Photo How To

The holiday season is in full swing, and with it come numerous once-a-year opportunities for dazzling photos. And regardless of where you live, now is the perfect time to take a drive and photograph the festive lights and decorations that brighten up your neighborhood.

Have you ever tried your hand at b&w landscape photography, expecting dramatic images, only to be disappointed by the results? If so, you’re not alone.

Selecting the appropriate shutter speed for a given scene is important for most types of photography if you want the best possible results. This decision is important with landscapes and wildlife shots—particularly when shooting hand-held, for scenes with motion, and while using long lenses.

A couple weeks ago we featured an editing tutorial, explaining an easy way to create five unique effects using the Curves tool in Photoshop and Lightroom. Today instructor Scott Davenport is back with a bonus two-minute tip, demonstrating how easy it is to fix blown-out highlights using Curves.

Guess what? Even professional shooters screw up on occasion; so don’t feel too bad about making mistakes. The trick is to not make the same error twice, and one way to avoid that is to learn from the foibles of experienced pros.

Sunrises and sunsets are among the most popular scenes for avid landscape photographers. Early morning images usually have ephemeral soft blue tones, while sunsets typically display striking yellows, oranges and reds.

Landscape photography is one of the most popular genres among Shutterbug readers, and the tutorials we post typically involve shooting and editing techniques for achieving great results. But today we’re taking s step back, with an important preliminary task you should perform before pulling a camera out of your bag.