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Alex Cooke
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Articles written by Alex Cooke

5 Minutes of Helpful Portrait Photography Tips

Creating successful portrait photos takes the confluence of a wide range of skills and as such, it can be quite challenging. If you are looking to improve your portrait photos, check out this great video tutorial that offers a range of tips in just five minutes.

Can Sony's Budget 85mm Keep Up With Its Premium Version?

Sony's G Master lenses are well known for their strong performance and image quality, but of course, with that comes a premium price tag. At the 85mm focal length, there is the budget-friendly f/1.8 lens in addition to the f/1.4 G Master, and it comes in at only about a third of the price. However, can it keep up with the more expensive option? This great video review compares the two to help you decide which is right for your work.

Here Comes the Canon EOS R3: More Specs Emerge

Canon has made a few development announcements regarding the upcoming EOS R3, dropping some specs that underscore just what a powerful camera it will be. Still, there is a lot we do not know about the upcoming body, such as its resolution. However, Canon is planning to make the official announcement in just a few days, and we'll soon know everything about the camera.

How to Save Time by Batch-Editing in Lightroom

If you shoot a genre in which you have to deliver a lot of similar images, you can save significant amounts of time and ensure greater consistency in your images by using Lightroom's batch-editing functions. This helpful video tutorial will show you a batch-editing workflow that will help you quickly get through large sets of photos.

Learn How to Light and Shoot This Dramatic Portrait

A portrait with a dramatic golden sky behind the subject is a highly popular and timeless look, and it is also a fantastic way to learn how to balance artificial and ambient light. If you are new to the technique, this helpful video tutorial will show you how to set up and shoot such a portrait, including a lesson in using high-speed sync.

How to Improve Your Photos Without Spending Money

It is highly tempting to pull out your credit card and grab some expensive new piece of gear when you are feeling creatively stuck or like your technique just is not good enough. And while new gear can certainly be a lot of fun, if you spend money every time you feel stuck, you are going to quickly end up hurting. This awesome video tutorial discusses ways to improve your photography without spending a dime.

6 Beginner Editing Mistakes That Wreck Landscape Photos

Of all the genres, landscape photography often places some of the greatest emphasis on creating a fully realized image in the editing process. As such, there are a lot of places where things can go wrong. If you are new to editing landscape photos, this excellent video tutorial will show you six common mistakes and how you can fix or avoid them entirely.

Mistakes Landscape Photographers Make With Telephoto Lenses

When you think of focal lengths for landscape photography, your mind likely turns to wide angle lenses, and no doubt, those are commonly used for a good reason. However, using telephoto lenses can really open up your creativity. Nonetheless, they come with their own pitfalls, and this great video tutorial discusses them and what you can do to avoid them.

How to Blend the Night Sky and Foreground in Photoshop

A nighttime landscape shot with the Milky Way over the earth below can be dramatic and eye-catching, but they almost always require two separate exposures for the foreground and the sky to get the best image quality. Once you have your two images, you will need to blend them to create a single final frame, and this great video tutorial will show you how to do it using Photoshop.

A Review of the Samyang AF 24mm f/1.8 FE Lens

A wide-aperture 24mm lens is one of the most useful primes you can carry in your bag, offering a wide but not too wide focal length that can work in a variety of scenarios. The Samyang AF 24mm f/1.8 FE offers great image quality at an affordable price, and this great video review takes a look at the performance and image quality you can expect from it.

How a Simple 5-in-1 Reflector Can Drastically Improve Your Work

Lighting equipment can get really expensive quite quickly, but one of the most useful pieces of lighting equipment is actually extremely affordable. The 5-in-1 reflector is something that should be in every photographer or videographer's bag, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how to make use of it to dramatically improve the look of your video and images.

What You Need to Know About ND Filters for Photography

ND filters are some of the most commonly used photography accessories out there, and they are great for both creative and technical applications. If you have not used them before, this great video will show you how they work and what they are useful for.

Comparing the Video Quality Between the Canon EOS R5 and Sony a1

The Sony a1 and Canon EOS R5 are two of the most powerful cameras out there, both offering impressive 8K video capabilities among other features. How do they compare on the video front? This excellent video review discusses the video capabilities of both after six months of usage.

More Canon Lenses Are on the Way

Canon has been impressing with their RF lenses, which offer fantastic image quality and push the boundaries of design to interesting and useful new heights. They look like they are showing no signs of stopping, with news of more new designs being readied for announcement popping up on the radar.

Creative Ideas for Landscape Photos in Bad Weather

Most of us do not particularly enjoy standing in inclement weather, particularly with expensive and often fragile photo equipment. However, if you are willing to weather the elements, you can often get dramatic and compelling landscape images that capture the viewer's eye. This excellent video tutorial will give you some great ideas for taking awesome images in the rain.

How to Choose the Right Head for Your Tripod

Tripods are one of the most common and useful accessories a photographer or videographer can have, and just as important as the tripod itself is the head you put on top of it. There quite a few different kinds of heads, and this awesome video tutorial will show you how each of them works and which one is most appropriate for the work you do.

How to Plan Stunning Moon Alignment Photos

You have probably seen jaw-dropping photos in which the moon aligns with some sort of natural or man-made landmark. They take a fair deal of careful and precise planning, however, and this excellent video tutorial will show you exactly how to do it to get your own shots.

11 Things Every Photo Studio Needs

We spend a lot of time talking about camera gear and lenses, but of course, a photo studio needs more equipment than that — a lot more, in fact. If you are outfitting a new studio space or looking to add a bit to yours, check out this great video that discusses 11 things every photo studio should have.

Let Your Photography Make You Happier and More Content

How often do you go back and look through old photos, even ones that did not make it into your portfolio? And how often do you really spend time with those photos, not just scanning them? It can be more valuable than you think, not just for your photography, but for your happiness and for finding deeper meaning.

Comparing the Sony a7 III to the Nikon Z 6II

Both the Sony a7 III and Nikon Z 6II are relatively affordable hybrid full frame bodies, meant for professionals who need to be able to tackle multiple scenarios with ease. If you are wondering which of the two is right for you, this great video compares their performance to help you decide.