Tutorials - Photo Editing for Woodland Photos

In this in-depth photo editing tutorial I share my complete workflow for editing dreamy woodland photos in Lightroom and Photoshop.

The example photo was captured in one of my favorite woodlands in the Germany Rhön. I've been there many times, and I always find new perspectives and compositions. The photo was taken early in the morning on a misty day. The light was soft, and the fog created a mystical atmosphere. But I also had to deal with challenging weather conditions because of the wind. I had to take many photos, experimenting with different shutter speeds to capture the trees and leaves as sharp as possible. The final image is a blend of several photos, which I captured during this session.

The before-and-after comparison below shows the out-of-camera RAW file without any settings applied compared against the final result.

Tutorial Content

The complete tutorial has a length nearly one hour. For a better viewing experience, I split it into 11 sections. This way, you can revisit parts of the photo editing workflow and incorporate a selection of techniques into your own editing.

I first explain some of my in-the-field process of capturing woodland photos and what to look out for on windy days. I then share how to deal with noise using both Lightroom and DXO PureRAW. Both programs provide AI assisted noise removal that can turn high ISO images into clean photos.

Afterward, I show my creative processing in Lightroom, for which I use a set of preset you receive with the tutorial. This pre-processing lays the foundation for more creative editing in Photoshop. But before that, the photos must be blended, which I demonstrate in detail.

Cleanup, contrast and color work, dodge and burn, my Workflow in Color Efex, and sharpening are the next steps in the tutorial. Each section is explained in detail, so you can follow along and learn my workflow.

If you like to print your photos, you will find my print preparation workflow in my free tutorials here. I didn't include this step in my woodland tutorial to avoid redundancy.

Presets

This is the first tutorial, in which I include a set of Lightroom presets. You can use them as a starting point for your own woodland, landscape, architecture, and night photos. The presets are optimized for the latest version of Lightroom Classic. In the PDF accompanying the tutorial, I explain how to install them and in the tutorial, I show how to use them.

Prerequisites and Photo Editing Software

This photo editing tutorial is for intermediate Lightroom and Photoshop users. I assume you are familiar with layers, masks, filters, and adjustment layers in Photoshop. If not, I recommend watching my free tutorials first.

I use the latest versions of Adobe Lightroom Classic and Photoshop 2025 in the tutorial. If you still use Photoshop CS6 and older versions of Lightroom, I recommend watching some of my older tutorials, where I still use those.

I also use filters of the Nik Collection, which is available for free using the provided link. The tutorial comes with a PDF that explains how to install the Nik Collection in the latest Photoshop versions under Windows. If you are working on a Mac, the free version will not work. But since I only use it at the end, it's not mandatory to follow along.

To sharpen my photos for the web, I use another free plugin, the Web Sharpener by Andreas Resch.

As I mention above, I also show how to use DXO PureRAW for noise reduction. You can download a 14-day trial software here *. Compare it to the noise reduction in Lightroom, and decide which one you prefer.

And to create Luminosity Masks, I work with Lumenzia* by Greg Benz. He also provides a free lite version of this plugin available, which you can use to follow along.

* This is an Affiliate-Link. If you use it to buy something, I'll get a commission.