Photoshop How To

Every so often we photograph a beautiful outdoor scene even though the light isn’t quite right. That’s because it’s not particularly difficult to add depth and drama to an otherwise great shot with a bit of help from Lightroom.

Long exposure motion-blur effects can really enhance landscape images, creating soft, flowing water and fluffy cotton-like clouds. Some photographers use expensive neutral density filter to achieve the necessary slow shutter speeds, but there’s a simple way to mimic this effect during the editing process.

Today’s Photoshop tutorial is all about analyzing boring photos carefully before relegating them to the trash. That’s because a drab image with good composition and a compelling subject can often be transformed into a beautiful scene with a few thoughtful adjustments in Photoshop.

Photoshop’s Selection tools offer a variety of ways to improve an image. They enable you to lighten or darken one portion of a scene without affecting the rest of the image, selectively adjust colors, remove distracting elements, or cut out an object from one photo and place it on another.

Last week we featured a popular tutorial, explaining how to avoid common shooting errors that can be real image killers. Today were turning to the processing side of our craft, identifying six common image-editing mistakes that are easily fixed.

Today we’re not going to get into another discussion of the many advantages of Raw files compared to JPEGs. Let’s just assume that, for whatever reason, you shot a bunch of JPEG images and they look really awful.

Let’s face it: Not all of us have the time or means to go on safari to photograph exotic animals in their natural habitat. The next best option is a trip to the local zoo with a long lens, and that can be a load of fun.