Nature Photography How To

If you're a Lightroom novice and think using Lightroom's powerful Curves tool is beyond your skills, the quick tutorial below will quickly change your mind. That’s because you'll learn a handful of techniques in just three minutes to make your outdoor images stand out from the crowd.

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.

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.

So you captured a gorgeous landscape scene and nailed focus, exposure, and composition. Then you reviewed your images on the computer, expecting stunning results, only to discover that the horizons are curved and distorted.

Photoshop's straightforward Clone Stamp tool is extremely useful for accomplishing  a variety of tasks when processing all sorts of images captured indoors or out, be they portraits, landscapes or just about anything else. If you're not taking advantage of the simple technique involved, it's long past time to get started.

Today's eye-opening tutorial begins with a question from instructor Mark Denney: "What Raw Color Profile do you use when editing photos in Lightroom?" The answer from many photographers often begins with a blank stare, followed by something like this: "Uh, I guess I use the default or the Standard Profile."

If you're just getting started in wildlife photography, today's tutorial is a great place to start. You'll pick up five effective tips in less than seven minutes from an experienced pro who really s his stuff.