Photoshop How To

Today's tutorial from landscape pro Steve Arnold begins with an attention-grabbing question: "What if I told you there are two things you can start doing right now that will save you hours in Photoshop, freeing you up to editing more photos in less time?"

 “What is a LUT?” you ask. In technical terms, LUT is an acronym for “Look-Up Table”—a precise mathematical means of modifying RGB image values by changing hue, saturation and brightness of a photo to create a specific look. In basic parlance, a LUT is nothing more than a bunch of adjustment layers compacted into a single file that you can save and use with most editing programs available.

Most photographers use their images in a variety of ways. We post them to the Internet, share them on social media sites, print them for friends and family, and deliver hi-res files to clients. The task of outputting images for various purposes is time-consuming—unless you create custom presets as explained in the video below.

Yesterday we featured a straightforward guide to using Selective Exposure adjustments to get the light right in complicated images with a wide range of brightness levels throughout the frame. Today's tutorial from another image-editing expert demonstrates how to take a similar approach with Lightroom's powerful Selective Color tools.

Serge Ramelli is an accomplished Paris based-photographer known for dramatic black-and-white imagery, and in the video below he reveals how he uses Lightroom to give photographs a powerful and distinctive look.

One primary task of all photographers is to guide a viewer's through an image to the primary subject within the scene, which is one reason why judicious sharpening is so essential. It's also a well-established fact that the human eye is generally most attracted to the brightest and sharpest areas in a photo.