional YouTube channel targeted at inexperienced photographers and Photoshop users. In barely 17 minutes you’ll learn a simple and effective method for unlocking the power of Dodge and Burn to bring uninspiring images to life.

Instructor Neil Medland is an Australian photographer and image-editing expert whose lessons involve basic shootings skills, processing techniques, gear recommendations, and more. We’re pretty sure that by the time this video concludes you want to add this straightforward Dodge and Burn method to your everyday workflow.

If you’re unfamiliar with this powerful technique, here’s how the experts at Adobe explain the concept: The Dodge and Burn tools lighten or darken area of the image based upon a traditional darkroom technique for regulating exposure in specific areas of a print.”

In other words, you can hold back light to lighten an area or modify the exposure elsewhere for the opposite. effect. And both of these adjustments can be made in tandem while working on a single shot. The more you paint over an area with the Dodge and Burn tools, the lighter or daker they become.

The primary goal of taking this approach is to create images with perfectly balanced tones. The technique is particularly useful for processing complex landscape photos shot in mixed light, and Medland walks you through every step of the way with illustrative photos that make everything easy to understand.

Medland’s popular YouTube channel is full of instructional videos that will help you make the most of every photo that you capture in the great outdoors.

And don’t miss the tutorial we featured on a related topic in which another experienced pro demonstrates why common bad habits result in boring outdoor photographs, with seven pro tips for boosting the impact of every image you shoot.

This image-editing tutorial from the PHLEARN YouTube channel does double duty by first demonstrating how to crop an image to any aspect ratio, and then follows up by explaining the simple process of expanding the result with AI. It’s a useful technique that anyone can accomplish with ease.

Instructor Aaron Nace is a highly acclaimed photographer, digital artist, and Photoshop expert whose ongoing tutorials leverage his decade of post-processing experience, revealing both mistakes to avoid and straightforward techniques for embellishing your work. What you’ll learn in this episode is important for every photographer to understand.

Nace begins with cropping and demonstrates how to create the perfect aspect ratio to meet the specifications of various social media platforms or printing images to a specific size like 4×6, 5×7 or any custom dimension that’s required. There are two ways two access Photoshop’s standard Crop tool—either by hitting the letter “C” on the keyboard or by clicking the appropriate icon at the top left of corner of your workspace.

 

As you’ll see, there are a few options that Nace recommends. The first has to do with a box atop the screen that’s labeled “Delete Cropped Pixels” and he suggests leaving this default unchecked for reasons he explains. Just to the right there’s another option designated “Generative Expand,” and for today’s task it’s important to keep that one enabled.

You’ll also see a Ratio tab at the top left of the screen that brings up a dropdown menu with predefined aspect ratios from which to select—like 1:1 which provides a square crop that’s helpful when posting images to Instagram. You can also manually specify whatever custom crop you want.

But here’s “the cool thing,” according to Nace. “Because we have AI we can actually expand a cropped image when the Delete Cropped Pixels option is disabled.” Thus, you can either grab the corner of the image or pull out the handles on the top, bottom or sides to extend shot.

 

There’s a bit more to it than this, and Nace provides all the essential details for refining the aspect ratio to perfection. It’s a fast and simple process that’s extremely helpful in a variety of ways.

Once the video concludes head over to the PHLEARN YouTube channel where there’s much more to learn about using Photoshop to meet your specific needs.

We also recommend watching another post-processing primer that we featured with another expert who explains the difference between the SRGB and Adobe RGB Color Space settings, how they work, and when it’s best to use one choice versus the other.