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Articles written by Alex Cooke

Five Tips for Becoming a Successful Landscape Photographer
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Landscape photography is a weird genre: there are no people, and unlike something like product photography, it's pretty much up to you to choose what to shoot and how to shoot it. So, it can often feel a bit nebulous as to how one navigates a world veritably inundated with imagery, particularly when standards are sky-high. This helpful video will give you some great pointers to get you on your way.

Learn What All the Job Titles in Movie Credits Are
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Large-scale film productions take an incredible amount of work by a veritable plethora of talented people fulfilling numerous roles to pull off. It's easy to overlook just how much goes on behind the scenes as the credits roll past, but this great video explains who does what and just how much goes into making a successful film.

How to Make Better Instagram Stories
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Instagram Stories have quickly become a popular way for photographers, videographers, and other creatives to share real-time work, behind the scenes clips, and other interesting miscellany with their audiences. As their popularity continues to grow, here's how to to make your Stories stand out amongst the crowd.

A Comparison of the DJI Spark, Mavic Pro, and Phantom 4 Pro Video Quality
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If there's one thing no one can accuse DJI of, it's having too few drones for consumers to choose from. If you're looking to purchase the Spark, Mavic Pro, or Phantom 4 Pro, this quick comparison will give you a glimpse at the relative video quality between the three popular options.

Canon Announces the 6D Mark II and SL2 Cameras
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With perhaps one of the most hotly anticipated updates, Canon has announced the 6D Mark II, the second version of their popular budget full-frame camera, which now has some intriguing new features. They've also announced the SL2, the second version of their smallest DSLR. Check out the improvements to each model!

How to Remove Sunburn in Photoshop
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Summer is here, and those of us who spent a cold winter indoors are venturing outside, only to come back in extra crispy a few hours later. Here's how to quickly remove sunburn in Photoshop and restore natural-looking skin.

Five Overused Video Effects and Tropes
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Trends come and go; some become mainstays, some become clichés. Video is certainly no stranger to trendy effects that become overused or outstay their welcome. Here are five such effects to consider before you drop them in your next video.

A Quick and Helpful Tip for Local Adjustments in Lightroom
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Lightroom's local adjustment sliders are a great way to do things like add a graduated filter to a landscape shot or draw attention to your subject with a subtle vignette. Sometimes though, you want to change the strength of your adjustment after the fact, which is where this great tip will help.

Eight Skills You Need to Have to Be a Filmmaker
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If there's one thing I learned in music school, it's that while school can certainly make you a more introspective and informed artist, it does little to prepare you for the actual life of being a creative, where you somehow have to translate all the theory and experimentation into real, practical ability that gets you noticed and earns you income. This helpful video will show you some of the skills you need to do just that.

A Unique Way to Convert Images to Black and White
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Science tells us there are somewhere north of 13.1 billion ways to convert an image to black and white. It's time to add another method to your arsenal, but this one is pretty cool. Here's how to use Channel Calculations to convert a color image to black and white in Photoshop.

How to Take Better Self-Portraits
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No, keep your iPhone in your pocket and forget about the duck lips. We're not talking about selfies; we're talking about self-portraits. Step to the other side of the camera and learn how to take better shots of yourself.

Shooting Landscapes With a Large Format Camera
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If you're used to APS-C or 35mm cameras, moving to medium format is essentially the same user experience, save for a bulkier camera. Large format, on the other hand, is an entirely different beast that takes a lot of practice to master. Follow a landscape photographer as he continues to learn the process and enjoys the unique challenges brought about by large format work.

Adapting Sports Lenses to the Sony a9 Gives Mixed Results
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On the day the Sony a9 was announced, I said it was a sports camera without sports lenses. Still, part of me secretly hoped that with the right adapter, I could shed my Canon bodies and just take my lenses over to the Sony ecosystem. This video shows what the current state of affairs is.

How to Create a Lomo Effect Using Only Lightroom
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The lo-fi, retro film look has regained a lot of traction in the last few years. There are two ways to get it: buy an old film camera on eBay or learn how to manipulate your digital images to achieve a similar look. Here's a great tutorial on the latter method.

How to Use Light to Communicate Emotion in Your Photographs
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We talk a lot about how to light the face for more flattering portraits or to achieve a desired effect, but rarely do we talk about how to light to project a specific emotion. And yet, light is one of the most powerful photographic tools at our disposal. Check out this great tutorial that details how to use different methods of lighting to convey emotion.

The Top 10 Tensest Moments in Film
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As much as I love comedies, nothing beats a good tension scene for me. A film's ability to make us emotionally or intellectually invest ourselves to the point that the outcome of a single scene has us on the edge of our seats is really remarkable. Here are ten such examples of tension in film.

A Beginner's Guide to the Pen Tool In Photoshop
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If you're new to Photoshop, the Pen Tool can make about as much sense as a ketchup-flavored popsicle. Nonetheless, it's one of the most useful tools in the entire program, and it's definitely worth taking the time to learn how to use it. This great tutorial will get you up and running.

Five Beginner Portrait Photography Lighting Tips
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One of the biggest leaps you can make as a beginning portrait photographer is taking control of your lighting. It can be daunting at first, but having that skill down is well worth the time and effort. This helpful video will get you started.

Five Tips for Building Your Photography or Videography Brand
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Creating a good brand is a tricky and subtle thing, and most of us don't have the benefit of a marketing team at our beck and call. Luckily, there's this helpful video to get you on the right path to having a stronger and more recognizable brand.

A Beginner's Guide to Prime Lenses
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When you're just starting out in photography, one of the first things you'll probably wonder about is the difference between prime and zoom lenses. Check out this helpful video that details the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of both types.