stepbystep

I Took These Photos in My Dining Room

Product photography is something that I've always been interested in, but never saw myself making a career out of. However... when I do get to take product photos, I do enjoy it quite a lot.

How to Make Camera Case Dividers for Less Than $13

I'm as interested in an "easy life" as much as the next person, so if somebody else has already done the hard work of making a product for me, and I can purchase it for a reasonable price, I'm all over it. After all why make life hard for yourself if you don't have too. Unfortunately there are times when you literally can't purchase what you need and the only option is to get all arts-and-crafts on the problem!

How to Make a ‘2.5D’ Wedding Video: Bringing Photos to Life with Motion

My name is José Ignacio, and I'm a commercial and wedding photographer from Spain. I read a lot of blogs and magazines in search of inspiration -- in this job there is a constant search for new ways of telling stories. The '2.5D' technique always attracted me. I’ve seen it applied in other genres, but I wanted to use it in wedding photography.

The Magic of Russian Photoshop Whiz Max Asabin

Max Asabin is a Russian hobbyist photo retoucher and digital artist who has been wowing the Internet as of late with his Photoshop skills. Many of his creations involve combining various photos together into seamless composite portraits of people.

$2,000 vs $50: How to Build Your Own DSLR Dome Port Underwater Housing

If you've done research into underwater housing, you'll know how expensive they can be. In some instances, they cost more than the camera. Certainly, when you pay the premium price you're also purchasing assurance, functionality, size, etc. However, rebel that I am, I didn't want to pay the premium, so I built my own.

How to Build a Bear-Proof DSLR Camera Trap Housing

Looking to make your own DSLR camera trap housing? You’ve come to the right place. Camera trapping is an increasingly popular technique, and it’s rather addictive too. The ability to leave your DSLR camera out for days or weeks at a time, watching and waiting 24 hours a day, has revolutionized the wildlife photography field.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Cleaning Your Camera Sensor

The idea of cleaning your camera’s sensor fills many photographers with dread. It may seem difficult or complicated but it is actually much more straightforward than you may think. In this article, I will give you a simple guide on how to check for sensor dust and how to effectively clean your camera’s sensor.

How I Post-Process Hard Light and Overwhelming Tones

Ever since the middle of high school, I’ve been immensely interested in “the process.” You know, that middle bit between point A and point B that nobody but the artist ever sees. I’ve always loved peeking behind the scenes to see where something started and what kind of work and thought went into creating the finished product.

Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started with Magic Lantern (Safely)

Getting started with Magic Lantern can be a bit daunting for a beginner. That's why computer science student and filmmaker Jake Coppinger put together this easy-to-follow step-by-step video guide that shows you how to (safely) install and use the powerful software add-on.

Photography Mittens You Can Crochet Yourself

If you live in a cold area and have both a passion for photography and a knack for crocheting, here's a fun project for you: photography mittens. Carmen Jacob of Spindle Shuttle Needle has created stylish mittens that have special holes for your thumb and index finger to poke through, allowing you to operate your camera while keeping your hands warm and toasty.

How to Make a Killer Multiple Exposure Portrait Using Photoshop

My name is Piotr Skoczylas, and I am a surreal portrait photographer. I picked up a camera 3 years ago, and since that moment I knew I wanted my pictures to be something more than just the click of the shutter. I was experimenting for a really long time until I created something I really liked, and with which I could connect emotionally.

Here's a step-by-step look at how I created one of my best multiple exposure portraits using Photoshop.

Using Photoshop to Create a Magical Photo of a Man Rowing Into the Clouds

My name is Mohammed Sattar, and I'm a photographer and digital artist. My goal isn't to capture reality -- it's to create dreams.

One of my most popular photos so far is called “The Escape." In this step-by-step tutorial, I'll show you how I created the magical scene by combining two different photos in Photoshop.

Creating a Composite Car Photo Using a Parking Lot Snapshot

A couple of days ago, photographer and retoucher Clint Davis shared a guest post about how he created composite photos for a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 4x4 brochure. Turkish photographer and retoucher Burak Erzincanli was also recently commissioned to create a composite with a Mercedes Sprinter.

Creating Photoshop Composites for a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 4×4 Brochure

Mercedes-Benz Canada commissioned me in 2014 to shoot photos for the 2014 Sprinter lineup. In addition to those photos, I was also asked to piece together brochure images for the newer and not-yet-released 4x4 Sprinter model. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the Photoshop work that went into the 4x4 images.

Tutorial: Lightroom’s HDR Photo Merge and a Look at Its Pros and Cons

HDR photo merging has been around for a while, but only recently has it been implemented inside Adobe’s Lightroom. In this article I will show a brief tutorial on how to use it inside LR and explain the pros and cons of this technique based on my own experience and photographic technique.

A Primer on Planning a Lunar Eclipse Photograph

This article is about how this time slice shot of a lunar eclipse was made. Its focus is mainly on the planning that went into it, even before the first shutter click. Hopefully by sharing what I did, I can prepare you for creating your own lunar eclipse photo.

How to Copyright Your Photos in 2024

When your finger presses down on a camera's shutter button and captures a photograph, that photo is instantly copyrighted with you as the rightful owner. However, there are benefits to formally registering your work with the United States Copyright Office. Today, we are going to take a look at the process involved in registering your visual artwork, along with the benefits of doing so and why you may want to consider it for photos you value.

This Step-by-Step Teardown of the Nikon D80 Shows You What’s Inside a DSLR

After having his ex-girlfriend stab his Nikon D80 to death using a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, Jon of Prime Studios decided to "take lemons and make lemonade" by using the camera for an in-depth teardown. In the 16-minute video above, Jon takes the DSLR apart to show us what things are like on the inside and what some of the main components are.

Start to Finish: Post-Processing a Photo of Sandhill Cranes in Flight

On March 23, I was in Kearney, Nebraska to view and photograph the annual migration of the Sandhill cranes. These birds are graceful, awkward, beautiful and kooky all at the same time. They fly with grace, but while on the ground sometimes exhibit some of the funniest behaviors you'll see from a bird. With a wingspan of up to 7 feet, these birds aren't the biggest, but they're some of the biggest most of us will get to see.

How to Do Levitation Photography: A Tutorial

As a part of a personal 50/50 project (a photo a day for 50 days with a 50mm lens), I tried my first attempts at levitation photography and had a lot of fun doing it. This tutorial will walk you through the best methods to make a surreal levitation portrait; only a pinch of magic required.

Animated GIFs Showing the Photo Composite Work of Richard Roberts

Richard Roberts is a freelance creative retoucher and digital artist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over the past decade, he has worked on advertisements and promotional materials for clients that include Fox, HBO, Mountain Dew, Under Armor, Kelloggs, and Gillette.

For most of his projects, Roberts will capture snapshots of the image at various stages of compositing -- glimpses are later combined into animated GIFs that show how the various images were made.

8 Steps to Arranging a Fashion Editorial Shoot

If you're a fellow fashion photographer, you have probably been in that usual situation in which you have to arrange an editorial shoot all by yourself. This can be really empowering, fun and creative... but also extremely difficult.

How I Replaced the Shutter in My Canon 5D Mark II By Myself and Saved $400

The shutter on my old Canon 5D Mark II died while on a trip to Fiji earlier this year. It happened quickly; I was shooting a panorama when horizontal black bars started appearing in some of the shots. After about 10 more photos in between turning the camera off and on again, it was dead. The shutter was stuck closed and powering the camera on yielded a helpless sounding soft ‘clunk’ and an “Error 20″ message.

I was quoted around $500 to get this fixed at a repair shop. But.. an OEM replacement shutter is only $90 on eBay. So, after about 6 months of putting it off I finally built up enough #YOLO fever to have a crack at fixing it myself, saving $400 and learning a few things along the way.

Hyperlapse Tutorial: Creating Your Own Moving Timelapse, from Start to Finish

Hyperlapse photography is an increasingly popular technique in which standard timelapse imagery is brought to life with camera movement. Rather than move the camera with a slider or with a crane, hyperlapse shots move the camera across very long distances.

19-year-old photographer Morten Rustad wanted to pass on some of the things he has learned about creating hyperlapses, so he created the helpful 9-minute-long video tutorial above. It's a great primer for anyone looking to get started with this type of photography.