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Alex Cooke
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Articles written by Alex Cooke

5 Common Mistakes Beginners Make When Using Lightroom

Lightroom is an intricate program, and for many photographers, it serves as the central hub for their images, making it crucial that you develop good habits in how you use the application. This excellent video discusses five common mistakes beginners make when using Lightroom and what you can do to improve your workflow.

How to Retouch a Portrait From Start to Finish in Photoshop

Posing, lighting, and shooting a portrait is only half the process of creating a successful image. To create a truly polished photo, you have to have the retouching skills to match. This excellent video tutorial will show you the full process of editing a portrait using Photoshop.

5 Simple but Effective Cinematography Techniques

So much of successful video is the marriage of technical abilities and creative vision to augment the events on screen in a way that increases the viewer's engagement. This fantastic video tutorial will show you five simple cinematography techniques to improve your video work.

How Do Scientists Actually Create Images of the Coronavirus?

The coronavirus has caused a massive pandemic across the world, and yet, the virus itself, like any, is absolutely tiny, with a diameter of about 120 nanometers (or about .000004724 inches). It is so small, in fact, that traditional imaging techniques cannot resolve it. So, how do scientists create crucial images of the virus to better understand it and lead the fight against it? This excellent video will show you the science behind creating those images.

How to Find Compositions in Landscape Photography

Composition is a nuanced and subtle thing, and any single landscape scene can give you a wide variety of possible images. If composition is something you struggle with a bit, this excellent video tutorial will give you some helpful advice for how to compose your landscape images.

Learn How to Create This Fantastic Portrait With Just One Light

A lot of more advanced portrait styles require the use of multiple lights to fully craft the images, but you might be surprised by how much you can still accomplish with just a single light. This great video tutorial will show you how to light and shoot this eye-catching black and white portrait using only a single strobe.

A Look at the New Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Lens

The 70-200mm f/2.8 is a staple lens for many photographers across a wide range of genres, but such lenses are rarely cheap to come by. If you are looking for a more affordable alternative, check out this great review of the new and highly anticipated Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD lens.

10 Fun and Creative Photo Ideas You Can Try at Home

With most of us stuck at home at the moment, it can be a bit frustrating trying to exercise your creativity and keep your skills sharp. If you are looking for something to do with your camera during this downtime, this fantastic video will give you 10 great ideas for fun photos you can set up and try at home.

Helpful Tips on Posing for Self-Portraits

With all the lockdowns across the world due to the coronavirus pandemic, quite a few photographers have been left without subjects to shoot. If you want to keep shooting, you might have considered turning to self-portraits but be at a loss for how to pose yourself. If you are struggling with that, this fantastic video tutorial features professional models giving a range of helpful tips for posing in self-portraits.

Bad Reasons to Upgrade Your Camera Gear

Let's be honest: camera gear is fun, and it can be a blast to get a new piece of equipment to play with. That being said, gear is also expensive, and it can be easy to convince ourselves we need that shiny new camera or lens when we actually do not. This great video features one filmmaker discussing some of the worst reasons he has upgraded his gear over the years.

The Power of the Luminosity Blending Mode for Portraits

For anything you want to do in Photoshop, there are probably at least 10 ways to accomplish it. This great video tutorial will show you a less common way to bring emphasis to your subject's face in a portrait by using Photoshop.

5 Great Tips for Better Sunrise Landscape Photos

Sunrise can be a magical time for landscape images, and if you are one of those brave people who can roll out of bed in time to make it out to shoot it (seriously, how do you do that?), you can often come home with some really beautiful photos. This excellent video tutorial will give you five tips for taking better sunrise shots.

A Review of the Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM Lens

A sharp, wide aperture portrait lens is one of the workhorse optics for a large number of photographers, and while 85mm is often thought of as the classic focal length for such work, some prefer something a bit longer, like a 135mm lens. This great video takes a look at just such a lens, the Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM.

A Look at Every Model in the Fujifilm X100 Series

The Fujifilm X100 series is a modern legend of sorts, loved by many photographers for its unique experience and focus on putting the enjoyment back in the experience of photography. If you are thinking of picking one up for yourself, this great video will give you an overview of all five models in the series to help you decide which is right for you.

The Life of a Large Format Photographer

Large format photography is something entirely different from 35mm digital, medium format, and even other film photography. This fantastic video features a large format photographer discussing his story and some of the process behind making his images, and his lessons are readily applicable to any other type of photography.

What Post-Processing Software Is Right for You?

These days, there is a vast range of post-processing software available for photographers, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. This excellent video takes a look at five of the most popular options to help you decide which is right for you.

How Flags Can Help You Control Light

Successfully crafting light in photography is just as much about keeping it out of places it should not be as it is about controlling how it falls on your subject. This excellent video tutorial will introduce you to a fundamental tool for removing light from a scene, flags, and show you how they can improve your photos.

How to Use Depth of Field for Better Photo Compositions

Depth of field is one of the most fundamental yet powerful tools for crafting your images, and it is important to make sure you have full creative and technical control of it in your work. This great video discusses three aspects of using depth of field to create stronger compositions.

9 Helpful Composition Tips for Landscape Photography

Composition in landscape photography can be a really subtle and tricky thing. If it is something you struggle with, this excellent video tutorial will give you nine guidelines that can help you improve the compositions of your landscape images.