Outdoor Photography How To

Are you experiencing the winter photography doldrums? You know what we’re talking about: it’s freezing outside; the light, when there is light, is challenging; and there just doesn’t seem to be much to shoot.

This Lightroom tutorial deals with a situation we’ve all encountered: “You make a photo, you think ‘yes, this it,’ I GOT that shot.” But when you get home and look at the image on you’re computer, you say to yourself, “Yo, this photo is kind of boring.”

Long-exposure photography at night can be very challenging, especially if you want to capture sharp images. And while we all know that using a tripod is important, there's a lot more to getting great results than that.

The way the sky looks can make or break or break a landscape or cityscape photo. If you have a boring sky, you will likely have a boring photo. An exciting sky, on the other hand, draws the viewer in and makes everything in your image look better.

Good composition skills are important for all types of photography, and when it comes to shooting landscapes they can be difficult to master because of the often-complicated nature of outdoor scenes. In the tutorial below, you’ll learn six valuable tips that will help you compose landscape photos with more power and impact.

Most photographers know that “Golden Hour”—the time right after sunrise or just before sunset—can be the best time to shoot. And that often holds true when photographing landscapes, portraits, and just about anything else. Despite the beautiful soft reddish light at prime time, a quick edit in Lightroom can often turn a good image into a great one.

Lucy Martin is one of our favorite YouTube-based educators for Photoshop and Lightroom tutorials. (Other than, of course, Shutterbug’s own Scott Kelby.) In the below video, Martin offers her tips on editing one of the most common types of photos we see shared on Facebook, Instagram and other social media sits: sunset photos.