Photography Trends so Bad They Became Memes

Photography is undoubtedly the art with the lowest entry point. You can just pick up your phone and snap away. With billions of images created every day, they sometimes follow trends. Many beginner photographers start following pages on Instagram that “repost bangers.” However, those bangers are very far from what photography is about. In this article, I will talk about some of the worst photography trends that have become memes.

Looking Ahead to Future Eclipses

While the lunar and annular solar eclipses are fresh in our minds and travel is gradually returning to some semblance of normality, it’s a good idea to begin to think ahead to future eclipse photo opportunities (especially total solar eclipses) in the next few years. Why plan so far ahead? Unfortunately for most of us, the opportunities to photograph a solar eclipse within our lifetimes can be counted on a few fingers. Lunar eclipses are a little easier to plan for but still require some planning.

10 Mistakes Beginner Photographers Commonly Make

When you are new to photography, there is a lot to learn and practice, and it can be easy to go wrong and make a mistake. This excellent video tutorial discusses 10 mistakes beginner photographers commonly make and how you can avoid or fix them.

Photography Gear Matters a Lot

One of the most cliché phrases about gear in photography is that it doesn’t matter. I think that’s a very big misunderstanding that needs to be cleared up. Sure, there are times gear doesn’t matter, but sometimes, it does matter and does have a direct impact on what you can produce.

Learn Some Helpful Portrait Photography Tips While Watching This Photoshoot

Portrait photography can be a real challenge given all the factors you need to balance simultaneously, and the two that often give photographers some of the greatest difficulties are posing and composition. If those are factors you tend to struggle with, check out this helpful video tutorial that follows a photographer on a shoot while offering a range of useful tips to improve your work.

The Ultimate Mamiya Film Camera Shootout

Don’t you just love a good old-fashioned photographic shootout? Giving yourself a new challenge is not only fun, but it’s a fantastic way to unleash your creativity: you either sink or swim.

5 Helpful Portrait Photography Tips for Newer Photographers

Portrait photography takes the combination of technical skills with your camera, lighting knowledge, the ability to work with subjects, and strong editing skills to make a compelling final image, meaning a lot to learn for the new photographer. If you are just starting out, this excellent video tutorial features five helpful tips that will help you get on the right track to becoming proficient.

Pitch Your Idea With These Four Easy Tips!

Most photographers starting are happy to create an image, stick it on their social media platforms, and call it a day. This doesn’t really cut it once photography becomes more of a career, though, so in this article, I’ll talk a bit more about how to pitch your ideas.

How To Overcome Creative Blocks

Having a creative block is one of the most frustrating experiences that can happen to anyone who has to (or wants to) create. There are ways of getting past it — lots of ways, in fact — and here is how one YouTuber does it.

How to Light a Headshot Using Speedlights or Strobes

You have probably seen professional headshot photographers using powerful (and expensive) studio lights, and while there are certainly benefits to those, that does not mean you can't use things like speedlights to create compelling images. In this excellent video tutorial, well-known photographer Peter Hurley will show you how you can light a headshot even using only speedlights.

Is Sky Replacement Ethical in Landscape Photography?

Sky replacement has been a method used in landscape photography for years but recently it has become much more accessible with AI assisted features in programs such as Photoshop and Luminar. That accessibility has ignited debates within the photography community raising the question whether or not manipulating an image in such a way is ethical.

How to Improve Your Landscape Photos Through Cropping

Conventional wisdom says to get your composition right in camera, and while there are plenty of benefits to doing that, the ultra-high resolutions of modern cameras leave us a lot of flexibility in post. Lightroom offers some pretty robust features in the crop tool that many photographers do not take advantage of, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how to use them to improve your images.

Helpful Tips for Composing Portrait Photos

A good portrait photo needs a compelling composition to complement the subject and complete the frame, but we tend to focus so heavily on our posing our subjects that it can be easy to overlook everything else. This excellent video tutorial will give you some helpful tips for composing portraits to create better-balanced images.

New LuminarAI Update Sports New Features and Mac M1 Compatibility

Skylum's Luminar has had quite an impact on the editing market, with AI features for landscape and portrait photographers that have left some of the competition scrambling to catch up. Wanting to stay ahead, a new version of Luminar, called Update 3, will be available free for current owners today.

What Memory Card To Get for Your Sony a7S III

In a previous article, I persuaded you with 3 reasons to get the Sony a7S III. In another article, I convinced you that the 12 MP was more than enough! Today I want to solve one more problem for you by helping you decide what memory cards to get for your Sony A7SIII.

Hasselblad H6D 400c Versus Fujifilm GFX 100: The Best Medium Format Camera

Fujifilm has signlehandedly made medium format more accessible now than ever. Cameras such as the Fujifilm GFX 100S offer a whopping 100 megapixels worth of resolution for less than $6,000. With features such as in-body image stabilization and phase detect autofocus from the sensor, Fujifilm has made it really difficult to compete in the medium format segment.

Is 12 Megapixels Enough? Sony a7S III Print Comparison

With the release of the Sony a7S III, many people are asking the question: is 12 megapixels enough resolution? Can you shoot client work or make large prints if you only have a 12-megapixel sensor? These are important questions for the photographer or videographer seeking the perfect camera.

Canon Plans to Undercut the Competition's Prices With the EOS R3

Canon recently confirmed the upcoming EOS R3 mirrorless camera with some jaw-dropping specs, leaving many to wonder just where it will sit in terms of price. It looks like in addition to its aggressive features, Canon will also place it at an aggressive price that undercuts the competition.

Should You Use Vibrance or Saturation?

Vibrance and saturation perform pretty similar (though different) functions, and it can be difficult to tell the differences between them at times, but there are certain situations in which one will give you better results than the other. This excellent video tutorial will show you the difference between the two and how to use each of them to get better colors in your images.

Two Ways to Use Lightroom's Radial Filters for Better Portraits

Lightroom's radial filter tool is tremendously useful for a wide variety of edits. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to use it both for emphasizing a portrait subject's eyes and for drawing more attention to their face.

How Did Flight of the Navigator Create Its Amazing Visual Effects?

Released in 1986, children’s sci-fi adventure classic "Flight of the Navigator" was one of the first movies to use computer-generated effects, but many of the practical visual effects used are equally mind-blowing. Check out this in-depth insight into how the production team created a movie that still looks good 35 years later.

How To Build a Charging Trolley

I am sure you have all seen the many different charging walls that you can build. I had one myself, but having my chargers in a static location no longer worked for me, so I built a charging station on a trolley.

Super Easy Movie Color Grading in Davinci Resolve 17

If you have ever struggled to color grade your videos to look more like your favorite Hollywood blockbuster movies. Then you will definitely want to check out this color grading tutorial in DaVinci Resolve 17. The best part is you can download DaVinci Resolve for free, so let’s get started.

A Surprisingly Effective Way to Make Money From Your Images

Making money from photography is becoming increasingly more difficult. Quite by chance, I have stumbled upon a system of selling my images that has proven far more effective than anything else I've done. This is how I do it.

Have You Ever Tried Using an Optical Snoot?

There are many modifiers out there, but there are almost always more than you realize. Here is a term you may have heard of, just not with optical in front of it, and it opens up a lot of room for creativity.

A Hands-on Look at the SIRUI 75mm f/1.8 Anamorphic Lens

There is a cult following of anamorphic lenses, but there is also a lot of people who enjoy the aesthetic without knowing exactly what causes those wild flares and oval bokeh. Here's a look at the newest addition from SIRUI.

Will Godox Ever Match Profoto?

The two brands are often the center of many photography arguments online. Some claim that their Godox flashes outshine Profoto, while others are happy to die on the “Profoto is better” hill. The two were not direct competitors, as Godox never took the rental house and powerful 2,400-watt pack and head market. However, the release of their latest pack and head system was singled out as the best thing they have ever done for professional photographers. It is fair to say that Godox is trying to break into the professional market. But are they up for the game and should they try? Let’s find out.

How to Get Started in Film Photography

Film photography has seen a real resurgence in the last few years, but after a few decades firmly in the digital age, many photographers have never even picked up a film camera and might not be sure how to get started. If you are interested in shooting film and ready to begin your journey, this excellent video tutorial will help you get up and running in no time.

Can You Still Make More Than $100,000 a Year as a Photographer?

Photography is an increasingly competitive business, with some creatives undermining the market by working for free and clients seeming to have ever-smaller budgets. How feasible is it to bring in six figures a year as a photographer?

One Simple Tip to Improve Your Photography

This is one of my favorite tips that I teach in my beginning photography workshops. I’m focusing this article on nature and landscape photography because it’s mostly what I do, but I think this is applicable in almost any genre.

8 Months With the Canon EOS R5: How Does It Hold Up?

The EOS R5 was a major paradigm shift in camera design for Canon, and it has been highly lauded for its impressive capabilities and wide feature set. How does it hold up after extended usage? This excellent video review discusses how the camera has performed over eight months of usage.

How Does the Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lens Hold Up After a Decade?

Canon's tilt-shift lenses are well known for being versatile and very sharp, useful for a huge range of applications, from avoiding converging parallels in architecture and real estate photography to controlling your depth of field independent of the aperture. This great video review takes a look at the widest in the lineup, the TS-E 17mm f/4L.

Shadows
Critique the Community

Shadows

Submit Your Best Images With Unique Shadows

In this week's contest, we want to see images that focus on the absence of light. We want to see the unique ways you've used shadows in your photography. 

This contest has ended.
7 Tips That Improved This Landscape Photographer the Most

There's an unscalable mountain of information in our hands, and while that has incredible power, it can also mean that finding profound nuggets of wisdom is difficult. Here are seven tips that one expert landscape photographer found the most useful.

Gearing Tripod System Review: The Most Modular Tripod Ever?

A new company called Gearing has produced a tripod that could be described as the most modular system on the market. From being a tabletop tripod it can be built up to being a full-sized travel tripod. Not only that, if the occasion calls for it you can even use the tripod legs as ski sticks for those slopes that you come across during your travels.