Nature Photography How To

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Ron Leach  |  Jul 25, 2023

A common problem when shooting outdoor scenes full of bright highlights and deep shadows is arriving at a proper exposure. The quick tutorial below from the PHLOG Photography instructional YouTube channel explains a Photoshop HDR editing technique that's easy enough for users of all skill levels.

Ron Leach  |  May 15, 2024

Photoshop includes a variety of built-in crop presets for streamlining your post-processing workflow. But as you'll see in today's quick tutorial there are a few really good reasons for creating your own. In today's video you'll learn why and how to tackle this simple task.

Ron Leach  |  Feb 23, 2022

One challenge with outdoor photography is that landscape scenes tend to be complicated, often confusing viewers and directing their gaze away from your main subject. One of the best methods for simplifying a busy photo is to blur the background, thereby emphasizing what you consider the key point of the shot.

Ron Leach  |  Apr 18, 2024

Portrait and wildlife photographers have at least one thing in common: they understand why it's essential to focus on a subject's eyes. But just because the eyes are sharp doesn't mean they sparkle and are full of life, and that's what you'll learn how to in the quick Photoshop tutorial below.

Ron Leach  |  Mar 28, 2022

If you’re ever tried to manually mask out a sky in Photoshop, you know that achieving a precise selection can be difficult—especially when your shot includes complex objects in the foreground. There are many methods for tackling this challenge, and today you’ll learn one of the easiest and most effective.

Ron Leach  |  Apr 21, 2025

Inexperienced Photoshop users take note: There's actually a simple process for selecting and cutting out objects in a photo, and it's perfect for achieving impressive edits and making attention-grabbing composites. This simple workflow from Sandra D Imagery can become yours in the next five minutes.

Ron Leach  |  Jan 11, 2024

New Photoshop users are often bewildered by the vast array of available features and tools. Today's quick tutorial will help you understand the basic concepts of White Balance and Color.

Ron Leach  |  Jun 13, 2022

If you’re shooting JPEG photos because you think Raw files “aren’t worth the “hassle,” the video below is likely to change your mind. One of our favorite image-editing instructors transforms a severely underexposed landscape photo into a beautiful image using the power of Raw.

Ron Leach  |  Jan 03, 2018

If you’ve ever seen beautiful sunbeams piercing through the trees in a forest, you know much they can add to the impact of a photograph. The tutorial below shows you how to add natural-looking light rays to an image when the sun isn’t in the right position to capture the effect in-camera.

Ron Leach  |  Feb 15, 2021

Sometimes you come across a great scene, apart from the fact that two or more objects in the frame are too close together for an ideal composition. In some situations it’s possible to rectify the problem by changing your vantage point, but if that’s not possible there’s a quick editing fix.

Ron Leach  |  Feb 18, 2021

Using long exposures during the day is a great way to create unique landscape and nature photos. This technique results in an ethereal look, with soft, dreamy water and cotton-like clouds. The typical approach is using ND filters to dramatically reduce the amount of light entering the camera, but there’s a post-processing trick for getting the job done.

Ron Leach  |  Feb 09, 2018

One lesson all outdoor photographers learn is that there’s a big difference between a beautiful location and a great landscape photograph. That’s because no matter how gorgeous the setting, if you arrive on a cloudless day with poor light and drab colors, there’s not much you can do to capture a stunning shot.

 

Ron Leach  |  Jul 18, 2017

Star trail photos of nighttime skies are among the most spectacular images captured by astrophotographers. In the tutorial below you learn an image-stacking technique for creating dramatic star trail photos of your own.

Ron Leach  |  Feb 04, 2022

One challenge with all forms of outdoor photography is that we're always at the mercy of the weather and prevailing lighting conditions. That fact is particularly evident when you wake up on a nice day, pack your gear, and travel to a favorite location—only to confront a pretty scene with a rather boring sky.

Ron Leach  |  Mar 15, 2021

When it’s time to edit our photographs, most of us upload the files to Lightroom or Photoshop and jump right in. But according to one of our favorite image-editing instructors, there’s an important preliminary step that’s often ignored.

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