Elevate Your Landscape Photography with These 5 Essential Photoshop Techniques

As a landscape photographer, mastering the basics of Photoshop can greatly enhance the quality of your work. From adjusting exposure to blending multiple exposures, these five essential Photoshop techniques will take your photography to the next level. With corresponding Photoshop shortcuts included, you'll be able to efficiently make your landscape images look their best.

Adjusting Exposure:

A frequent adjustment landscape photographers often have to make is the overall exposure of their images. You can use either the Levels or Curves tool in Photoshop to do this. If your image is underexposed and you want to brighten it up, use the Levels tool (Ctrl + L on a PC or Command + L on a Mac). Simply adjust the shadow and highlight sliders towards the center of the histogram. On the other hand, if your image is overexposed and you need to darken it down, do the opposite with the same tool.

White Balance:

It's essential to have accurate white balance to make sure the colors in your landscape photos appear natural and true-to-life. Adjust the white balance in Photoshop using the White Balance tool (Shift + W) or by adjusting the individual color channels in the Curves or Color Balance panels (Ctrl + B on a PC or Command + B on a Mac). If your photo is too warm (yellow or orange), cool it down by selecting a cooler white balance preset or adjusting the color temperature slider.

Color Saturation

A pop of color can go a long way in enhancing your landscape photos, and boosting the color saturation is a great way to achieve that. You can adjust the color saturation in Photoshop using the Saturation slider in the Hue/Saturation panel (Ctrl + U on a PC or Command + U on a Mac), or by adjusting the individual color channels in the Curves panel (Ctrl + M on a PC or Command + M on a Mac). If your photo is too desaturated, increase the overall saturation of the image using the Saturation slider, but be careful not to oversaturate as it could make the colors look unnatural.If you are just starting out with photoshop i recomend cheking out the article below👇

Masking

Masking is a important tool for landscape photographers, masking allows you to selectively apply adjustments to specific areas of your image without affecting the rest. To create a mask in Photoshop, use Selection tools (Lasso - L or Magic Wand - W) to draw a selection around the area you want to adjust. You can also use automated selections, those can be found in the top menu bar under selections. Once you have a selection, add a layer mask by clicking the "add layer mask" icon in the layers panel. Then, use the Adjustments panel (Ctrl + Alt + J on a PC or Command + Option + J on a Mac) to apply adjustments such as Levels or Curves, only to the masked area.

High dynamic range scenes can be difficult to capture in a single exposure, but blending multiple exposures can give you the best of all worlds. Use techniques such as luminosity masking or the Photoshop's Merge to HDR Pro tool (Ctrl + H on a PC or Command + H on a Mac) to blend multiple exposures together and achieve a greater tonal range with more detail in both the shadows and highlights. For more control, try blending manually with luminosity masks and consider downloading Tk8's free luminosity mask plugin, which automates the process and makes exposure blending much easier.

merging different exposures using TK luminosity masks

Photoshop shortcuts used in the article:

• Levels tool: Ctrl + L (PC) or Command + L (Mac)

• White Balance tool: Shift + W

• Curves or Color Balance panels: Ctrl + B (PC) or Command + B (Mac)

• Hue/Saturation panel: Ctrl + U (PC) or Command + U (Mac)

• Curves panel: Ctrl + M (PC) or Command + M (Mac)

• Brush tool: B

• Lasso tool: L

• Magic Wand tool: W

• Adjustments panel: Ctrl + Alt + J (PC) or Command + Option + J (Mac)

• Merge to HDR Pro tool: Ctrl + H (PC) or Command + H (Mac)

by mastering these five essential Photoshop techniques, you'll be well on your way to taking your landscape photography to the next level!

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