Articles written by Alex Cooke

TTArtisan makes some very affordable lenses, and at $118, the 17mm f/1.4 is no different. Offering a wide focal length paired with a maximum aperture and available for a wide variety of APS-C mounts, it looks like a potentially useful budget option for a wide range of shooters. If you are interested in such a lens, check out this great video review that takes a look at the 17mm f/1.4 and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

With specifications and features that look quite pedestrian by today’s standards, the Canon 5D Classic might not seem like it deserves much attention nowadays, but it was a revolutionary camera for its time and well worth a second look in 2022. This fun video takes a look at the famous camera and gives 10 reasons why it was such an important body.

If you asked many photographers what magical device they would love to have, an adapter that turns manual focus lenses into autofocus ones would probably be near the top of many lists. For Sony shooters, there is the Techart PRO Version II, which allows Leica M lenses to autofocus on E mount mirrorless cameras, and this awesome video review takes a look at the adapter and the sort of performance you can expect from it in real-world usage.

Dog photography can be a tremendously fun and rewarding genre, but it also takes a fair amount more skill than it might seem on the surface. Whether it is something you would like to make money from or you are simply trying to capture some nice memories of your own pups, check out this great video tutorial that features an experienced dog photographer sharing five useful tips to improve your work.

Knowing how to light, pose, and compose a portrait is only half the battle. To create a successful final image, you also need to have strong editing technique. If you would like to learn how to properly edit a portrait, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will guide you through the entire process, including frequency separation, dodging and burning, and color grading.

Street photography is a genre that requires both a lot of savvy and technique but also a fair dose of patience. Even if you do not do street work, there are a lot of lessons to be learned from the genre that can be applied across pretty much all photographic pursuits. This excellent video essay discusses those lessons and how to use them to improve your own images.

Even to the non-photographer, the look of light through a window is quite recognizable, and as such, it is an excellent way to give your portraits an elegant and timeless look. Of course, we do not always have the ability to just use a window with natural sunlight streaming through, and as such, knowing how to create it in studio is a useful skill. Thankfully, it is not that difficult, nor does it require a lot of equipment. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to do it with just a single speedlight.

Shooting portraits on location is a fantastic way to add some drama to your shots or to use the surrounding environment to complement your subject and to tell a story. If you would like to improve your lighting and portraiture, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you how one photographer lit, posed, and shot a series of pin-up portraits using four different lighting setups.

Usually, if you want to use a supertelephoto prime lens for things like wildlife or sports photography, you have to use first-party options. However, Sigma offers a rare exception to that rule, the 500mm f/4 DG OS HSM Sports, and it offers that combination of extra-long focal length and wide aperture sought after by many professionals at a significantly more affordable price. Can it match pace with the likes of Canon and Nikon? This great video review takes a look at the lens to answer that question.