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Alex Cooke
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Articles written by Alex Cooke

A Look at How to Improve Your Landscape Photography Compositions

No doubt, composition is one of the trickiest and most nuanced aspects of landscape photography, and there are numerous philosophies and techniques for finding success. If that is something you struggle with, this excellent video tutorial discusses some of what works and what does not in landscape composition.

Versatile and Affordable: A Review of the Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD Lens

A 70-300mm zoom lens can be a quite versatile optic for a wide variety of work ranging from sports to wildlife and more. If you are interested in adding such a lens to your own kit, check out this comprehensive video review of the highly affordable Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD for Sony E mount cameras.

What Is the Best 50mm Lens for Canon Shooters?

Canon shooters are not without options when it comes to 50mm lenses, with a huge range of different optics at varying price points and image quality. This excellent video review takes a look at three of the best options out there, the EF 50mm f/1.2L USM, RF 50mm f/1.2L USM, and the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art.

What Do All Those Lighting Terms Photographers Use Actually Mean?

Learning artificial lighting can be tricky, particularly given the abundance of unfamiliar terms. Once you get those down, though, you will find studying and working with artificial light a lot easier. This helpful video will get you up and running with the most commonly used terms in no time at all.

How Do You Actually Think of Good Ideas?

It is all well and good to put all the time and effort you can into making yourself an apt photographer, but when it comes time to be creative, how do you actually come up with good ideas? This fantastic video tackles a rather nebulous subject to help you become a better photographer.

How Much Money Does One Million Video Views Get You on YouTube?

The dream of many people is to be able to leverage a platform like YouTube as a full-time career, but of course, with such spaces absolutely inundated by many creatives, that is not easy. Nonetheless, if you can make it, what kind of money can you expect? This great video features a YouTube educator discussing his actual revenue on several of his million-views videos.

How to Create Professional Portraits With Just Umbrellas

There are a ton of different lighting modifiers out there, and as a photographer, you can very quickly end up spending a lot of money building a library of different tools for specific looks and purposes. However, you might be surprised by just how much you can accomplish with the humble and affordable umbrella, and this excellent video tutorial will teach you how to get professional results when using them.

Is Canon's Unique 800mm f/11 Lens Worthwhile?

When Canon announced their RF 600mm f/11 IS STM and RF 800mm f/11 IS STM lenses, they raised a lot of eyebrows. No doubt, the lenses are unusual, but they also offer ultra-long levels of reach at highly affordable prices, especially compared to other lenses that reach such focal lengths. How do they hold up in practice? This great video review takes a look at the 800mm f/11 and what you can expect from it.

Affordable Zoom: A Review of the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Contemporary Lens

A good supertelephoto lens is often quite expensive, but thankfully, in the last few years, we have seen a large influx of third-party options that offer long reach at significantly more affordable prices. This excellent video takes a look at one such lens, the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Contemporary.

5 Ways to Improve Your Couples Posing

Posing a single person is tricky enough, and of course, posing two people is at least twice as tricky. If that is something you struggle with, this fantastic video will give you five great ways to improve your couples posing.

What Kind of Performance Can You Expect From Apple's New M1 Macs?

Apple's move to their own chips represents a seismic shift in the computing industry, and given how many creatives rely on Macs, one that has serious ramifications for the photography and videography industry. Now that the first computers with Apple's own chips are here, you might be wondering what kind of performance you can expect. This excellent video takes a look at the new Mac mini with the M1 CPU inside.

What Canon Cameras to Expect Next

We have already seen Canon's mind-blowing lens roadmap for the RF mount, but now that the EOS R5 and R6 are here, what can we expect next in terms of cameras?

Metabones' New Adapter Lets You Use Any Canon Lens on Fuji Medium Format With No Issues

Traditionally, you can adapt lenses made for a larger format on a smaller format — full frame lenses on an APS-C sensor, for example — but going the other way will produce issues the majority of the time. But thanks to Metabones, you can now adapt any Canon lens to a Fujifilm medium format camera with full functionality and no loss of image quality.

Can Canon's Famous 50mm Lens Hold up To Modern Sensors?

Of all Canon's esteemed L lenses, the EF 50mm f/1.2L USM probably has the most controversial reputation of all. Though originally meant for DSLRs, it easily adapts to Canon and other mirrorless cameras. Can it stand up to the resolution demands of modern mirrorless cameras? This great video review takes a look at what you can expect.

5 Common Mistakes in Landscape Photography and How to Avoid Them

Just like any other genre, landscape photography comes with its own set of potential pitfalls and common mistakes that can derail your images. This fantastic video discusses five common mistakes in landscape photography and what you can do to avoid them and create better photos.

Is This the Best Value Portrait Lens?

Wide aperture portrait lenses are some of the most popular out there, but they are rarely cheap. However, in the last few years, we have seen an influx of third-party lenses that are significantly cheaper than first-party options. This excellent video review takes a look at one such lens, the Samyang AF 85mm f/1.4.

A Look at the Best Portrait Lenses Out There

The most classically chosen portrait focal length is 85mm, which represents an excellent balance of all the characteristics sought after by photographers. However, portrait photographers will frequently employ a wide range of focal lengths depending on the look they are going for. This great video compares some of the best lenses at 85mm, 105mm, 135mm, and 200mm.

7 Fantastic Tips and Tricks for a More Powerful Lightroom Experience

Lightroom is a deceptively powerful program, and you can accomplish a great deal in it without having to turn to Photoshop or some other application. This fantastic video tutorial gives seven great tricks and techniques for taking more control of your Lightroom experience and creating better images.