Ron Leach

The official first day of summer is almost upon us, and with the new season comes a variety of great photo opportunities as well as some challenges. The tutorial below will quickly get you up to speed, with a variety of tips on gear, exposure, composition, camera settings, and more.

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.

Light is the key component of all forms of photography. That’s because perfect focus and composition, and a great subject, are all for naught if the light is flat or dull.