Software How To

A couple week’s ago we featured a tutorial for experienced bird photographers, with a variety of tips and mistakes to avoid for achieving optimum results. Today’s episode is for those just getting started, with a complete beginner’s guide to joining in on the fun.

Photoshop and Lightroom are so complex, you’ll probably never use most of the stuff this high-powered software does. But there are quite a few small but helpful “secret” tools and tricks in these photo editors you really should know because they’ll make your life so much easier.

Last week we featured what turned out to be a very popular tutorial for those new to Photoshop, explaining the first tools to learn. We don’t want Lightroom users to feel ignored, so today we’re doing something similar for you.

We’ve discussed the relative merits of shooting Raw vs. JPEGs numerous times, and the consensus is the former delivers superior image quality, far more leeway during post processing, and a number of other benefits. The primary advantage of JPEGs is the significantly smaller file sizes, which can be important for certain applications.

You’ve probably noticed there’s been a trend for editing portraits lately that favors a bright, high key look. While there is some visual appeal to processing portraits this way since it gives them an eye-catching, ethereal color palette there are some trade-offs to this method.

If you love photographing birds and other forms of wildlife, but your images tend to look the same, the tutorial below is just what you need. Best yet, the shooting and editing techniques are far easier than you may think.

Star trail photos of the nighttime sky are extremely dramatic, but the typical approach takes a lot of time and advanced shooting and editing skills. If you want an easy approach for getting in on the fun, today’s straightforward tutorial explains how to create the impressive effect from a single image, using a ”hidden hotkey” in Photoshop.