intro

With the recent excitement surrounding the release of the film Oppenheimer, there have been lengthy discussions about the best way to watch it – mostly because of something called an aspect ratio and the way that it affects the viewing experience. This is a term that is used widely in film, and it’s just as important for photographers to understand.

Amazingly, in the age of AI image creation, film photography is not only popular but it's growing again after an initial decline. More and more, people are finding value in timeless, handcrafted imagery.

Loop lighting is a very common style of portrait lighting that is seen very often in portrait photography. In fact, if you’ve spent much time at all shooting in a studio, you’ve probably employed loop lighting without specifically trying to.

One of the most basic and common terms in the world of photography is the focal length of a lens. In this guide, we will dive down deep into what focal length is and how it works.

An intervalometer is an important tool for photographers that is useful across a range of photography genres and techniques, including timelapses, focus stacking, and long exposures.

We’ve all heard the term "dynamic range" when reading the latest and greatest offerings of camera manufacturers -- "this camera has the highest dynamic range in its category!" We understand that a greater dynamic range is generally a good thing to have.

There's more to consider than focal length and price when buying a new lens. Lenses come with an assortment of features such as stabilization and weather sealing, plus issues like distortion and bokeh.

Back in the days of film photography, things weren’t quite as advanced as they are in our modern digital era. Photographers struggled to manipulate available light or had to work a lot harder to capture simple in-camera effects. That was the reason for the invention of photographic lens filters.

As perhaps the most important parameter to understand in photography, shutter speed should be one of your first considerations when making a photograph. It’s one of the biggest reasons that photographers might find themselves unhappy with their shots, and having a great understanding of it is crucial to making great images.

TIFF is a fairly common file type and is often requested by print agencies since it was made with printing in mind by a company that developed desktop publishing apps. TIFF has been around for a long time and is very versatile, handling black and white, various color spaces, such as CYMK, RGB, and even spot colors with ease.

The trusty tripod has remained relatively unchanged as cameras and lenses become increasingly more advanced and complicated. Sure, manufacturers use increasingly more sophisticated materials, such as carbon fiber, but the fundamental character of the tripod has stood the test of time. A tripod has three legs and is a worthy addition to any photographer's kit. There's not much else to say, is there?

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.

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.

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?

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?

After a camera body and a lens, the next most important thing in a photographer’s kit is their accessories. In this article, we will discuss the most basic and essential accessories that a beginning photographer should look into adding to their collection of gear.

Photography is full of baffling jargon and complex numbers to the uninitiated, and it can be daunting for beginning photographers. If you are just starting out, here is an introductory guide for fundamental things you need to have and know before you jump into the wonderful world of photography.

The world of photography is massive. Not only is there a litany of choices when it comes to cameras, lenses, accessories, and other equipment, but photographers also have a choice of countless genres in which to experiment. Often, photographers gravitate towards genres that are attractive to them for various reasons or that involve content that is important to them.

Darktable, RawTherapee, digiKam are undeniably powerful applications for processing RAW files. But while they offer a plethora of advanced editing and processing tools, using them to get the result you want requires and patience and some effort. But who has time for that?

Softboxes are among the most popular light shaping tools. Few photographers have never shot with softboxes, and more often than not a softbox is a go-to modifier for beginners. In this article, I will break down the anatomy of a softbox, from physics to possible applications for it. Read on to become a master of using softboxes.

This article is aimed at people who would like to advance their basic photography skills. I assume that you already make decent photos and are familiar with f-stops, ISO, shutter speeds, etc. But I'm hoping that this read will prove worth your time and lead to even greater photographic skills and enjoyment.

I have been getting quite experimental with my photography this year and recently stumbled upon Intentional Camera Movement, or ICM, photography. I fell into the work of photographer Andy Gray and was immediately blown away by the painterly feel of his images.

If you've ever noticed a little spray can icon while using Lightroom but have no idea what it's for, this 8.5-minute video by photographer Anthony Morganti was made for you.

If you're a relatively new photographer who's using the strap that originally came with your camera, here's a 10-minute video that may be helpful to you. In it, photography educator Phil Steele runs through the basics of camera straps while offering some helpful tips and tricks you may not have learned before.

If you need to make a complex selection in Photoshop that involves hair or fur on a background, the powerful Refine Edge Brush is ready to help. Here's a 1-minute Photoshop Magic Minute video by Adobe that will show you how to get started with the tool.

I am always looking for new and easy ways to light part of an object or create interesting light in an image, and I think I have found the perfect tool for just that and so much more! Pixapro's Optical Snoot has opened up a more efficient way to be able to do this.

Before we get started, it's essential to understand that astrophotography takes time and practice in order to achieve good results, so don't get frustrated if you don't nail it on the first go.

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.

Don't know what it means when one camera shoots 8-bit photos while another one shoots 10-bit? Here's a helpful primer by ZY Productions that will bring you up to speed on the basics of bit depth in less than 3 minutes.

Reflections are often unwanted, and glare will wash out an image. Polarizing filters counter the reflective measures and will deepen blues and add contrast to skies, reduce or remove reflections from water and windows, and increase contrast and saturation.

Even though photography is an art form and the final result is considered to be an artistic expression of your thoughts and ideas, there is a strong technical side to all of this. You're using a very advanced technological camera to capture the images and you need to know and understand all sort of technical concepts.

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!