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Advanced Photoshop landscape editing workflow

Colin Smith

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In this Photoshop tutorial, Colin Smith shows the entire process of editing landscape photos, start to finish. This tutorial joins all the dots and shows the production pipeline for photo retouching and editing,

I have made tutorials on individual techniques (And I’ll link them all here). Rather than do small tutorials, I have put everything together so you can see how I actually retouch and edit a real photograph. This is a photo I shot with my DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone. It doesn’t matter what camera you use, the steps are the same. This video tutorial shows me working on the Wacom Cintiq 16. I did a review on the tablet here | Buy tablet here (This isn’t sponsored).

Here is the photo before (SOOC) Straight Out Of Camera

And here is the photo after my edits. (see it on Instagram)

There are a lot of techniques we go through for this image, but I really want you to concentrate on the way it all works together and the decision-making process. Unlike regular tutorials, where I am highlighting a single technique, this is an unrehearsed real-world approach to how I edit my photos every day. As anyone who has been here at the CAFE for a while knows, I love to share my tips and techniques with you, but I am first a working artist and secondarily an educator. Experimenting and practice is how I come up with my techniques. Some decisions aren’t right or wrong, they are subjective and really depend on your style and the mood you are trying to communicate.

If you aren’t happy with your edits right now, don’t worry. Keep practicing and in time things will begin to click. Please follow me on Instagram for regular updates that might help inspire you.

Individual tutorials for the techniques used in this tutorial

Here are tutorials for you to bookmark. If you do all these tutorials, you will build up the basic skills that can be combined to make any image look great.

Thanks for checking this out here at the cafe :

Colin


PS Don’t forget to follow us on Social Media for more tips.. (I've been posting some fun Instagram and Facebook Stories lately)
You can get my free Layer Blending modes ebook along with dozens of exclusive Photoshop Goodies here photoshop goodies for free

25 thoughts on “Advanced Photoshop landscape editing workflow

  1. February 13, 2019 at 9:44 am

    Outstanding video Colin. Really interesting insights and tips here. Thanks very much for sharing this.

  2. nancy
    February 13, 2019 at 11:26 am

    I loved seeing the whole process as I am trying to learn how to do this. Thanks Colin!!!

  3. MSere
    February 13, 2019 at 12:24 pm

    Interesting and Informative as always. Thanks for sharing your vast knowledge.

  4. Rose Weir
    February 13, 2019 at 1:27 pm

    Yes-the total picture puts all in context

  5. February 13, 2019 at 3:39 pm

    I liked this full workflow video…more of this would be nice…thanks Colin

  6. Julie Boyle
    February 13, 2019 at 4:27 pm

    Yes, Colin. More of this type of video would be great. Like to see the actual workflow you choose as you go.

  7. Carol
    February 13, 2019 at 9:42 pm

    I loved this as I have been trying to get a work flow together

  8. Stuart Braithwaite
    February 13, 2019 at 10:58 pm

    Great Tutorial. Interesting insight into your processing workflow

  9. Willem Van Der Post
    February 14, 2019 at 12:37 am

    Very helpful to also see the bigger “picture”.

  10. johan
    February 14, 2019 at 3:22 am

    Colin, Great tutorial. Good to see it all come together in one video. Thanks.

  11. Monica
    February 14, 2019 at 8:08 am

    Colin, Great tutorial, loved the full workflow! Very helpful.

  12. Bett
    February 15, 2019 at 1:46 pm

    Great video! I like watching your complete workflow. It helps me to learn and understand more.

  13. February 16, 2019 at 10:27 am

    Thanks Colin – I do prefer this full workflow lesson.

  14. gtwhimself
    February 17, 2019 at 9:24 am

    Entire process for me. Partly because I like seeing how your creative vision works…

  15. Dendurk
    February 18, 2019 at 12:46 am

    Yes love these type of tutorials where you show us how it all comes together, great work.

  16. Lyle
    February 18, 2019 at 10:11 am

    a good combination of both in depth single focus and a full workflow provides a good educational strategy that helps the student in specific areas and then is able to apply the learnings to files that would be appropriate for the individual. Good tutorial, enjoyed it.

  17. keith scaife
    February 19, 2019 at 2:48 am

    excellent tutorial

  18. kevin.klein.mail
    July 13, 2019 at 6:06 pm

    Got yourself a new subscriber. Fantastic work!

  19. Taff Greeves
    November 7, 2019 at 6:19 am

    Great keep this format coming

  20. Sergio Smiriglio
    December 7, 2019 at 1:08 am

    Nice presentation. I have a similar workflow but use different steps to achieve similar results. Yours seem more efficient and I will try them. One comment about your final, if you look at the hard edges (rocks against sky) there is a thin halo that most people will not notice. I normally take those out using darken blend mode and paint or clone the sky into the halo.

    1. Colin Smith
      December 13, 2019 at 6:29 pm

      Good tip, thanks

  21. Vickie Belcher
    January 14, 2020 at 9:25 pm

    Finding this format much more interesting and relaxing, step by step is so regimented, not really getting as much thought process. Thanks for being so innovative!

  22. January 15, 2020 at 2:22 pm

    Thanks for your job.
    You speack clearly, and so “non English” can follow you easily.

    (Sry for my bad English)

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