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.
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?
“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 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).
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.
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.
Although I’ve seriously practiced the art of landscape photography for more than two decades, I’ve never questioned the definition of the term. It’s fairly obvious, isn’t it? If I am taking most of my photos outdoors – in the landscape – then I must be a landscape photographer.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.