Nature Photography How To

Listen up landscape photographers, because were going to let you in on an oft-ignored secret: sometimes less is more. By taking a minimalist approach your images will really stand out from the crowd and you may even develop a new style in the process.

In today's 11-minute tutorial from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel you'll learn several techniques for capturing these types of images and editing them in Photoshop. This is an easy goal for photographers of all skill levels, requiring nothing more than a different mindset and a few straightforward tricks.

We often feature instructional videos from German landscape pro Christian Mohrle whose lessons typically involve Lightroom and Photoshop editing tips. Today he does that, and also explains how he composes images to capture clean, compelling imagery with nothing more than the essentials.

Getting the shot on a cold, winter day is the first step in this behind-the-scenes episode as Mohrle trudges across a snow-covered landscape in search of an ideal composition. There's a gray featureless sky overhead which is often a detriment when shooting in the field, but it's just what the doctor ordered for the task at hand.

Mohrle finds just what he's looking for as he approaches a small hill that's topped with a few barren trees. His intent is to simplify the scene further by using the proper focal length and thoughtful composition to isolate a single tree is the correct spot within the frame. With this simple approach there's no question as to where the viewer's eye is going to go.

You'll watch Mohrle select a perfect perspective and camera position that excludes all unwanted elements from the shot. By pointing the camera downwards while moving his vantage point, all but one of the trees disappear from view.

The editing process begins in Photoshop's Raw editor and the first thing Mohrle does is change the profile from Adobe Color to Adobe Standard which immediately reduces contrast. He then makes a few basic adjustments to the overall scene to arrive at the best possible base image for the very impressive selective enhancements that follow.

With the image much improved Mohrle does a bit of simple masking to adjust exposure in the foreground for a slight vignetting effect, while enhancing the almost imperceptible color and detail in the sky. He also employs a Radial Gradient to make sure that these enhancements don't affect the area surrounding the tree.

Mohrle completes the job with careful color grading, subtle sharpening, and a few quick final adjustments. After watching the video be sure to visit Mohrle's instructional YouTube channel where there's a wealth of information for making eye-catching landscape and nature images.

And don't miss the earlier tutorial we posted with another accomplished pro who explains how to solve five common mistakes that can easily ruin your landscape photographs.