basics

What is a Contact Sheet and How Do You Make One?

Film set the photographic standard in more ways than one. The contact sheet, for example, once an essential aspect of the film process, has survived the transition to digital. Although it serves a slightly different purpose these days, the contact sheet can help you see the results of a shoot and make your best photos easier to share.

How to Crop in Photoshop

One of the most (seemingly) basic tools in Photoshop is the venerable Crop Tool. Used to cut way portions of an image to only leave the desired area, the Crop Tool might appear to be simply a one-trick pony. However, there is a lot more to here than you might think. In this guide, I’m going to break down the various options for making the best use of the Crop Tool.

What is Focus Peaking? A Guide to the Manual Focusing Aid

When using manual focus, it’s difficult to tell exactly where your plane of focus is. It’s possible to make a guess using your eye, but you can still be slightly off and end up with an image that is out of focus. Similar to how histograms take the guesswork out of exposure, focus peaking uses an algorithm and a simple visual aid to help take the guesswork out of manually focusing your lens.

What is EXIF Data in Digital Photos?

In the digital age, there’s a lot more to a photograph than the image itself. When most digital cameras capture an image, they record certain parameters and write them in the image’s file for later use. These parameters are called metadata and are stored as Exchangeable Image File data, or EXIF for short.

Histograms in Photography: A Guide

If you didn’t believe your grade school math teachers when they said you’d use graphs in the real world, you’re about to. In photography, histograms can seem intimidating, but they are incredibly useful tools that are much easier to understand than they appear. Learning about histograms will help you understand exposure, post-processing, and the overall structure of a photograph.

What is an HEIC File? Everything You Need to Know

An HEIC is a type of image file that contains compressed data, along with metadata such as the location a photograph was taken, the date it was created, and more. While it does reduce picture information, it typically results in a better representation of the original source than an image saved in JPEG format.

Blue Hour: The Photographer’s Guide

The period of time when the sun is just below the horizon is commonly referred to as “blue hour,” and comes directly before or after golden hour depending on the time of day. While most people know about golden hour’s benefits for photography, blue hour is often left out when thinking about optimal lighting conditions.

What is a Full Frame Camera? What You Need to Know

Photographers hear about sensor size all the time, especially when looking to buy a new camera. These include APS-C, Four Thirds, 1", and of course full-frame, the reference format to which all others are compared. But what is a full frame camera and does it make a difference?

Leading Lines in Photography: A Complete Guide

“You don't take a photograph, you make it,” Ansel Adams once said. Great point, but let's take it a step further. An important thing to remember is that photographs are just a type of picture, and pictures are made of lines.

The Basics of Color Gels in Photography

The use of strong and complementary colors is an ever-growing trend in photography. Many modern advertising campaigns feature bold and contrasting colors in order to draw your focus to the product or message they are trying to sell. One way to create such vibrant color in your own images is by using colored gels (also known as color filters, filter gels, lighting gels, or simply gels).

Golden Hour: When Sunlight is Warm and Photos are Magical

If you’ve been outside during a nice sunrise or sunset, chances are good you’ve heard the term “golden hour.” It’s one of the best times to do many types of photography and a beautiful time to be outside. This guide will help you understand golden hour, when it happens, and how to make the most of it through various types of photography.

The Gray Market and How It Works

Globalization certainly has its advantages. Anyone can order almost anything online with a few clicks and have it conveniently delivered to their door regardless of where it is. However, convenience aside, many consumers purchasing things like cameras and lenses may unwittingly be purchasing gray market products rather than "legitimate" ones.

CPL Filter: Why, When, and How to Use a Circular Polarizer

A CPL filter, or circular polarizer filter, is a popular and powerful filter that can reduce or eliminate glare and reflections from surfaces in your photographs. In this article, we will introduce this filter type and analyze its use and effects.

7 Types of Lighting in Portrait Photography

Portrait photographers use a myriad of different lights and lighting styles to achieve the results they desire. I’ve seen great portraits done with 10 lights, and even greater portraits done with a single light. The best photographers can do both and play around with lights like tools in their toolbox to create something unique.

Negative Space: How to Add Something with Nothing

Negative space is a powerful concept in art and photography that allows you to say a lot with very little. In this article, we will look at the basics of negative space and how you can use it as a tool for creative and powerful photo compositions.

What is Crop Factor? Here is What You Need to Know

"Crop factor" is a term that is often heard in the world of digital photography, especially when discussing entry-level cameras. If you have no idea what it means, this article is a basic explanation that should help to fill you in.

PhotoPills: A Photographer’s Guide

PhotoPills is a planning tool to help you create images of the Sun, Moon, stars, meteors, and more. It can help you decide the best place to focus for maximum depth of field and calculate the correct exposure when using a neutral density filter to blur water, clouds, and other subjects. What's more, you can use it from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection to plan a photo shoot anywhere else in the world.

ND Filter: A Beginner’s Guide to Neutral-Density Lens Filters

The neutral-density filter, or ND filter, is a powerful lens filter photographers use to reduce the amount of light entering a camera lens in order to select exposure combinations that would otherwise result in overexposed images. This article is a basic guide to ND filters and how they are used.

How to Use Bulb Mode on a Camera for Long Exposure Photos

When you hear “long exposure,” you probably think of a shutter speed that’s too slow to hand-hold and produce a sharp image. It might be something like ¼”, or maybe as long as 30”, which is the most common slowest shutter speed in DSLR and mirrorless cameras. However, shutter speeds slower than 30” can be advantageous in many long-exposure scenarios.

Landscape Photography: The Ultimate Guide

Landscape photography is one of the most popular photographic genres. It's easy to get started with the genre, but it can take a lifetime to master landscape photography skills. You don't need a sophisticated camera or expensive lens, and the skills you learn when doing landscape photography translate to other types of photography.

Basic Videography Terms You Need to Know

Photographers who want to expand into videography can often become overwhelmed by the number of terms that are unique to the filmmaking discipline. This glossary of videography terms should help.

How Big is a 4×6 Photo? Everything You Need to Know

If you’re new to photo printing, different print sizes may be a bit confusing to you. One that you’ll regularly come across and should know about, however, is 4x6 – which is the most commonly used throughout the industry.

A Guide to Studio Lights in Photography

If you’ve decided to take the next step in your photographic lighting and purchase some studio strobes, then you will need to ask some questions about what kind of images you’ll be creating in the studio and what the best lighting for those particular subjects is.

How to Use the Zone System in Photography

Even though the Zone System is over 80 years old, it is still relevant today whether shooting modern films or digital capture. This article is for photographers wanting to learn more about the Zone System for their particular workflow.

Astrophotography: The Ultimate Guide

Astrophotography. We hear the term tossed around a lot these days but what actually is it? The true definition of the word is photography of the nighttime sky. The sky only—at night.

Fine Art Photography: A Complete Guide

Fine art photography has become all the rage over the past decade, and it is a moniker many photographers use to try and elevate their output to try and sell it via galleries and print sales. But what is fine art photography after all?

Wedding Photography: A Complete Guide

Wedding photography is one of the most challenging yet fulfilling genres of photography, one that will challenge your people skills, technical abilities, and physical stamina. To succeed as a wedding photographer, you will need to become an expert in a wide of subjects, from how to work your camera to how to market your business.

What-Is-Fill-Light

What is Fill Light in Photography?

Fill light is one of the unsung heroes in the photographic industry, yet the fill light in basic three-point lighting can be just as important as the key. Getting it right can make your images look much better.

Photography Workshops: Everything a Photographer Needs to Know

15 years ago, photo workshops were not yet a thing. You could sign up for a photo excursion on a cruise ship or other tour for which you had no instruction, but dedicated, stand-alone photo workshops were not really prevalent until around 10 years ago. Today, there is hardly a corner of the world or subject matter that is not served by a photo workshop.

How to Use Curves in Photoshop

When thinking about the Curves tool in Adobe Photoshop, the phrase “With great power, comes great responsibility” is a thought that comes to mind. Curves is the most powerful tool in Photoshop for adjusting brightness, contrast, tonality, and color.

What is Focus Breathing in a Camera Lens?

Focus breathing is a term that is often used when discussing the features and specs of a camera lens. It is an issue that occurs across a wide range of lenses, and it is one that can negatively affect your photography and videography in certain situations. In this article, we will take a look at what focus breathing is, the situations it affects, and how you can avoid it.

How to Shoot in Manual Mode

In a world of increasing automation, at least photography still offers the opportunity to stay alert, active, and in command. While intimidating at first, shooting in full manual mode provides creative control, proper metering in tricky light, and deeper integration into the entire process of making photos. If you give it time, manual photography can help you craft your best images.

Light Modifiers for Portrait Photos: A Beginner’s Guide

In the two-plus decades I’ve been a photographer, finding the right light modifiers for the varied work that I did was a challenge. In the small community I lived in, my subject matter ranged from commercial photography to weddings and portraits. Each subject required its own type of lighting.

Lens Hoods: Why, When, and How to Use One in Photography

Whenever you buy a new camera lens, you’ll often receive a free lens hood included with your purchase. And while many photographers leave it on without thinking twice about what it does, this handy tool isn’t just for show.

How to Take Graduation Photos

Graduation portrait photography is an opportunity to develop your portrait skills, make photos that your client will treasure, and have fun. There are important logistics to keep in mind for a smooth and well-executed graduation portrait shoot, and this guide will help prepare you.

The Sunny 16 Rule in Photography

The Sunny 16 Rule is one of the simplest rules in photography that helps you gain correct exposure. It’s a formula that will tell you what shutter speed to use on a bright sunny day when the lens’s aperture is set to f/16.

Bokeh: A Photographer’s Guide

As photographers, when we hear the word "bokeh", we probably already have a visual in our mind of its meaning. Since bokeh can be somewhat abstract and subjective, describing it can be difficult. 

What Is Flash Duration in Photography?

What are the most important features you look for when buying a flash? Many photographers consider the amount of power a unit has to be the most important, but there are a few other specifications that are just as important, including flash duration. In this article, I will break down exactly what flash duration is and how it works.