When you use a wide angle lens, you can fit so many things in the frame, it can be difficult knowing what you should include and what you shouldn't. Here, we take a look at one simple composition technique you can use to enhance your wide angle photography skills.
Aperture is one of the most fundamental and powerful tools you have at your disposal for controlling the look of your images. As such, understanding and mastering every property of it and consequence it has on your photos is crucial. This excellent video tutorial features an experienced landscape photographer giving a nuanced approach for choosing the right aperture for your images.
Browse any amateur fashion photography page, and you will quickly discover that a lot of the work is just pretty girls in average outfits. It almost seems like a lot of this “photography” is not so much about the clothes as it is about the girls. In this article, we will discuss the causes of this phenomenon and answer the question: what is real fashion photography?
Here are some helpful tips on camera settings that you should use to capture crisp movement in the studio. I made a detailed video, but here is a breakdown of the settings you need to understand to keep your images sharp.
As someone who makes 100% of their income by taking pictures, I understand how uncertain, and perhaps unstable, this career is. Spending thousands on gear is easier than ever, and with such a low entry point, everyone wants to be a photographer. It is not easy, and here are some rules I have come up with to survive in this industry.
The beauty of photography is that there are so many genres, techniques, styles, and philosophies that there is room for just about everyone to find a niche that suits them. If you are new to photography and wondering how to find your place in it all, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you 10 different ways you can explore your creativity with a camera.
Topaz Labs' DeNoise AI software does an incredible job of cleaning up images and removing unwanted noise. However, it works differently depending on whether you're using it in Lightroom, Photoshop, or as a standalone platform. Here, we take at look the best way to use it as a Photoshop plugin.
Selling your images online can be a hassle, as companies are constantly changing their pricing and payout structures, making it difficult to know where to devote your time and efforts. This excellent video breakdown takes a look at a large number of stock services, how their pay structures and demand have evolved, and where the best place to devote your time and energy is in 2023.
Do you sometimes look at your images and think there's something missing? Something you can't quite put your finger on, but instinctively know? Very often your images are flat and lack depth. Here's exactly how to fix that issue and add real pop and life to your photos.
What do you think it takes to become a pro landscape photographer? You might come up with a whole range of possible options, but according to this pro, you might be thinking about it all wrong. See what he says it takes.
Photoshop is a tremendously complex and intricate program, and as such, there are many different ways to accomplish any specific task. This means that it is worth taking the time to learn some of the best and most efficient ways of doing things, as it will save you a lot of time and effort over the long run. This helpful video tutorial will show you five ways to make your work in Photoshop better and quicker.
When starting out with off-camera flash, especially in portraiture, we don't always have access to a lot of high-tech or expensive strobes and modifiers. Here's a simple setup that will help you create stunning low-key rim lit images with very little equipment required.
A new year brings thoughts of new beginnings and new opportunities. Resolutions are common this time of year. You undoubtedly have plans to join a gym this year, but why not also make a goal of working on a new photo project? There are several projects you might consider undertaking in 2023, ranging from those that require you to create something original each day to those that will be successful with a less frequent contribution on your part.
I'm very much an advocate of the year-in-review photo post as a step on the path to self-improvement. Landscape photographer and YouTuber Mark Denney has an even better idea you should consider, though.
Today, let’s have a look at specs that really matter to the life of a photographer.
Learning all the technique that goes into using a camera to create a compelling, well-composed photo is an undertaking all itself, but then comes the post-processing that is required to create a polished, complete image. Just like using your camera, there are some common mistakes new photographers make when editing their images. This great video tutorial discusses five such mistakes and what you can do to avoid them.
Street photography is an exciting genre that can quickly sharpen your technical and creative skills, but it also is not for the faint of heart. If you are interested in street photography but find yourself a bit shy to tackle it, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced shooter giving five helpful tips for apprehensive photographers.
Make 2023 a year of creative breakthrough. We all know the key to getting better is consistency. Doing something over and over again will eventually make you better at anything. 52Frames is a photography community that encourages you to improve by prioritizing consistency over perfection: a photo every week for a year. Photography, like any other skill, requires practice. It’s like going to the gym: you need a training plan, with clear goals and ways to achieve them.
I often hear people dismissing compositional rules, especially the Rule of Thirds. However, there is an excellent reason why rejecting them can often lead to failure. Therefore, adopting them will make you a better photographer.
Street photography is a challenging genre that requires confidence, solid technique, and fast instincts. If you are new to street work and looking to improve, check out this helpful video tutorial that features an experienced street photographer discussing five important lessons he has learned after a decade of work.
It's a mystery how this little one-inch wonder remained unknown to me for so long. I finally discovered it when — bemoaning my fate to spend over two thousand on a Canon tilt-shift macro — a colleague suggested trying an extension tube.
Have you ever seen images and wondered how they create an editorial look that you just can't seem to recreate? It's clean, it's crisp, it may be edgy or sleek... you can't quite put your finger on it, but whatever "it" is, you want it for your work. Here are a few tips, from composition to post-production, that will upgrade your images and give you a more professional look.
Walking photography should be a genre of its own; it is the most popular form. There are simple things you can do that will ensure you come home from your walk with better photos than before. This is the first of two articles looking at ways to improve those images.
There are many different techniques for getting consistently sharp images, but I think this one is the best of them all. Take a look to find out why.
Photoshop is a tremendously complex and intricate application, and as such, there are some useful features that are easy to overlook simply by virtue of the overarching complexity. This awesome video tutorial will show you five such hidden gems in the program, where to find them, and how to put them to use for better and more efficient photo edits.
Controlling light is one of the most difficult challenges a photographer must master. Even if you have years of experience under your belt, it can still be difficult to decide which light modifier to use with your strobes or if you should even be using strobes at all. In this video and article, I'm going to share with you five of my favorite light modifiers and how they can produce drastically different results.
If you are lucky, you will meet some fantastic photographers. It's a real privilege working with them, isn't it? There are common factors most good photographers have. But, above anything else, they all have one thing in common.
Bright, harsh sunlight sitting far overhead is the bane of many portrait photographers' existences, but it is not impossible to create compelling portraits with flattering light in such conditions. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to take bright sunlight and harness it for worthwhile images.
Miguel Quiles is one of my favorite photographers for studio portraits because of his command of light and the effortless ways he interacts with his models to get beautiful and powerful portraits. In this video, he walks through some simple and inexpensive tips on creating great off-camera flash portraits.
There is a ton of advice on what gear to buy and what gear not to buy as a photographer. It is written from a billion different standpoints, each one with a slightly different take. I didn’t feel any of those articles resonated with me, so here is one that I hope will resonate with you regardless of the genre or niche you’re going for.
Having really expensive gear can make you a versatile photographer with an advantage over your peers. In my opinion, knowing how to use gear creatively is a much more critical skill.
It sounds counterintuitive, but there is a lot of truth to it: the better you get at photography, the harder it gets. Why is that? This excellent video discusses this seeming paradox and how you can avoid falling into a rut because of it.
There's a big mistake some photographers repeat time and again. It can cause more damage to their professional or amateur career than an out-of-focus photograph.
Landscape photography is a challenging genre that requires strong technique, the ability to forecast and adapt to conditions, creative vision, and a lot more. If you would like to improve your landscape images, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced photographer discussing eight tips that will help you create better, more compelling shots.
When I travel, I stay in each location I visit for several days to increase my chances of encountering great light. But even a week is sometimes not enough to get a single colorful sunrise or sunset. Either the sky remains free of clouds or it's completely overcast, preventing any interesting light from breaking through. Night photography is one way of dealing with a clear sky. But what can you do during gray weather?
Imagine a world where words can create images. Now imagine what that would do for the art world and photography. Well, it's here and it's not going to go away.
There are two new Canon APS-C mirrorless cameras available. There is the EOS R10, a relatively simple camera, and there is the EOS R7, a camera that promises a lot of things and also delivers a lot. Canon Netherlands gave me this camera for a week when I went on a holiday. These are my findings.
Natural light portraiture is a great way to stay versatile and able to move through a variety of locations and poses quickly without having to deal with the logistics and interruption to your creative workflow presented by lugging around a bunch of lights and modifiers. However, because you can’t control the light, you need to consider your compositions a bit differently. This excellent video tutorial will show you a four-step process for creating better natural light portrait compositions.
Shooting portraits on location is a fantastic way to add some drama to your shots or to use the surrounding environment to complement your subject and to tell a story. If you would like to improve your lighting and portraiture, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you how one photographer lit, posed, and shot a series of pin-up portraits using four different lighting setups.
Spectacular light and a unique subject alone don't make a great photo. A good composition that ties the two together is also required. In this article, I give you six tips on improving your photo compositions and dealing with different light and subject matter.
I had the fortune to sit down recently with London-based photographer Ivan Weiss, whom I consider one of the great portrait artists of our time. Weiss’ unique body of work has been featured by Canon UK, Affinity Photo, Vogue, BBC, and Forbes, among others, and he also leads the Portrait Track in Peter Hurley’s Headshot Crew, where he mentors other photographers. Our conversation focused on the illusion of originality in art, mentorship, and why you need to “stay on the bus” in order to reach your full potential.
This Lightroom slider is not hidden in the sense that there is some special secret to finding it, but it is in a place where you probably would not think to look for it. This great video tutorial will show you how to take advantage of it to make your photos pop quickly and easily.
Lightroom has become quite an impressively capable editing program, able to tackle many advanced post-processing tasks that used to be reserved exclusively for Photoshop. As such, it can easy to overlook some of its tools. This excellent video tutorial will show you a lesser-known tool, what it does, and how to use it to create more precise edits.
Content-Aware fill is one of the most useful innovations in the history of Photoshop, allowing you to convincingly replace a wide variety of things in an image quickly and easily without having to do a lot of manual cloning and blending. It is not perfect, though, but with a bit of know-how, you can get a lot more from it. This helpful video tutorial will show you everything you need to know about the Content-Aware tool and how to customize it to your needs.
Knowing how to balance flash and ambient light is one of the most crucial skills a portrait photographer can have, as it will give you the ability to shoot in just about any environment with full creative and technical control. If you are newer to working with artificial lighting and want to learn this skill, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you how to balance flash and ambient light for better images.
When I was new to studio portrait photography, for some reason, I found the beauty dish to be one of the more intimidating modifiers to master. Perhaps it had to do with the unique shape and setup, but for whatever reason, I avoided trying one out for a long time. In reality, using a beauty dish is not as challenging as it may seem, and in this article, I will detail three basic ways to use one as well as provide sample images.
Most newer photographers will begin their editing journey in Lightroom rather than Photoshop, and even as you become more advanced, you will notice that you can still do a lot or even most of your editing in the former, only needing to resort to the latter for truly complex post-processing tasks. If you are a beginner and looking to understand how the various editing functions in Lightroom work, check out this great video tutorial that will have you up and running in no time at all.
Are you not into abstract photography? It’s one of those things you’ll either love or hate. But it's important, and there is much more to it than you might know.
As photographers, we often are bogged down in what gear to buy, what lens to choose, what has better specs, and so on. To everyone's satisfaction or disappointment, these things will only make a marginal difference in most cases. As a photographer, you need to have more skills than gear. I am here to tell you the five most important ones.
Those who wish to practice their off-camera flash technique or simply, wish to create a successful concept shoot to boost their portfolio, should strongly consider practicing the arrangement with themselves as the subject.
