Most of you may have heard of hidden files on your computer, but do you know about "super-hidden" files? These specially hidden files are well worth taking a look at, as they have the potential to cause your machine serious problems.
If you are new to street photography, it can be quite the intimidating genre, but with a little practice, it can quickly develop your photographic eye and improve your work in many other genres as well. If you are interested in street photography but wondering how to get started, check out this helpful video tutorial that features seven tips sure to set beginners on the right path.
Spring is just about upon many of us, and it brings with it a wide range of exciting new photo opportunities and chances to explore your creativity and expand your portfolio. If you want to make sure you get the most out of the next few weeks, check out this fantastic video tutorial that discusses 13 ideas and tips to improve your springtime landscape photos and expand your creative output.
These are six of the most common mistakes I see photographers make in their editing regardless of skill level. This part will cover white balance, getting caught up in your histogram, and not spending enough time cropping.
When it comes to portrait photography, most professionals employ a range of lighting equipment to dial in the exact images they are looking for no matter where they are or when they are shooting. That being said, you will be amazed what you can accomplish with natural light and the knowledge of how to shape it to your needs. This great video tutorial will show you how to create professional portraits in a garage using just natural light and a few modifiers.
One of the great benefits of using modern digital cameras is the high degree of customization options available. Menus, button configuration, touchscreens, and more can be customized for specific scenarios. In addition to programmable buttons and menus, all modern cameras include a feature called Custom Shooting Modes, which allow the user to save and recall personalized user profiles. In this article and video, I explain CSMs and how using them can greatly improve your photography and user experience.
Perhaps no Photoshop feature is more fundamental to taking full advantage of the application than layers. Without them, there would be no way to edit an image without destructively altering the original, nor would it be possible to go back to adjust edits after you initially create them. This excellent video tutorial will show you seven lesser-known tips for working with layers to help you take your edits in Photoshop even further.
The histogram is one of the most useful tools available to any photographer, no matter the genre in which they shoot. You can do a lot more with it than simply reading the tonal content of your images, though. This excellent video tutorial will show you three lesser-known aspects of the histogram and how to use them in Lightroom or Camera Raw to get more out of your image edits.
Modern cameras and lenses are so good that they can handle just about anything you can throw at them, and while it is wonderful to have such powerful capabilities at your fingertips, it can also be a bit paralyzing in a way. If you are in a creative rut and unsure of how to get out of it, check out this fantastic video that will show you how adding constraints to your photography can actually jumpstart it.
Based in Zurich, Maya and Daniele used three separate lights to create white light. It’s not an easy thing to do, and this is a great example.
There are certain rights of passage in photography that we all should try at some juncture of our time with a camera. They act as both important learning tools but plainly, they're good fun to do. In this video, Pye Jirsa walks you through how he created a great-looking portrait using a smoke bomb.
Innovators and philosophers like Elon Musk and Sam Harris have been theorizing what our world will look like once artificial intelligence completely takes over our everyday lives. We aren't quite there, but if you've ever dreamed of a day when all your skin retouching might be completed using AI and neural networks, well, the future is a lot closer than you might think.
You don't need a ton of equipment to create a number of looks in a single shoot. In this video, John Gress discusses which background you should go for if you're looking for maximum versatility, showcasing five different looks.
Headshot photography is one of the fastest-growing segments in the industry and for good reason. With more people working from home and using technology to collaborate, our online personas have become more important than ever. Many people have started new careers and businesses due to the pandemic and need to update their branding images. This creates an excellent opportunity for aspiring headshot photographers, and in this article, I give you five tips that will radically improve your game.
A wide angle lens is one of the most useful tools a photographer can have in their bag, but they can be deceptively difficult to create compelling images with. If you struggle with your wide angle lens and want to improve your photos, check out this great video tutorial that will give you some helpful tips to send you on your way.
Landscape photography is a challenging genre, and the tool of choice is often a wide angle lens. Wide angle lenses can be particularly tricky to work with, however. This excellent video tutorial will show you a common mistake landscape photographers make with wide angle lenses and how to correct it and improve your images.
There are a ton of beautiful tourist spots out there begging to be photographed, but the problem is that unless you are extremely lucky, you will likely have to deal with people in the shot. You could take a bunch of photographs as people move around and then painstakingly mask in different parts of the image, or you could try this neat method that lets Photoshop take care of it automatically in just a few seconds, as this helpful video tutorial shows.
Amid a busy week, I figured I’d share a few brief thoughts on why it’s important to keep moving forward and why it’s just as important to sometimes remain still long enough to see where you stand.
If you want to shoot for brands and land large commercial projects, you have to know how to pitch to brands in a way that matches their expectations while still helping your own work stand apart from the other portfolios they have seen. If that is something you are new to or if you want to improve your chances, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will walk you through the entire process step by step to get you up and running in no time.
Some genres of photography allow you to produce a large number of images in a given span of time, while others tend to be more methodical and require a fair amount of patience. Landscape photography tends to fall into the latter camp, but that does not mean there are not things you can do to make yourself more productive on location. This helpful video will detail seven ways you can make yourself a bit more efficient and productive the next time you head out.
Trying to capture a perfectly balanced shot during blue hour has its challenges. These three tips will have you capturing more successful images for your portfolio.
Have you ever seen those bold modern ads that just force you to stop and look? One got me this week. I was driving, and a billboard had a colossal burger, most likely shot with the 16-35mm lens, and a bold, canary yellow background with that primary McDonalds red. "I need that burger! Wait... I'm a gluten-free vegan!" I tipped my hat to the photographer and kept driving.
When you are first starting, landscape photography can seem daunting, especially when you see all of the beautiful images others post online. Here are a few ideas taken from my experience that may help you find more success as a landscape photographer.
They can change the ordinary to the extraordinary. However, there is a lot more to creating low- and high-key photographs than just under- and over-exposing. Discovering how they work can dramatically improve our photography. It's also the reason why cameras should have one specific feature.
Many aspiring landscape photographers hit a roadblock when it comes to long exposure and filters. They may seem confusing and too technical, but the following tips should clear the path for you.
The tree is a timeless and deceptively simple subject, capable of being rendered in numerous ways, each compelling and interesting in its own way. And so, with all those different ways, how do you pick? This interesting video discusses the topic and shows some options.
Hop on Instagram and look at landscape photography, and you will often be greeted by a veritable plethora of eye-catching images awash with vibrant colors. And there is certainly nothing wrong with that, but black and white images can be equally compelling. So, why make black and white landscape images? How do they differ in their impact? This great video explores the topic.
A lot of truths about photography are hard to hear when you're looking at making a career out of it, but they are necessary if you want to go into the profession with a complete understanding of what's to come.
Frank Döring is an architectural photographer based in Kentucky, USA by way of Frankfurt, Germany. He also focuses on personal documentary projects with a focus on the Anthropocene.
When you think of landscape photos, you likely think of vibrant, eye-catching colors. And while that is a popular look for sure, a black and white image can be uniquely powerful. Lightroom contains some surprisingly versatile tools for creating black and white edits, and this helpful video tutorial will show you some great tips for getting the most out of those features.
You got up early in the morning, you hiked up a steep mountain to photograph a sunrise vista, you are exhausted, and then, you can’t see anything, as there is just tight fog instead of a vista. Is there a way to succeed if there were some more and even bigger problems?
After my initial thoughts article, I have now spent the past month shooting with the new Nikon Z 9 pretty much every day. A month may not be enough for a long-term review, but I’ve already found myself in an incredibly diverse set of situations, and while some question the existence of love at first sight, I must say this camera has been something special right out of the box.
Spend any amount of time looking up photography on the internet, and you will be bombarded from every direction by claims of how you can improve your work, a lot of them centered around gear. Really, though, if you want to improve, it comes down to how you approach your photos, and this insightful video discusses what you really need to make better images.
When you are first starting with photography and developing your skills, it can be hard to know when and if to start pursuing selling your work as art prints. Is this the year you give it a try?
If you're a beginner to photography or are looking to add some theory to improve your work, this video might be perfect for you. While brief, it gives you a great overview of the important basics of composition.
When it comes to landscape photography, the lens of choice is almost always some sort of wide angle, whether a 16-35mm, 24mm, or something similar. And while such lenses are absolutely effective in the genre, there is a common mistake landscape photographers make with them, and this helpful video details both what it is and how to correct it.
Have you ever had a great background you want to use for an image but it just isn't big enough? With this combination of techniques, both in-camera and in post-production, you can make it seem as if it was big enough.
Modern digital cameras are remarkably complex machines, and there are a lot of parameters and settings you can adjust that will improve both the quality of your images and your ability to get the shot you want. This helpful video tutorial will show you seven camera settings (some well known and some not as obvious) you should consider changing to improve your photography experience.
If you want to be a successful photographer, it takes a lot more than being good with a camera and having creative ideas. All the most successful photographers are there because they understand how to run a proper business. If you are ready to revamp your approach in 2022, this awesome video will show you eight tools that will make you more efficient and productive and give you a better chance of finding success.
Should you think more about having a coherent and distinctive style to your photography? If you want to raise your game, then finding your own look is imperative. There's one surefire way of developing that. However, some big obstacles will try to trip you up along the way.
If you're interested in printing your photography, why not double down on creativity and turn those images into mixed media art. In this video, Irene Rudnyk walks you through how she created some stunning works by combining physical artistic techniques with prints of digital images.
Just like everything in life, Photoshop techniques change or require slight adjustments. What may have been perfect two years ago might not necessarily be perfect now. And so it is with changing colors of objects in Photoshop. Here is the latest on how to do it effortlessly.
A street photographer’s task is to observe the mundane human interactions that take place throughout the day and turn them into something worthy of being preserved and shared through photography. This is not an easy task.
If you love photography, there’s no doubt that you want to know the best ways to improve your photography. There are countless blogs and articles on this subject alone; what I’m going to do is drop five ideas that might help you become better at photography.
Edward Weston began his career making soft, almost out-of-focus images that emphasized patterns and light. After a trip to Mexico in the 1920s, he decided that photography was really about details and realistic depictions of the world. He made a complete turnaround in his work and began making work that was simple and focused on tones and textures. He got so into "straight" photography that he didn’t even believe in cropping his images.
Bird photography can be gear-intensive when your small subjects are a long way away. But, what would it be like if you had unparalleled reach? Would it be useful or restricting?
When it comes to editing portraits, few things can derail an image more quickly than unnatural skin tones. If you use Lightroom and want to get the skin tones in your portraits just right, check out this great video tutorial that will show you everything you need to know along with a lot of helpful examples.
Writing can be a powerful tool, even in regards to your photography. Self-critique in the form of written content is a great way to reflect and grow, helping to improve your images.
You might think of Photoshop as the place to do deep color grading work, and that used to be the case, but Lightroom recently added new color grading tools that can also make powerful edits and are arguably more intuitive than those in Photoshop. This great video tutorial will show you how to use them to color grade your photos quickly and easily.
What is the best way to power all your devices on the go? Here’s a quick look at just a handful of the devices that keep my gear energized when I’m on the road.
