James Paterson shows how to target areas of a landscape with Photoshop tools and make powerful local adjustments

One of the main challenges with landscapes is in balancing out bright skies with darker landscapes, especially if – like here – the foreground is in deep evening shade. Editing a landscape like this, where the contrast between land and sky is too great, many of us might simply lift the Shadows and drop the Highlights. It’s a quick fix that may help to pull detail out of the lightest and darkest portions of the frame, but can also lead to an image looking overprocessed, almost HDR-like. Sometimes it’s better to take a targeted approach. By making local adjustments that are tailored to specific areas of the shot, the results can look more natural.