Nature Photography How To

Last week we brought you the premiere episode of a free online photo editing masterclass from our friends at the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel. That one demonstrated Lightroom’s most basic tools.

One of the primary goals of landscape photographers is to arrive at a “correct” exposure, and we regularly post tutorials on this subject to help get the job done. But in the quick tutorial below you’ll see why certain types of scenes look much better by adding a bit of intentional overexposure during the editing process.

Camera technology these days is amazing; it’s practically magic. The problem, though, to my way of thinking and photographing, is that the magic offers a very wide and deep comfort zone—you might call it a zone of automatic decisions, and it’s probably best not to spend a lot of time there, certainly not if you want to create individualistic images.

Photographing birds is a great way to try your hand at shooting wildlife because traveling to exotic locations isn’t required. All you need is a nearby park or nature reserve, and you can even get started in your own backyard.

The history of photography and camera technology is littered with controversies about the “best” way to capture an image.  For a while shooters questioned the value of autofocus, then there was a debate regarding the quality of digital images vs. those shot with film.

In today’s mobile-obsessed society there’s one thing we carry with us at all times (even if we forget to bring our wallet). And that’s the smartphone we use for everything from checking the weather, keeping up to date on social media, and taking photos when a “real” camera isn’t available. Some folks even use their phones to make telephone calls.

Life isn’t always a bowl of cherries, and neither should be your landscape photos—especially of you want them to stand out from the crowd. The Lightroom tutorial below demonstrates how to give images a moody, gloomy look.