Nature Photography How To

Shooting with slow shutter speeds is a great way to make images that stand out from the rest—with feather-like clouds and a soft, diffused look.. In the video below you’ll learn four great shooting and editing  “secrets” for getting the job done.

French photographer Serge Ramelli is known for epic travel, landscape, and cityscape images. In this quick episode he reveals how he edits long-exposure photos in Lightroom for maximum impact, and why he often has a variable neutral density filter on his lens.

Ramelli is so confident about this method that he insists, “These four tips will forever change the way you make long-exposure color photographs.” It’s a bold claim, but after watching him work his magic it’s difficult to disagree.

The method he describes involves the use of a Tiffen filter (there’s a link in the description beneath the video), and a few simple enhancements in Lightroom. He also explains several important camera settings that contribute to his great results.

Ramelli’s goal is to perfect his image with warm sunset colors. Before you hit the Play button we recommend that you download the Raw file using the link below the video. That way you can follow along in real time while making the adjustments yourself.

You’ll see how to use the filter Ramelli recommends to capture the best image possible in the camera. There’s also advice on framing and exposure that is equally helpful.

Turning to Lightroom, Ramelli demonstrates his basic retouching technique. He then gets more specific with a “Double White Balance” adjustment, and completes the job by refining the colors.

You can find a wealth of tips and tricks on Ramelli’s YouTube channel, so be sure and take a look. Then check out another helpful tutorial we posted recently, explaining a popular pro’s editing workflow for enhancing landscape photographs.