Photoshop is a very complex tool full of a wide variety of powerful features, but perhaps no feature is more crucial to editing images than layers. If you are new to Photoshop, this great video tutorial will show you how layers work in just a few minutes.
Working in Lightroom and Photoshop (or your post-processing programs of choice) takes the confluence of a wide range of knowledge and technique along with a good creative eye, and it can be a bit tricky to bring them together all at once, even for seasoned photographers. This excellent video discusses three common mistakes beginners make when they are learning about post-processing their photos and how to fix them.
The world likes looking at beautiful photographs of beautiful people and photographers are constantly receiving validation for producing them. However, when does it stop being about photography and start being about a preoccupation with female flesh?
Choosing the optimal focal length is usually not that big of a problem for landscape photographers. Choosing what lenses to bring when you do not know what you need can be a problem.
You can have all the technical proficiency and creative vision in the world, but if you are not good with your finances, you will have a lot of trouble building a successful photography or videography business. This excellent video discusses some common financial mistakes that creatives make and how to remedy them.
Skin retouching is a skill and there are various ways to go about it, with some requiring more time and effort to give more refined results. Here are five techniques broken down, using both Lightroom and Photoshop.
Landscape photography is the art of seizing the beauty of the outdoors through images. Landscape photographers aim to make their viewers feel as if they’re walking into a scene without having to get out of a sheltered building. But what is composition, and how is it helpful in landscape photography?
Changing a subject's face or expression from one image to the next isn't as difficult as beginners think it will be. Here's a quick tutorial on exactly how you do it.
Excellent sharpness is one of the top requirements for a successful landscape image, and there are steps you can take all throughout the process of shooting to help ensure that your image is pin-sharp. This excellent video gives a great seven-stop process to help you get those sharp photos.
Whether you're just starting out on your journey with a camera, or one has been by your side for decades, improving your long exposure images will always be welcome.
The five pillars of cinematic exposure are not all created equally, neither are they equally weighted. Here is how you use each, which should be avoided when altering exposure, and how many people get it wrong.
Photoshop's core adjustment layers are diverse and powerful, but are you using them to their full potential? I'm going to bet that you're not; check out this video to find out why.
Food and product photography is an ever-growing niche, and with this comes trends in the pitfalls and mistakes that we all make when photographing food. In this video, I cover the most common things that trip us up.
There's a huge variety of photography competitions, from your local camera club, to huge global awards and some big prizes if you win. So, how do you win a photography competition, and is there a special formula you can use to reap the rewards?
Bella Kotak is an international fine art, fashion, and portrait photographer whose magical aesthetic has gained her fans all across the globe and garnered her features in industry magazines like Rangefinder and PhotoPlus, but her photography career didn’t start in the happiest place.
The day has finally come when photographers can sync their powerful off-camera flashes with their Apple iPhone using Profoto's new AirX syncing system. Being the skeptic I am, I had to see for myself if using 500 Ws of powerful strobe light with your cell phone was simply a gimmick or potentially an industry game-changer. Today, I'm left swallowing my pride.
In today’s article, I thought it might be helpful to those just getting into the business to take you through my real-time thought process when bidding on commercial assignments, from the initial query email to whether or not I take a job. Over the years, I’ve made a lot of good decisions and a lot of bad decisions, and hopefully, you can learn from my journey.
Lightroom is the program of choice for tons of photographers for cataloging and editing their photos, and it is a multidimensional application with a lot of different features and capabilities. If you are new to using Lightroom, this excellent video will show you the ins and outs of the important aspects of the application and have you up and running in no time.
The wide-angle lens is very well known to be “the” landscape photography lens. That being said, it can be a little hard to figure out how to use it in the beginning. Here are five tips.
It’s a question that everyone who picks up a camera asks at some point. But how do you know if a career in photography is right for you?
It's one thing to meticulously look after our photography gear, but if we don't take care of our bodies, there's only so much we'll be able to do in the future if we can't get up from our chair or lift our camera. Take a look at this video which explains how to make your photography more enjoyable and safe for as long as possible.
Color is one of the most important things to photographers, but surprisingly, we often do not do everything we can and should do to ensure our colors are accurate and consistent. Datacolor's SpyderX Photo Kit makes it easier than ever to make sure your colors are spot on from the moment you press the shutter to the final export, and Datacolor is offering it for 50% off. Let's look at how it can help you.
Learning how to properly and convincingly blend exposures will enable you to have much more versatility in your process, particularly when you are dealing with scenes with a high amount of dynamic range. This great video will show you how to use Lightroom for exposure blending and how to ensure your edits are smooth and convincing.
Earlier this year, a photographer and model launched a lawsuit against Volvo, citing copyright infringement, after the car manufacturer used images the pair had taken without permission. Volvo is trying to win the case by claiming all public Instagram posts are fair game and can be taken and used freely.
Two recent photographic projects focusing on sex workers stand in stark contrast to one another. One exploits them as a commodity, the other seeks to give them a voice. Why does the art world seem to value one so much more than the other?
How far should you actually go in post-processing a landscape photograph?
Learn how to photograph the Milky Way galaxy by choosing the correct equipment, using the right camera settings, and planning ahead with precision to avoid disappointment. You can also use these tips to photograph other astrophotography shots such as meteor showers.
Landscape photography has a lot of potential pitfalls to it, and it takes the confluence of a variety of techniques and creative ideas to make a successful image. This great video details seven common mistakes landscape photographers commonly make and how you can avoid and/or fix them.
The eyes in a portrait often make or break the whole image, so when you're retouching them, it's worth going the extra mile. Here are some advanced techniques for making sure the eyes in your images pop.
Yesterday, we talked about five common mistakes beginner photographers make. Now, let's talk about five common mistakes professional photographers make.
We are all unique people, but there are some mistakes that almost every new photographer makes at some point. Here are five common mistakes to watch out for in your own work.
An email I received this week stopped me in my tracks. For two things so important to me — mental health and photography — I don't do enough to discuss it. So, I'm going to change that.
We spend a lot of time discussing camera gear and the like, but given the amount of time we spend at our computers for our work, it is also worth talking about ways to make our lives easier in our office, whether that is at home or in a dedicated studio. Here are six things that make my office life easier and more enjoyable.
I worked hard when I first started in photography to become competent both behind the camera and when interfacing with clients, but a subtle error I was making worked against me for a long time until I realized how to fix it. Here is why learning how to think more like a client can improve your work.
The Detail panel in Lightroom often does not get as much attention as it should, with many photographers opting to leave it at its default settings. However, it can make an appreciable difference in your final images, and this great video tutorial will show you everything you need to know for using to sharpen your photos.
In this video, I talk about my rejection rate for jobs and my ethos on pricing and price matching. I also go over a real-life quote that I sent off and got rejected for and give a breakdown as to why this happened.
The bane of many photographers' existence over the last couple of decades has been endless hours spent creating complex masks in Photoshop using the Pen tool. Unmesh Dinda of PiXimperfect shows you how much faster your workflow can be with the Select Subject tool, which was recently updated in the latest version of Photoshop.
Just about every photographer experiences those moments where they decide their photograph would be better suited monochromatic. How and when to convert it can make a critical difference.
There are loads of articles and videos about how to grow your Instagram following, but that doesn't directly correlate to getting more work. In this video, I go over how I use Instagram to get booked for ad campaigns.
Commercial photography is notoriously hard to get into. In this video, I go over my complete workflow for shooting commercially viable portfolios from inception, through the shooting process, and into post-production.
Over the last few years, we've increasingly and very publicly questioned our behaviors, our politics, our history, our heroes, our statues, and our art. It's only reasonable that we question our photography idols. Where do Helmut Newton's hyper-erotic photography and his ruminations on power fit into our new world?
Creating imagery that’s “brandable” is part of many working photographer's bag of skills but still takes some know how with lighting, posing, and while creating a human connection to excel at a high level with consistent results. Let’s dive into how we can make our commercial and branding imagery simply while also growing our network and earning new clients in the process.
Hard drives fail, computer programs get corrupted, and companies have data losses from time to time. If you rely on Adobe to keep all your files and settings safe, then you may be in for a shock if things go majorly wrong. Make sure you have the following four items manually backed up while you still can.
No matter whether you’re using an older crop sensor DSLR, a newer full frame mirrorless, or a vintage film camera, you can most likely get a ton of resolution out of your photographs with this one trick.
There definitely is not a single road to success but coming from the 40-year experience of this veteran advertising photographer, there are definitely things you should keep in mind for a successful career.
When you are shooting portraits, you are probably focusing the majority of your attention on posing, and it can be easy to fall into somewhat plain compositions. This great video will give you seven quick tips along with lots of examples that will improve your compositions and reinvigorate your portraits.
I'm tired of Instagram, and I'm guessing you walk a similar path. The platform that was built on photography and promoting good imagery is exhausting for photographers. While I'm not certain what the end-game of Instagram is, it seems user experience for the creators is not at the top of the list. That's why I created a method that heightens my own user experience, and I'm sharing it with you.
Being good with a camera is just one of many skills you need to successfully earn money as a photographer. This excellent video explores the skill every financially successful photographer has and why it is such a crucial thing.
I'm always on the hunt for new equipment that could make my life a little easier and my workflow smoother. Find out the next best purchase you can make for your studio today.
Landscape photographers commonly prefer to get as much of the frame in focus as possible for maximum sharpness. Focus stacking is a common and useful technique for accomplishing this, and this excellent video will show you how to do it using Photoshop.
