Lightroom is more powerful than ever before, and it is entirely possible to edit a landscape photo from start to finish without having to switch over to Photoshop. If you would like to learn how to do so and pick up some useful tips along the way, check out this great video tutorial that will show you one such edit done entirely within Lightroom.
While browsing through various photo-sharing platforms, you might get the impression that everything has already been photographed. After all, millions of photos get uploaded each day to Instagram alone. But if you take a closer look, you'll see a lot of repetition. Many photos show the same places, the same compositions, and often similar light and editing. Even today, it's possible to discover new photo spots. In this article, I show you my favorite way to do so.
Being new to photography can be a bit daunting, as you have to build a variety of technical and creative skills simultaneously in order to create competent and compelling images. This helpful video tutorial discusses five common mistakes new photographers make and what you can do to fix them or avoid them altogether in the first place.
Depth of field is one of the most fundamental and powerful tools a photographer has at their disposal, and as such, mastering it is crucial to taking full technical and creative control of your images. If you are new to photography and wondering about how depth of field works, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you everything you need to know.
Here comes the shock: you can get extremely sharp photos with cheap gear. Let’s have a look at what sharpness is and how we can improve it.
Color psychology is one of the most important theories to understand as a photographer. But why is it such a powerful tool for influencing perception?
Your portfolio is your calling card, and as such, it requires a lot of careful thought and care when you are putting it together. If you are looking to build yours into one that attracts clients, check out this helpful video tutorial that discusses five tips sure to put you on the right track to an effective portfolio.
When you think of landscape photography, you probably think of using a wide angle lens, but a telephoto lens can be an equally effective tool. Nonetheless, it comes with its own set of challenges. One such aspect is the increased difficulty in getting sharp shots. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to use a telephoto lens for landscape photography and give you some useful tips for getting sharp photos when doing so.
There are two general philosophies in landscape photography: stay light on your feet and ready to move from scene to scene, or plan ahead, plant that tripod in the ground, and wait for the scene to develop in front of them until it is just right. While both are equally valid approaches, there is something to be said for being willing to adopt either as needed, and this excellent video discusses why.
Lightroom recently rolled out a new and far more powerful masking panel, and if you have not taken the time to incorporate it into your workflow yet, you are missing out on some highly useful tools. One particular function, Intersect, is a bit strange and not necessarily intuitive, but once you get the hang of it, it enables quick and powerful edits, and this excellent video tutorial will show you everything you need to know about it.
Adobe has released another update for Photoshop, bringing improved features, usability, and workflow for photographers and artists alike. However, one update from a while back has constantly irritated me, the save as feature, but there's an easy solution to fix it.
With technology continuing to move on at a swift pace, there's been plenty of recent discussion as to whether digital renders can truly ever replace product photography. Taking this one step further, is it possible that one day, artificial intelligence could simply create images without needing any input from a photographer or digital artist at all?
A wildlife photographer must be prepared to wait hours for a shot to emerge. And once that shot appears, she may only have one second in which to capture the scene before it changes. Making things more complicated are the dozens of variables that can affect the quality of the shot, including weather, erratic animal behavior, and even other photographers working in the same location.
No matter how uncomfortable it might feel to send out a photography contract at the beginning of your commercial photography journey, having a robust contract in place is essential for creating professional relationships with your clients.
When it comes to creating a professional-level portrait, knowing how to light, pose, and photograph your subject is only half the battle. A great portrait also needs a strong edit to be complete. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to edit a portrait from start to finish and show you some helpful tips along the way.
Take a nice subject, awesome conditions, build up a pleasing composition, and you will get a great photograph. But there is still something important missing for getting it to world class. Therefore, we have to go even one step further.
Street photography is a unique and challenging genre that requires fast reactions, solid technique, the ability to anticipate action, and a dose of creativity. If you would like to improve your street photography work, check out this fantastic video tutorial that discusses five common mistakes photographers make and how to fix them or avoid them in the first place.
The 4th of July is just about here, and that means fireworks will soon be filling the skies all around the United States. They make for fantastic photography subjects, and they can be a great technical challenge as well. If you are thinking of heading out to capture some images, check out this helpful video tutorial that will give you a range of tips to ensure you come home with the best possible shots.
Great cinematography can elevate an average video far above its station, and conversely, poor cinematography can damage an otherwise great picture. In this video, Mark Bone goes through the six most important rules that he believes every cinematographer and Director of Photography ought to know.
Few images are more iconic in landscape photography than the long exposure of water. It is about a lot more than simply throwing an ND filter on the front of your lens and going to town, however. This great video follows a photographer as he shoots and edits a long exposure of a seascape and offers a lot of helpful insights into and tips on his creative decisions and process.
Being new to photography can be a bit daunting, requiring you to tackle a variety of technical and creative ideas and approaches simultaneously. However, there is one lesson every new photographer should learn as soon as possible, as it will save them a lot of money and headache down the road and help them become better faster. This important video discusses the topic and how to get yourself on the right track.
While Lightroom and Photoshop are probably the most used post-processing programs, they are far from the only options. Many professionals prefer Capture One for their work, particularly for the way it renders color and for its tethering capabilities. If you are new to the program, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you how to edit a portrait using it.
Yousuf Karsh is widely regarded as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the twentieth century. In this essay, I discuss five ways that studying Karsh's life and photos can impact our own work as portrait artists.
There has been a huge rise in the popularity of portraits with shallow depth of field in the last decade, and while those can be compelling, they are certainly not the only way to shoot. In fact, you can give your images an extra dose of visual interest by integrating the environment around your subject in clever ways. This helpful video tutorial will show you just how to go about doing so.
As a photography instructor, one of the most common questions I see from students is about back-button focus. It's easy to gloss over it to keep things simple for new users, but doing so on the latest generation of mirrorless cameras leaves a lot of useful features on the table. It's worth learning.
The film look continues to gain popularity, and whether you use it as part of your personal aesthetic or for clients, knowing how to create it from digital images is a good skill to have. This helpful video tutorial will show you everything you need to know to create the look using nothing but Lightroom.
A park is a fantastic place to shoot portraits, full of interesting architecture, compelling light, and eye-catching foliage. If you would like to explore your creativity a bit, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you five easy concepts for shooting portraits in a park.
You can certainly just head out with your camera and create photos as you happen upon interesting scenes or subjects, but when it comes to shooting things like landscapes and cityscapes, planning ahead can really help you get next-level images. This helpful video tutorial features an experienced photographer discussing how he plans a shoot and showing some useful tools to give you a better chance of coming home with the shot you want.
After shooting more sunsets than I can count along the Pacific coast, I've experienced many different conditions and learned a plethora of valuable lessons. These are the most important tips I found throughout that journey that will help you the next time you're shooting along the coast.
Color grading is a good chance to add your personal touch to an image and to take it from good to memorable. It is a deceptively complex thing, though, and it takes a good eye and light touch to do it effectively. This helpful video tutorial will show you some great first steps and techniques for color grading images that are sure to get you up and running in no time.
Even if you follow all the guidelines for keeping your sensor free of dust, it is something that will probably happen to you at one time or another, and worse yet, you might not notice it until you are at home, looking at your images on your computer. Thankfully, though, it is not very difficult to take care of it using Lightroom, and this helpful video tutorial will show you how to quickly and easily take care of it.
Summer is coming! Your kids are just a moment or two away from finishing the school year. If you want to keep them occupied with something you can share as they grow, check out Camp Canon, an online summer camp for photography and videography. Schools out for summer, schools out forever... why not encourage a love for photography?
Creating an eye-catching and successful food photo is about more than simply lighting and arranging the food in a compelling way; you need to be able to create a set that complements the food and enhances the overall mood of the image. This helpful video tutorial features an experienced food photographer discussing some ways you can go about doing that.
For more than 30 years, I tried different camera settings for my landscape photography. With the settings I use today, I don’t only feel more flexible, but they allow me to nail each of my photographs technically.
The best way to get a good landscape photo is to be at the right place at the right time. Sometimes, though, you can be there and still struggle to get a photo that's different from what's already out there or the weather isn't cooperating, and that's where the magic of editing comes in.
Higher-paying jobs are the goal of just about any photographer or filmmaker, but the path to getting there is not always clear. If you are looking to land those more lucrative gigs, check out this great video essay that discusses how one creative started pulling down more income with his work.
Creating a compelling, professional video is just as much in the editing as it is in the shooting process. Editing is a serious undertaking, and as such, it can be easy for things to go wrong. This great video tutorial details five common mistakes creatives make when editing video and what you can do to fix them or avoid them in the first place.
Using natural or artificial light is not always a binary choice; often, you will want the two to complement each to produce a more balanced overall photo. If you would like to make your lighting skills more versatile, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you how to blend ambient light with flash for portraiture work.
In general, landscape photography is a two-step process, shooting the photo and polishing it through the editing process. As such, your skills at the computer need to be as finely honed as those behind the camera. This excellent video tutorial will show you the process of taking an image with a lot of potential and turning it into a compelling final photo through the power of editing.
Lightroom has more than one way of keeping tracking of the edits you make to your images, and the various methods have pros and cons that you should be aware of as your catalog grows. This helpful video discusses the usefulness of XMP files and why you should consider using them.
When we create a photograph, there are things we can do to change it from being mundane to interesting. Here are some of the most important aspects of composition and the one unteachable factor that is exclusively yours to discover.
When you think of using artificial light for portrait photography, you might think of it being a calculated, obvious aesthetic, but often, using flash is more about creating a subtle, understated effect that makes your images more balanced and well exposed. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to use artificial light to create an elegant effect for an eye-catching photo.
I have already written two articles about focus stacking here. The first article dealt with how I use automatic focus bracketing in the field, and in the second article, I shared my focus stacking workflow in Helicon Focus. To provide you with even more tools, I now show you how I combine focus stacking with exposure blending.
Millions of photos are uploaded each day, but we don't know who took them, unless they are properly credited. With proper credit, you can actually book more jobs, and it's a remarkable way of expanding your network.
Because we can't control the light or conditions in landscape photography, it is quite important to plan ahead to ensure that the time of day and weather will be right for the photos you want to create. However, as important as that is, it is also crucial that you be willing to stay flexible if an unexpected opportunity arises or the weather is not cooperating. This great video discusses why being overly rigid can be detrimental to your work.
If you look at the work of professional portrait photographers, you will probably notice that they often employ multi-light setups to achieve their desired looks. And while those are useful, you can absolutely create professional-level photos with a single light, and this helpful video will show you what you can accomplish with one.
Most landscape photographs require at least some degree of post-processing to produce a complete image, and as such, you need to be comfortable with your skills not only behind the camera but at the computer as well. If you are working on improving your landscape image edits, check out this excellent video tutorial that discusses four mistakes photographers make in the post-processing stage and how to fix or avoid them.
The things that help us survive in life are often the same as those which help us survive in business. And when you make your living from your art, survival in business can feel a lot like life or death.
On the surface, teleconverters seem like a fantastic way to help a lens pull double duty by allowing you to extend its focal length for a lot less than it would cost to buy another entire lens. While they can be quite useful, they also have some drawbacks you should be aware of before you buy one. This helpful video will show you their pros and cons as well as some other options to help you decide the best approach for your work.
There is nothing better than being out in nature, inhaling all the mood out there, deciding on the best possible camera position, and enjoying landscape photography. But what if there are 25 other photographers beside you so that it becomes difficult to move just 20 inches to the left or right without disturbing another photographer?
