Guides

If you work with stock photos, you might already be aware of Unsplash, one of the largest and most popular sources of free online images. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the service, this explainer will walk you through what exactly Unsplash is and how it works.

Even though we are firmly ensconced in the digital age when it comes to photography, analog photography has picked up steam in popularity and doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

Your iPhone can nicely blur the background to enhance a photograph or video. A similar effect works well with video chat software, eliminating distractions and putting the focus on the subject. Whether you want to blur the background during a FaceTime call, snap a beautiful portrait photograph with your iPhone, or edit the background blur in pictures you've already captured, we'll explain how it works to help you get the blur you want from your iPhone.

It’s a beautiful, sunny day. You’re celebrating a special event with a photo session, getting your poses ready. You’ve posed countless times with family and friends, at parties, and for selfies. This should be a piece of cake, right? You say ‘cheese’ in your head and bring out the pearly whites. Then you check the camera to see the result.

You’ve been taking your camera everywhere, shooting photos of your experiences, and you love the way photography makes you see the world. Gradually, you’ve started to wonder what it would be like to turn your passion into a career. This guide will walk you through the process of how to become a photographer.

When browsing Instagram, it could be tempting to take a screenshot of a Story, particularly since the content is always changing, advancing to the next Story after only a few seconds. If you give in to that urge, you might wonder if the owner of the account gets notified about your interest and that you saved an image from their story or feed.

Most digital cameras from the 2000s and 2010s are equipped with an optical element called an optical low-pass filter (OLPF), also known as an anti-aliasing (AA) or blur filter. As the name "filter" suggests, this optical element filters out some information coming from the imaged scene.

Mood boards are more than a random collection of photos found online. If you want successful photoshoots that deliver what you, your client, or your team envisioned, mood boards can help you. All it takes is some brainstorming and curation.

Photographers who shoot portraits are likely familiar with Rembrandt-style lighting as well as other styles such as loop, butterfly, and so on. This is especially true if you have taken a lighting class or have been reading up on the subject. You may be using this specific type of portrait lighting in previous images and might not even realize it until reviewing later. (Ask me how I know).

How much should photographers charge? I feel like that statement is as triggering as my toddler asking me about death or where babies come from. But unlike the age-appropriate answers we give our kids on hard topics, it’s important to do some adulting on the topic of money.

As video becomes increasingly important, photographers may consider offering video services to their clients. It's a great goal, but there is a steep learning curve in order to successfully jump from photo to video.

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.

With Apple's iCloud, it's easy to download photos from your online photo library to any device. If you own an iPhone, iPad, or Mac this can be set up to happen automatically. From a Windows computer, there are a few more steps required and the same is true for an Android phone or tablet.

Shooting from a photo pit or area is an important part of photography niches such as concert and sports photography, but how do you get access in the first place? This is not an easy task but with a little work and dedication, you can position yourself to be allowed in this coveted area.

In the photographic arms race, mirrorless systems are on the rise, having pushed DSLRs into the history books. But, just as film isn’t dead, neither are rangefinders. This seemingly obsolete design remains sharp, fast, and challenging enough to suit even the most confident photographers.

When compared to the other components of the exposure triangle (shutter speed and aperture), ISO appears to be the most intuitive on the surface. It is also the most misunderstood component, and everything from its definition to its usage has been discussed extensively.

There are many types of camera lenses out there, and it can be a bit confusing and even frustrating trying to sort it out because not every lens will be right for the type of photo you are trying to capture in a particular situation.

Photojournalism tells a story not in thousands of words but in a series of photos. Just as a written news story presents a complete picture by providing an overview, a thesis, subjects, and various points of view, photojournalism achieves this same objective pictographically.

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.

In the past, double exposing film was one of the most popular special effects used in photography, and often could be hit or miss. The idea was to combine two (or more) photos into the same image.

We’ve all been there. Walking into a room of complete strangers, business cards at the ready, with a feeling vaguely reminiscent of stepping onto a used car lot. Welcome to the monthly Chamber of Commerce networking luncheon: a hellscape of desperate Realtors, indifferent bank managers, and the guy who just quit his job at the car wash to become a personal trainer.

Apple makes it very easy to delete a photo from an iPhone but removing all of them at once can be quite a bit more challenging. There are also some complications to be aware of, like accidentally deleting photos from iCloud. Knowledge is power and with a few tips, you'll be able to delete only what you'd like from your iPhone and make it take effect immediately.

Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter have all been chasing TikTok's domination in short-form video for some time now. But while its competitors focus on short-form video, TikTok has made the unexpected pivot to photography.

If it seems like there’s more new photography technology than what you can keep up with, you are probably correct. However, don’t let that deter you from learning the industry standards and terms within it. One of those terms that you’ll likely come across is the digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera, which has been the leading type of camera for still photography throughout the past decade.

Photography, as the name suggests, is the process of creating images with light. But if you use only light, the entire image will be pure white (or any other color). So we also need the absence of light, or shadows, to create and showcase what we want. It's the interplay between light and shadows that creates the final image.

Aperture can seem like one of the most challenging camera settings to fully understand, but once you understand it, your photography will improve immensely.

For decades, there’s a piece of gear that I’ve always had in my camera bag. This would be a handheld light meter. I feel I’m in the minority these days by still using a handheld light meter and that’s too bad this is so.

Shooting dancers can be one of the most daunting photographic subjects but also one of the most rewarding in terms of the final images captured. Dance can be an unforgiving subject, and unless one delves deeper and tries to understand the movement, the choreography, the piece, and how to capture the light hitting the dancers, it will prove tough to achieve award-winning imagery.

Whether you like them or not, Artificial Intelligence (AI) image generators have exploded in popularity this year and the technology shows no signs of stopping.

For anyone who has flown a camera drone, there is a lot of fun and excitement unlocked with the new creative angles with their ability to get views and vantage points otherwise inaccessible to a photographer on the ground. While learning how to fly them can be challenging, an epic new view of the area captured from the air is a worthy and exciting reward. Since so many makes and models exist currently on the market, which one is the right choice for you?

At some point in their career, an artist will be approached by a gallery or will approach galleries looking for representation or to have an exhibition. You’ve had some success at local art shows and fairs and have made some inroads selling your photography online, but now you want to get your work out there and start looking for galleries to show your work or represent you.

In my complete guide to wedding photography, I addressed 10 critical moments that a wedding photographer can’t miss. In this guide, I want to dial in and take a closer look at what photos should be taken at a wedding.

Over the next ten years, the number of photographers is expected to grow by 17%, or more than double the average growth rate for all industries, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

BeReal is a new social media network that puts a focus on authenticity. Others have made similar claims but this goal has proven difficult to achieve. This guide will look at what BeReal is and how to use it.

The digitized, Internet-connected world has actually made film photography easier. As one-hour photo labs began to disappear and many camera stores ditched the darkroom, mail-in photo labs have filled the void.

Once a staple of photography for the general populace, disposable (or “single-use”) cameras have become something of a niche -- most people who never stopped shooting film or those younger audiences who are coming to it for the first time choose to use an affordable SLR or point and shoot camera. The image quality is quite superior and a single roll of film is less expensive (though typically not by much) than a disposable camera.

The delayed gratification of film photography pays dividends. While computers speed up the process incredibly, digital photography remains mere data until printed. Film photography rewards photographers with the tingle of suspense, a purely mechanical workflow, and tangible results on physical film. It's a great idea for serious photographers to experiment with film at some point in their journey, especially because it’s still very easy to find.

A passport is almost always a necessity when traveling outside your country, and a photograph is required along with identity documents, filling out a form, and paying a fee when applying. The photograph is potentially the most challenging part of the process. The good news is that the photo can be taken and printed at home as long as careful attention is given to the rules.

Opening your own photo studio can be an incredibly large undertaking. There are many things to consider, the least of which is what pieces of gear you'll need. Having recently helped out a friend in setting up their first studio, I’d like to share a few ideas on what you may include.

Looking to make basic adjustments to photos without having to shell out a lot of money for image editing software? There are a large number of online photo editors these days that can be used completely for free within your web browser.

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.

Resizing images in Adobe Photoshop sounds like it should be a trivial and simple operation, and for many uses and users, it is. It’s when one starts looking closely at the details in a resized image that it becomes apparent you should be looking into the options of the resize image dialogue box.

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.

Since the early days of photography, photographers have framed photos after making a print for display. Frames help focus a viewer's attention on the subject of the photograph or on the entire picture in itself.

I have said it before in my all-in-one, how-to-do-everything astrophotography guide—astrophotography is more accessible than ever before. Great gear can be purchased even on a tight budget, and the advancements with compact star trackers allow for even greater detail to be captured.