Photo How To

If you're struggling to capture impressive images of beautiful winter landscape scenes, you've come to the right place. The following video from the Light Meets Lens YouTube channel reveals a three-step Lightroom process that will bring out the beauty of what you saw through the viewfinder.

Instructor Nick Kuhn is known for behind-the-scenes tutorials of the Canadian landscape. In this episode he admits that he also had problems with winter landscapes until he developed the straightforward Lightroom workflow that you'll learn today.

He also sympathizes with the challenges of shooting in winter, explaining that one big problem occurs when the frame includes bright white snow and dark wet areas that can create far too much contrast in your results. These same variables often make post-processing complicated as well—unless you follow Kuhn's easy-to-follow Kuhn advice that takes him less that 10 minutes to explain.

Kuhns says his goal conveying the enchanting essence of winter involves capturing crisp, rich, detailed, images with accurate contrast and any vibrant colors that appear in a scene. You'll watch him edit five winter shots and compare them to a handful of photos captured in summer.

By examining the edits you'll quickly understand the challenges posed by winter and how to resolve them effectively. His first observation when reviewing the winter shots is "just how white the snow is, and just how dark everything else is." Hence the problem with contrast.

Take a look at Kuhn's first image and you'll see that almost all details are lost in a stand of trees behind the snowfield in the foreground. In another example it's quickly apparent that the camera "totally got the White Balance wrong." The other winter images he presents have different but equally objectional problems—especially when compared to the photos he shot in summer.

By following Kuhn's three-step process, while paying close attention to Lightroom's histogram, you'll be able to solve just about any issues you confront. After demonstrating the workflow he used for all five winter photos, Kuhn then patiently reviews each of the edits and describes the power of his straightforward technique for every shot.

As you'll see, it's a simple method that will enable you to transform ho-hum photographs into stunning winter photographs that really grab attention. So load of a few of your earlier "acceptable" shots into Lightroom, transform them with the techniques you just learned, and you'll never settle for acceptable again.

There much more to learn on Kuhn's instructional YouTube channel and in an earlier tutorial we posted, explaining eight unfamiliar Lightroom techniques that will make a big difference in every photograph you shoot in the field.