Be honest. When was the last time you saw someone's followers count on Instagram and got jealous? Or maybe you felt they didn't deserve that nice camera because their work was subpar in your eyes. Jealousy is a poisonous and yet far too common emotion among creatives, and this great video essay gets really honest about why we feel it and how to handle it.

If you frequent this site, there's a pretty good chance you love photography. But how much do you actually know about its origins? Most of us rightfully jump to the camera obscura when thinking about the beginnings of photography, but how did we get from there to today's modern cameras? Have you ever wondered what the first photo ever taken was of? Or what the world's first color photo was of?

One of the most overlooked yet crucial aspects of becoming a successful headshot and portrait photographer is the photographer’s personality. In fact, I would argue that your personality as a photographer can be the determining factor in success when working with clients.

Most of the time, when it comes to photography or video of cars, beauty products, cosmetics, and even shoes, it’s made on a computer and not by a photographer. There are several reasons for this, but in this video, Karl Taylor, a renowned product photographer and educator, discusses photography versus 3D CGI and the advantages of each.

Last week, we addressed the concept of mastery in photography. Now that we've touched on the basics of photography history and education, let's dive deeper into more tangible elements of this subject.

Panoramic photos can be stunning to look at, but they can also take a fair bit of technical expertise and preparation to get right. If you are out and about, it may be cumbersome and annoying to set up a tripod and go through the process. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to instead shoot panoramic photos handheld.

Photographers often hit walls when controlling off-camera lighting on shoots. While TTL flash offers some automation, real mastery means moving to manual settings for predictable, quality results. The excellent video tutorial will put you on the right track.

Composition is more than following rigid rules or ticking boxes on a checklist. Understanding composition means expanding your toolkit, so you can intuitively capture striking images in any scenario.

Waterdrop photography can be a great way both to practice your technical skills and to experiment with your creativity, plus it is just a ton of fun. This great video will show you how you can set up your own miniature splash studio at home using just your normal gear and a couple of items you likely already have laying around the house.

We are often used to very lush, intricate, and multi-layered landscape photos with rich, vibrant colors. There is certainly nothing wrong with that, but it is not the only way to create an image. At the other end of the spectrum is minimalist photography, and it comes with its own unique challenges. This excellent video tutorial will give you a wide variety of helpful tips to improve your minimalist photography and give you some ideas to try yourself.

Does photography have the power to radically change and improve lives? Brooke Shaden, one of the most successful contemporary fine art photographers around today thinks so. Brooke has a single-minded goal to help others through photography - and she’s only got 23 days left to do make her plan a reality.

Photography tends to attract a lot of fairly critical people, and it can be a bit much to take sometimes. Before you get too down about it all, it is important to remember that you simply can't please everyone with your work.

There is a lot of noise in photography, and I am not talking about the sort that appears in your images at higher ISOs. Rather, there are a lot of things in the industry that simply do not matter when it comes to making images, running a business, or simply enjoying the experience and thrill of taking a photograph and seeing it come to life before your eyes. This great video discusses some of the things we should worry about a bit less in photography and reminds us of what really matters.

There is no doubt that digital is by far the choice of the majority of professionals nowadays, but there is still a contingent of photographers who are avidly devoted to shooting film, either exclusively or in tandem with digital. This interesting video takes a look at using both simultaneously and why that can benefit you as a photographer.

The daguerrotype was one of the earliest means of capturing images onto a surface and was the first photographic process available to the public. Using a piece of silver-coated copper and a 35mm film camera, this videos shows you how to make your own.

If we find somebody to be a genius, we tend to put them on a pedestal. We worship them in their own little Pantheon and are always trying to find out what makes them special. Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, James Nachtwey, and countless others are adored and followed by many. But what makes a genius?

When it comes to landscape photography, a wide angle lens is most often the tool chosen for a given scene, simply because most scenes have a lot to take in. However, wide angle lenses come with their own unique challenges and pitfalls. This great video tutorial will show you five helpful tips for improving your landscape images when working with a wide angle lens.

Wildlife photographers do not get their choice of conditions and often have to work with rather difficult backgrounds and exposure settings. This great video will show you how you can use Photoshop to reduce noise and create more pleasing wildlife images.

Image editing isn't just about adjusting contrast and saturation. The true power of photo editing lies in understanding how to work with layers in your composition. When you approach your landscape photos as distinct zones that need individual attention, you can transform ordinary scenes into extraordinary images.

This video is the second part (of three) of Smarter Everyday's in-depth tour of Kodak's film production line in Rochester, New York. In the first video, we saw how the base of the film is made out of pellets, as they're melted down and formed into uniform, thin, clear sheets.

Every photographer starting out with artificial light should work exclusively with a single strobe until they are comfortable with the basics of lighting, but once you feel like you are ready to move on to more advanced setups, the first step, of course, is to add a second light, which opens up a wide range of creative possibilities. This fantastic video tutorial will show you three different ways to use that second light for portrait work to expand your creative palette.

Most photographers enjoy playing with new gear; after all, a lot of us are gadget nerds, and modern cameras can be rather nifty little technological boxes. Before you get ready to drop a bunch of money on a brand new camera, though, be sure to ask yourself these questions to make sure you're making the right decision.

Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of the greatest photographers of all time. What is it that gave him his style, and how would you go about recreating it? This video tries to find out.

Editing portraits is about more than adjusting sliders—it's understanding how subtle choices shape your final image. Getting comfortable with Lightroom can make your portraits look more intentional and polished.

As creatives, many times it is hard to place focus on organization rather than creating images. Without organization your life can become chaotic and disruptive to your workflow. A few tips to help take back your space and your sanity could mean the difference between booking or losing your next client.

Creating selections and masks in Photoshop is a crucial part of any advanced editing workflow. Learn all there is to know about it with this video by Stefan Kohler.

The beauty of landscape photography is how much simply manipulating the exposure triangle can alter your image in different creative ways. If you are ready to take full control of your images, this great video will show you everything you need to know about mastering manual mode for landscape photography.

While you can absolutely create compelling portrait photos using just a single light, moving into using multi-light setups opens a lot of creative and technical options that simply would not be possible otherwise. One of the most useful of these is the hair light, and this great video tutorial will show you how to place one properly to get the best results.

Photography is a profession that can send you in a lot of unique directions depending on your interests. Perhaps one of the most unique of those directions is being a police photographer. This neat video takes you behind the scenes on the job.

The debate over “straight out of camera” photos often stirs strong opinions, but how much control do you really have before the shutter clicks? This video explains why the phrase might not mean what you think and digs into the reality of digital image processing.