15 hours ago
5
Getting a landscape file to feel deep and directional often comes down to what you do in editing, not what you did in the field. This matters to photographers who want edits that look intentional without turning every frame into a loud, crunchy mess.
Coming to you from William Patino, this practical video walks through a first-pass workflow that aims for “most of the way there” without pretending it’s a final polish. Patino starts in Adobe Bridge, opens unprocessed raw files into Camera Raw, and treats the first edit like a test drive. Some frames are worth keeping, some are not, and the point is to find out quickly. Instead of chasing global contrast sliders that hit everything at once, he keeps circling back to local control so the image changes where it needs to. The big idea is simple: stop trying to fix a flat frame with one big knob.
The core move is brush masking, and Patino leans on it almost exclusively. He sets feather, flow, and density to 100, then builds depth by separating the frame into zones that behave differently. Darken the near side so it feels heavier, lift the far side so it breathes, and keep the viewer’s attention moving instead of bouncing around. He shows why dropping exposure is not always the right way to darken an area if it kills the glow you actually want to keep, then swaps to contrast, clarity, and selective whites where it makes more sense. You also get a very specific cropping thought process, including why an off-center waterfall can feel more natural depending on the direction it’s flowing.
Once he moves into a wider scene, the workflow turns into a repeatable pattern: set a baseline profile, cool the temperature a touch, then build layers of contrast and lifted shadows based on distance. Patino doesn’t pretend every image needs the same aspect ratio, and he tests options like 16:9 and 4x5 when the edges aren’t carrying their weight. There’s a nice, concrete demonstration of “diffused light still comes from above,” using a subtle top-down exposure lift that reads like believable weather instead of a spotlight. If you tend to overwork the foreground, watching how he holds back and keeps the midground from collapsing is useful.
The back half shifts from editing decisions to file decisions, and that’s where people often get sloppy. Patino shows when he stops, hits “Done,” and lets the edit sit, then when he commits to opening as a smart object in Photoshop so the Camera Raw settings stay editable. He also mentions saving drafts to a portable hard drive so the working files are not trapped on one machine. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Patino.
English (US) ·