guide

Astrophotography still is one of the most popular photographic genres in the world and as we are in the middle of the Milky Way season, it is a very good opportunity to take an in-depth look in a very helpful accessory for better night sky photos.

It will come as shock to no one that digital cameras are as complex as the manufacturing processes that make them. Thanks to the wizardry of Steven Sasson, our photographic pursuits are inextricably linked to the cold mass of integrated circuits, photovoltaic diodes, and the other discrete components that make up our modern tools.

Resizing images in Adobe Photoshop sounds like it should be a trivial and simple operation, and for many uses and users, it is. It’s when one starts looking closely at the details in a resized image that it becomes apparent you should be looking into the options of the resize image dialogue box.

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.

While the Victoria Falls are neither the widest nor the highest waterfalls in the world, they are undoubtedly the largest. At 1,708 meters wide and 108 meters high, they combine to form the largest single sheet of falling water anywhere on earth.

I have said it before in my all-in-one, how-to-do-everything astrophotography guide—astrophotography is more accessible than ever before. Great gear can be purchased even on a tight budget, and the advancements with compact star trackers allow for even greater detail to be captured.

There can be a lot of gear-envy among photographers when they see others with tons of expensive camera gear, lighting equipment, and modifiers. It is also all too easy to say that you can’t be creative because you don’t have access to a particular light or piece of equipment.

“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.

If you have ever uploaded a photo to your social media feed and found that the image quality isn’t as good as you’d like it to be, you're not alone. Most sites that allow you to upload images will use their own set of parameters to resize and compress uploaded images to save file space and bandwidth.

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).

Transferring photos from an iPhone to a computer is a common task that doesn't have to feel like a chore, yet sometimes it can be frustrating if something isn't working or seems to be taking longer to complete than it should. Thankfully, Apple provides several solutions to move pictures from an iPhone to a computer.

The rule of thirds is widely considered to be one of the most important first techniques you can learn to create better compositions and help you progress from “taking pictures” to “making photographs.”

Street photography is one of the most popular forms of the art but is also one of the most challenging to perfect. This one-hour-long in-depth video guide was put together to help anyone become a master of the craft.

So, you have decided you want to take your astrophotography to the next level… maybe you want to capture more detail in the Milky Way core, or perhaps dabble with deep space objects like Andromeda or Orion or maybe you came from my all-in-one astrophotography tutorial. Whatever it is, you know you are looking at buying a star tracker.

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 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.

Need to download a photo from Instagram? Perhaps you uploaded a photo long ago and have since lost the original file, or perhaps you are interested in downloading a public domain space photo from NASA to use as your phone's wallpaper. Whatever the reason, the good news is that it is easy to download Instagram photos.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

As a professional photographer, it's highly important to know you have support from a manufacturer to maintain your equipment. Canon knows this, which is why it provides a dedicated Canon Professional Services (CPS) for its customers; here's a look into what the service is and whether you should become a member.

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 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?

Buying a copy of Photoshop back in the day wasn’t cheap, but it used to be easy. One price, one copy. Nowadays, with subscription models dominating the creative software space, things have gotten a bit more complicated. And while photographers may need a bingo card to know how much Photoshop is going to cost, there are a lot more benefits than swinging down to the local computer store and picking up a copy.

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.

Instagram is a wildly popular (and often lucrative) photo and video-sharing social network, but sometimes it can become a bit overwhelming, leading to the question of whether it's worth so much effort. It's easy to get drawn into endless scrolling through eye-catching photos when the intention was to spend just a few minutes.

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.

You're out in the field, having scouted out a new location to grab a landscape vista. You release the shutter button and then chimp the back of the camera to see what you've captured... the sky's blocked out, blinking back at you. You've got a dreaded case of the blinkies, but does it actually matter?

In your photography adventure, you will most likely buy both a prime lens and a zoom lens at some point. If you are a beginning photographer looking to upgrade to a new lens, you are probably facing the decision of whether to choose a prime or a zoom. Which type should you get and what’s the difference?

Capturing the expanse of the cosmos is one of the most challenging, yet most rewarding, experiences for a photographer. When the sun goes down, the cameras come out.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Like many photo and video creatives, the team at Syrp Lab has a lot equipment that takes up an obscene amount of space. In this seven-minute video, the team shows how it turned a dark and cluttered room into something organized, functional, and fashionable.

Creating an evenly lit background can be trickier than one would think, but is a skill that every photographer should master. But with the right equipment and knowledge, it gets much easier to capture a pure white, black, or colored gradient background in-camera without the need for heavy Photoshop cleanup in post.