A long, long time ago, that is, in days of film photography, it was a rather difficult task to learn how to produce properly exposed pictures. There was no instant feedback and the only way to see how good of a job you did exposing the scene was to wait until the picture was developed.
This guide will be a walkthrough of the basics of Milky Way photography. It is best for beginners, but even intermediate and expert photographers might find something new! Plus, I always find it never hurts to refresh yourself on the basics.
This morning I woke up early to photograph the descending supermoon on top of the famous St. Nicholas church in Amsterdam. But the supermoon was "just 96%" visible this morning as it is not completely full until tomorrow. Nevertheless, I love the slight shadow in the edge of the moon so I picked today as the day to shoot.
Even if you've worked with the Curves Tool in Photoshop for years, they may still be some useful tricks that you've never come across before. Here's a helpful 2-minute video by Adobe that contains 13 different tips.
I’ve written about this project in the past, as I originally made the rain machine and shot with it in 2012, but we’ve now done it in video form! Hopefully it shows a little more detail about the construction and how I shot with it.
Camera lens cleaning pens use fine carbon particles to help cleanly remove smudges from your glass. Do you know what else has carbon particles? Soot. Here's a short 2.5-minute video in which photographer Mathieu Stern shows how you can use ordinary candle soot to get the same cleaning power as popular lens pens.
If you shoot a portrait and your subject is blushing or has red patches on their skin for whatever reason, removing the coloration is quick and easy in Photoshop. This 1-minute Photoshop tutorial by PiXimperfect shows how it's done.
The concept of equivalent exposure can be a tricky one to wrap your mind around when you're just getting started in photography. Photography enthusiast and animator Vincent Ledvina of Apalapse made this helpful 5.5-minute video that explains it in a simple and visual way.
Finding new ways to create isn't always easy, so you have to keep your eyes open for inspiration. One day while making my way down the rabbit hole of YouTube, I stumbled across a video. These guys had created 3 colored shadows off this pencil while keeping a perfectly white background. What in the world was this sorcery? Turns out it wasn't sorcery, it was science.
Have you ever exported a photo, uploaded it to the Web, and then noticed that the colors looked off on your monitor? The reason is likely the color space of your photo. Here's a helpful 15-minute video by PHLEARN that provides a crash course on color spaces and how to use them.
When it comes to online educational content, there aren’t many photographers out there willing to share their mistakes when trying to create a photo. I think it’s fair to say that there are easily far more who only share their best work online and for good reason; as educators, you want to create an image of a photographer who makes little to no mistakes at all.
Adobe's October 2018 update to Photoshop CC brought a host of new features, and one of the most exciting ones is the new Content-Aware Fill, which has powerful new abilities and its own dedicated workspace and tools. Here's a 10-minute crash course on the new system by photoshopCAFE that will help you hit the ground running.
Luminosity Masks have become a popular type of selections in Photoshop used by both professionals and beginners alike. However, unlike many other types of selections, they won’t be found in any menu. Instead, you’ll have to create them yourself. Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as you might think. It’s actually quite straightforward and all you need to do is follow a few simple steps.
Want to shoot an "impossible" f/0.2 portrait? Here's a 3.5-minute video in which photographer Tony Northrup demonstrates the Brenizer Method, which effectively turns a telephoto lens into an ultra-fast wide-angle lens.
In this article, we are going to be talking about 3 different ways you can set the right exposure for film. The biggest thing for beginning film photographers is to learn is how to meter your film properly. For our example today, I’m going to be shooting on Portra 400 and Fuji 400, and the Portra 800.
Taking portraits in bright sunlight has been a bit of a no-no for a long time, but the truth is that you can actually get stunning results if you use a fill flash. The results look awesome and give a high-end feel to any outdoor portrait, and the best thing is that it's really not too difficult. You just need to understand how to use a fill flash.
How you light your subject is one of the key decisions you'll need to make when shooting portraits. The Koldunov Brothers published this 9-minute tutorial showing the impact the height of a light source makes and some typical mistakes photographers make in placing and angling lights.
Ever wonder where you should be focusing when shooting a landscape? Here's a 9-minute video by Nature TTL featuring renowned photographer and Nikon Ambassador Ross Hoddinott. In it, Hoddinott discusses both focusing and advice for shooting sharper photos.
The crown of the (Ant)arctic. Known in the northern hemisphere as the Aurora Borealis (northern lights and as the Aurora Australis in the southern hemisphere, these brightly colored bands of moving and waving light are a majestic display in the night sky.
How many of you can relate to this scenario? You encounter a scene that really grabs your attention, and it has all the elements you look for in a great composition -- a spectacular foreground that works the eye towards the mid-ground that in turn leads the viewer towards a majestic mountain range in the background.
If you've been wanting to learn more about using your camera in manual mode and have 26 minutes to spare, here's a helpful educational video by photographer Sean Tucker that's just for you. He teaches how to nail exposure using manual mode.
How do you use high-speed sync? When would you use it? How do you set it up? These questions will all be answered by the end of this 5.5-minute video and the article below.
There are certain natural phenomena that most photographers would love to capture. Aurora, eclipses, meteors, rainbows, eruptions, lightning and tornados all present challenges to the photographer, not least of which is (with the exception of eclipses) having a camera pointed the right way when they happen. Bioluminescent algae is no different in this regard. Like all the most incredible natural spectacles it is hard to predict and tricky to capture.
The popularity and widespread use of focus stacking in landscape photography have dramatically increased over the last few years. The concept typically reserved for macro photography has quickly won over countless outdoor photographers worldwide. With more and more landscape enthusiasts using wide angle lenses to capture images with dramatic foreground elements, it’s become nearly impossible to create front-to-back pin-sharp photos.
Can you use a flip-flop -- or any solid item, for that matter -- as a graduated neutral density (AKA grad ND) filter? Sure. But, it doesn’t work in all situations.
Can't wait for Nikon and Canon to launch their new mirrorless cameras and want to fork over money for the ones already on the market? Photographer Eric Rossi made this 4-minute video that shows how you can convert your existing DSLR camera into a mirrorless camera.
Lately, I’ve seen lots of cinematic looks on Instagram. There are mostly cold tones with a rare spark of a warm look. And so I have decided to have a look, do some magic, and produce a free Lightroom landscape preset for you. I know, there are lots of Lightroom presets for travel photography, but in reality, I couldn’t find anything usable that also came with an explanation. So, read on to learn how to create cinematic photography yourself.
When it comes to purchasing a new lens there are two questions that immediately come to mind for me, how much is it and how sharp is it? Now, I know there’s more to the lens buying process than overall sharpness, but as a landscape photographer, sharpness is king!
Want a simple introduction to the basics of the Exposure Triangle in photography? PHLEARN has created a trilogy of short video tutorials that explain aperture, ISO, and shutter speed using Star Wars LEGO.
Here's a 9-minute introduction to the three-point lighting setup! If you haven’t seen our video about portrait lighting, we go over five portrait lighting positions and what type of emotion you can get from those positions. So this is a follow up to that lesson and I recommend you watch it before diving into this one!
I’ve always been fascinated by the night sky, and one of my favorite things to look out for is the International Space Station when it passes overhead. It still boggles my mind that there are people up there, 200 miles into space. Perhaps they are looking down too. In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to photograph an ISS transit – in other words, photographing the ISS as it flies in front of the moon!
Astrophotography is generally a race against time to capture as much subtle starlight we can before the stars create trails in our images. The movement of the Earth puts a natural limit on how much sharp, subtle detail we can reveal. We have to use super fast, wide angle lenses and high ISO values to see all the awesome detail. Fortunately, a tool exists to circumvent this barrier to reveal more of the hidden magic we have in our night sky.
Photographer Eric Floberg made this 5-minute video tutorial on the subject of composing portraits.
I'm photographer David Johnson, and in this tutorial I'll be sharing how I shoot long-exposure photos of defocused fireworks.
Want to learn how to create a "flying food" photo without actually making food travel through the air? Food photographer Skyler Burt of We Eat Together made this 5.5-minute tutorial on one way to freeze time and space.
Mixing ambient light with flash is a tough technique to get around. I can do it no problem, but when someone asks me to explain it I draw a blank. There’s a very good reason why it’s hard to understand: you’re smashing two distinct schools of lighting an image together.
Here's a 16.5-minute video by OWL BOT in which photographer Omar Kenji demonstrates how you can develop C-41 color film in your own bathroom instead of passing it to a photo lab.
It’s becoming harder to get the entire image sharp with the constantly wider lenses and more extreme foregrounds that are used in today’s photography. Even optimal apertures aren’t enough to get both the foreground and background as sharp as desired. That doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, though. Focus stacking for sharper images has become a go-to technique for photographers of all levels to achieve images that are sharp all the way through.
A lot of the times when you’re shooting in direct sun, it’s very harsh on your subject’s face. Many people try not to put themselves in this situation because of it. Sometimes you have no choice, or maybe you like the location a lot so you have to put up with the challenge. Without any equipment, the sun can create harsh shadows and an unflattering look on your talent.
Lightroom's Auto Mask feature lets you intelligently target edit towards specific portions of photos. While the standard tool is useful, there are more advanced ways of using the tool that can take your editing to the next level. Here's a great 13-minute tutorial on the subject by Signature Edits.