Why YOU should SHOOT INTO THE SUN - Landscape Photography 

Clear and concise! Thanks for another really useful video Stuart. I'd heard you mention the 'thumb technique' previously, but never knew what to do with the images once I got back to the computer.....now to try to find those unedited files and give it a go :D

I'm a reasonably experienced photographer but would never have thought of that technique to get rid of the flare. Absolutely brilliant, cheers for this!

Fabulous shot. I really like that you keep it natural looking. There seems to be a horrible tendency to edit images to look like something out of Lord of Rings nowadays, so it's so nice to see something that looks like a scene we would actually see.

🤣 Much much better Stuart👍🏻 Excellent tutorial as well.

Great video Stu and a very easy watch over my morning coffee 👍

I've just started photography with my hiking and wild camping great tips .... cheers bud 👍

Great instructions. Can’t wait to get out and give it a try myself.

Thanks for the tip, will definitely give it a try and great drone video, beautiful landscape.

like the thumb idea keep meaning to do more in photoshop !

cheers for sharing this tip Stuart, very helpful. Great shot too.

Thanks Stuart. I understand the theory of using layer masks but, as a newbie to Photoshop, it is good to see such a clar demonstration.

Excellent video and a fine example of how photoshop really can be the photographers friend! Love the image too! cheers.

Really useful thank you. Haven’t dared move out of Lightroom to date...! 😬

Graduated filter manufacturers hate this trick :-D Great video. I'd like to see more of them

Thanks! Easy explained.

Very useful tips here, thanks very much!

Great video - very informative - and useful to see how to remove flare

Phenomenal job, thanks for sharing the process

Great stuff ! Very helpful both in the field and in post processing

Another great video - thanks, Stuart!

Really great video Stuart and very useful info 👍👍👍

Thanks, some good tips which I will use especially for sunrises on the fells. By the way got my Z 24-200 ,last week which I think is fantastic, light and no faffing around changing lenses especially with freezing cold fingers.

Superb informative video Stuart.👍

Really great video Stuart - thanks.

This was awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Enjoyed that mate and a very nice image at the end .. must admit I'm not a huge fan of shooting into the sun but then I see an image like this and I think perhaps part of it is my processing skills ... I've set myself a target over the coming weeks to get a little better with blending, both the capture and the post ....

Nice one Stuart 👍🙏

awesome video again Stuart thanks for sharing your editing tips 👍🏼 lovely shot in the end

Great Great Video, just subscribed after watching. Off to reedit some of my files that I used the HDR blend in Lightroom for as I was never happy with the end result. The soft transition in the sky is definitely something I've been messing up so thank you for the tip.

Thanks for another great video, now signed up to your newsletter

Lovely photo, well done 🍻

YES this was a great one! I really appreciated the way you went over the technical issues. For me who is a real bozo with photoshop it was greatly appreciated. Lightroom I really manage, but photoshop is not so user-friendly. Thanks again 😁

another good vlog stuart, post processing is my weak side & I learned a few things there so cheers.

Cracking final image Stuart and a good one to show the art of blending in PS. Never realised you were on IG so just subscribed to your IG page too

Great video Stuart, I’ll definitely be giving this ago. Really need to up my photoshop knowledge so this is super helpful 👍🏻

So THAT'S how you do it. Really helpful Stuart - thanks

Some great easy to follow tips Stuart. I quite like shooting into the sun, so these will come in useful. Great final image.

Just watched this video! Really interesting and well explained. Must go and practice as I can never get my head around the masking process and what the black is concealing. You mentioned the Newsletter. I have subscribed but haven’t received it yet. We do live in Cornwall so maybe that’s it 😂😂

Shoot into the sun! You're crazy :-) That's a cracking spot and a well explained process. Another fine vlog.

really useful that mate, cheers for that. it looks like an incredible place and one to visit when we can move around. atb.

Great video Stuart clearly explaining how to get rid of the flare when shooting towards the sun. I will definitely be trying this next time we can get out

Great video Stuart and very informative - thank you. A fantastic final image. I'm not great at post processing so tend to use a reverse grad if shooting into the sun. Works for me but I really must try to improve my post processing skills. Cheers.

Hi Stuart: Thanks for making this video. This was an amazing location and I can't wait to experience this personally. I really enjoyed the sharing of your LR post-processing routine. Great tip on how to deal with the lens flare issue. I use the TK7 Luminosity Panels within PS but Luminezia is very similar. Cheers, Keith (Canada)

Roman history and photography - what a great combo this week Stuart and an excellent layer mask tutorial too 👏🏻👏🏻

Absolutely brilliant mate! I live shooting into the sun and this vlog has just answered all questions! I was using the spot removal tool in photoshop to remove lens flare but it's so hit and miss, this way is absolutely brilliant! Thank you!!! All the best

I also wanted to comment on how close you are to the camera .. glad someone else did. :-) Another great video Stuart - thanks for the great content!

Great tutorial! Finished image was lovely too. Remember us doing this technique up on Walla Crag that time. Might go back an re-edit the images as didn't know about the gradient technique on the masks and think that's what may have been missing

Another great video from a fabulous location and very informative as usual. I tend to not shoot directly into the sun if I can, as part of my brain believes that low side lighting rather trumps it on most occasions. I guess it depends on your location as to what's best under the circumstances. Anyway, to make you feel better, it was my turn this week to make a 'schoolboy error'. About a 15 minute walk from my home are a couple of trees across open fields, so yesterday afternoon I went for a trek to go recce them. I popped my 70 - 200mm f/4 on the front and off I went. Once I got in range I had a bit of a walk around to see if I could find any nice foreground or potential lead in lines. Set up in position, thought about my settings a moment and decided to use f/8 - f/9 as beyond the trees was some woodland in the distance in shadow, so I didn't need it to be completely sharp to the horizon. Focused the camera and fired off a few shots. However, I forgot to check my depth of field and I'd focused to close to the camera, so the two lovely trees were outside the area of acceptable sharpness. Trouble is I only discovered this once I'd got them back on my pc. Doh!!! Gutted! Well, at least they're close-ish to home, so I can go back and try again, but honestly, what should have I done whilst out in the field that I didn't do? Also, I'm facing nearly due south taking these trees, so what time of day do you think would be best to shoot them and what conditions should I shoot them in?

I liked a tight stu lol 😂 great start to the video with background and setting the scene. Lovely creative work 😍👍

I did a video the same subject as this last year. Did not know the Fort was there first I herd of it. Still making me sick because your videos are out and about I am getting stuck at home on the same mile of canal haha 😄

Using the gradient tool for exposure blending is not something I had seen before, this will knock so much time off processing for me, thanks a million 👍. Would love to see a similar tutorial using lumenzia as it's something I'm trying to get to grips with at the moment. Cheers

I like your videos and we don't ( thanks be ) have to social distance on cam .Stay as you are Stuart and never any need to apologise .Few can make such hands on , friendly videos . This is amazing and love the end shot . Those Romans knew a thing or two and would appreciate you image of their great work ....I liked both your results .👍.Thanks Stuart brilliant work .

Great video Stuart! I'm just interested to know what your bracketing exposure intervals were to capture the full dynamic range

Stuart - I recently did a talk to my Camera Club about my trip to the Lakes before the first lockdown and spoke quite a lot about stacking and blending being better than using graduated filters in the field (in my opinion) but didn't have time to demonstrate some of the techniques (I also use Luminosity Masks); this video is such an excellent demonstration of the simpler techniques that I've posted a link to my clubs Facebook Page (hopefully you might get a few more susbscribers!).

Another stoater, I had no idea there was a fort up there. I was just glad when the car managed to get to the top. I made actions for luminosity masks but never use them I much prefer layer masks. Don't know if it's because I used to paint in watercolour or not I just prefer that method and the look it gives.

Always appreciate a reminder about layers masks as I still don’t use them frequently enough - thank you. Do you bracket by 1/3? Thanks for another honest video Stuart 👍🏻

This is very helpful mate, been looking for a video on this very subject. In terms of exposure bending, I've just been using the hdr option in Lightroom which is sort of OK but I do end up normally spending a bit of time then trying to have to correct and make sure it doesn't look too hdr. Maybe I need to start using more subtle ways to exposure blend.

Another great video mate. Just trying to get to grips with luminosity masking (with lumenzia) at the moment myself, have always just used layers and brush when blending images previously. Thought I'd just ask, are you still using grads at the minute and if so, can you see yourself moving away from them at any point? I currently have the full kase 150mm kit with grads and just the Kase circular nd kit with 3,6,10 stop and a polariser. Keep leaning towards selling the grads in favour of blending, just haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet (also never been able to work out how to blend more than two files together in photoshop which can have limitations haha)!

An instant like from me. One of the explanations of this technique that I've seen. Thanks Stuart. Just a quick question though - roughly how many stops under were you for capturing the sky image? Thanks. Stay warm and safe sir.

Never occurred to me that your finger can effectively be used as a filter for ths foreground L0L great trick

🎯👍

Like of course, but i wonder which camera exactly you are using, Thanks for the video :)

Great video and processing demonstration! With my Fuji I often see a "grid" in the brighter areas of the image when I shoot into the sun. Can anyone explain to me why that happens? Never had that before with my old Nikon mirrorless.

How do you save it back into Lightroom? And we’re the final edits done in Lightroom? Sorry, dumb questions I’m sure.

Is the computer becoming more important than the camera? Is the person in front of the computer more important than the person behind the camera?