Recent Education Articles

How to Select and Edit Midtones in Photoshop

A lot of photo editing focuses on adjusting the shadows and the highlights of an image, as they are the extremes of a photo and thus, what the eye is drawn to. That being said, a normal image consists mostly of midtones, so knowing how to select and edit them independently of the shadows and highlights is a crucial skill for any photographer. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to select and edit the midtones of an image in Photoshop.

Photographing New Male Models

Photographing male models can be a challenging but rewarding experience for a photographer. In order to create stunning and memorable images, it's essential to direct the model and guide them into confident poses that showcase their best features.

7 Common Beginner Landscape Photography Mistakes

With all the different aspects that go into creating a successful image, landscape photography can be a daunting genre to get started in. If you are new to the genre and looking to improve, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you seven common mistakes new photographers make and how to fix them or avoid them in the first place.

The New Photo Studio

TikTok studio rentals are going to be a huge trend in the future for photo studios looking to increase their profitability. With such a competitive market, it can be difficult for photo studios to succeed.

The Importance of Light in a Landscape Photo

In landscape photography, we do not get control over the light on the scene, but just like any other genre, light can make or break an image. Knowing how to read the light, predict its evolution, and wait for it to be just right is crucial to creating successful images. This great video tutorial will show you why just how much of a difference it can make.

Are Cliché Photos at Iconic Locations Worth Making?

Hop on Instagram or the like, and you will find plenty of nearly identical photos of famous locations, often to the point that it would be essentially impossible to create an image of such a place that would actually stand out from the crowd. So, is it even worth taking the time and putting in the effort and resources to make such images? This excellent video essay discusses the topic and offers some worthwhile advice.

Are You Experimenting in Your Landscape Photography Enough?

One of the wonderful things about landscape photography is that there are so many ways to photograph a single scene, and because of that, one location can yield dozens of photographs. If you are not taking the time to explore your creative voice through experimentation, though, you might be missing out on a lot of opportunities. This excellent video tutorial features an experienced landscape photographer discussing why experimentation is so crucial to finding success.

How to Reduce Distractions in Landscape Photos

A question to ask yourself before composing your landscape photos is: what's the subject? Having a clear answer to that will help you create good photographs. But there are situations where no matter how you position your camera, some elements in the frame will distract from the main subject. In this article, I share editing techniques you can use to alleviate that problem.

5 Simple and Effective One-Light Setups for On-location Portraits

While many pros working in studios will use complex multi-light setups for portraits, when you are shooting on location, it is often much better to employ a single light that allows you to be a bit more nimble. And with a bit of lighting savvy, you can still create fantastic professional-level portraits. This great video tutorial will show five easy one-light setups sure to help you make compelling images.

How a Cool Camera Can Make You a Better Photographer

We often hear about how gear does not matter, and while that is a well-meaning sentiment, the truth is a bit more nuanced than that. In fact, the right piece of gear can actually make you a better photographer. This great video essay discusses why that is and will help you find a little inspiration along the way.

A Beginner's Guide to Luminosity Masks in Photoshop

When it comes to post-processing, one of the most useful tools at your disposal is the luminosity mask, which can help you create more precise and efficient edits. If you have not tried luminosity masks if your work before, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you the ins and outs of creating and using them.

A Bit of History About the Golden Ratio and Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is the first thing that is taught about composition in photography. It seems to have some similarities with the golden ratio, but in reality, it’s something completely different. Let’s have a closer look at the history of these so-called rules to get a better understanding.

10 Crucial Tips for Photographing Your First Wedding

Wedding photography is one of the most demanding and difficult genres, requiring strong technical and creative capabilities, the ability to quickly and effectively solve problems, and strong interpersonal skills. If you are getting ready to photograph your first wedding and feeling a bit nervous, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced wedding photographer sharing 10 important tips that will help you to better prepare and ease your nerves.

Getting Better Photos When Walking With Your Camera: Part Two

Do you take your camera for a walk? In this second article on that topic, we will be considering why it is good for you and your photography in ways you might not think, why you could leave the telephoto lens behind, and how to improve at photographing animate subjects even with a shorter lens.

Helpful Landscape Photography Advice and Tips

Landscape photography can be tricky, complex, and frustrating, but it can also be tremendously rewarding. If you'd like to improve your own work, check out this excellent video interview that offers a lot of insightful advice sure to help you on your way.

Getting Better Photos When Walking With Your Camera: Part One

Walking photography should be a genre of its own; it is the most popular form. There are simple things you can do that will ensure you come home from your walk with better photos than before. This is the first of two articles looking at ways to improve those images.

4 Tips for Taking Your Images From Amateur to Professional

Have you ever seen images and wondered how they create an editorial look that you just can't seem to recreate? It's clean, it's crisp, it may be edgy or sleek... you can't quite put your finger on it, but whatever "it" is, you want it for your work. Here are a few tips, from composition to post-production, that will upgrade your images and give you a more professional look.

What Surveillance Photography Alone Cannot Show Us

As a medium, photography is all about sight. If you can’t see it, you can’t really take a photograph of it. The alternative is, of course, things like art, music, or prose where you don’t need to see something to make something about it.

3 Important Landscape Photography Lessons

Landscape photography is a challenging genre that requires a balance of technical abilities, creative vision, the ability to predict and adapt to evolving conditions, and a lot of persistence. If you would like to improve your work, check out this fantastic video tutorial from an experienced landscape photographer that will teach you some important lessons sure to put you on the right track.

An Effective Technique for Waterfall Photography

Waterfalls are some of the most popular landscape photography subjects, offering the ability to add a sense of motion to otherwise still scenes and to leverage natural leading lines to bring your viewers' eyes through the scene. If you are new to the genre and looking to improve, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you some helpful tips and techniques for improving your waterfall photography.

How to Make Better Sky Selections in Photoshop

Since Lightroom and Photoshop introduced their automatic sky selections, changes to the sky in landscape and architecture photos have become very easy. But, how good are those automatic selections? If you edit photos for web representation alone, they are mostly good enough. But if you intend to print your photos, you might want to improve them, which is what I show in this article.

An Unusual but Effective One-Light Portrait Photography Setup

If you are new to working with artificial light, you might look at some of the complex multi-light setups seasoned professionals use and feel a bit overwhelmed or discouraged. However, you can absolutely make creative, compelling, and professional-level portraits with just a single light, and this neat video tutorial will show you one of the more unusual but effective ways of doing so.

Do You Really Need Photography Contracts?

When you are new to photography, you spend most of your time focusing on the image-making process, but as you start to charge for your work, there are important fundamentals of business you must learn as well, one of the most crucial being the contract. This important video discusses why you should really have a contract, even if you think you don't need one.

5 Reasons Weddings Might Be Stressing You Out

Wedding photography is notorious for being a demanding, high-stakes genre, and as such, it is natural that with that comes a fair amount of stress. Nonetheless, that does not mean you can't do certain things to reduce that stress. This excellent video tutorial features an experienced wedding shooter discussing five reasons why you might be overly stressed shooting weddings and what you can do to fix that.

How to Edit a Landscape Photo in Lightroom

While Photoshop remains the place where the most complex and intricate edits are done, Lightroom has become far more capable in recent iterations, and you can now finish many photos without ever leaving the program. This excellent video tutorial features an experienced landscape photographer sharing how to edit photos from start to finish in Lightroom.

Loyal Sony Shooter Gets His Hands on a Canon EOS R5 and Loves It!

If you're a steadfast Sony loyalist, you might want to look away now, because a dedicated Sony shooter just got his hands on the Canon EOS R5 and a bunch of Canon lenses and absolutely loved the ecosystem. Take a look to find out why.

6 Photo Industry Trends We'll See in 2023

Between coming out to the worst of the pandemic, the rise of AI, and people producing and consuming more images than ever before, 2022 has been quite a year for the photography industry. What will 2023 bring to us? This interesting video discusses six trends we will see in the new year.

3 Tips That Will Improve Your Landscape Photography

Landscape photography is a tricky genre that takes the confluence of multiple skills to get right, but there are some overarching philosophies that can guide you to consistently better images. This excellent video tutorial features an experienced landscape photographer sharing three helpful tips sure to improve your photos.

The Best Images Come in Bursts

The creative process is rarely one in which you move straight ahead; instead, it is often two steps forward, one back, and maybe a few to the side. When you are feeling discouraged, one of the most important things you can remember is that the best creativity often happens in bursts. This great video essay discusses the topic and offers a lot of meaningful wisdom.

Why Some Photographers Prefer Prime Lenses

If you are new to photography, one of the most important distinctions you should learn is the difference between prime and zoom lenses. While neither is better than the other, they each have distinct advantages and disadvantages, which is why some photographers prefer primes and some stick with zooms. This helpful video discusses why one photographer prefers primes.

A Guide to Editing Landscape Photos in Luminar Neo

Luminar Neo offers a wide range of traditional editing tools in tandem with more innovative features meant to expand your creativity and make your post-processing workflow more efficient. One genre it excels in is landscape photography. This great video tutorial will show how to edit a landscape image in the program from start to finish.

How to Get Clean Photos When Shooting at High ISOs

Depending on what you shoot, you might have to take photos at high ISO levels. While modern cameras have made remarkable advancements in their ability to handle high ISOs, you will still have to deal with noise. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to work to reduce that noise and to get clean images.

Helpful Advice for Young and Budding Photographers

Are you a young and budding photographer, looking for your way in a complex world with numerous paths available to you? This fantastic video tutorial features an experienced photographer critiquing a range of images and offering some valuable advice along the way.

A More Effective Way to Use Topaz Labs Photo AI and Lightroom

Recently, Topaz Labs released Photo AI, which merges DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI into one program, meant to improve the quality of any image with little to no intervention from the photographer. However, most users probably use it in tandem with another cataloging and editing program like Lightroom. So, what is the best way to go about that? This great video tutorial will show a less common way of using the two in combination that offers some useful benefits.

10 Tips to Help You Improve Your Landscape Photography

Landscape photography is a challenging genre that takes a combination of creative vision, strong technique, patience, and cooperative elements to get just right. If you are a budding landscape photographer and looking to improve your work, check out this helpful video tutorial that will give you 10 tips to put you on your way.

How to Give Your Landscape Photos a Painterly Look

Landscape photography generally requires an above-average amount of post-processing to get to the final results, but the upside of that is that you can take a single image in many different creative directions. One popular style is the painterly look, and this great video tutorial will show you how to create it both Lightroom and Photoshop.

Have You Ever Tried Remote Landscape Photography?

Remote photography can be really useful in a lot of situations, but rarely is it used in landscape photography. Nonetheless, it can be quite useful, and this fun video will show you what you can accomplish with it.

How to Use Exposure Bracketing for Better Images

Camera sensors have become remarkably capable in recent years, able to capture scenes with wide dynamic range that would have been impossible for older models to handle. Nonetheless, there are still scenarios that exceed the abilities of even the best sensors. So, what do you do in those situations? Exposure bracketing is a powerful technique, and this helpful video tutorial will show you how to use it to improve your images.

How I’ve Perfected Location Scouting Before Shoots

There’s nothing worse than visiting a location prior to shooting, only to miss out on important details. Avoid headaches, and make sure that you’re prepared for the shoot day.

How to Create Window Light in Studio

It might seem strange to want to mimic natural window light in studio, but the beauty of having a controlled space is that you can create that light however you want, whenever you want. If you would like to make yourself a more versatile lighting pro, check out this great video tutorial that will show you how to create the look of natural window light in a studio.

A Complete Landscape Photography Shoot

One of the beautiful things about landscape photography is how many ways you can photograph the same scene, giving you tremendous creative potential no matter where you are or the conditions at hand. This great video tutorial follows a landscape photographer as he shoots landscape images, drone photos, time-lapses, and long exposures and shares some helpful tips and advice along the way.

A Complete Guide to Masking in Lightroom

In the past few updates to the program, Lightroom's masking features have expanded substantially both in precision and capabilities, and if you have not integrated the new panel into your post-processing yet, you are missing the opportunity to vastly improve your workflow. This fantastic video tutorial will show you everything you to know to take full command of Lightroom's masking tools.

What Are Native and Base ISO?

If you are looking to purchase a new camera, you will probably see the terms "native ISO" and "base ISO" thrown around. ISO, being one of the three fundamental exposure parameters, is a term that all photographers should understand. This great video tutorial will explain the differences between native and base ISO and the consequences each have on your photography.

A Complete Guide to Aerial Real Estate Video

Drones have revolutionized many photography genres, making aerial shots that were previously out of reach for anyone except creatives and clients with the largest budgets accessible to just about anyone. Real estate photography is one such genre where a photographer or filmmaker can augment their services with a drone. This excellent video tutorial will show you everything you need to know to take professional real estate footage sure to please your clients.

How to Place a Hair Light for Better Portrait Photos

While you can absolutely create compelling portrait photos using just a single light, moving into using multi-light setups opens a lot of creative and technical options that simply would not be possible otherwise. One of the most useful of these is the hair light, and this great video tutorial will show you how to place one properly to get the best results.

Helpful Advice for Cropping Landscape Images

When it comes to landscape photography, few creative decisions have a greater impact on the final image than your choice of crop. And yet, that can be a bit of a nebulous thing to nail down for a lot of photographers. If you would like to improve your crops and your overall images, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced landscape photographer offering a lot of helpful advice and insight into what makes a good crop.

21 Helpful Tips to Improve Your Wildlife Photography

Wildlife photography is a challenging genre that often requires strong technique, specialized knowledge and equipment, and a lot of patience. Whether you are a new wildlife photographer or a longtime pro, this excellent video tutorial will give you 21 tips sure to help you create more compelling wildlife photos.

What Is the Difference Between Fisheye and Rectilinear Lenses?

If you are new to photography, you might be wondering about fundamental differences between lenses. Many beginners are drawn to fisheye lenses, which offer a different perspective on the world and the ability to get a massive field of view in one frame. So, what is the difference between a fisheye lens and a more standard rectilinear model? This excellent video tutorial will teach you what distinguishes them.