Beauty is what you buy

Overexposed images are the bane of outdoor photographers when shooting in complicated, mixed light, and even professional shooters like today’s instructor gets thing wrong on occasion. You’ll learn how to correct this common problem in the Lightroom tutorial below from the Photo Feaver YouTube channel.

James, namesake of the channel, is an accomplished British freelancer who shares twice weekly shooting and post-processing lessons designed to help beginners boost theirs skills. Here ‘s the point of the episode: “Just because you have an overexposed or blown-out photo doesn’t mean you can’t edit your way to a good image.”

In the next eight minutes James shares his Lightroom workflow for rehabilitating blown-out shots by applying a beautiful high-key effect. The first step in determining if and by how much your image is overexposed. James does this by opening Lightroom’s Clipping tool to reveal any pixels that are completely devoid of information.

Next you’ll want to open the Basic panel and “nudge the photo in the right direction.” Intuition may tell you that this is a simple matter of shifting a couple sliders to darken the image. To the contrary, James explains why the right approach for creating a bright and airy high-key look is to actually affect the shadows instead.”

To this end James boosts contrast and slightly increases exposure and drops the overpowering highlights. He then opens opens up the shadows and whites, while dropping the blacks in the increments he recommends. James also reveals the appropriate settings for Texture, Clarity and Dehaze, Vibrance, and Saturation.

The photo now looks better, but there’s still an issue with White Balance that needs to be corrected and James explains how to employ Lightroom’s Temperature slider to slightly warm up the shot.

Now it’s time to open Lightroom’s Tone Curve panel and create what’s known as a modified “S-Curve” that will brighten highlights and darken the shadows. As you’ll see, the more points you add to the curve the more of a targeted impact you can make.

At this point you’re barely halfway through the straightforward process, and James walks you through all the remaining steps. So follow his instructions and create a few high-key masterpieces of your own. Then pay a visit the Photo Feaver YouTube channel and check out all the other how-to videos at your disposal.

And don’t miss another helpful tutorial we featured recently with Feaver, demonstrating what he says are five hidden Lightroom tools that are essential for every photographer to understand.

We’ve all had the misfortune of capturing a seemingly great image, only to realize later that the shot includes a distracting element, or we failed to notice someone walking through the frame. At this point, unfortunately, it’s often impossible to go back for a redo.

There are several ways to remove unwanted clutter, some more complicated and less effective than others. Today’s tutorial from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel demonstrates how to get the job done to perfection with a few quick clicks in Lightroom.

Instructor Christian Mohrle is a highly respected German photographer and post-processing expert who you’ll recognize if you’re a regular Shutterbug reader. His goal for today is to remove two people standing in front of a church in the middle of a beautiful landscape scene with snowcapped peaks looming in the distance.

Mohrle quickly banishes the bystanders and then demonstrates a straightforward workflow for significantly enhancing the shot by applying several basic adjustments, a bit of masking, color grading and sharpening. We therefore suggest downloading his sample Raw file from the link beneath the video so you can follow along and do everything yourself.

The first step is heading into Lightroom’s Remove tool panel that provides a number of options. Mohrle typically chooses the Healing Bruch do get rid of sensor spots and other small things, but his preference for more complex objects clicking on the Remove mode icon instead.

Once you’re in the Remove mode it’s important to select Generative AI “which will get rid of objects more easily.” Mohrle also activates Detect Objects. Then he chooses an appropriate brush size and paints roughly over the people to be eliminated. Mohrle notes that “it’s important to leave a little bit of room around an object, so there’s no need to be too precise.”

Then click on the Remove button on the right side of the workspace, and BOOM—after a brief wait the people are gone. Lightroom offers three different variations, so if you’re not satisfied with the first result try one or both of the others.

Mohrle now has a distraction-free image and it’s time to apply the global and selective enhancements mentioned above. It’s a reliable workflow that you can employ for processing a wide variety of outdoor images.

The popular PHLOG Photography YouTube channel is a great resource for everyone who shoots in the in the field.  We also suggest watching a tutorial we featured recently with another post-processing expert who demonstrates seven overlooked Lightroom tools that will speed up your Lightroom workflow and enhance every image you edit.

Focal length is one of the most essential concepts in photography, and a firm understanding of how it works is crucial when choosing the proper lens for a specific scene. Most photographers know that focal length determines the magnification of a subject within the frame, but there’s more to consider than this.

Today’s tutorial from the Hamed Photography YouTube channel will get you up to speed in barely four minutes so you’ll always reach for an appropriate lens based upon subject matter, prevailing light levels, and the specific mood or effect that you want to convey.

Hamed begins with a quick overview of the concept, explaining that “focal length is the distance (expressed in millimeters) between the optical center of a lens and the camera’s image sensor when the subject is in focus.” So it directly affects both angle of view (how much of a scene is captured), and magnification (how large individual elements will appear within the frame).

These considerations hold true whether you’re shooting with a prime lens or when selecting a specific focal on a zoom. As Hamed says, “a shorter focal length provides a wide angle of view and less magnification, while a longer focal gives a narrower angle of view with greater magnification.

But there’s still more to consider, which Hamed reveals by breaking down lenses into various categories. By his definition ultra-wide lenses range in focal length from 8-24mm and they’re often used for architecture, landscapes and interior photography. Their characteristics include strong perspective distortion—whereby the size of objects closer to the lens is exaggerated.

Conventional wide angle lenses (from 24-35mm), on the other hand, are ideal for street photography, travel, and environmental portraiture because they can capture a broad area

while maintaining a natural perspective. A standard 50mm lens in comparison has a field of view similar to what you see with your eyes and delivers a “balanced perspective” in which subjects appear natural and undistorted.

The discussion continues with a description of short telephotos (85-­135mm), medium to long telephotos (135mm–300mm) and the “big guns” with focal lengths of 300mm and more that wildlife photographers use to isolate subjects at a distance. In every case Hamed explains the benefits and drawbacks, appropriate applications, and the characteristics you can expect to see in your imagery.

There’s much more to learn about gear and shooting techniques on the Hamed Photography You Tube channel.

And speaking of lenses, but sure to watch the recent tutorial we featured with another accomplished pro who demonstrates how he captures attention-grabbing photographs by using a few affordable lens filters when shooting landscapes, nature scenes, and wildlife subjects.

One of the foremost photography challenges is learning how to properly evaluate the light in a scene and arrive at a perfectly balanced exposure. If you find this a struggle, the tutorial below from pro Gil Kreslavsky explains everything you need to know in the next 11 minutes.

Gil is an experienced Israeli photographer and educator who specializes in travel, street and documentary imagery, with a popular YouTube that shares his experiences, gear preferences, practical insights, and real-world tips. He introduces the video like this: “You’ll learn how to understand light the way your camera does, master dynamic range, and avoid guessing about your settings.”

By the time the lesson concludes you’ll approach exposure with confidence, master dynamic range, and know how to control bright highlights and deep shadows. With this knowledge in hand, the creative decisions you make will strengthen every image you shoot in challenging situations.

Gil’s advice is based on the fact that our eyes and the camera see light in very different ways. His analogy is to imagine that you’re standing indoors, looking out through a window. “The human eye can easily observe what’s happening indoors and out, but a camera can only accurately deal with one of these very different light intensities.”

Thus, if you meter for the dim room, everything beyond the window will be blown out and devoid of detail. Conversely, the indoor scene will be dark and unreadable if you expose for what’s outside. This is because “our sensitive eyes can discern approximately 24 stops of light tonality, while modern cameras are limited to capturing a range of 13-15 stops.”

What all this means in the field is that there may be a big chunk of dynamic range that a camera simply cannot record. Now that you understand these theoretical considerations, the practical techniques that follow make perfect sense, and they’re very easy to implement if you follow Gil’s straightforward advice.

Gil explains the compromises required to balance light in various scenarios and conditions for an ideal range of tones. Sometimes appropriate camera settings will get the job done, while other times the solution is limiting dynamic range or changing your vantage point and framing a scene differently.

In short, you can eliminate guesswork and consistently nail exposure by employing Gil’s tips and techniques. Be sure to explore his instructional YouTube channel once the video concludes.

We also recommend watching an earlier tutorial we featured with another accomplished outdoor shooter who provides a quick-and-easy beginners guide for harnessing the power of backlighting to capture nature, wildlife, and landscape photographs that demand everyone’s attention.

Whenever Photoshop gets an update it’s easy to concentrate on headline-grabbing features while overlooking other new and important capabilities that aren’t considered as “revolutionary” but important nonetheless. Today’s eye-opening tutorial from Adobe expert Julieanne Kost reveals 10 recent upgrades that are deserving of note.

Kost is a highly respected photographer, educator, and an expert at all things Adobe whose popular YouTube channel has 55K subscribers who appreciate her how-to videos that have received over 4M views. There’s a very good chance that the tutorial below will change your post-processing workflow forever more.

Be prepared to take a few notes because Kost covers a lot of ground in nine minutes as she runs through her list of oft-ignored features that includes everything from tricks with Photoshop’s Gradient tool, fonts and type, Generative Fill, the Adjustment Brush, and more.

She begins with Photoshop’s familiar Select Subject and Remove Background capabilities and demonstrates how much they’ve evolved when image processing is set to Cloud. As she says, “With the improved processing expect to see improvements to subject detection, masking of fine details, edge selection, and the selection of holes within an object.”

Next on the list is a unique way to create gradients by choosing the Stripes option found in the Method dropdown menu. This approach is super helpful when your goal is to achieve interesting effects with abrupt transitions between colors.

Tip #3 has to do with the fact that more that 1,500 new fonts have been added to Adobe’s Type library, “including many of the most popular fonts of all time from monotype, such as Helvetica, Gotham, and Avenir. Another noteworthy upgrade is that Photoshop’s Frame tool now supports custom shapes. There are a variety of presets, but you can also use the Shape panel’s fly-out menu to load additional legacy shapes or even create custom shapes of your own.

We’ve barely scratched the surface of everything you’ll learn about the new Photoshop enhancements you may have missed, along with helpful advice for putting them to work. Once you’re done be sure to visit Kost’s instructional YouTube channel where you’ll find many more transformative methods for making the most of Adobe’s image-editing software.

And don’t feel ignored if you’re a Lightroom user because we recently featured a tutorial from another post-processing export who demonstrates his seven favorite hidden Lightroom tools that you should start using today whether you’re a beginner or more experienced photographer.

Lightroom boasts a bewildering array of powerful tools, but some of them are difficult to find. In fact, instructor James Feaver says that, “unless you’ve been using Lightroom for a very long time, you may not even know they exited to begin with. And today I’m going to share my seven favorites.”

Feaver is a British pro who shares twice-weekly instructional Adobe videos that are appropriate for advanced users and less-experienced photographers alike. At the top of today’s list is what Feaver refers to as “Lightroom’s Hidden Color Profiles”—effects that can be applied to an image before you begin applying adjustments and enhancements.

Most of you are familiar with the Profiles tab located within a dropdown menu in Lightroom’s Basic panel, with choices like Adobe Color, Landscape, Portrait and B&W options at the bottom. But did you know there are a lot more Lightroom Profiles, as many as 100, to be found by clicking a button? If not, they’ll be a secret no more.

Feaver moves on to an obscure tool he calls the “Color Picker Color Mixer.” This one is very helpful when working in Lightroom’s Color Mixer panel that can be confusing if you’re new to the game. This trick makes it super simple to work out which slider correlates to a specific tone within an image.

The trick here involves a tiny icon atop the panel that enables you to “Adjust Hue by dragging in the photo.” Simply click on this small circle and choose a hue. Then, if you drag it up and down you’ll see how Lightroom targets that color and lets you quickly change it.

Feaver’s third hidden tool is similar to #2 and he names it the “Color Picker Tone Curve.” This one, as you may expect, is located within Lightroom’s Curves panel and is also accessed by clicking the small circular icon. It’s super help for adjusting exposure instead of color as before. “All you have to do is hover over an area within the frame, click on that spot, and then you can instantly make it brighter or darker.

At this point you’re not even halfway through the lesson, with four more hidden tools to disclose. After watching until the end you’ll likely decide to revise your everyday workflow accordingly. Then pay a visit to the popular Photo Feaver YouTube channel where there’s much more to learn about editing your photos.

We also recommend watching a tutorial we featured with another post-processing specialist recently who demonstrates the best way to create high-density-range (HDR) photographs in Lightroom with maximum details in highlights, shadows, and midtones.

If you’re not taking advantage of lens filters, this tutorial from one of our favorite instructors might just change your mind and enable you to capture outdoor photographs with a unique attention-grabbing look. These transformational accessories are among the most affordable there are and you’ll learn which ones Simon d’Entremont says you should have in your bag.

Simon is a well-respected nature and wildlife photographer based in beautiful Nova Scotia, Canada. He’s also a globally popular educator who says the mission of his instructional YouTube channel is to “lift the knowledge, skills, and spirits of the people around me so they can be at their best.”

In the next 11 minute’s Simon describes his favorite types of filters, when and how to use them, and how they affect exposure. He also provides a link in the description the beneath the video where you can purchase filters that meet your needs, along with other accessories that he finds particularly helpful.

The question isn’t if filters will enhance your results, but rather which ones are most appropriate for your specific genre of photography. One warning up front is to avoid purchasing cheap no-name brands because it’s silly and counterproductive to mount an inferior product on a good lens just to save a few bucks.

Simon’s recommendations span the gamut from neutral density (ND) filters, polarizers, protective UV filters, and even mist filters. His bottom line is that some of these are must-have accessories—especially if you regularly photograph landscapes and/or nature and wildlife imagery.

The next step, after making your choice, is to understand exactly how they work, mistakes to avoid, and exactly what effects to expect. Simon illustrates his practical real-world advice with beautiful photos that drive these points home

The video concludes with several buying tips, including the most important features to look for. Once you’re done, head over to Simon’s popular YouTube channel which is a great source of inspiration for everyone who shoots in the field.

And don’t miss the tutorial we featured recently with a post-processing expert who demonstrates a straightforward Lightroom technique for enhancing Blue Hour photographs with beautiful, soft light.

Experienced outdoor photographers understand why shooting into the sun is a sure-fire way to capture attention-grabbing images with a unique look. Achieving correct exposures can be challenging for beginners who don’t understand the technique, but this tutorial from the Wildlife with Rich YouTube channel quickly demystifies this process so you can get in on the action today.

Here’s how Rich describes the four-minute episode: “We’ll reveal five easy tips that make backlighting a breeze. We cover everything from getting a correct exposure and positioning considerations, to editing methods for adding this dramatic effect to your everyday toolkit.”

Rich says the main issue when it comes to backlighting is the wide dynamic range that you’ll confront when shooting towards the sun. Simply put, “If we’re able to make the right decisions in the camera, we’re able to maximize the amount of detail we retain in both the key subject and the sky.

Tip #1 is to carefully evaluate the position of the sun in relation to the subject and the vantage point from which you shoot. Rich explains that “the closer the sun is to directly behind a subject, the more contrast there will be between this key element and the background.” This is why it’s necessary to apply a few thoughtful tricks that will balance all the tones from highlights to shadows to everything in between.

Rich then describes why  he recommends underexposing an image by 2/3 of a stop. As he says, this will allow you to retain important details within the highlights and bring back details in the shadows. Doing this requires as much data as possible, which is why shooting in Raw is a big benefit that offers far more control during post processing.

He explains why shooting in raw “helps us recover missing details without introducing too much unsightly noise.” You’ll watch Rich demonstrate practical applications for the foregoing and his other helpful tips in the field while photographing birds circling overhead with everchanging light.

If you enjoy wildlife and nature Photography be sure to visit the Wildlife with Rich YouTube channel for more tips and techniques.

And on a related note, don’t miss a tutorial we featured recently with another accomplished outdoor shooter who demonstrates how to embrace harsh, midday light coming from any direction and use it to capture spectacular high-contrast photographs.

Are you struggling to capture perfectly exposed photos with balanced tones, deep shadows, and highlights full of detail? It a common problem that we often address in post-processing tutorials. Today, however, we’re taking a close look at how a camera’s meter-mode setting will greatly impact the look and feel of every image you shoot.

Instructor Jimmy West is an accomplished micro-four-thirds shooter whose goal for this 13-minute primer is to break down Matrix (ESP), Center-Weighted, and Spot metering, and demonstrate how each mode affects the images you capture in different ways. He also promises that learning how to meter with intention will change the way you shoot, whether the subject is a landscape, street scene, or environmental portrait—even when harsh light is the challenge at hand.

West also shares the metering mode he uses most and explains how this one, quick setting “helps me capture more consistent and creative images without relying upon post processing. Sometimes making the perfect shot isn’t about what’s in front of you, but rather how you use it.”

The bottom line is this: The mode you select helps determine how bright or dark your photo will be, and getting this wrong can lead to blown highlights, crushed shadows, or results that don’t resemble what you saw through the viewfinder. The proper choice, on the other hand will quickly solve these problems and others while enabling you to imbue images with the exact mood or effect you’re after.

First up is the camera’s default Matrix mode (also referred to as ESP or Multi-Segment). West explains that this option “measures light across the entire frame, evaluates the scene, and attempts to find to find a balanced exposure for the image.” Most of the time this works quite well, but the camera can be tricked when there are both bright highlights and deep shadows within the frame.

This is where other oft-ignored metering modes are preferable, and West explains when, why, and how to make the right choice. As you’ll see, choosing the most-appropriate mode is definitely not a set-it-and-forget-it operation. In fact, it’s truly an essential consideration for every image you capture.

West’s popular YouTube channel is a great source of straightforward how-to videos that explain a wide variety of common photography techniques.

And on a related note, be sure to watch the tutorial we featured with another experienced educator who demonstrates how to manage high-contrast scenes properly and create balanced exposures when shooting photographs in hard-light conditions.