More and more clients are looking for options with photography and video services bundled together. If you shoot one or the other, chances are you have been asked if you could capture both on their special day. I sure have. So, how do you shoot both on the same day?
A new sky can take an otherwise drab photo and turn it into something much more compelling. Still, it takes a careful eye and some specific Photoshop skills. This great video will show you how to create convincing sky replacements using Photoshop.
Creating composite image can be a fun blend of imagination and a range of practical post-processing techniques. Two of the most important skills for creating convincing results are matching light and color. This helpful video will show you a range of tools to check your work and to achieve the best results.
Photography can be a tricky thing to get into, with lots of different factors you have to master all at once to be successful. This great video discusses seven things an experienced photographer wishes he had known when he first started.
Cutting out hair has always been problematic in Adobe Photoshop. There are several methods for selecting and masking hair, but finding the right technique depends on the complexity of your photo.
One of the most nebulous concepts in professional photography is the task of pricing your services and products. If this is something you struggle with, this helpful video will give you a lot of great guidelines for knowing what to charge to maximize your income.
Would you shoot the same thing every day for a year as a personal project? This video shows how much value there is in routine. This is a story all about how a guy’s life got flipped upside down.
Photography often puts subjects in vulnerable situations in which even well-intentioned people can misbehave and cause lasting damage. This important video features both a model and a photographer discussing the issue and what can be done to provide the safest and most professional working environments possible.
Becoming a successful photographer has always been a difficult thing to do, and it is only going to become harder in the future. Still, it can be a very rewarding career. If you are interested in becoming a professional, this helpful video from a seasoned photographer details seven things you need to do to increase your chances of finding success.
As time goes on, the tools and technology keep getting better and more powerful. Today, learn how you can take a boring seamless paper backdrop and give it life with added texture and easy to follow steps using Photoshop.
Lighting is about more than simply providing proper illumination that shows your subject off in a good way. With proper control of it, you can evoke certain moods or emotions that can go beyond simply illuminating your photo and create a more complete experience for the viewer. This great video demonstrates how this is done by showing two vastly different moods made using creative lighting.
Photoshop has many powerful features for retouching photos, with one of the most impressive being frequency separation. However, this technique requires a very careful touch to achieve proper results. This great video will show you everything need to know to use it for retouching photos.
The vast majority of studio strobes have modeling lights built in, which most of us think of as being useful for showing how the shadows are going to fall when we take a shot, but they are useful for more than just that. This quick and helpful video will give you three reasons why you should always use the modeling lights on your strobes.
The difference between a mediocre edit and a superb edit is sometimes subtle. This subtle difference can often be just a matter of applying a minor dodge and burn, vignette, or other editing technique that gently finesses the image into a masterpiece.
Many aspiring photographers get intimidated by landscape photography because of their unfamiliarity to filters. While filters are not 100% essential to learning landscape, understanding this topic before making choices can lead you towards better gear decisions.
If you are photographing people, one of the most fundamental skills you will need is the ability to retouch blemishes. If you are new to the process, this helpful video will show you how to use Photoshop to do it.
The omnipresence of camera phones and their prospect of "replacing" professional cameras has caused an uneasy stir within the photographic community. And now adding to this agitation are a few professionals who are offering photography workshops based on shooting with smartphone cameras.
One of the biggest aspects of the vast connectedness of the modern world is how easy it is to access a wealth of information and content from millions of creators and educators. But that is not always a good thing, and this great video discusses why you should try to care just a little less and gives you an actionable plan to accomplish that.
Abstract nature and landscape photography is a subgenre in its own right. It is a fascinating approach to nature, where the feeling of the photo is usually more important than the subject.
Recently I was thinking about the year so far and noticed that my output for the year was down compared to other years. Why was this?
Photoshop is a tremendously capable program full of tons of capabilities, but one of the most fundamental and useful of them is Camera Raw. If you are new to Photoshop, this helpful video will show you just how much you can accomplish using Camera Raw to edit your images.
Color grading is a pivotal step in putting the finishing polishes on an image and developing your own personal style. If you are new to the technique, this great video will show you how you can quickly and effectively color grade an image using the Levels tool in Photoshop.
Underexposing is one of the most common techniques photographers in many different genres use, and it can be quite a beneficial way to shoot, but that does not mean it is always the appropriate way to shoot. This helpful video discusses the benefits of underexposing your images, when it might be right for your workflow, and when you should avoid it.
Do you understand the differences in color spaces? Have you ever exported a photo out of Adobe Photoshop after some editing, and once you upload it online, the colors appear to be completely different? Perhaps the colors now look muted and dull?
I have been fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of some great advice over the years. In this article, I go over the five bits that have resonated the most with me and that I think of on every shoot.
Traditionally, portrait lenses fall somewhere around 85-135mm, perhaps a little wider at times. But that does not mean you should totally discount ultra-wide angle lenses; in fact, in certain situations, they can be just the right piece of gear to help you create something more unique than the standard shot. Nonetheless, they require some special considerations. This great video will give you six tips to ensure you can get the best wide angle portraits possible.
Hyperfocal distance is one of the most convenient techniques in landscape photography, as it allows you to maximize the amount of your image that is in focus without resorting to more involved techniques such as focus stacking. If you do not want to deal with mental math or looking up values in a table, this great video will give you a quick and easy method for employing hyperfocal distance in your own work.
We often hear the refrain that gear does not matter and a talented photographer should be able to create good images no matter what they are using. And while the advice is well intentioned, it is incomplete at best, and it is important to consider the situations in which gear actually does matter and how carefully thinking about your needs and budget can lead to better images. This excellent video examines that exact issue.
It's hard to make your images stand out from the crowd. Here is a method which might help you catch the attention of your audience.
I absolutely adore the precise placement of light, and recently, during a model test, I decided to play around with it, utilizing a new tool, ending up with my first portfolio shot of 2020.
The rule of thirds is completely overrated. There, I said it. Nope, I am not going to take it back.
V-flats are some of the most flexible and useful accessories a studio photographer can have. This great video will show you five different portrait lighting setups you can create using v-flats in studio.
If you are not proficient in artificial lighting, it can see a bit like its own world with its own language. Never fear, though, this great video will get you up to speed on what studio strobes are, how they work, and how to integrate them into your personal workflow.
One of the most fundamental and useful capabilities of Photoshop is the ability to remove distracting elements convincingly and efficiently, something that can improve or even save a wide range of photos. If you are new to Photoshop, this helpful video will show you how to use a combination of the Spot Healing Brush and Clone Stamp tools to remove distractions from your images.
Almost all of us have caught GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) at some point. We can often get caught up with buying new lights and modifiers, new lenses, and it can all become rather daunting, so recently as a challenge to myself I shot an entire portfolio building session with a single light, a single modifier, and a single lens.
Making the shift from amateur photographer to professional is about much more than simply being good with your camera and asking to be paid for it. It takes the confluence of a lot of skills and preparedness to be a successful professional photographer, and this great video will give you 10 things you need to know.
A good photo can be ruined by the bad placement of a hand in the shot. This part of the body can be overlooked while shooting, but can have a drastic effect on your outcome. If you are unsure of how to pose hands, this video will help.
There are countless ways to combine images in Photoshop. So many, in fact, it can be easy to fall into a routine using the same techniques, while ignoring or avoiding exploration of new and creative ways to combine them. If you want to try something different, Colin Smith at PhotoshopCAFE explains three techniques that can help you create compelling composites in this tutorial.
Are you up to a creative challenge today? No matter how many lights you have in your kit, I challenge you to shoot your next portrait or film using just one light.
The composition is one of the hardest aspects of landscape photography. There are many ways to compose a photo, and having a strong foreground is a common tool to create depth in your photos.
Wildlife photography often involves cropping an image, because you can't always get closer to the subject. This great video explains why you might want to consider your ISO setting a bit more when you know you're going to crop your image.
Growing up on comic books and graphic novels I have always been a fan of anything illustrated. When I started taking photos and creating art, I wanted my images to have a similar feel.
Posing is tricky business, and it can be twice as hard when you add in a second person. If you are struggling with posing couples, this excellent video will give you five foundational poses for couples that will help you find success again and again.
Whether you're a new photographer looking to create some interesting photos on a budget or an experienced shooter that's looking for a little out-of-the-box thinking for your photography, there are many ways to use household objects to spice up a shoot.
If you are new to Photoshop, you might have heard of Smart Objects, but might be a bit unsure of what they do or why they are so useful. Smart Objects can be tremendously helpful, and this great video tutorial will show you how they work and what you can do with them.
Landscape photography is a challenging but rewarding genre, full of subtle adjustments that can make or break an image. If you are looking to improve your images, this great video shows you lots of example photos and discusses what makes them compelling work.
Photoshop is full of lots of powerful features, and one of the most useful is the Liquify tool. If you are not quite proficient with it yet, this great video will show you everything you need to know about how to use the Liquify tool.
Technical perfection, originality, environmentalism, story, aesthetics, and realism are all concepts or principles we as landscape photographers can value. What we value will define how we do our landscape photography and if those photos will ever be any good.
With Photoshop’s Content Aware Fill tool, remarkable things are possible. Join Unmesh Dinda of PiXimperfect as he runs you through a simple means of removing this chain link fence and throws in a plethora of other incredibly useful tips along the way.
Chromatic aberration is an extremely common problem in photography that affects many lenses. This quick and helpful video will show you what it is and how to fix it.
