A portrait lens is up there as one of the key acquisitions in pretty much every photographer's lens collection. The release of Viltrox's auto-focus 56mm f/1.4 in Fuji X-mount is therefore highly anticipated because it combines AF and a fast aperture all at a highly economical price point. Is it worth the money?

In this week's article and video I go over my process of capturing an image from start to finish. Everything from how I found my location, captured the photo in the field, and my entire Lightroom editing process.

You can easily spend a lot of money quite quickly trying to improve your photography, and often, that new lens of camera body will not do anything to the actual quality of your output. Instead of opening your wallet, it might be a simply change of philosophy that will make the difference.

At various stages in your photography journey you'll inevitably come to some crossroads or get bogged down in creative blocks. At these somewhat confusing points in time, it's worth taking a step back to revaluate where you're at and where you want to be.

In this video tutorial watch Dean Samed shows us how to create a better oil paint effect in Photoshop. This can be used in your works to get that illustrated painterly feel that so many people love.

These are tough times for a lot of us, but creative activities can be a wonderful outlet and way of reinvigorating ourselves. This honest video essay takes a look at mental health and how the act of photography can help us lead happier lives.

Scams are nothing new. They come in many forms and are especially popular right now while people are vulnerable. However, this scam is something that has seemingly been going on for a very long time.

I've had the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens for a couple of years now, and it's my favorite lens. Canon has recently introduced an RF version improvement of this lens in the form of a 100-500mm f/f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM lens.

Your external disk is filling up with all the digital files, but before you buy additional memory storage to hold more of your photographs, consider doing something with the ones you've already created so far.

I have done some dumb stuff in my life — like really dumb. Ask any of my friends. And photography has been no exception. Here are some of the worst mistakes I have made as a photographer.

No doubt, portrait photography takes the confluence of a lot of technical skills and creative ideas to be successful, and there are a lot of common mistakes we all make at one time or another. This excellent video details three common portrait photography mistakes and how you can avoid or fix them.

Perhaps no lens is more commonly relied on by professionals in challenging environments than the 70-200mm f/2.8. So, which company makes the best version? This great video review compares the respective 70-200mm f/2.8 options from Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Panasonic to see which one is best.

In this video tutorial, watch as Abbey Esparza shows us how to create a surreal honeycomb effect in Photoshop. This can be used in your fantasy works and conceptual images.

Lighting is one of the most fundamental aspects of a successful portrait, and while we most often focus on getting the key light just right, the accessory lights can be what take a portrait from good to great. This excellent video will show you how simply adding a kicker light can make your portraits better.

During such a brief and important period of a person's life, maternity shoots have grown in popularity, but they're far from straightforward. This video will guide you through some posing ideas, as well as foundational elements to pregnancy shoots.

There are many light modifiers available and the selection can become confusing at times. Some areas, in fact, are confusing even when you understand them. The primary suspect is the parabolic softbox.

I love doing photoshoots for musicians. I get to be creative, think outside the box, and make something that will be seen by an audience outside of my bubble. So, when Toronto singer Tafari Anthony approached me to shoot his EP cover, I was all in.

If you haven't made any bad choices, then that just means you haven't been shooting long enough.

Not all that doesn’t glitter isn’t gold. For non-professionals and professionals alike, a second-hand camera or lens is often a cheap way to upgrade one’s own photographic toolbox. Here, you find some tips for making a good bargain.

Drones are more capable, portable, and affordable than ever, and they are a fantastic photography and filmmaking tool and simply a ton of fun to fly. Nonetheless, they take a different approach than using a normal camera. This helpful video will give you five tips for working with a drone for the first time.

Sony cameras have done a lot to move forward the industry, but just like any other system, there are things that can be improved. Here are eight things one photographer would change about the Sony cameras he uses.

When you are a new photographer, it can be easy to be tempted by a wide variety of products that promise quick shortcuts to better or more memorable images. But a lot of these products will not do you any good or could even cause harm to your work. This excellent video discusses five things you do not actually need as a new portrait photographer.

Canon's new mirrorless cameras and lenses have hit the market in a fury, offering superlative features and groundbreaking designs. If you are looking for a great combination for portraiture work, check out this fantastic video featuring the Canon EOS R6 and RF 28-70mm f/2L on a portrait shoot.

The first Apple computers with the company's own chips are here, and they bring with them the promise of notable performance gains with highly impressive battery life. What will the benefits and impact be for photographers and filmmakers? This excellent video examines what we can expect.

The 200mm f/2 lens is normally thought of for things like sports photography, but it has found a second home in the hands of portrait photographers. Are the magical images it creates worth the price? Check out this great comparison video to find out.

Forest photography can seem overwhelming, chaotic, and hard, but if you follow these seven steps, you ought to improve a significant amount.

Photoshop has a lot of power, but for many editors, some of the features are arcane, involve multiple steps, or are too complicated to bother with. That's where Photoshop Extensions come in. It's an architecture that Adobe provides that falls between a plug-in and a Photoshop Action. As a result, some experienced Photoshop users with programming skills have created some really useful extensions that are useful to both beginner editors and pros.

Despite the headline, I’ve always thought that Final Cut Pro X was cool. It still is, and it’s still my favorite non-linear video editor. That said, industry inertia has always pushed me to use Adobe’s bloated Premiere Pro, but Apple’s new Macs using their own silicon in the form of the M1 processor may have just given the industry to come back to an old favorite.

President Trump was out golfing when news broke of President-Elect Biden's projected win of the presidency, thereby ending Trump's time in office at one term. Capturing Trump during this moment was not easy, however, and took significant effort and extreme equipment to accomplish.

Film directors are a great source of inspiration that photographers should be taking advantage of more often. Here are 11 of the greatest directors that you've probably never heard of but really should know about.

In this video tutorial, watch as I show you how to create depth in your photo manipulations in Photoshop. I see lots of composites and photo manipulations that fail at creating depth, so I hope this helps.

Google has been offering unlimited cloud backup service for its users under Google Photos, however the company will soon update its policy to charge users for the service.

Earlier this year, Apple announced its two-year timeline for a transition to its own silicon — to Macs without Intel, that is. With that shift come many questions about the future of our pro applications, so we reached out to Adobe to get some answers.

I started my digital photography with a Sony compact camera, and after a few years I upgraded to the Canon EOS 20D. I loved this camera and used it shoot many great photos. How does it compare to our modern cameras?

If you’re at all like me and you shoot film primarily and shoot digital only occasionally, the Sony a7 series cameras are a terrific system to consider.

Nikon dropped the price of its legendary D850 by almost 15 percent last week, and retailers have rapidly run out of stock as a result. Given the demand for a DSLR that’s more than three years old, is the idea of a D850 successor looking like a smart move for the Japanese manufacturer?

Landscape photography is a tricky genre that takes the mastery of many technical and creative skills to find success. If you are newer to the genre, this great video will show you eight common mistakes made by beginner landscape photographers and how to fix them.

Bad weather can be a pain to work in, but it can also yield powerful and unique images. Before you head out, though, there are a few things worth considering to make sure you can protect your equipment from the elements. This great video discusses both why you should consider photographing in bad weather and how to do it.

A superzoom can be a fantastic way to cover all your bases without having to carry around an entire bag of lenses with you. If you are looking for such a convenient lens for your own work, check out this great review of the Sony FE 24-240mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS.

Lighting and taking the shot is only half of what it takes to produce a great beauty portrait. The retouching also has to be spot on for the photo to be successful. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to retouch a beauty portrait from start to finish using Photoshop.

Most of us do not enjoy being out in bad weather and would prefer to be outside when it is warm and sunny. But when it comes to photography, sometimes, good weather is boring and bad weather is far more interesting for creating compelling images. This fantastic video discusses why you might just want to grab your camera and head outside the next time the skies look moody or stormy.

When we think of landscape photography, we generally think of wide open scenes with grand features and sprawling foregrounds. However, there is an entire world of photographic opportunities awaiting in the forest, and this fantastic video tutorial will give you seven tips for taking better shots using a wide angle lens in the forest.

Let’s talk about the newest software from Skylum called Luminar AI, editing software that is powered by AI technology.

When it comes to niche cameras, Leica is probably somewhere near the top of the list. This is especially the case with Leica Monochrom cameras. The most recent release from the company is a black and white version of the compact fixed lens camera, the Leica Q2. The new Monochrom version promises lots when it comes to image quality.

For many architectural photographers, the widest viable lens has been the Canon 17mm tilt-shift for some time. In some sense, this lens is pretty much a requirement, because there are plenty of occasions where a 24mm lens just isn't wide enough. The problem is that this lens isn't exactly cheap, but fortunately, we now have a new alternative.

Photoshop's new automatic sky replacement tool is here, and it brings with it the promise of saving a ton of time and effort on a task that is traditionally rather tedious. But of course, no automated software is perfect, and you are bound to run into the occasional issue. This fantastic video tutorial will show you how to deal with the most common problems you might encounter when using the feature.

No doubt, a lot of photographers love prime lenses because they often offer super-wide apertures and creamy bokeh, but that is not the only advantage primes offer over zooms. This fantastic video discusses three reasons prime lenses are not just for crazy bokeh.

Fuji shooters who are also bokeh fanatics have a new top choice: the XF 50mm f/1.0 R WR. Does it offer sharpness and autofocus performance to match? This fantastic video review takes a look at the lens and the sort of performance you can expect in real-world usage.

The Sony a7C is the latest camera in Sony's highly popular and respected line of mirrorless cameras, and it is quite a departure in design from previous cameras in the series. This great video review takes a look at the camera and the kind of performance you can expect from it in practice.

Mastering manual mode is one of the most fundamental skills every photographer needs to develop to take better creative and technical control of their images. If you are new to photography and wondering how to decode the mystery of manual mode, this fantastic video tutorial will get you up and running in no time at all.