Outdoor Photography How To

By now you’ve probably realized that some images look better in b&w than they do in color. You can always set your camera to monochrome, but most photographers prefer shooting in color, and making the conversion during the editing process, so they have a choice of which look they prefer.

Last week we featured a popular tutorial, explaining how to avoid common shooting errors that can be real image killers. Today were turning to the processing side of our craft, identifying six common image-editing mistakes that are easily fixed.

Today we’re not going to get into another discussion of the many advantages of Raw files compared to JPEGs. Let’s just assume that, for whatever reason, you shot a bunch of JPEG images and they look really awful.

Nothing spoils an otherwise great shot more than failing to achieve precise focus. You can compose a scene properly, nail exposure, and capture beautiful colors, but if the image is soft all is for naught.

Unforced errors are part of the photographic process, and the goal is to not make the same mistake twice. The quick video below will help prevent you from doing that by identifying a handful of common faux pas and explaining how to avoid or fix them.

One of the most basic components of great photographs is an accurate exposure with a broad range of tones, yielding details in both shadows and highlights. This goal can often be a challenge when shooting outside under complicated mixed light.

It’s not uncommon to have a distracting object or two in otherwise beautiful outdoor images. Sometimes that’s because you weren’t paying attention, while in other cases there was simply no way to compose the scene without the offending objects in the frame.