Recent Education Articles

5 Common Beginner Landscape Photography Mistakes

The evolution of a photographer's skill set and perspective over time can drastically change the way they view their craft, especially in the realm of landscape photography. This video documents one such examination and some common mistakes that emerged.

5 Helpful Tips on How to Choose the Right Camera

Choosing the right camera can be a daunting task for photographers and videographers alike, whether they are just starting out or looking to upgrade their gear. Nonetheless, it's a pivotal decision and one that takes a lot of thought. This helpful video will make the decision easier.

Stop Wasting Your Money on Things You Don't Need

Choosing the right gear in photography extends beyond mere preference; it gets into the strategic selection of tools that profoundly affect the quality and focus of a photographer's work, as well as their bank account.

Flash Photography Essentials: 5 Quick and Easy Tips

Understanding the fundamentals of flash photography is crucial for photographers aiming to elevate their portraits. This fantastic video tutorial shares five tips sure to help you improve.

How to Improve Your Photography Without Spending Money

Photography is an art form that allows us to document life’s journey and encapsulate moments that hold profound significance. This fantastic video details one photographer's transformation from a corporate professional to a passionate artist, giving a compelling narrative about pursuing happiness and finding solace in photography.

Capturing Beauty in the Mundane: The Art of Noticing

Capturing the essence of everyday moments has become a transformative trend, particularly resonating with photographers who seek to find and showcase beauty in the mundane. This trend, which emphasizes the art of noticing the subtle yet profound beauty in our surroundings, offers a fresh perspective.

Key Light Placement: The Secret to Better Portraits

The importance of the positioning of the key light in portrait photography cannot be overstated, with its placement being crucial to defining the subject's features and the overall mood of the photograph. For portrait photographers, mastering key light placement is foundational, affecting everything from the sharpness of shadows to the subtleties of facial contours.

How to Even Out Skin Texture Using Photoshop

Achieving the right balance and evenness in skin texture is a nuanced skill that significantly enhances the depth and realism of portraits. This challenge, common for portrait photographers, requires a delicate approach to preserve skin texture while ensuring it looks natural and evenly lit. This fantastic video tutorial will show you how to achieve that balance in Photoshop.

The Evolving Role of the Professional Photographer in 2024

Navigating the evolving landscape of professional photography is becoming increasingly complex, with significant shifts in industry practices, client expectations, and revenue models. Understanding these changes is crucial for photographers who wish to stay relevant and competitive in a rapidly transforming market.

Answering the Age-Old Question: What Camera Should I Buy?

As a photojournalism professor, one of the questions I get asked most by beginning photographers is, "What camera should I buy?" As if there's a single, definitive answer to that. The answer I always give is: What do you want to do? There's a camera out there for everyone, and here's a guide for what to look for when you're starting out.

5 Lesser-Known Lightroom Desktop Features

Navigating through Lightroom’s myriad of features and tools can be a daunting task for photographers. This fantastic video shows five hidden functionalities within the software that can significantly enhance one’s editing workflow and improve the overall photographic output.

Understanding the Influence of Sun Direction on Landscape Imagery

Crafting a compelling landscape photograph is not solely about adjusting camera angles or positions; it's about conveying a deep, meaningful message through visual storytelling. Recognizing the intricate relationship between light, landscape, and atmospheric conditions is essential for photographers aiming to elevate their imagery.

Enhancing Your Photos With Split Toning in Lightroom

Split toning in Lightroom offers photographers a robust tool for creative color grading, enhancing the emotional impact and aesthetic appeal of their images. Understanding its application can transform an ordinary photo into a stunning visual narrative, a reason why photographers should incorporate this technique into their workflow.

Efficient File Management: A Photographer's Guide to Organization

The organization of digital assets is a fundamental yet often overlooked aspect of photography, crucial for both new and seasoned photographers. A well-organized digital library not only streamlines the workflow but also ensures that valuable images are easily accessible and secure for future use.

How One Embracing Simplicity Transformed a Photographer's Career

In an era where technology continuously redefines the boundaries of creativity, photographers constantly seek ways to carve out their distinct style. A pivotal choice in the equipment a photographer uses can drastically influence their approach, compositional techniques, and ultimately, the uniqueness of their visual storytelling.

Capturing the Mundane: A Documentary Approach to Photography

Embracing a documentary approach to photography can significantly alter a photographer's perspective and output. This methodology, which shifts the focus from aggressively pursuing unique and creative shots to simply capturing the moment as it unfolds, offers a fresh lens through which to view the art form. It's a reminder that sometimes, the most profound images are born from the simplest moments.

Handheld Photography Techniques for Sharper Images

Mastering handheld photography is a critical skill for capturing spontaneous shots, especially in challenging environments. This helpful video provides invaluable insights and techniques, underscoring its importance for photographers who often find themselves in situations where tripods are impractical or forbidden.

The Best Possible Camera Settings for Shooting in JPEG File Format

Are you a photographer who prefers to shoot in the JPEG file format? In that case, you have to get everything right in the camera. Correcting a mistake afterward is limited. There are different in-camera tools available that allow you to get the best possible results.

How to Revive Underexposed Photos with Lightroom

Unlocking the potential of underexposed images is a crucial skill for photographers, enabling them to salvage photos that might otherwise be considered lost causes. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to do just that using Lightroom.

You Must Know These Lightroom Techniques

With all the different AI tools that get introduced into the various photo editing apps, it's easy to forget about the fundamentals. To become an efficient photo editor, you must also know the basic settings and techniques. Michael Shainbloom gives ten Lightroom tips that help you achieve that.

2024 WPPI Las Vegas Exclusive: Meet the Portrait Masters Winners

In the heart of Las Vegas at the 2024 Wedding and Portrait Photographers International, I had the opportunity to dive into the minds of talented winners from the Portrait Masters' January competition, unveiling their creative processes and inspiration.

A Landscape Photographer's Guide to Cost-Effective Travel

While many have tips for keeping travel expenses low regionally, what happens when you start flying to landscape photography destinations? Things that work with regional travel don’t scale when limited on what you can bring. I have several tips for keeping travel costs low when flying to your destination.

How To Find Direction, Subjects and Creative Ideas

I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for creative ideas for my next shoot. It's not always easy, and sometimes you just need to get to your location to find what you're looking for.

Finding Beauty in Gloom: Creative Photography on Dull Days

Embracing the challenge of dull, overcast days, this video offers a refreshing perspective on photography under conditions many might find uninspiring. Highlighting creativity over clarity, it suggests that less-than-ideal weather can be the perfect setting for exploring new photographic techniques and compositions, offering five different ways to approach such weather.

Maximizing Returns: A Professional Photographer's Guide to Smart Equipment Investment

Investing in the latest photographic equipment is a decision fraught with financial implications, one that every photographer must navigate carefully. The rapid depreciation of camera gear serves as a cautionary tale for photographers keen on maximizing their return on investment while still achieving professional results.

Choosing the Right Canon RF Lens for Portrait Photography

In portrait photography, the lens you choose is crucial to capturing the essence and emotion of your subject. This decision influences everything from the depth of field and bokeh to the sharpness and overall mood of the image, underscoring the importance of selecting the right lens to match your artistic vision and technical needs.

6 Simple Menu Things to Set on Your Camera

Modern cameras have lots of functions. It can be challenging to make the best possible settings. Often, it takes time to get the optimal settings for your personal photography. However, there are some simple things that are worth checking out.

The Art of Spontaneity in Photography: Lessons from Antarctica

The transformative power of embracing the unexpected is an exploration worth undertaking, particularly in environments as unpredictable as Antarctica. One photographer's recent journey to this icy continent serves as a compelling testament to the value of adaptability in the creative process, illustrating how a willingness to let go of meticulous planning can uncover breathtakingly spontaneous moments.

Creative Lighting Techniques for Maternity Photography

Photographers constantly seek ways to diversify their portfolio, especially in genres as specific as maternity photography. The use of lighting, gels, and innovative posing not only accentuates the subject’s beauty but also adds depth and variety to the images, which are helpful for creating a memorable gallery.

Elevating Your Photography With Artificial Lighting

The debate between natural light and artificial lighting in photography is ongoing, but the mastering both can significantly elevate a photographer's work and make them far more versatile. Understanding the intricacies of bringing lights on location, despite the hassle, reveals the dedication required to achieve specific artistic visions and the tangible difference it makes in the outcomes.

Mastering Portraits With Minimal Gear

Mastering the use of speedlights and a backdrop for full-body portraits is an essential skill for any photographer looking to elevate their studio work. This fantastic video tutorial offers a deep dive into this technique, showcasing the transformation of a simple setup into a professional-grade photo shoot.

How to Create Bold Eyes in Photoshop

Post-processing is as crucial as capturing the right moment. Enhancing the eyes can dramatically elevate the impact of an image, and this helpful video tutorial will show you how to do just that using Photoshop.

Mastering Manual: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creative Control

Understanding how to navigate manual mode in photography is essential for achieving professional-grade results, which can seem daunting due to its perceived complexity. Many photographers view manual shooting as a rite of passage to professionalism, yet the prospect of managing shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings can be intimidating.

Discovering the Body and Soul of Photography

Learning is essential for us to grow as photographers. Collaborating with the Polish artist and photographer, Maya Kot, I discovered new ideas about color that get to the very heart of photography.

DIY Fashion Photography: Your Guide to Shoots That Impress

There are different degrees of fashion shoots, it could be a personal shoot for your portfolio or one for Vogue Magazine. This format is for a personal fashion shoot, as you will most likely be in charge of putting everything together yourself.

Photoshop's Game-Changing Adjustment Presets

Color grading is an evolving aspect of digital photography post-processing, playing a crucial role in defining the mood and tone of an image. This fantastic video tutorial shows you a new Photoshop tool that will make the job much easier.

The Important Differences Between Vibrance and Saturation

Vibrancy and saturation levels have a strong impact on an image, and as such, understanding the nuanced effects of these adjustments can help photographers enhance their photos without compromising naturalness, especially regarding skin tones and landscapes.

Enhancing Landscape Photography: A Step-by-Step Guide to Color Editing in Lightroom

Restoring colors in a photograph, especially when dealing with the limitations of ND filters and color casts, is a crucial skill for any photographer. The ability to manipulate and correct these aspects can transform a seemingly lackluster image into a vivid, striking composition. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to do just that.

Eclipse Photography Essentials: Selecting the Right Solar Filter

Selecting the right solar filter for photographing the sun, especially during an eclipse, is a critical decision for photographers. Understanding the differences between visible light or broadband filters and narrowband filters can greatly impact the quality and safety of solar photography. This helpful video tutorial will show you what you need to know.

The Power of Transitions: Elevating Your Photographic Vision

Landscape photography transcends simply capturing scenes; it's about weaving depth and perspective into visuals that tell a compelling story. This helpful video tutorial offers an exploration of this concept, focusing on the most effective method to enhance the intrigue of any photograph.

Transform Your Landscape Photography With These Simple Beginner Steps

Mastering landscape photography is something that requires more than just a high-quality camera. Understanding the nuances of camera settings and composition is crucial for photographers aiming to elevate their outdoor imagery, something this helpful video directly addresses.

Would You Fall for These Seven Photography Scams? I Was Caught by One

You probably use or run photography businesses. Beware! There is a multimillion-dollar industry that runs solely to scam businesses and clients out of their hard-earned cash. Here are a few and how you should avoid them and why one of them caught me out.

9 Helpful Photography Tips

Embarking on photographic journeys pushes the boundaries of creativity and technical skill, offering unparalleled opportunities to capture the essence of distant lands and cultures. Such expeditions, especially to remote locations like Antarctica and Patagonia, are not just about the photographs taken but about the entire experience that surrounds each shot. This helpful video follows a photographer on such a journey and shares some fantastic tips.

Enhancing Sunset Photos With Lightroom's Auto Settings

Optimizing the initial stages of photo editing can dramatically enhance the final image quality. This helpful video tutorial offers insights into leveraging Lightroom's auto settings to streamline the editing process, particularly useful when dealing with complex lighting situations like sunsets.