Combining flash with ambient light is an art. Achieving this balance is key to capturing sharp, vibrant photos in various settings.

I don't rate my photos nearly as much as I should. And part of it has been because I've been too lazy to look this exact tip up! Thankfully, Adobe has provided us with one of their now famous under-a-minute Lightroom Coffee Break videos to quickly explain how to auto-advance as you rate your photos. This trick also works for auto-advancing while flagging photos. The key to the trick? Caps lock.

There are few (if any) photographers with a resume like Pete Souza's. Hear from the man himself in this awesome interview.

Understanding and utilizing light effectively is crucial for photographers of all levels. Whether you're capturing a landscape or a portrait, the quality and direction of light can make or break your image. But what happens when natural light isn't cooperating?

I'm going to let you in on a little secret, one that lots of people know, but for some reason, not that many people talk about. You're allowed to take bad photos; it's alright, and your world won't come crashing down.

Have you ever considered how significantly confidence can affect your photography? Creative people are often a largely unconfident group. At any given time we might be dealing with the fear of missing an important moment, anxiously thinking about an upcoming session, running the worst possible scenarios through our minds, or delivering our photos to a client and dreading that email that says how much they hate them. We are still in the process of improving, constantly comparing our work to others, and because of the number of negative thoughts we have, we often feel like frauds.

Visual and special effects have a long history; they've been around since the dawn of filmmaking. Here are some great examples from silent films where the techniques used behind the scenes are still relevant today.

A good medium telephoto macro lens is one of the most versatile a photographer can have, useful not just for macro shots, but for sharp portraits, wedding ring shots, and much more. For Nikon mirrorless shooters, there is the NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S Macro, and this excellent video review takes a look at the kind of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

This is by no means a new topic, but a recent poster in the Fstoppers Wedding Photography group lamented that they felt they were stuck in a creative rut, and it got me thinking about the problem of trying to be experimental within an industry. Chances are if you’re shooting for a client, they have a preconceived idea of what you're going to provide, even if that’s just a ballpark “these kinds of colors, this kind of emotion.” If you rocked up to a wedding with the awesome idea of only shooting macros of toes, you’re going to have a hard sell when it comes time to deliver the finished product; they’d need to be really good foot shots.

Long exposure photography transforms everyday scenes into something surreal. But pulling off the perfect long exposure shot isn’t as simple as setting a long shutter speed. Conditions, composition, and even patience play a huge role in making it work.

Creating great images doesn't always require complex setups. Sometimes, all you need is a single strobe and a bit of creativity.

As photographers, we spend a lot of time trying to get the perfect exposure and discussing and learning a variety of techniques to do so. But what is a "correct" exposure anyway? Maybe it does not exist at all.

Are you stuck in your old ways with Adobe Photoshop? Me too. However, the newly updated Content-Aware Fill tool may be enough to break habits of slow clone stamp methods.

When you go out taking pictures, you grab your camera or camera bag, you might set up a tripod, and start shooting. Often, that goes without any problems, but not always. Imagine what happens when your equipment takes an unexpected fall because something fails.

Most people do not understand lighting, frequency separation, or color grading. Here are some things to consider to make your next image even more engaging.

One of the challenges wedding photographers encounter is how to structure pricing for their services. One common mistake is to include a free engagement session in all wedding packages. There are a few reasons why you should offer engagement sessions only as an add-on to wedding packages.

After many years of experience, one will often look back with learned wisdom on things they would have done differently from the beginning to get where they are today faster. In this video, we hear from an experienced landscape photographer about things they wish they had known.

Though Instagram has changed quite a lot in the last few years (and not particularly for the better), it still remains an important place for displaying your work and attracting potential clients. This excellent video discusses how to rethink how you use the app and approach it in a way that will generate growth in the coming year.

We all have to start somewhere. Taking on that first job can be very intimidating, so here are some tips to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible.

Choosing an interesting composition might be the most underrated of all photography techniques. Here is a tutorial on why changing how you frame your subject can make or break your image.

During our free time, we often tend to hunt for the big shots and the most impressive images. To become better photographers, we also need to develop our view for the little stories on our path.

Embracing a documentary approach to photography can significantly alter a photographer's perspective and output. This methodology, which shifts the focus from aggressively pursuing unique and creative shots to simply capturing the moment as it unfolds, offers a fresh lens through which to view the art form. It's a reminder that sometimes, the most profound images are born from the simplest moments.

Blurry travel photos are painful, especially when you’ve traveled far for rare moments. Knowing why your shots aren't sharp—and how to fix them—can make all the difference.

How serious are you about making this crazy photography game full time? It is an amazing feeling to get to create every day, but are you forgetting to do the other eighty percent of what is needed to survive?

Photoshop might seem tricky for starters, but once you understand the basics, you can take your editing skills from zero to hero.

While simply photographing whatever you would like whenever the inspiration strikes is a perfectly fine way to enjoy the craft, one of the best ways to improve is to undertake a structured project that progressively grows in difficulty. This six-week challenge is one such project, and it is the perfect way to close out the year.

Rolling shutter is a common issue with many cameras that you have likely encountered at some point, but there is another technology that circumvents all those issues: the global shutter. This great video discusses what a global shutter is and why it is such a desirable thing.

When an image has a distinct texture or pattern, cleaning up blemishes or the like can be a bit trickier, as you need to replicate the texture and/or pattern accurately in order to create a convincing replacement. One such example is pristine sand that has been walked upon, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how to make it perfect again using Photoshop.

We’re living in a visual society. Every day, we see new ways of visual advertising. Some of the messages presented without the use of words can be very powerful, as if there's some subliminal code that makes us think. As photographers, we are used to delivering messages by solely providing the image. Or are we? This series is the go-to resource for compelling visual storytelling in landscape photography and closes this week with advanced communication techniques that help create spectacular images. Join me now as we dive into the deep end, far beyond compositional elements like lines and color and learn that secret code by heart.

Storing and transferring data from a shoot is an important, yet often overlooked detail when it comes to on-location projects. When juggling multiple cameras, each with multiple cards, it becomes critically imperative to be 100 percent sure that all of your photos and videos are accounted for. In this video, Jay P. Morgan shares his workflow for wrangling data and making backups.