tutorial

How to Create a Focus Stack in Photoshop

Did you know that Photoshop has a built-in focus stacking function? This article explains about how it works and how to make the most of it.

Beginner’s Guide to Focus Stacking for Macro Photography

One of the greatest challenges in macro photography is the depth of field, or DOF for short. Not only does the zone of sharpness drastically fall off as we get closer to our subjects, other factors such as the lack of light and diffraction softening make it tricky to use narrow apertures on top of that.

How to Quickly and Easily Animate a Still Photo in Photoshop

There are all sorts of tools out there for making cinemagraphs and "plotagraphs" by animating certain parts of your still photos, but you don't need any of them. This short tutorial shows you how to create these animations using Adobe Photoshop.

How to Shoot People-Free Photos of Crowded Places

It's more and more difficult these days to photograph places without crowds or cars. One of the strategies that can help achieve that is to wake up early and be there at sunrise, but in very popular places, there will be other photographers with the same idea as you. So, how can we take a picture of a scene without this crowd?

How to Shoot Refraction Macro Photos in Water Drops, Glass Beads and More

Refraction photography is an exciting subject that has been enjoying increasing popularity amongst photographers. You've probably seen refraction photos before: where an out-of-focus background appears sharply defined inside a crystal ball or a dew drop for example. In today’s post, we will examine this phenomenon and learn how to take beautiful photos by taking advantage of this effect.

This Simple Conversion Turns Any Zoom Lens Into a Macro Lens

Are you looking for an affordable but also electronic macro lens? Or maybe you have an old kit lens that's just sitting around, collecting dust since your last upgrade? Well then read on, because in this article I am going to share one cool hack that will allow you to transform almost any kit or standard zoom lens into a capable macro lens!

The Best Lightroom Tool For Improving Composition in Photos

How many times have you returned from what you felt was a productive photography trip only to find that some of the compositions of your favorite images weren't exactly what you expected? This happens to me rather frequently, but fortunately for us, we have access to one of the best Lightroom tools for improving composition in our photos: the Crop tool!

How to Shoot a Day-vs-Night Photo in a Single Exposure

Here's a creative technique to add to your bag of tricks. In this 9.5-minute video, we’ll show you from start to finish how we took an ordinary scene and turned it into to go from day to night in one single exposure, in-camera.

Global and Local Luminance Masking in Lightroom

I have often wanted to carry out global adjustments in Lightroom which target specific luminosity values in an image. Lately, I have discovered a way of achieving this. It is not as precise as, for instance, luminosity masking or blend-if masking in Photoshop, but yet it has the power to give an image that extra punch many of us are looking for in our editing.

How To Bracket For Perfectly Exposed Landscape Photos

Perhaps one of the more difficult aspects of landscape photography is determining how to properly expose your scene under less-than-ideal lighting conditions. These types of situations are a common occurrence with outdoor photography as it’s often a struggle trying to properly expose an image consisting of a bright sky and a dark foreground in a single image.

Explaining Bit Depth and Debunking a Common Myth

Each year, someone new comes along to try and demystify bit depth for the masses. In 2017 it was Tutvid, in 2018 Greg Benz did a great job in this article, and now StyleMyPic has created a comprehensive and easy-to-follow video that explains exactly what bit depth is, how it works, and debunks a common myth.

9 Single-Key Lightroom Shortcuts I Use Every Day

In all honesty, I only use single-key shortcuts as opposed to multi-key for the simple reason that I can’t remember much beyond a single keystroke. I thought about printing every shortcut and hanging it on my office wall for reference, but that would defeat the purpose of using shortcuts in the first place as I’d have to spend additional time scanning the printout to locate what I’m looking for.

How to Do Back Button Focusing on Your Canon DSLR or Mirrorless

Back button focusing involves decoupling a camera's autofocus from the shutter button and moving it to a button under the right thumb on the back. Here's a helpful 4.5-minute video by Canon Australia showing how you can get started with this next-level focusing technique on your Canon DSLR or mirrorless camera.

4 Landscape Photography Tips to Last a Lifetime

Scottish landscape and wildlife photographer Wayne Robertson recently shared what he's calling "4 Landscape Photography Tips to Last a Lifetime." These aren't "tricks" or "hacks" or "secrets," because Robertson doesn't believe there are any secrets when it comes to great landscape photography. Just tried and true advice that all landscape shooters could benefit from.

How to Balance Strobe Light with Ambient Light

My name is Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens, and in this 6.5-minute video and article, I'll illustrate the balance of strobes with ambient light. Whether it’s inside or outside, you’re going to have to learn the formula to balance strobes with ambient light. It’s not that hard, so let’s go back to 1930 and learn the formula!

How to Clean and Mod the Beam Splitter in a Rangefinder Camera

I recently collaborated with Chris from filmismorefun and made a video about how to clean the beam splitter in your rangefinder camera as well as how to improve the rangefinder patch too. This is an advanced tutorial with great results.

How to Shoot Pro Portraits on a Budget with Just One Flash

Shooting professional-quality portraits with artificial lighting doesn't have to weigh heavily on your bank account. Here's a 22-minute video in which photographer Sean Tucker shares how to shoot great portraits using a single speedlight and a cheap modifier.

Shooting the Milky Way in Missouri

Living in St. Louis almost my entire life, I was lead to believe the lights of the bustling city were too bright to make seeing stars anywhere nearby impossible. As I grew older and started getting serious about photography, I realized that was correct... kinda.