Photo How To

Photoshop’s Neural Filters are so amazing that it’s tempting to reach for them first whenever editing images that need work. Despite the magic, however, sometimes a more “traditional" approach is almost as easy and delivers more faithful results.

We've all come upon a beautiful scene only to discover that our images look flat and lifeless. Sometimes that's because the light wasn't quite right, while other times the culprit was operator failure, i.e. we used the wrong camera settings or techniques.

So you captured a gorgeous landscape scene and nailed focus, exposure, and composition. Then you reviewed your images on the computer, expecting stunning results, only to discover that the horizons are curved and distorted.

Inexperienced wildlife photographers often struggle to properly expose birds, whether they're sitting still on a tree or in flight, and underexposed subjects are the typical concern. This problem is particular acute when our feathered friends are depicted against a bright sky.

Nighttime photography can be a lot of fun because it provides numerous opportunities to capture compelling images in the field or on the street. Familiar scenes that may appear boring during the day are transformed into magical tableaus once the sun drops below the horizon.

It can be difficult to nail exposure when photographing complicated landscape scenes, especially when snow covers the ground and can easily "fool" your camera's light meter. This tutorial from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel provides a quick-and-effective fix using Lightroom's Tone Curve tools.

One of the most daunting challenges faced by landscape shooters is optimizing sharpness in scenes with important objects in the foreground, midrange, and background of the frame. That's because even if you stop your lens all the way down to f/22 there's insufficient depth of field to maintain sharpness from here to there.