Recent Education Articles

How to Light a Portrait Using a Single Speedlight

Portrait lighting can sometimes take complex multi-light setups, but you would be surprised at what you can accomplish with just a single light — even only a speedlight. In fact, you can even create professional images with one, and it is a great place from which to start as a beginner to artificial light. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to use a single speedlight to create compelling portrait images.

The Secret to Blending Photos in Photoshop

In my early days with Photoshop, there were many timex when I tediously removed background from text by "magic-wanding" it out. If you've ever been inexperienced enough to do this, then you know that you then have to isolate the background that remained within the closed off section of each letter, like the inside of an "o." I've come a long way since then, but apparently, not long enough. Because when I saw LA-based digital artist, best-selling author, and founder of PhotoshopCAFE, Colin Smith, blend out the white background to isolate the black text and vice versa using only a few clicks, my $^@%*! jaw dropped and my face met palm.

10 Things I Learned Shooting My First Professional Baseball Game

"Keep your head down and always know where the ball is. It hurts when you get hit." And with that, I was off and running. Here's what it was like stepping out of portraits and events and into the world of professional sports photography.

How to Find Your Creativity in Landscape Photography

One of the trickiest aspects of landscape photography is that, unlike many other genres, you have no control over the elements in the frame, and as such, it can be tricky to find your individual voice and sense of creativity. It is not impossible, though. This great video tutorial discusses the topic and offers a range of helpful advice on how to find your creative voice in the genre.

How to Price Your Photo Prints

Pricing is something many photographers struggle with. While things like camera settings can be quantified and are, thus, easier to learn in a way, pricing can be a nebulous and tricky thing to nail down. So, when it comes to selling prints, how do you set your prices? This helpful video tutorial features an experienced photographer sharing some useful advice sure to put you on the right track.

How to Focus When Shooting Video

While modern autofocus systems have made stills work a lot easier in many ways, when it comes to video, you will often resort to different techniques, which often include manual focus. If you are new to shooting video, this great video will show you how to get proper focus using a variety of tools and techniques.

Embracing the Mist: Techniques for Fog Photography

Navigating through fog transforms familiar landscapes into realms of mystery and depth, providing a canvas for creativity that few other weather conditions can match. The allure of fog lies in its ability to simplify scenes, mute distractions, and introduce a sense of depth and mood that can elevate the most mundane subjects into captivating images.

The Benefits Centered Compositions Can Have on Your Photos

Most photographers know the rule of thirds and have heard that centered compositions are something to be avoided. However, this insightful video embraces centered compositions and makes a strong case for why they're sometimes a great idea.

Luck and Opportunity in Photography

A good photographer prepares and prepares some more, but things are rarely totally in our control. And so, there is often an element of luck involved in the craft. Why is it the best photographers seem to be some of the luckiest? This great video follows a photographer working through some images and discussing why luck often isn't really luck at all.

How to Find Your Photography Niche

In my opinion, if you really want to progress the level of your photography or your photography business, then finding a niche is vital. In this video, I go over some key steps to finding your niche.

Ten By Fotolia Shows Us A World Class Collaboration Between A Digital Artist And A Photographer

This video was incredible! Ten By Fotolia brought two talents together and gave us an all access pass at their creation. Eric Paré is a Montreal based creative photographer who is a master at light painting. Mike Campau is a brilliant digital artist who is skilled in retouching, image design, and CGI. Together, they bring us a great video filled with lots of information that everyone can take away from.

4 Things Every Budding Professional Photographer Needs to Learn

The road to becoming a successful professional photographer has many aspects to it, ranging from the photo work itself through business practice and more. If you would like to one day make money from your images, check out this helpful video tutorial that features an experienced pro discussing four things you need to learn on the photography side of things.

4 Ways To Monitor Exposure While Out in the Field

Getting exposure right can seem simple, but it's even easier to get it slightly wrong. While being marginally overexposed or underexposed can be rescued, having blown out highlights or completely black shadows means the details will be unrecoverable. Here are four ways to monitor exposure properly on location.

The Essential Photoshop Keyboard Shortcut Guide

Photoshop's keyboard shortcuts offer an invaluable tool for photographers, streamlining their workflow and increasing efficiency. These shortcuts, often underutilized, can significantly reduce editing time and simplify complex tasks, making them a crucial aspect for any serious photographer.

Check Out These In-Depth Blackmagic Tutorials

DaVinci Resolve is free to download and use as an NLE. They’ve uploaded tutorial videos in the past, but in the last few weeks, they’ve uploaded in-depth tutorials that make it much easier to understand what you’re doing when you start changing the parameters of a clip’s color. Here are the color-grading tutorial videos.

5 Tips for Photographing in a Studio for the First Time

Working in a studio for the first time is one of the most exciting things a photographer can experience, but of course, there are some important considerations and adjustments you should be aware of to ensure you get the most out of it. This fantastic video tutorial features an experienced photographer discussing five important tips sure to help beginners stepping into a studio for the first time.

7 Common Photo Clichés

Like any other art, there are clichés in photography, and it is worth being aware of them before you head out with your camera. This great video tutorial takes a look at seven of the most common ones, how they became clichés, and whether we should embrace them or do something else.

Helpful Landscape Photography Secrets and Productivity Tips

Creating a successful landscape photo takes a combination of planning, patience, technique, vision, and sometimes, just a bit of luck. Professional landscape photographers have some common habits and productivity hacks they use both to be more efficient and to ensure that they come home with the best possible images. This great video tutorial will take you through some of those habits and hacks to help you improve your landscape work.

Three Techniques to Become an Unstoppable Creative Force

It's often that us photographers can find ourselves stuck in a rut, looking up at other creatives and wondering where they get their ideas from and just thinking that some people have it, and some people don't. That little voice in our heads can really be detrimental to our self-confidence and reflect in our work.

Landscape Photography Under Cloudy Skies

Landscape photography often challenges photographers to find beauty and composition in less than ideal conditions. This excellent video tutorial ventures into a seemingly mundane weather day and showcases this skill, demonstrating the potential of "boring" weather to produce stunning, intimate landscape shots.

Photographing Details in Weddings

A wedding day is full of details, and photographing them aptly will give you a variety of images to present in the wedding album. As simple as it sounds, it is important that you are prepped prior. Here is a video of Vanessa Joy sharing her two cents on this topic.

Why You Should Embrace 'Boring' Light More Often

You might think that the best landscape images are made with dramatic, hard light that casts arcing shadows across the land. And while that can certainly make for great images, you might be surprised to learn why flat, "boring" light can actually be a landscape photographer's best friend.

Five Great Tips for Using the Pen Tool in Photoshop

The Pen Tool elicits a range of emotions, most commonly fear and love. If you've mastered it, post-processing life is good. For everyone else, learning the Pen Tool always seems to be put off for a rainy day that never comes. This quick and easy tutorial has five great tips to help you better use this essential tool.

10 Steps for Finding the Perfect Camera Angle

We can learn a lot from experienced filmmakers and cinematographers, and one of their strongest skills is their ability to tell stories. Whether you shoot video or photos, this excellent video tutorial will give you a 10-step process for finding the best, most compelling angle for every shot.

How a Cheap Umbrella Can Produce Professional Photographs

Lighting modifiers are a necessary tool for working with artificial light, but they can be quite expensive, and building a library can quickly drain your wallet. However, the humble umbrella is highly affordable, and you might be surprised by the shots you can create with them. This fantastic video tutorial will show you how to create professional profits using an umbrella.