Outdoor Photography How To

Are you struggling to avoid unsightly flare and unwanted reflections from spoiling landscape photos when the sun hits your lens? If so, the video below from master photographer Jan Smid will quickly help resolve this common problem.

Smid is a master photographer who has received over 300 prestigious medals and awards from international competitions in Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles, London, and elsewhere across the globe. He summarizes today's 10-minute tutorial like this: "We'll walk you through practical tips and techniques for managing lens flare and reflections in landscape images, both in the field and during post processing."

His time-proven techniques and Photoshop strategies are guaranteed to help you achieve clear stunning images every time —whether you're photographing sunrises, sunsets, side-lit photos, or scenes with reflective surfaces like water on a lake or pond. These common distractions can easily spoil a photo by introducing color shifts, reducing contrast,  and adding ugly color artifacts.

Smid says his methods are both "simple and 100% effective for removing flare when shooting against the sun," and he begins by describing two types of flare; one that's immediately visible on the camera's display, and another that's "much more dangerous" because it's difficult to discern.

Smid demonstrates several in-camera techniques for getting the job done in the field, and his first recommendation is to always make sure your lens is outfitted with a proper hood. This practice isn't always effective with wide-angle lenses, however, because the hoods they require are typically too shallow to provide sufficient protection.

He also suggests that you try a quick experiment by shooting two versions of the same scene; one with a hand hand covering the sun—taking care that your fingers don't appear in the frame. Then it's easy to combine both images in Photoshop to achieve the best of both worlds. He describes a few other image-editing tips that are worthy of attention.

The foregoing is barely a taste of everything you'll learn, which includes a foolproof method for eliminating flare in panorama photos, straightforward exposure-bracketing techniques, and much more. Be sure to visit Smid's popular YouTube channel once the video concludes where you'll find many more how-to lessons for shooting in the field.

And don't miss an earlier tutorial we featured with another notable pro who demonstrates why colors in outdoor photographs don't resemble what you saw through the viewfinder and a quick post-processing trick for fixing them in Lightroom.