Though we normally think of Photoshop as the place for complex edits, in recent iterations, Lightroom has become a tremendously capable and surprisingly intricate program. As such, there are some features and capabilities you might not be aware of.
You can be proficient with a camera and lighting and have a strong creative voice, but to find success as a professional photographer takes strong business skills as well.
The first thing that comes to mind when panoramas are mentioned is an extremely wide field of view. Often, you need multiple photos to cover such angles. A panorama can also be achieved by a crop. Which method should you use for landscapes? Cropping or stitching?
Gaining technical competence is hard enough, but developing an original creative voice is an entirely separate challenge. This can be particularly tough in a genre in which you do not get control over the presence or placements of elements in the scene, such as landscape photography.
Adobe's Lightroom masking feature introduced just under a year ago revolutionized the workflow for many photographers by automating the tedious task of creating individual masks for specific parts of an image.
One of the challenging things about running a photography business is that, unlike a regular job, we have to give ourselves all the structure to stay on track and to be productive. If that is something you struggle with, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you five useful hacks to make you a more productive photographer.
It takes years of practice to become good at sports photography. Basketball, for example, is fast-paced, with frequent turnovers. When covering a game, you need to be attentive to all of the action happening on the court. But even if you photograph all of the crucial plays, something may be missing from your coverage.
Braces are extremely common, but their wearers are often a bit self-conscious about them, and as such, you might get requests to remove them. As usual, it is Photoshop to the rescue, and this helpful video tutorial will show you how to deal with a situation that can be surprisingly tricky.
The nice aspect of learning things like camera settings and lighting is that these topics can often be objectively quantified. On the other hand, something like posing is a bit more nebulous and something that many photographers struggle with even when they have mastered other aspects of portrait work.
DSLR fashion has plummeted in recent years. The perks of mirrorless tech continue to exceed expectations, pushing boundaries and leaving their clunky, slower siblings in their shiny, space-age wake. But does any of that really matter in the commercial photographic world? Well, no, not really.
No doubt, you need to be good with a camera and have a strong creative voice to find success as a professional photographer, but there is a lot more to that life than simply taking images for money.
Since the Canon EOS R6 Mark II was launched, the opportunity to keep your Canon EOS R6 camera up to date is even more important. Canon lists the version 1.8.0 firmware update as fixing the following issues:
My business insurance has rocketed in price this year with a 33% increase. Yet, I would not do without it. Like anything with monetary value, cameras can be targeted by thieves. That risk is growing.
Composition is one of the trickiest and most nebulous aspects of photography, and it is something even experienced photographers often struggle with.
Being a new photographer can be daunting, and it can be easy to make mistakes that can derail your progress and confidence as a creative. If you are new to the craft and looking to improve, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced photographer sharing five mistakes he made along the way and how to avoid them or learn from them.
Are you starting out as a wedding photographer? Maybe you're looking to improve the quality of what you deliver. Here are my top 10 must-have shots, when they will happen during the day, and key information to consider when setting them up, finessing, and completing them.
Creating a successful landscape image takes a complex combination of a range of factors, and as such, anything you can do to simplify or clarify the process can have a big impact on your workflow and the final product.
Working with flash is something that scares a lot of photographers, but once you learn the basics, you will probably wonder how you went so long without in your toolkit. Flash can make you a far more versatile photographer and open up creative avenues that simply are not possible when working solely with natural light.
Have you ever experienced being delighted about the outcome of your photographs but ended up getting a different reaction from your audience? Here’s a step that might help you curate your images better.
When you love photographing moving subjects, it may be difficult to get a perfectly sharp photo. The best way is by moving your camera with the subject to keep it in the frame. This technique is called panning. I have 10 tips for successful panning photography.
Price lists can be dangerous, but they can also be great. How do you know if you should reveal your hand and have one displayed on your website?
Photography is quite literally painting with light. As such, it’s important for a photographer to be able to see and shape light.
While clear blue skies are happy times for many people, for landscape photographers, they can be a source of significant frustration. That swath of monotonous blue can remove a large chunk of visual interest from a scene and make it difficult to create compelling images.
Like it or not, social media is one of the primary means of disseminating your work and communicating with potential clients nowadays. As such, it is important for photographers to know how to effectively engage with it and leverage it for finding customers and advancing their careers.
When you have gained a lot of confidence in your ability with a camera and have built out a nice portfolio, you might start thinking about going professional. However, even though it absolutely takes those aforementioned items, they are not enough on their own. It takes a good amount of business savvy to create a reasonable income from photography.
Most of the time, a landscape photo will show the horizon. The best position of that horizon depends on what's important in the photo. Do you place the horizon at the top, the bottom, or somewhere else in the frame? If you struggle with that decision, this article may give a helping hand.
Perhaps no choice is more fundamental to and impactful on your images than the focal length you employ. So, how do you choose the right focal length for a photo? It is a more complex question than it might seem on the surface.
Lightroom is bursting with a variety of tools for editing your images, but one that is often overlooked is the Targeted Adjustment Tool. This tiny icon hiding among the larger sliders and adjustments is quite powerful, though, and with it, you can efficiently make very precise adjustments to multiple aspects of your photos.
Choosing a lens which will give you desired results for a particular portrait assignment is an integral part of being a photographer.
This video from nature photographer Simon d'Entremont offers one of the best explanations of camera metering modes I have come across, complete with examples of each mode and when to use them.
Low budget doesn't have to mean low quality. Here's a handy tip for keeping your backgrounds interesting.
Blurry pictures are a nightmare. When you simply have to recover detail on images you've taken, this is the video to watch. Photographer and author Glyn Dewis goes through three mainstream programs, Luminar Neo, On1 NoNoise AI 2023, and Topaz Sharpen AI, that he uses to evaluate and try to improve his blurry image.
When it comes to landscape photography, we often talk about things like exposure settings, lens choice, use of filters, managing conditions, and more. But one thing we do not talk about as much is color, and yet, it is one of the most powerful aspects of any landscape photograph.
When it comes to photography, your purpose can feel a little vague. While that may not necessarily be a problem, a little focus — if you'll excuse the pun — can push you forward and improve your work.
Mostly, photographers learn the camera settings and compositional techniques first. Those basics of photography are essential. But when we have mastered those, what do we do next?
One of the first techniques every new photographer loves to try is the long exposure. Long exposures can improve image quality by helping to reduce noise, and they can be a wonderfully powerful creative tool that can entirely change the look of an image.
While I'm not fond of using AI to replace the creative process, I think it is incredibly helpful in enhancing image quality. With the right AI tools, you can rescue photos that may have been unusable otherwise. Topaz Photo AI is such a tool, and in this article, we look at its capabilities, limitations, and ways to get the best results.
When you think of stunning landscape photography, you probably imagine vast expanses with golden rays of light cascading across them. However, cloudy, foggy, or rainy days can yield equally stunning photos if you know how to work with them to maximize your results. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to embrace those gray days and come away with compelling photos.
The rule of thirds is probably the most common heuristic method of composition, so much so that just about every modern camera and editing program has a grid for its usage built in. And while it can often lead to well-balanced photos, there is a downside to it too.
Robert Frank and Sergio Larraín are two of the most famous photographers in history, and as such, we can learn some important lessons from their images and their approach to the craft. This excellent video essay takes a look at their work and their philosophies and discusses three important lessons we can deduce that will help us become better, more complete creatives.
You can do everything you can to hone your technique and expand your creative range, but perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of landscape photography is that you have no control over the conditions. If the weather is dull, though, that does not mean you have to pack up your gear and head back home. With a little adjustment, you can still come home with fantastic images.
Forget the rule of thirds and leading lines. This is not an article that will give recipes or magic bullets for composing images. Instead, we will talk about methods and broad approaches I used to go beyond the cliché techniques and create unique imagery
Lighting a group of people can be particularly tricky for new photographers, but it does not have to be, nor does it take a lot of expensive gear. In fact, it can be done with just a speedlight and a bit of know-how. This excellent video tutorial features an experienced photographer showing you how to pose and light a group portrait using just a single speedlight.
Getting tack-sharp photos of birds in flight is not easy, but when you get it right, the results can be stunning. One of the most fundamental aspects of this is choosing the correct shutter speed.
At its most fundamental level, photography is about being able to read light and create images with interesting, dynamic, or flattering light. If that is something you are still learning, this great video tutorial will show you a simple setting hiding in just about every camera that will make the process a lot easier.
Conventional wisdom in studio portrait photography tells us to avoid shooting portraits wide open. But in this video, I will show you why I shoot portraits wide open all the time, and you should try it too.
If you find your photos are often a bit monotonous and lacking in interest and you are unsure of how to break out of that rut, this is the video tutorial for you. A simple change of habit can help you take more varied images and expand your eye beyond what you are used to shooting.
Very few people jump right in to running a photography business full-time. The vast majority start out slowly, doing photography on the side while they maintain their primary income from another job.
Though it takes a lot of skill with a camera and in editing, being a successful professional photographer takes a lot more than just those. If you feel comfortable with your skills and your portfolio and you are wondering if you are ready to make the jump, check out this fantastic video essay that features an experienced professional detailing how to know if you are ready.