Creativity often drives you to pick up a camera, but certain habits can hold you back. Some mistakes are so subtle that they creep into your workflow unnoticed, slowing your growth.
The start of a new year is the perfect time to prepare your files, backups, and workflow for the months ahead. This organizational groundwork not only ensures your files are safe but also frees you to focus on creative work instead of dealing with last year's clutter.
Wildlife photography often demands a significant investment in gear, especially when choosing between two of the most versatile telephoto lenses: the 400mm f/2.8 and the 600mm f/4. Each has its strengths, but finding the right fit depends on your shooting style, subjects, and typical distances.
There is a short list of books that distinguish themselves from the mainstream of photographic discourse, and even fewer for which a good case could be made that they are required reading for anybody serious about photography. This new book about the art of photography scores on both counts.
Whether you’re working with portraits or textured scenes, sharpening helps guide the viewer’s eye to key elements. Here's how to do it like a pro using Photoshop.
Mistakes are a part of learning, especially in street photography. However, if you don’t identify and address these errors, progress becomes slow. From technical missteps to behavioral habits, recognizing these pitfalls can significantly improve your photography.
Editing photos can feel overwhelming when you’re just starting out. With so many tools available, deciding where to begin often leads to trial and error. If you’ve ever struggled with this, a clear workflow can make all the difference.
Sometimes, the daily grind can strip away the joy and creativity that drew you to photography in the first place. Reflecting on the highs and lows of 2024, this great video shares insights from a transformative year of travel and shooting, offering lessons that can inspire you to reconnect with your craft.
Neewer’s Q200 Outdoor Studio Flash is small enough to slip in my coat pocket, yet more powerful than my Speedlight. With its array of special features, it’s exactly what I have been looking for.
High-key photography is a powerful way to create bright, dreamy landscape images with minimal shadows and a soft, low-contrast feel. Winter is the perfect season to experiment with this style, as snowy scenes and overcast skies provide a natural foundation for high-key aesthetics.
Oftentimes, when we talk about creating better images in photography, the conversation begins with compositional rules such as the rule of thirds, the golden ratio, leading lines, and so on. These guidelines serve as a good benchmark for discussion and a way to introduce structure to what can otherwise feel like an abstract concept.
Sunrises and sunsets are cornerstone images for the landscape photographer, presenting opportunities to showcase fantastic scenes in the favorable soft light of the early morning or late evening. The following tips help guide you through successful sunrise and sunset photography from start to finish.
Creating crisp, visually striking photos often requires more than just a great shot. Thoughtful Lightroom adjustments can help you refine details, enhance sharpness, and bring out the best in your images.
Improving your creativity doesn’t always come down to talent or the tools you use. It’s often about the foundational habits you build when the camera isn’t in your hands. Small, consistent changes to your daily life can have a major impact on how often and how well you create.
Photography is about more than just capturing a scene; it's about preserving the feeling of a moment. Emotional connection often sets apart a compelling image from a forgettable one. It’s not about perfection or rigid rules but about creating photos that resonate on a deeper, personal level.
Choosing between a flash and a video light can make or break the mood and quality of your photos. Both tools have their strengths, but knowing when to use each is key to capturing the right look without disrupting your environment.
Composition is one of the most crucial elements in photography. It’s what gives your images balance, depth, and impact. Even the most stunning landscape can look flat and uninspiring without good composition. In this article, I will go into the fundamentals of composition and explore how I use different techniques to create visually captivating landscape photos.
When it comes to digital photography, I think editing is as important as the darkroom was for film photography. But now, we have a lot more tools at our disposal.
When setting up a shoot for a client, it is important to have clear communication among all parties involved in the shoot. Once the shoot is over, however, communication about how the deliverables are to be prepared is just as important. To make this communication as smooth as possible, Adobe has announced a new tool that will be added to Photoshop.
Making colors pop in your photos doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With a few straightforward adjustments, you can make your images vibrant and polished, whether you’re working in Photoshop or Lightroom.
When Fujifilm released the X-T5 on November 25, 2022, I was one of the first in the queue as I wanted to experience a high-megapixel APS-C sensor. This was simply not GAS, as I had only months earlier purchased an X-T4, which was comfortably doing everything I needed. However, 40 megapixels for landscapes in such a compact and stylish design, I simply needed to see what it could do and more to the point, could do what I needed for my photography. Fast-forward 429 days later, has it been able to do everything?
Traveling with camera gear can be stressful. Your equipment is expensive, and the photos you capture are irreplaceable. Without the right precautions, accidents and mishaps can ruin a trip and leave you with broken gear or lost memories.
This camera backpack from Nomatic has been talked about by many photographers for its unique aesthetic. But is there more to this camera bag than that?
Choosing the right lens often comes down to balancing performance, features, and cost. If you’ve ever wondered whether investing in a premium lens makes a difference, this comparison between Sony’s 28-70mm f/2 GM and Tamron’s 28-75mm f/2.8 could offer some clarity.
As photographers grow more familiar with their gear and solidify their preferred approach, it’s easy to fall into comfortable, well-trodden patterns. We often return to the same focal lengths, shoot the same subjects, rely on the same post-processing techniques, and compose images according to established habits. While there’s value in refining a signature style, there is also a risk of stagnation.
The marketing battle between the big camera manufacturers is irrelevant. A far older and more important disagreement that has raged since the dawn of our art is as relevant today as ever. Where do you stand?
There’s always been a gaping hole in Canon’s APS-C strategy. While there are plenty of competent APS-C cameras from the company, it hasn’t always produced the professional lenses to match the bodies.
Do you ever get tired of manually searching for, tagging, culling, and organizing your images? I can relate.
For the past few months, you have been dropping subtle hints to your family about the camera you would love to own, and you have also been dreaming about your first shoots with your much-desired new camera. Christmas morning arrives, and the excitement of opening that box under the tree is palpable. It finally arrives in your hands; you tear open the wrapping paper and open the box, only to discover some socks and a knitted sweater inside. All is not lost...
Lighting can make or break your photos. It’s one of the most important elements to get right, yet it’s also one of the most common areas where mistakes happen. By understanding a few key missteps, you can improve your results quickly and avoid some of the pitfalls that hold many people back.
Medium format lenses promise unparalleled image quality, but they also come with a steep price tag. The Fujifilm GF 45mm f/2.8 R WR, priced at $1,700, sits on the more affordable end of this spectrum. It offers a versatile wide angle focal length and a relatively lightweight design, but does it live up to expectations?
There are so many times I've asked myself: If I were starting fresh, would I end up within the same system of gear that I'm using now? When I started photography, Sony wasn't even a player in the DSLR game, and so inertia has invariably led me to (mostly) Canon and Nikon over the years. But today's new photographers are spoiled for choice. Which way to go?
When even a compact tripod is too large, photographers don’t have many options for supporting their gear outside of tabletop tripods. In that narrow market, the offerings can feel gimmicky or cheap. In contrast, Leofoto’s MT-04 brings their CNC-machined aluminum build quality and feature-rich ball head to the smallest total tripod package I’ve tried.
Editing your photos is just as important as capturing them. By mastering a few key tools in Lightroom and Photoshop, you can fix imperfections, enhance details, and transform an image into something extraordinary.
Bokeh, a term derived from the Japanese word "boke," meaning "blur," is central to the aesthetic quality of photography and videography. This phenomenon creates a soft, pleasing effect that can significantly enhance the visual storytelling of a photo or video.
Getting natural-looking skin tones in portraits remains one of the most challenging aspects of photo editing. While traditional methods like curves adjustments have long been the go-to solution, Adobe Camera Raw offers a more intuitive and precise approach to perfecting skin tones.
This groundbreaking solution for shooting with filters just got an update. The second-generation H&Y Revoring filter offers better controls and more functions.
Europe has some of the most beautiful cities and architecture, and I share five of my favorites in this article.
Recently, Godox launched the V1Pro, an upgrade to the popular V1 flash. But with the V1 already at the top of the pack, was there much to improve? In this review, I’ll be comparing the Godox V1 and V1Pro to determine which you should consider adding to your flash photography kit.
A photography workshop provides an immersive opportunity to dedicate an extended time to your photography. But before embarking on the journey, you’ll want to prepare yourself so that you make the most of the experience.
Do you find yourself getting frustrated with your photography in the field? It is easy to fall into routines and practices that could hamper your photography and stifle your creativity. Are you looking for a way to break out of that as we move into 2025? This video provides a practical tip to help!
Street photography can be one of the most challenging genres to master. The unpredictability, combined with the constant pursuit of improvement, creates a dynamic environment where growth feels both exhilarating and exhausting. As your skills develop, your ability to critique your own work sharpens, often revealing gaps between your vision and execution.
Shutter speed plays a huge role in how your images turn out, but it’s easy to fall into default habits like 1/125 of a second. Moving beyond those defaults opens up creative possibilities, whether you’re capturing motion blur or freezing fast action.
Natural light portrait photography demands a nuanced understanding of how light interacts with the environment. By learning to read and work with available light, you can transform challenging conditions into opportunities for creating captivating portraits that stand out from the crowd.
Attending a photography workshop is about more than simply showing up with your camera. It’s up to you to maximize the experience and ensure it’s valuable for you.
Many dream of having one, yet most can’t ever afford one. What makes the Hasselblad X2D 100C so special? Should you even think about getting one? Who is it for, anyway? There are quite a few questions I had when I was getting this camera, and in the few weeks of using it, I got some answers.
Isn't it great to have a crystal ball to tell us our future and what's around the next corner? Unfortunately, there is no such thing, and we must live life, make mistakes, and move on. I wish I had one, especially when I started my photography journey. Here are five things I had to learn the hard way.
As a Creative Cloud subscriber, you gain access to the beta version of Photoshop, where you can test cutting-edge tools before they’re added to the main release. One of these tools is a powerful update to people masking, offering more flexibility directly in Photoshop.
