Photo How To

We've all heard horror stories about memory card failure in the field, when the photographer didn't have a spare in their bag. When this nightmare occurs you lose images you've already made, and there's no way to continue shooting.

The quick video below is one of those "I wish I knew this before" tutorials with a super-simple technique for enhancing photos in a way that's almost too good to believe. It works in both Lightroom and Photoshop, takes barely 10 minutes to learn, and you can start using it today.

We've all marveled at spectacular photos of the nighttime sky, and the Milky Way is one of the major attractions. Unfortunately, many photographers take a pass on this epic opportunity because of the misconception that exotic gear is required or they lack the necessary skills.

DSLRs are becoming a rarity these days, for reasons you'll see in the video below. If you're already using a mirrorless camera, or plan to get one in the near future, this tutorial is a must see.

About four years ago, Alvanas, a photographer, filmmaker, educator, digital artist, and postproduction retoucher, was attending a week-long advanced printing workshop at John Paul Caponigro’s studio. “The first day of portfolio review featured lots of prints of grand vistas from big film cameras—4x5s and 8x10s,” Alvanas says. “I showed on the second day, but I digitally projected my images.”

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.

Achieving accurate results during the editing process is sort of like rolling the dice if not you’re not working with a correctly calibrated display. In fact, you’re probably better off with a cheap monitor that’s properly calibrated than with a high-end display that’s not.