There are a ton of products out there that promise you a quick and direct route to being a better photographer. Before you spend your money on what might be an empty promise, however, spend a few minutes watching this fantastic video essay that discusses what it really takes to become a better photographer.
When it comes to portrait photography, most professionals employ a range of lighting equipment to dial in the exact images they are looking for no matter where they are or when they are shooting. That being said, you will be amazed what you can accomplish with natural light and the knowledge of how to shape it to your needs.
Lightroom has some useful tools for organizing and working with large collections of photos, and one particularly useful option is virtual copies. If you have not used them before or you want to get more out of them, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you everything you need to know to use virtual copies.
Composition is a nuanced, tricky thing, and it holds within it the power to capture the viewer's eye and imagination. If you are looking for ways to improve the compositions of your images, no matter what genre you shoot, check out this fantastic video essay that will show you a time-tested technique for creating more interesting and compelling photos.
As landscape photographers, we are used to leaving our warm bed in the early morning, being on location, and also having a composition before the sun starts to rise. But what if we arrive after the sun has come up? Is there still a way to go home with strong photographs?
Family portraits are something that will almost always be in demand, but with multiple subjects to manage, with some of them often being unruly kids, it can take a lot to get a successful result. If you want to create better family portraits, check out this excellent video tutorial that will give five tips sure to help you improve.
There are few genres of photography I find more interesting and engaging than street, but it's a tricky discipline to master. In this video, Pat Kay walks you through five essential tips that could help you improve.
Utilizing natural light in your photography can be a quick and easy way to create portraits without having to fuss over strobes, light stands, and light modifiers. In this video, photographer Anita Sadowska takes us along for a swimwear shoot in an NYC location that features floor-to-ceiling windows, which allow for a generous amount of natural light to enter.
When I watch events, and the cameras swiftly pan by the crowded photographers trying to get the cover shot, I can’t help but scan for women. I do it when the receiver runs full force out-of-bounds and accidentally crashes into the sideline photographers.
When it comes to landscape photography, the wide angle lens is the most common tool of choice. And while they are great for the genre, they come with their own set of challenges that can make it quite tricky to come home with compelling images.
Wide angle lenses are almost always the first thing landscape photographers reach for, and, of course, there is a good reason why they are so popular in the genre. That being said, long telephoto lenses can produce equally interesting images and can actually be the better choice for certain images.
If you hop on Instagram and scroll through any landscape photography page, you will likely see a lot of images with cascading rays of dramatic golden light casting warm glows over their frames. And while that look is popular for a good reason, you can absolutely create equally compelling landscape photos in flat light, and this fantastic video tutorial will show you how.
One of the great benefits of using modern digital cameras is the high degree of customization options available. Menus, button configuration, touchscreens, and more can be customized for specific scenarios. In addition to programmable buttons and menus, all modern cameras include a feature called Custom Shooting Modes, which allow the user to save and recall personalized user profiles.
When it comes to learning lighting, we mostly discuss how to precisely add it to scenes to build up the final look from a blank slate. But just as important as knowing how to properly add light to the scene is knowing how to remove it. This quick and helpful video tutorial will give you an overview of negative fill, including what it is and how to use it in your photos.
We don’t talk enough about how relationships, or the lack thereof, will either make or break your career as a photographer. I’m not talking about the relationships with your clients. I’m talking about the needed strong relationships with all the supporting people that allow you to deliver the goods. These relationships are to be cultivated and nurtured.
Modern image files can be large and rather clunky to work with, but Lightroom has a neat feature to make things easier and more versatile: Smart Previews. This awesome video tutorial will show you the ins and outs of Smart Previews, including why they are used and how to take advantage of them for your own work.
Learning to produce technically proficient and creative video is no small feat, but if the sound that goes with it is not up to the same standard, your final product will be lacking. If you would like to improve the quality of the sound in your video, check out this fantastic video tutorial that offers six helpful tips that will have you on your way in no time.
The overall layout and the placement of subjects within the frame can make or break your photographs. You may know the rule of thirds and the golden section, but composition goes way beyond that, and most of it is about simple geometry.
Is getting criticism necessarily a bad thing? How does it affect who you are as an artist?
Over the past few years, Adobe has made great advances in artificial intelligence through Adobe Sensei. Regular Photoshop users will know how tough it can be to change a longstanding workflow and also how rewarding it can be to make effective use of newer features to save valuable time when editing.
Photography takes the combination of creativity, technical knowledge, and aptitude with a variety of specialized methods, and as such, there are a lot of places where things can go wrong. This excellent video tutorial discusses eight common mistakes both amateur and more advanced photographers make and how to fix them or avoid them in the first place.
This is a brief overview of why you need filters for landscape photography, comparing the different types of systems you may encounter, and breaking down which setup is right for you.
If you have considered diving into the world of art festivals, here's a little glimpse of what to expect based on personal experience. Spoiler alert, it's not an easy road to travel.
Few things are more frustrating than taking an image you are especially proud of or excited about, only to check the back of your camera and realize that it is not sharp and the moment has passed.
Perhaps no Photoshop feature is more fundamental to taking full advantage of the application than layers. Without them, there would be no way to edit an image without destructively altering the original, nor would it be possible to go back to adjust edits after you initially create them.
The histogram is one of the most useful tools available to any photographer, no matter the genre in which they shoot. You can do a lot more with it than simply reading the tonal content of your images, though. This excellent video tutorial will show you three lesser-known aspects of the histogram and how to use them in Lightroom or Camera Raw to get more out of your image edits.
Modern cameras and lenses are so good that they can handle just about anything you can throw at them, and while it is wonderful to have such powerful capabilities at your fingertips, it can also be a bit paralyzing in a way.
If you only shoot with one camera, you will never have to deal with the issue of syncing clocks, but if you have ever shot a large event with multiple bodies that were not perfectly in sync, you know the frustration of trying to cull those images.
When you are a new photographer, you have a ton to learn and take in all at the same time, and it can be easy to go wrong at different points. If you are new to photography and want to improve, check out this excellent video tutorial that discusses five common mistakes that beginner photographers make and how to fix them or avoid them entirely.
In digital photography, chimping is when you take a photograph, look at the LCD screen, and then adjust your exposure settings (ISO, aperture, shutter speed) if they are a bit off. In this article, I will tell you why you shouldn’t be doing this.
Photography gear is quite expensive, and filling out your kit can quickly add up in cost. Purchasing used can save you a ton of money, but, of course, you want to make sure the camera or lens you are considering is in good shape and fully functional.
There are some common habits that photographers tend to fall into, some beneficial and some detrimental. If you want to improve your images and continue to grow as a creative, check out this fantastic video tutorial that discusses five common habits photographers need to unlearn.
The neat thing about landscape photography is that you can create a wide variety of different photographs of the same frame simply by varying your camera settings.
Being a photographer takes the ability to handle a lot of pressure: the need to constantly bring your best abilities to a shoot, to always be able to innovate creatively, to juggle a wide range of skills needed to run a business, and a lot more. At the end of the day, though, are you remembering to enjoy your photography?
It is always a good idea to try to get your compositions right in camera, both to keep your eye sharp and to retain as much resolution and as flexible a file as possible, but there is no shame in cropping in post, whether to get a different aspect ratio, get closer than you were able to in person, or simply because you have changed your mind about the composition.
Do you struggle with finding compositions in woodland? Over the years, I have developed a strategy that helped me to succeed. Sometimes, I even see one composition beside the other without even looking.
Photography, just like any other creative pursuit, is prone to encouraging certain habits. Some of those can be quite beneficial, and some of those will likely hold you back. This excellent video discusses 12 habits that every photographer should have: what they are, why they are beneficial, and how to implement them in your process.
The Nikon Z 9 is built for speed. Here are the first customizations I’ve chosen to make mine even faster.
The current state of the world can easily be described as challenging. How can art and photography fit into this broader context of current affairs?
It’s not out of the ordinary to say that the last two years haven’t exactly been the easiest. A once-in-a-lifetime pandemic comes with challenges. And that’s the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
I've spent a lot of money on backgrounds, and while for photographing humans, it's certainly the way to go, for product photography, sometimes, the solution is sitting right in front of your face. I mean that in the most literal of senses, as in your computer monitor.
There is something to be said for getting composition right in camera, of course, but that does not mean you should never use the tools available to you in post-production, particularly the ability to crop photos to be just right.
One thing we sometimes forget in the process of trying to improve our photos is the impact a simple prop can have, especially when you are trying to break through a creative block.
Landscape photography is made for manual mode, as you have the time to evaluate exactly how you want to expose the frame, both from a creative and technical standpoint.
Shooting with a wide aperture for portraits with a shallow depth of field is a highly popular look, but when you are photographing in the sun with flash, you can run into impossible-to-solve exposure issues — impossible until you introduce some new techniques.
Modern digital cameras have unbelievable dynamic range and post-processing latitude compared to those of a decade ago, and that has encouraged a lot of us to simply automatically bring the shadows up on every photo without a second thought. Is that the best choice, though? Maybe not.
Whenever you are preparing for a shoot, sketching your images should be a part of your pre-planning process. The sketches don’t have to be the perfect storyboard. But it should have enough details to guide a creative vision.
Composition is something a lot of newer landscape photographers struggle with, particularly since it cannot be as easily codified as something like the right camera settings. If you are learning landscape photography and you want to improve your compositions, check out this excellent video tutorial that will give you five tips that are sure to set you on the right path.
Landscape photography is a unique genre in that you do not have control over the light and conditions, and even if you do your best to plan for the right scenario, you are not guaranteed to get it. So, how do you accept the conditions you are given and still enjoy the experience even when things are not going your way?
Headshot photography is one of the fastest-growing segments in the industry and for good reason. With more people working from home and using technology to collaborate, our online personas have become more important than ever. Many people have started new careers and businesses due to the pandemic and need to update their branding images.
Panoramic photos can be stunning to look at, but they can also take a fair bit of technical expertise and preparation to get right. If you are out and about, it may be cumbersome and annoying to set up a tripod and go through the process. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to instead shoot panoramic photos handheld.