How Your Phone Will Make You a Better Photographer
Phone photography has come a long way since its flip phone origins. Today, you might not even be able to tell the difference between a photo taken by a phone and a dedicated camera.
Phone photography has come a long way since its flip phone origins. Today, you might not even be able to tell the difference between a photo taken by a phone and a dedicated camera.
Most of us would love a lens that could literally cover every focal length we would ever need, and the Sony RX10 series actually offers that, with a range of 24-600mm. This neat video shows you its versatility and creative potential shooting street photography.
If you're somebody who hates heavy-handed post-production, you might want to keep scrolling. For those of you who are happy to do whatever they can to get the image they want, here is an example of Adobe Photoshop's new beta Neural Filters in which the background of an image can be blurred.
Running your first paid photoshoot can be a daunting process, with organization, planning other people and products, and timing to get right, there's a lot more to juggle than just camera settings. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to prepare for your first paid gig.
Apple's iPhones have some fantastic built-in cameras that can handle a wide variety of situations with ease, making them a great option for a camera that is always in your pocket. While the stock camera app is designed to provide a simple process that ensures you always get a great shot, there are more powerful options hiding within that interface, and this great video tutorial will show you how to get the most out of them.
The beauty of cinematography is that a lot of the requisite skills are practicable in your own home. In this video, watch as a professional cinematographer creates a high-end shot in his own house, walking you through every step.
Food and product photography backgrounds can be incredibly difficult to come by in certain parts of the world. There are lots of tutorials out there about how to create your own textured backgrounds and wood backgrounds. But vinyl backgrounds are the bomb when it comes to portability and saving space. Creating them isn’t too difficult either.
When most people think of London, they think of skyscrapers and old pubs, which there are admittedly rather a lot of. But, London also has some fantastic areas of natural beauty, and the location for this early morning shoot is arguably the greatest of them all.
The pandemic has forced many of us to stay home. But that doesn’t mean we can’t experience the wonder of our own backyard. And in the Pacific Northwest, there’s so much to explore. The last year or so has provided us with an opportunity to be inspired by Mother Nature and inspire other budding photographers by showing them the magic of America through our lens.
It’s been a long time coming for some of my gear. I hardly used it and it was worth more to someone else.
Whether you're looking to hire a photographer yourself, are looking to work with another photographer, or are being given advice or criticism from another photographer, what are some red flags that put you on high alert?
Conceiving of, lighting, and shooting a beauty image is a ton of work, but it is only half of what it takes to finish things off. Strong post-processing skills are needed to create a fully polished beauty image, and this excellent video tutorial will show you what you need to know to process a natural light beauty shot.
Do you often return from a photography session or trip to upload your photos and immediately delete the bad photos from the set? While getting rid of the obvious blurry image can save you disk space, I find that deleting can sometimes do more harm than good. Had I culled my images right away I never would have created this photograph.
No doubt, when you are first starting out as a photographer, it can be overwhelming trying to learn and master a huge range of things, including lighting, cameras settings, composition, creative style, post-processing, and more. As such, it can be easy to make mistakes in a lot of different places. This great video tutorial discusses 10 common mistakes newer photographers make and how to fix them or avoid them entirely.
GuruShots is a website that hosts "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” and it's latest challenge has drawn some attention. Participants were invited to submit their best images of "Minimalist Shots." Thousands of people entered and millions of votes were cast for their favorites. Check out the three winners of the challenge as well as hundreds of top rated images below.
One of Lightroom's lesser-known but highly useful features is the range mask, which can make your editing both easier and much more efficient. If you have not used it before, this awesome video tutorial will show you how to use range masks in Lightroom.
An important part of growing as a photographer is shooting personal projects. If you are a food photographer, it can be extremely easy to get stuck in a rut because you are shooting the same modern images over and over. An easy and important way to combat this is to shoot food as fine art.
Nikon has been in the photography industry for a long time, but what have they actually done? I mean, sure, they've made plenty of great and extremely popular cameras, but anyone can do that. When have you ever seen Nikon try to be cool and attract a younger crowd? I guess there was the Nikon Df. However, what has Nikon done since then?
No doubt, a few years ago, any sort of bokeh added in post was noticeably fake. However, software has come a long way in the last few years, especially with the proliferation of things like artificial intelligence and neural network capabilities. Luminar AI and Photoshop are leading the pack at the moment, and this great video comparison takes a look at their bokeh-generating capabilities.
Are your photos beautiful? Consequently, do they attract lots of likes online? If you are serious about your photography, then there are arguments to shun beauty and embrace less appealing aesthetics. But those arguments are flawed. Here's why.
Improving your editing doesn’t necessarily mean getting your head around the Tone Curve or finding new ways to use the Color Grading panel. Check out these five practical tips to help you be more thoughtful in your editing and discover how to create your own style.
This industry is infamous for having a low average wage, particularly if you're a self-employed photographer or videographer. However, there are plenty of people earning a good wage, and here are 10 ways you can too, with examples of videographers who are already doing it.
Ever find your distant objects such as mountains appearing much smaller than they should in your landscape photos? Perspective blending is a great solution that is actually quite easy to do.
Some of us photographers, particularly those of us who create content of any description, have worked our way through a lot of cameras, both owned and tested. One photographer has used nearly 90 cameras since 2016, and decided to rank them all.
When we think of family portraits, we often picture the traditional looks: everyone lined up, smiling, and well dressed. Family lifestyle photography, on the other hand, shines a new light on family portraiture. Rather than posing everybody perfectly, lifestyle captures the personality and dynamics of the family. The spontaneity is a great addition to a complete family album. Let's begin by seeing how the two styles differ.
This video is a sneak peek into SLR Lounge Premium Library with a chapter from our new course, Family Photography 101. This is a complete course on capturing memorable and unique family portraits. In this video, I had Shivani with me as we compared family lifestyle photography with traditional portraits.
Recently I got a friendly comment about the images of a camera review I did. It was all about how the results should be presented. Straight out of the camera, or edited? I want to have a closer look at this question and what could be the answer.
Unhappy or unfulfilled photographers are only a matter of clicks away from putting the camera down permanently. Ask yourself these questions before it's too late.
Despite confirming a ton of specs, Canon has held back revealing the resolution of its forthcoming speed beast. However, EXIF data from images shot using a prototype R3 at the Olympics show that the camera has a 24-megapixel sensor.
Waiting to take an image until the culmination of an action or moment is a common theme in photography. But sometimes, the in-between moments are even better for telling a story or building a narrative.
Cropping is straightforward for the most part, but it can be tricky at first, and especially so if you're looking to crop for printing purposes. This video gives you a great, beginner's guide to cropping your photographs for all purposes using Adobe Photoshop.
Phone cameras have become remarkably competent and versatile in recent years, to the point that they can deliver professional-level results in certain situations, particularly when the light is good and you do not need extreme focal lengths. The Sony Xperia 1 III offers some of the most impressive capabilities yet, and this great video review takes a look at how it performs.
There are endless apps and web services available for small business owners to build a CRM database. For those not familiar with CRM, it stands for Customer Relationship Management. Basically, it's where you store, categorize, and update your customer’s information.
Perhaps no post-processing choice more fundamentally alters the perception of a photo than converting it to black and white. When should you actually shoot in black and white, however? This excellent video discusses the how and why of black and white photography to help you expand both your creative techniques and palette.
Photographers have to deal with a lot of annoying things, whether from clients, other photographers, online trolls, or others. What is it that annoys you? If you need a bit of catharsis, this video should do you a bit of good.
Skylum has released LuminarAI Update 4, which delivers a rather amazing Portrait BokehAI feature along with a few other new or improved items that add to the popular software application's bag of tricks.
Both the Sony a7R IV and the Nikon Z 7 II are both very capable cameras, especially if you’re a landscape photographer and super-fast autofocus performance isn’t a prime concern. Which of these two cameras is the better option?
Sony has just announced a new APS-C camera designed for bloggers and content creators that can be used with a huge range of lenses: the ZV-E10.
There are occasions where you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you're taking images that are some of the best you may ever take. This video shows us behind the scenes as Nigel Danson photographs an active volcano, and I can safely say, this will be one of those moments for him.
I love everything about shooting film. I love the feel of it, I love the cameras, I love the surprise of seeing the images, I love the community. I love it so much I set up my own film photography podcast called Matt Loves Cameras.
Both Sony and Canon make some highly respected supertelephoto zoom lenses that offer versatile focal length ranges and impressive image quality, making them ideal for tackling a wide range of scenarios across multiple genres. This excellent video comparison pits the Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS against the Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM, taking a deep look at what you can expect from both lenses.
The Canon EOS R3 is likely in use at the Olympics as we speak, and we can expect it to be fully announced at some point later this year. While Canon has dropped a few impressive specs about the camera (like a 30 fps continuous burst rate and eye-controlled autofocus), one important specification has been noticeably absent: sensor resolution.
There are a few key specs that camera manufacturers and users gravitate toward and that capture headlines when new products are released. However, some of these specs can be misleading, and it is important that you understand what you are really purchasing before you pull out your credit card. Here are four specs to research a bit further before you buy that shiny new camera.
No doubt, posing is something a lot of photographers struggle with, and given its more subjective and unquantifiable nature, it can be difficult to improve at it. This fantastic video tutorial will show you a wide range of flattering poses for any body type and offer some helpful tips that will be sure to quickly improve your work.
The beautiful thing about macro photography is that you do not have to travel far to find suitable subjects — hardly anywhere at all, in fact. This great video follows a photographer on a trip out with the Nikon NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S Macro lens.
Every technical and compositional skill you have in your toolbox cannot give your images meaning. Of all the considerations, putting meaning into an image is probably the hardest to achieve. It’s an esoteric thing, but it can help lift your photographs from the mundane to extraordinary.
If you are looking for super-fast storage for your video editing on the go, then you may be interested in checking out the Sabrent 2TB Rocket XTRM Nvme Thunderbolt 3 SSD.
Looking to give Capture One a try but just find it confusing? It can be a bit difficult when you first open it up, especially if you are accustomed to another image-processing program. Change can be tricky at first, and here's a video to help you get started.
With the news that Instagram's focus has shifted to be far less centered around images, many photographers who have spent years building their following and brand on the app are left out in the cold. This isn't the first, nor will it be the last time you are reminded of the dangers of building a large part of your business on someone else's platform.
We tend to think that manipulating images to create unrealistic notions of beauty is a recent phenomenon thanks to Photoshop and celebrity culture, but it turns out that retouching photos in order to mislead people has been around for well over a century.
Backdrops are widely used by studio photographers for a variety of work, but being made of fabric, you will often have to deal with creases and wrinkles that can detract from an otherwise compelling shot. Luckily, it is not overly hard to get rid of them using Photoshop, and this great video tutorial will show you how to make it look like they were never there.