I know you probably didn't enjoy reading that title. We all enjoy buying and playing with new gear. But before you push that buy button, take a few minutes to consider the points made in this video.
One of the most fundamental lighting skills every photographer should possess is the ability to bounce light effectively. This helpful video will show you why bouncing light can be such an effective technique and how to use it for your own work.
One of the best investments any photographer can make for their business is in education. There is always new gear, techniques, and knowledge to learn about and there is no better way than a fun destination conference. WPPI held each year on the Las Vegas strip is all about fun, education, and the destination.
On location lighting can be tricky. Here's one easy three-light flash setup that you can use just about anywhere.
Learning about photography was once confined to books, courses, and mentorship. Now, however, there are more resources at our disposal than we could ever deplete. Here's one that flies a little under the radar.
Bird photography is a lot of fun, but once video gets into the mix it can be really confusing on how to do it right. Tim Boyer shares three educational videos containing many tips that will get you off on the right foot.
When it comes to photography, sometimes we don't have a roll of black paper. In this video from The Creative Contrast, they show us two and a half ways to get an invisible black backdrop with both natural light and strobes.
When you schedule a couple weeks for landscape photography, do you revisit locations from prior trips? It’s tempting to visit new places, but if you want to drastically level-up your portfolio quality, start investing more time in one spot.
One of the most frustrating hurdles we deal with when shooting indoors is the strong color cast that incandescent light emits. I'm going to share with you a quick and easy fix in Lightroom (or Photoshop) to remedy that dreaded "orange glow" when white balance isn't enough.
The results from macro photography, when well done, can be spectacular as a dazzling, miniature world comes to life. Check out this great video to learn how to use any lens to get started with macro photography immediately.
Shooting in raw format generally produces images that are flatter than what we may have seen with our own eyes, which is why post-processing work is so important to achieving the image we visualized. There are countless ways to add depth to your image, but this video shows how to create an almost three-dimensional look rather easily.
Everyone's always looking for more pop in their images. And more wow factor. And better light. And crisper colors. But in order to get them, most people tend to overcomplicate things far too much. Learn to use Curves and get everything you need with a minimum of fuss.
I do mostly outdoor photography and anyone who does this can get bitten by the night sky bug. All those beautiful stars and the dramatic Milky Way beckon, but for many beginners it seems an impossible task. They think of needing tracking mounts, ultra-long exposures, and complicated processing. The good news is, it's not all that hard to get started with a fairly modest investment.
In this quick tutorial, you will discover a unique way to create a subtle vignette in Adobe Photoshop CC that you may have never seen before. If you are a visual learner, I have also created a video tutorial that you can use to follow along.
Have you been wanting to start video editing but find yourself overwhelmed by the process? In this quick video learn the three most common mistakes beginner video editors make and how to fix them.
It happens to all of us at one point or another: for some reason, a photoshoot just doesn't go as we hoped it would, and it feels like the whole thing is falling apart. This quick and helpful video will give you some solid tips to prevent that from happening to you.
Are you tired of your images looking flat? Of course, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to add a little punch to flat photos. Some techniques are complicated and require lots of time in Photoshop or Lightroom, and some are easy to learn and quick to execute like this one from PiXimperfect.
Every time I go to a theater I can't help but admire the images I see in movie posters, especially those in action and superhero movies. I've wanted to try and take an image in the style of some of my favorite Marvel movie posters but wanted to make sure I could find a model with the right suit to pull off the look. Fortunately, I found just that and more.
We often talk about finding dramatic light in landscape photography that showers the scene in contrast and creates an interplay of light and shadows that generates visual interest. But flat light can be just as effective in its own way, and this great video explores both how and why that's the case.
While there are a seemingly infinite number of creative video transitions you can incorporate in your projects, learning the fundamentals first is essential. Check out this great video to learn how to use the J Cut.
If you're not getting the followers, traffic, or clients you think you should be, then it might be your website that is part of the problem.
The frustrating thing about landscape photography is that you have absolutely no control over the light, and of course, that light can really make or break an image. This helpful video discusses the importance of learning to anticipate light for better landscape photographs.
Opinions are like cameras: everybody’s got one, and it should be upgraded once in a while. If you love giving feedback on photography, great, but make sure you're doing it in a way that’s right for the giver as well as the receiver.
Landscape photographers spend a lot of time outdoors at strange hours of the day to capture a few shots at sunrise and sunset. But have you considered exploring astrophotography to broaden your shoot options to include breathless starry nights?
The modern culture of producing massive amounts of content at breakneck speed can lead us to falling into the trap of trying to force shots before they've developed. This great video shares five reasons why having a bit of patience can lead to better images.
You've probably seen videos and articles that discuss common mistakes photographers tend to make. This great video outlines five less often discussed (though still common) mistakes and how you can correct them to improve your photography work.
I have been using The ColourMapX panel extensively and a caveat of it led me to further dig into something I rarely used before, clipping adjustment layers to other adjustment layers. Doing so greatly enhances my experience with this panel, but honestly with any type of adjustment.
Sometimes, all it takes to spice up your portrait photos is a little bit of creativity and some cheap tools to give you some neat in-camera lens effects. This great video will show you five quick, easy, and cheap lens hacks to enhance your portrait photography work.
For me, flat lays are the king of food photography. Telling a story with a large flat lay is a challenge, here is how I approach it.
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.
Capturing light trails is a way of making your night shots more dynamic. By using the same technique with proper gear, you can create your own time-lapse videos with light trails.
It's not exactly a secret that many of us photographers like to collect lenses, frequently having way more than we absolutely need. But when does that become a problem for your work?
With so much attention paid to retouching the skin, hair, and eyes, it can be easy to overlook a person's lips when you're editing a portrait. This great video will give you a complete guide to creating picture-perfect lips using Photoshop.
When I was a kid I thought I was stupid. No one could figure out why I couldn’t remember the colors of all the crayons. My teachers thought I had a learning disability. I remember having to pick up a crayon over and over to read the name so I knew what color it was.
Portraits are a great way to reflect professionalism. As a portrait photographer, what are the things that you can ensure to get the best for your clients? There are a few important areas that you have to pay attention to as a portrait photographer. Here is a quick article that discusses on how to arrive at the perfect professional portrait.
If you're shooting macro or landscape images and are looking for maximum sharpness across your entire image, focus stacking is one of the most useful techniques you can learn. This helpful video will show you how it's done using Photoshop.
One of the most fundamental skills anyone shooting portraits should have is a good understanding of basic retouching. This helpful video will show you everything you need to know to effectively retouch portraits in Photoshop.
Even if it's not your genre of choice, travel photography can be a great opportunity to stretch your photographic muscles and come away with some unique imagery. This great video will give you seven lesser known travel photography tips.
One of the most common mistakes beginners make is overexposing an image. This helpful video talks about why overexposure is so detrimental to a photo and the various methods you can use to prevent it from happening in your images.
If you’ve ever had lens flare ruin a seemingly perfect shot, this extremely simple technique will save you a ton of headache in post-processing.
Variety is king during a one to three-week landscape photography trip. Visiting a few points of interest per day ensures at least one spot will work out. But to take your photography to the next level, it’s crucial to revisit the same location many, many times — and not just for the weather.
If you want to showcase your work on more than just social media and perhaps even start selling your images, you need to have a portfolio website. So what's the best option to get something professional, cost effective and functional up quickly?
Whether doing event, wedding, or portrait photography, eventually you are going to find your subject in front of or behind a glass surface. Learning tips to avoid your lighting being reflected on the glass can improve your images and save you time in post-production.
Spend enough time in photography, particularly as a professional running a business, and it's easy to find yourself far from where you started and perhaps even disillusioned by it all. This great video talks about finding your voice in photography.
In today's competitive marketplace, successful photographers are finding themselves creating more and more content that isn't strictly photo based. Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are reaching more and more people with video content. In today's article, I outline 10 simple tips you can use to polish your video content.
Subscribe to business or productivity "influencers" on the web and you'll receive a variety of tips: “Nap this long,” “Consume more of these,” “Turn that device off!” But how do these techniques apply to photo editing, and can a one-size-fits-all productivity approach help us photographers use our editing time more efficiently?
In this composite walkthrough, photographer and digital artist Clinton Lofhouse shares how he created this striking composite and gives several tips for how to make a fantasy image like this one believable.
Composition can be one of the hardest aspects of photography to master. Rule of thirds, leading lines, rule of odds, and frame within the frame are just a few of the many composition techniques. Some are easy to understand and comprehend while others are a bit more difficult. This video from The Bite Shot provides an excellent, straightforward introduction to composition.
Cameras and photographic technology are more advanced than ever, but at its core, photography remains an artistic pursuit. This thoughtful video talks about the balance of creative and technical aspects.
When you're new to artificial lighting, one of the trickiest parts can be understanding the vast array of different modifiers and which one is appropriate for whatever you're shooting at the moment. This helpful video will show you a variety of common modifiers and how they change the look of your images.
