Nature Photography How To

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.

Cropping images to refine composition is a no brainer, right? Well not exactly, because Photoshop's easy-to-use Crop tool provides more creative capabilities than you likely realize. You probably use this tool almost every time you process an image, so it's important to understand everything it can do.

Object removal is one of the staples of editing images for simplicity and maximum impact. Maybe you want to eliminate the proverbial fence post emanating from a subject's head, or get rid of other equally distracting elements that detract from a shot.

Lightroom's recently updated Tone Curve is a powerful component of what Adobe enables you to achieve when processing photos. Unfortunately, this versatile tool is frequently avoided because some users find it rather intimidating.

Too many photographers make the mistake of restricting their workflow by employing global adjustments to edit their photos. The problem is that these enhancements affect the image as a whole—thereby greatly limiting the results they achieve. That's because certain areas within the frame often require one approach while others call for totally different enhancements to create photos with balanced exposures and realistic colors.

We addressed the first problem in an earlier tutorial and today you'll learn how to cope with the latter. Instructor Simon d'Entremont is an accomplished Canadian pro, specializing in wildlife imagery, and he walks you through the steps he takes to capture great images when the light is far from ideal.

As Hamlet one said: "To edit in color or to edit in b&w, that is the question." Well, not really, but it's a question you should ask yourself regardless of the type of images you shoot.