It is not difficult to get an okay shot as an advanced photographer. The problem is not seeing the things that would bring your photography even up to a world-class level. What if I would tell you that there exists a tiny subgenre in photography that makes not only most of the things you have to improve visible for you but also makes you a better photographer in all genres of photography?

Most lighting modifiers come with diffusion panels that soften and even out the light emitted. Some even come with two panels. These panels can have a strong effect on your light, and it's well worth understanding exactly what to expect when you use them or leave them off. This helpful video gives you a comparison of all three situations.

Achieving soft, directional light outdoors can be difficult. Sure, you can use an overcast day for soft, natural light, but often, this will not give you the most flattering light on your subject's face. In this video, we use my largest light modifier to see how you can turn an overcast day into a professional looking catalog image.

Building a quality portfolio can be an expensive endeavor, especially if you don't budget and carefully consider your costs. Putting together professional quality shoots on a budget can be challenging. After experiencing some of the wide variations in cost for things like models, makeup artists, and the other essential pieces of a shoot, I wanted share my experiences and lessons learned the hard way.

Have you ever tried to remove an object from a photo, but just couldn't get it to look right, whether it be because of the lighting, color, or actual selection? This tutorial provides a handful of tips for perfectly removing objects in Photoshop.

There is a ton of advice on what gear to buy and what gear not to buy as a photographer. It is written from a billion different standpoints, each one with a slightly different take. I didn’t feel any of those articles resonated with me, so here is one that I hope will resonate with you regardless of the genre or niche you’re going for.

Black and white photography has a unique way of bringing out the essence of a scene. It’s not just about eliminating color—it’s about mastering light, contrast, and texture.

In Part 1 of our Dramatic Beauty Portrait Tutorial, we looked at the lighting setup, gear breakdown, and shooting of our dramatic beauty shoot. In Part 2 of the tutorial we will now look at two different ways of exporting and preparing your image for retouching. The first method involves creating versions in Lightroom and exporting directly to Photoshop. The other method utilizes Adobe Camera Raw and the ability to make variations within Photoshop. I will also discuss the overall goal of our pre-edit stage.

We all get lost in the Internet from time to time, and some of us way too much. We see a great photo online, or perhaps read an interview with a successful photographer, and then Google them and spend time pouring through their portfolio and blog. “How did they do it?" "I wonder what type of lighting that is?" "Where did they take that?" Half an hour and a cup of coffee later we close our laptop relatively depressed and completely diverted from our own path as unique and creative individuals. We start to scroll through our Lightroom catalogs in search of an amazing image we may have forgotten about that competes with what we just saw, or look at our measly social media following and wonder what we did (or are doing) wrong.

When it comes to portraits, by far one of the most important decisions you will make is the choice of focal length. This fantastic video explores three different focal lengths for portraits, how they render the subject, and the pros and cons of using them.

It's easy to underestimate your own skills. You compare your work to others, feel stuck, or convince yourself you’re not improving. But there are clear signs that show you’re better than you think. Recognizing them can help build confidence and keep you moving forward.

The marketing battle between the big camera manufacturers is irrelevant. A far older and more important disagreement that has raged since the dawn of our art is as relevant today as ever. Where do you stand?

2020 has brought with it a lot of very exciting new cameras and lenses, and like many, you might be considering whipping out your credit card and placing an order. Before you do that, though, be sure to ask yourself these five questions.

Half the fun of shooting portraits is the veritable multitude of ways you can use photographic techniques and creative ideas to represent a person. This fun video will show you three such techniques that only require bare-minimum equipment and a subject.

The majority of landscape photographers tend to prefer keeping the entire scene in focus from back to front, using smaller apertures to maintain greater depth of field. Using this simple technique, any photographer can quickly find the hyperfocal distance, or the focusing distance at which a lens, given any aperture and focal length, will produce the greatest depth of field.

Landscape photography can be tricky, especially when your raw files look flat compared to what you see with your eyes. Understanding how to process these files can turn your photos from dull to stunning.

You have some money saved up and you are ready to start building your gear collection. Should you spend your money on a good camera or a nice lens? It is an important decision that can have a significant impact on the quality of your images, and this excellent video will show you why.

Landscape photography is a weird genre: there are no people, and unlike something like product photography, it's pretty much up to you to choose what to shoot and how to shoot it. So, it can often feel a bit nebulous as to how one navigates a world veritably inundated with imagery, particularly when standards are sky-high. This helpful video will give you some great pointers to get you on your way.

Everyone loves a soft, buttery bokeh to make their subject stand out against a busy background, but it's not always possible to make it in camera. Maybe the lighting conditions or physical environment don't cooperate, or perhaps you just haven't shelled out for that superfast f/1.4 prime yet. But all is not lost thanks to the magic of Photoshop.

When you think of landscape photography, you probably think of using wide angle lenses. No doubt, these are normally the lenses of choice for most landscape work, but that does not mean that telephoto lenses do not have their place too. This excellent video discusses why landscape photographers should also own a telephoto lens.

Dynamic range is one of the most fundamental properties of a camera sensor and one of the leading specs photographers are concerned about these days. What is it, though, and why is it so important? This great video tutorial will introduce you to the concept and show you its practical consequences on your images.

We photographers are notorious for having terrible websites. Hiring a professional web designer isn’t always in the budget so sometimes you have to figure out how to do it by yourself. Here are a few tips that most people completely overlook when building their own website.

There are many cool little tricks of the trade in photography, This video looks at some extremely useful and perhaps lesser-known photography hacks that pro photographers use.

In landscape photography, sharpness is often one of the top priorities, and photographers will go to great lengths to ensure that their photos are crisp. If you are new to landscape photography and ready to improve, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced shooter sharing seven useful tips sure to improve the sharpness of your images.

Slowing down while taking pictures is not always an easy thing. For those of us that learned with digital, the idea of shooting only a limited number of frames per session seems unthinkable. However, doing with what we have, and pressing the shutter only when we are sure to have a picture we are going to appreciate, is a very refreshing approach. Having just recently started shooting film, here are five tips I could give a digital portrait photographer to get better results, spend less time working, and slow down a bit.

If you shoot a lot portraits or beauty work, you likely spend a lot of your time thinking about lighting, including what the right modifier for the look you're going for is. This very comprehensive and well-explained video will walk you through the standard octabox and beauty dish, as well as the more exotic adjustable parabolic reflector and Satellite Staro.

Joe Cornish is one of the UK's most renowned landscape photographers and a master of his craft. The way he approaches composition makes his photos stand out. In this YouTube video, Alex Nail looks over Joe's shoulder as he shares his technical and creative process.

It can be easy to get caught up in the stresses of being a photographer, whether that is dealing with clients, vitriol on social media, or something else. And because of that, it can be easy to lose sight of your love for photography. When that happens, though, it is important to return to the fundamentals of the pursuit and remind yourself why you picked up a camera in the first place.

Photoshop is an extremely intricate program for which there is a multitude of ways to accomplish any one task. Nonetheless, one of the most fundamental techniques almost every photographer should know is how to create and use luminosity masks. This great video tutorial will show you how to use them.

So much of photography is about capturing a moment, a place, a person, a glance, a tiny slice of history that is impossible to recreate. When we've only got one shot, we want to make sure we get it right. In this series, we’re examining 11 things that can lead to a loss of image sharpness, what causes them, how to recognize them, and what to do about them!