Good black and white portraits are timeless and will always be in style, but they demand a different approach than color portraits. This fantastic video tutorial will show you a few multi-light setups for shooting compelling black and white portraits with dramatic contrast.
It is always best to start out with one light when you are first learning how to use artificial light, but once you have mastered the basics, you can enter an entirely new world of creativity when you start working with multi-light setups. This fantastic video tutorial will show you a dynamic and professional three-light setup for creating compelling portraits.
Finding the perfect camera system is not that easy. Before you make a large and long-lasting investment, you should do proper research and critically analyze your own needs. Step by step, you will get closer to the best possible system for yourself.
Camera technology is moving at quite a fast pace nowadays, and it can be awfully tempting to pick up the latest and greatest gear. But on the other hand, cameras are hardly cheap, and it is the sort of purchase that should be carefully considered. So, how do you decide when it is time to actually buy a new camera? This great video discusses that question.
If you still shoot with DSLRs, you might have encountered issues (particularly when you have shot at wide apertures) with your focus missing by just a little bit. If you have experienced this frustration, you might benefit from an autofocus microadjustment, and this excellent video tutorial will show you exactly how it is done.
When you are new to photography, it is common to think that you need to head over to Photoshop for any sort of serious editing, but you might be surprised by just how much you can accomplish using Lightroom if you know what you are doing and where to look. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to edit a portrait from start to finish using only Lightroom.
When you think of lighting for portraits in a flattering way, you probably do not immediately gravitate toward the harsh contrast of midday sun. However, you might be surprised by just what you can accomplish when shooting in the midday sun, and this great video tutorial will give you three helpful tips for creating better images with it.
Most modern cameras have the option of highlight tone priority available. It will improve gradation in bright areas of the image. But does that function has any use when you are shooting raw images? Let’s find out.
Ever wonder how photographers capture what looks like a single moment in time, but you're not quite sure how they got it all in one shot? Join me for another day of adventuring in the San Juan mountains to find out.
It seems strange to say that you should fail as a photographer, but that can actually be one of the best things that can happen to you. This fantastic video discusses why failure is one of the most important parts of growing as a photographer and creative.
A lot of landscape photographers overlook the potential of woodland photography, often opting for grander and more arresting views elsewhere. But there are numerous fantastic photo opportunities to be found in the forest, and this fantastic video tutorial details seven great tips to improve your woodland compositions.
Artistic style is what separates you from other artists of the same medium. But, how do you develop it?
There are many tips you can use to improve your landscape photography. Here are five simple ones you can start incorporating right now.
In my latest video, I share five simple tips for improving your landscape photography. Some tips and techniques can be used in some circumstances, while others apply to others. These tips are rather broad, but some, I use all the time.
The price of photography accessories can add up very quickly, but with a little creativity and just a few random objects from around the house, you can create unique and compelling photos while saving a lot of money. This fantastic video tutorial will show you how to create great beauty shots using random objects you probably have around your house.
While there is much discussion about different camera brands, models, and the development of the market, the perfect camera still hasn't been built. This article will show you where to find information to make your best choice from what's available.
I recently purchased the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art lens. It is the fastest lens that I've ever had, and I've been working on getting accustomed to the intricacies of shooting with a very wide aperture.
Making the relation between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO visible is the idea behind the exposure triangle. I have seen many beautiful drawings of the exposure triangle, but what does this diagram really show? Let’s find out.
Landscape photography is a difficult genre that takes solid technique, good creativity, and the ability to plan ahead and anticipate changing conditions. This fantastic video tutorial details a range of on-location tips that will help you create better and more compelling landscape images.
A successful photoshoot takes the confluence of a wide range of factors and planning, and doing everything you can to prepare ahead of time increases your chances of creating the images you want. This excellent video discusses five helpful tips for ensuring your next shoot is successful.
Photoshop has a huge array of tools and features, and many of them have some degree of overlap between each other. Two of the most fundamental and powerful tools you have at your disposal in the program are Curves and Levels, and this excellent video tutorial will show you the difference between them and how you can use them for editing your images.
If you are new to photography, you might be wondering what a circular polarizing filter is and how it can be used to create better images. This excellent video tutorial will show you why circular polarizing filters are useful and how to employ them in your own work.
Taking the time to learn proper artificial lighting techniques and setups is crucial to becoming a proficient and versatile portrait photographer. If you are working on learning lighting, check out this fantastic video that details a wide variety of helpful tips and information in just three quick minutes.
We all want to take better photos, of course. It is a never-ending process that everyone from inexperienced beginner to seasoned professional works on. If you feel like you are stuck and not improving, this excellent video discusses eight reasons why your photos might be bad.
There are a thousand skills — technical, artistic, and observational — that need to be mastered to make great images. But to really get better we have to, first, learn to do this.
Dive into a day of shooting with me around Colorado's San Juan mountains during the seasonal fall color change. One composition I stumble upon leads into a valuable lesson in perfecting how to capture a crisp and clean sunburst.
One of the most powerful features Lightroom has is the ability to copy pretty much any post-processing setting from one photo to another, making it easy to save a lot of time when you are working with large batches of similar photos. This great video tutorial will show you four different ways to copy your settings between images when you are working in Lightroom.
Photoshop is full of a wide range of tools and features, and a fair amount of them have some amount of overlap between their functions and capabilities. Two such tools are the opacity and flow sliders. If you are not quite sure of the difference between the two, this excellent video tutorial will get you up and running in no time.
In landscape photography, we do not get control over the light or the conditions in which we are photographing, and as such, it is very much a genre of planning and patience. This can often lead to a mistake that makes us miss images, and this excellent video discusses how we fall into that trap and the consequences it can have.
Off-camera flash can be a bit intimidating for a lot of photographers, but it opens an entirely new world of creative possibilities and is well worth learning. This excellent video discusses the benefits of off-camera flash over just natural light and how it can improve your work.
You can learn so much about yourself and photography by briefly getting familiar with art history. But is photography art in the first place?
It can be easy to get caught up in the annoyances of professional obligations or to simply grow bored or tired of photography from time to time, which is when it is important to remember why you should be taking photos in the first place. This thought-provoking video discusses why.
A lot of us spend a pretty large chunk of time working in Lightroom, and any tricks or techniques for working more efficiently can really add up in the long run. This helpful video will show you five great tips for working more quickly and efficiently in Lightroom.
The ancient axiom "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" has long been regarded as wise advice. My father always said, "better safe than sorry," which saved me more times than I can count.
Landscape photography can be tricky to learn, as it takes the confluence of several techniques and creative ideas to make a complete photo. If you are new to landscape photography, this fantastic video tutorial will show you how to take a shot from start to finish.
Shooting mediocre photographs is as easy as can be. Modern cameras do most of the job on their own. To shoot outstanding photographs, there is much more to consider.
Landscape photography can be a challenging genre to begin with, but having a general blueprint can help newcomers ease into it.
In this video you’ll learn about one of the founders of Adobe being taken hostage for $600,000 ransom, and how Steve Jobs once owned 19% of the company before they opened the flood gates to cater for Windows and the mass market of the time.
Often in landscape photography, you will want to blend different exposures in the same frame to balance different shutter speeds due to extreme dynamic range. However, sometimes, you might want to blend different shutter speeds in the same frame to create the right amount of movement in each element.
The inverse square law is by far one of the most fundamental and important concepts that every photographer working with artificial light should understand. If that is something you struggle with a bit or you have not heard of it before, this fantastic video will get you up and running in no time at all.
The beauty of artificial lighting is that you can create shots in just about any situation no matter the ambient light, and you can create a wide variety of looks in one location simply by varying parameters like the position of the light or its distance to the subject.
Capture One and Photoshop make for a powerful combination for editing portraits to produce professional results. This fantastic video tutorial gives a complete guide to editing a portrait from start to finish using both applications and a wide variety of creative tricks and techniques.
We talk a lot about the importance of good light in photography, but on the other hand, is there even a such thing as "bad" light? This great video discusses the topic and why you might be missing out on images if you sit around and wait only for good light.
Many Lightroom Classic users have one catalog, and that's perfectly fine. However, others have several catalogs or even a different catalog for each shoot they do. Regardless of which you are, this tip may save you some time and make your Lightroom time more productive.
When it comes to family portraiture, using natural light instead of flash is often a popular choice for several reasons. Whether you are shooting portraits of other families for money or simply trying to create your own memories, this fantastic video features five great tips for creating authentic natural light family portraits.
Retouching hair can be one of the trickiest tasks you have to do as a portrait photographer, and there is no universal technique that fits every situation. Beyond that, frizzy hair is probably the most challenging of all. This fantastic video tutorial will show you several different ways to retouch frizzy hair using Photoshop.
Autofocus has become remarkably fast and reliable, but there are still a lot of situations in which manual focus might be the best choice to get the shot. This fantastic video tutorial details six techniques you can use to ensure you can nail shots when using manual focus.
You are not always in a stunning location where the landscape does the work for you. Here are seven tips to extract the most from a “boring” landscape.
It doesn't matter what kind of photography you do, the skills required in street photography are some of the most valuable you can learn. It's for this reason that you need to watch this free masterclass.
There are many creative ways to explore within each genre of photography. One that is both challenging and fun and can deliver mysterious and incredible results is light painting.
Have you ever been to a dark location where you couldn’t use a tripod? You probably needed a very high ISO and accepted the high noise levels. With this step-by-step guide, you can prevent the high ISO noise without the use of specialized noise reduction software.