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Creating soft, blurry backgrounds is a popular technique for making subjects stand out from their surroundings. It’s also useful for eliminating clutter, and directing a viewer’s eye to the most important element of a scene.

If you’re like most folks, photographers and “civilians” alike, you probably have a bunch of old family photos lurking in shoeboxes and tattered albums just waiting for some TLC. And because you’re a photographer, relatives will likely solicit your help to restore their often-damaged mementos.

The past month has been special for Shutterbug readers thanks to the weekly installments we’ve posted of an amazing free Lightroom masterclass from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel. Part 1 covered the basics. #2 dealt with masking, and last week’s episode explained the finer points of using Lightroom’s Tone Curve.

While more and more landscape photographers are turning to long telephotos when shooting in the field, the trusty wide-angle is still the go-to choice for most of us. And there’s a good reason: The perspective provided by short focal length lenses is often perfect for capturing dramatic, expansive vistas.

Many image editing applications claim to provide “one click optimization.” Most of the time, the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. This software is different; it delivers. Radiant Photo from Radiant Imaging Labs analyzes your image and suggests a preset as a starting edit. Accept their judgement or change to the preset of your choice. From there, proceed using your own presets, perform a Quick Edit, or progress into a Detailed Edit and Color Grading. But the story is not what Radiant Photo does, it’s about how Radiant does it. Which is pretty cool.

Whether you’re a beginner or a more advanced shooter it’s likely that a few “bad habits” are stifling your growth and preventing you from realizing your true potential. Today we’ll discuss how avoiding three common impediments will greatly expand your skills when shooting in the field.

We all hear about so-call “hidden” editing tools that deliver great results. But while many of these methods are effective, some are quite familiar to photographers of all skill levels.