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Alex Cooke
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Articles written by Alex Cooke

How to Blend Photos With Different Shutter Speeds in Photoshop

Landscape photographers often blend images shot at different focal distances for maximum sharpness and occasionally those shot at separate focal lengths for creative effect. However, you can also blend images shot at different shutter speeds for both creative effect and high levels of sharpness, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how to do it using Photoshop.

A Year With Fuji's Flagship X-T4 Mirrorless Camera

Fujifilm's X Series of cameras has gained a lot of respect over the years as a line of capable, well-designed bodies that offer photographers a functional and creatively inspiring experience. The X-T4 is the most recent flagship in the company's line of mirrorless cameras, and this excellent video review discusses how it holds up after a year of usage.

5 Things You Should Do Before Every Wedding You Photograph

Wedding photography is a high-pressure genre in which being prepared in every aspect is crucial to ensuring success when the big day arrives. This excellent video tutorial features a seasoned wedding photographer discussing five things you should do before every wedding you shoot.

How to Get Started in Deep-Sky Astrophotography With a Telescope and Your Camera

Astrophotography is a very challenging genre, requiring specialized equipment, technical knowledge, top-notch technique, and a lot of patience, but it can be tremendously rewarding when it all comes together and you get a stunning image of something that is an unfathomably large distance from our home. If you are new to deep-sky astrophotography, this great video tutorial will show you the basics of getting started with a camera and a telescope.

Don't Listen to Photography Gatekeepers

Photography culture is a weird thing, and there can be a lot of unnecessary gatekeeping regarding gear, skills, creativity, access to opportunities, and more, and it can all be rather discouraging, especially for newcomers. This excellent video essay offers some important words of encouragement for facing those gatekeepers.

A Beginner's Guide to Autofocus

One of the most fundamental and important features of any camera is autofocus, and modern bodies have impressively capable and comprehensive systems that are designed to competently tackle just about any scenario you can throw at them. With those capabilities come some complexity, however, so if you are new to photography, check out this great video tutorial that will show you the ins and out of autofocus systems and settings and how to choose the right option to get the best results.

Do You Deal With Impostor Syndrome?

Being a creative comes with a healthy dose of assaults on our confidence, both internal and external. When it comes to those internal assaults, one of the worst is impostor syndrome. Impostor syndrome can undermine your confidence and make it difficult to perform at your best behind the camera. This excellent video essay discusses the issue and what you can do to overcome it to become a happier and more confident creative professional.

A Review of the Nikon NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S Lens

With a relatively light and small footprint along with a wide aperture for its focal length, the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED is a compelling option for Nikon mirrorless shooters in a wide variety of genres. This excellent video review takes a look at the lens and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

A Look at the Pentax K-3 Mark III DSLR

Pentax may have a smaller market share than most, but their users are quite loyal to the company and its determination to keep DSLRs alive and evolving. The K-3 Mark III is their latest flagship APS-C DSLR, and this great video review talks about some of the improvements to the camera and shares lots of sample images to show what you can expect from it in practice.

Shooting With the Canon EOS R5 and RF 50mm f/1.2L

The Canon EOS R5 and RF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens are two of the company's best offerings, offering top-notch image quality, high resolution, and performance even with an extreme aperture, making them an especially exciting option for portrait shooters. This excellent video shows the kind of performance and image quality you can get from the combination.

Using the Incredible Canon 200mm f/2L for Portraits

As far as extreme lenses go, Canon's 200mm f/2L IS USM is near the top, with one of the most extreme focal length and aperture combinations out there. Though it was generally designed as a sports and wildlife lens, it has found a second home as a portrait lens, and this fun video discusses what it is like shooting with it, both the pros and the cons.

Using a Supertelephoto Zoom Lens for Minimalist Landscape Photography

Landscape photography is traditionally done with a wide angle lens in order to capture the majority of the scene in the frame, and while there is nothing wrong with that approach, you can make images that are just as visually interesting with longer focal lengths. This excellent video shows how one photographer uses a supertelephoto zoom lens to create minimalist landscape photos.

Helpful Tips to Make You Work Faster in Lightroom

A lot of us spend a ton of time working in Lightroom, and anywhere we can increase our efficiency, even by just a little amount, can add up to big savings in the long run. This helpful video tutorial will show you a variety of ways to work more quickly in Lightroom and save a lot of time.

How to Use V-Flats to Create Eye-Catching Light for Portraits

Lights and specialty modifiers can be quite expensive, and filling out your collection can be a major hit to your wallet. However, one of the most versatile modifiers and a favorite of many studio photographers is also one of the cheapest. The humble v-flat is tremendously useful, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how to use them to create eye-catching light.

How to Direct and Pose for Better Headshots

Whereas things like camera settings and lighting can be quantified and thus committed to memory in a straightforward manner, posing and directing a subject is a bit more nebulous and often gives photographers a fair amount of trouble. Peter Hurley is well known as a master of directing and posing, and in this excellent video tutorial, he shares some of his best advice that is sure to improve your own work.

How to Color Grade a Photo in Lightroom

It used to be that for serious color grading work, you needed to work in Photoshop, but Lightroom now offers some powerful controls for color grading that let you take precise control to dial in the exact look you want. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to leverage those controls to color grade your photos.

How Good Is the Impressively Affordable Tamron 20mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M 1:2 Lens?

Currently on sale for just $249 and weighing less than half a pound, the Tamron 20mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M 1:2 lens is an affordable, versatile, and highly portable lens. How does it hold up in practice? This excellent video review takes a look at the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it.

Is This the Best Laptop for Creatives?

Apple's M1 Macs turned the computing world on its head a bit, offering impressive performance and jaw-dropping battery life at prices that were much more affordable than traditional levels, ushering in a new era of computing for creatives. This great video review discusses the M1 MacBook Air as a long-term solution for creatives and if it can handle the often heavy demands we place on our computers.

Why So Many People Fail at Their Creative Passions

Making photography a career is the dream for a ton of people, but very few find lasting professional success. Why is that? There are many things that make it difficult, but one of the most common and damaging is something we often do to ourselves.