One of the most fundamentals features in Photoshop is the Pen Tool. It's a bit less intuitive than some other features, however, and it often presents some difficulty for first-time users. This video will get you up and running with it in 30 quick minutes.

We are constantly taught the value of originality as creatives and why it is important to explore, expand, and refine our creative voices. And so, it can sound a little strange to recommend you copy other photographers, but the exercise can actually be tremendous beneficial. This fantastic video tutorial discusses some of the reasons why you should try it.

Portraiture is about much more than simply capturing someone in a pleasing pose with good lighting; it takes a certain amount of creativity to make images that distinguish your work from the crowd. This excellent video tutorial discusses how to make your portraits more creative.

Photographing star trails is more than just taking pictures. It takes time to shoot on location, and it takes even more time to edit the images afterward. I have ten tips that can help you get amazing star trails.

It's easier than ever to get feedback on your photos (whether you like it or not), but the degree to which you internalize that feedback and how you incorporate it is something you should consider to ensure you're being true to your artistic self.

Being connected to your devices may not always be practical for editing, especially when traveling. Smart previews can help you edit on the go but also free up your storage as well. With the WPPI conference fast approaching this is the best time to create your previews and let your external hard drives stay put at the house.

There are a multitude of methods of good composition, use of light, and editing that can be used to draw a viewer's eye to the subject of your image. One of the most common and effective methods is leading lines, and this great video will give you several demonstrations of their usage.

A lot of photo editing focuses on adjusting the shadows and the highlights of an image, as they are the extremes of a photo and thus, what the eye is drawn to. That being said, a normal image consists mostly of midtones, so knowing how to select and edit them independently of the shadows and highlights is a crucial skill for any photographer. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to select and edit the midtones of an image in Photoshop.

In last week's article, we spent some time discussing methods of adding the illusion of depth to your images using compositional techniques. This week, we will take that a step further and look at adding depth to the content of your images.

Sony cameras have become a big hit among the indie filmmaking crowd due to their versatility, cost of entry, and video quality. If you’re new to these cameras or just need a refresher, here’s what you need to know about setting up autofocus for video on Sony cameras.

When you look at the work of professional portrait photographers, you might think that you need complex multi-light setups in order to produce top-level images. And while it is true that two- or three- light setups are common, you might be surprised by what you can accomplish with just a single light. This great video tutorial will show you three easy and creative one-light portrait photography setups.

Photography is about capturing the moments through pictures. Yes, we all know this. But when you venture into it professionally, say wedding photography, you need to be able to do more than that.

Do you take your camera for a walk? In this second article on that topic, we will be considering why it is good for you and your photography in ways you might not think, why you could leave the telephoto lens behind, and how to improve at photographing animate subjects even with a shorter lens.

The amount of work that goes into a Hollywood production cannot be overstated. These days, it is usually up to a VFX artist studio to finish off what the director had in mind. What happens when you take modern VFX artists and ask them to analyze how old-school special effect artists worked? Praise!

Metering and exposure are uneasy companions. Although they seem to work well together on the surface, the metering can trick you into exposing badly. Here are some experiments showing you how to take control of exposure and use it creatively, especially in aperture priority mode.

Art is about storytelling. It’s about using all the tools at one’s disposal to convey and idea or an emotion. To connect an audience to a brand, or a personality, or a moment in a way the no other medium can. Along with my own technique, the ingenuity of the on-camera talent and the creative team behind it, plus the tools necessary to complete the job, the location you select for your shoot is one of the many raw materials that will have an effect on the eventual alchemy you bring forth to produce a great image.

When you are first starting out, you are not likely to be shooting from a dedicated studio. Most of us start out in a spare room at our home or the like, meaning we are in a tight space. That does not mean you can't take great photos in that small space, though, and this excellent video tutorial will show you three easy portrait lighting setups that work well in close quarters.

In this world filled with talent rising everyday, personal style is very important to any creative professional. It not only gives you the edge to stand out from the crowd but also serves as the unique selling proposition to market yourself. How does one get to develop one's own personal style?

Connecting with nature can have a profound impact on your well-being. Whether you’re standing in front of a tranquil lake or hiking through a dense forest, these moments provide a sense of calm that can’t be replicated elsewhere. While many people see landscape photography as a way to capture beautiful scenes, it’s also a way to experience the healing power of nature firsthand.

If you're like me, you just had a couple of months’ worth of work canceled and are now looking for alternative income streams. If you want to know how to start selling prints online — with no setup costs and no ongoing fees — read on.

There’s nothing worse than visiting a location prior to shooting, only to miss out on important details. Avoid headaches, and make sure that you’re prepared for the shoot day.

Photography often puts subjects in vulnerable situations in which even well-intentioned people can misbehave and cause lasting damage. This important video features both a model and a photographer discussing the issue and what can be done to provide the safest and most professional working environments possible.

Presets are kind of awesome. They're one of the best ways to drastically increase your efficiency in Lightroom and create more consistency between your images. Here's how to create your own.

Choosing where to focus in a landscape photo can be a tricky thing, with photographers often resorting to techniques like using the hyperfocal distance or focus stacking. If that is something you struggle with, this excellent video will show you five different ways to choose where to focus in a landscape image.

When you are a professional photographer, your life is often extremely busy, and it is common for the fact of creating and taking pictures to go from an act of passion to one of work. And that can be a rather sad and even detrimental thing for both your professional work and your satisfaction as a creative. This insightful video essay discusses the issue and why it is so important to keep being a hobbyist photographer, even when you are a professional.

Successful video editing is a confluence of creative vision, technical skills, and practical problem solving, so it's no wonder that it takes a lot of dedication and practice to become skilled at it. To help you jumpstart that process, here are five skills you need to have to be a successful video editor.

Mountains are by far one of the most popular subjects for landscape photography, and they require their own approach and technique to get the best possible results. This excellent video tutorial will show you some helpful tips, techniques, and settings for improving your mountain photos.

As a new writer on here, sometimes, it is hard to come up with new content to write about. I really have to put my brain to use. Sometimes, I randomly come up with ideas and topics to write about, and that is definitely one reason I'm glad I switched back to the iPhone. Whenever I come up with a thought or idea to write about, I hop into my Notes app and start writing some ideas down. Now, when I go home, it’s on my iPad, computer, phone, etc., and I can sit down and start to write more about it.

In this brilliant tutorial from Phlearn, Aaron Nace shows you how to create an artistic, composite image to replicate the double exposure effect. Despite being a little complex, the instruction is easy to follow. Nace’s great tips include: finding an appropriate blending mode, using detailed masking and grouping as well as using the gradient tool to add that extra something to your image.

How about shooting a dramatic photo with overhead light inside your small home studio? In this video, you'll learn a simple setup that works for coming up with great shots.