Photo How To

Here’s a distressing problem that we’ve all encountered in the past: You come across a beautiful scene at the right time of day, the light is gorgeous, you brought the right gear, and can’t wait to view the “epic” shots on your computer. But alas, even though you nailed exposure and composition, all your images are unsharp.

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.

One common concern when photographing outdoor photos under challenging light is that the images we capture don't appear as impressive on the computer as the scene we witness through the viewfinder. If that sounds familiar today's five-minute Lightroom tutorial will set you straight in a hurry.

Q. In the July 2017 issue, one of the questions dealt with processing black-and-white images in Lightroom as opposed to shooting black and white in camera. One of your suggestions was using add-on programs in Lightroom such as Nik’s Silver Efex Pro to “open up a whole new world of black-and-white possibilities.” How much more benefit or advantage do you get from using an add-on program versus just learning the advanced features of Lightroom and creating the effects yourself? Is it worth spending the extra money on the add-ons or should you just learn to use Lightroom more efficiently?

Hi everybody! I’m very excited to be launching a new Q&A column here in Shutterbug—a magazine I’ve been reading, and been a fan of, for so many years—so it’s truly an honor to be here with you. I invite you to send in your questions to editorial@shutterbug.com (with "For Scott Kelby" as the subject line), and I’ll do my best to answer them in Ask a Pro. OK, let’s jump right to it.

Hi everybody! Welcome to my new Q&A column here in Shutterbug—a magazine I’ve been reading, and been a fan of, for so many years—so it’s truly an honor to be here with you. I invite you to send in your questions to editorial@shutterbug.com (with “For Scott Kelby” as the subject line), and I’ll do my best to answer them in Ask a Pro. Now on to this month’s questions.