Tutorials

Whether you are a beginning photographer or a seasoned professional, there are always new things to learn and more areas to improve in. PetaPixel regularly publishes in-depth tutorials on a wide range of subjects, from Photoshop tips and post-processing techniques to ideas on building your own cameras and do-it-yourself equipment.

How to Make a Realistic Shallow Depth of Field Using Photoshop

In this 20-minute tutorial by PiXimperfect, learn how to use Photoshop to create a realistic bokeh effect in your photo. Creating a shallow depth of field after you've taken the shot can be tricky to do convincingly, but this tutorial will show you one method for how to do it.

How I Plan My Landscape Photos for the Highest Chances of Success

My name is Albert Dros, and I am a professional landscape photographer from the Netherlands. People often tell me that I am "in the right place at the right time." But I obviously don’t post "failed" shoots. And not only that, I also spend a great deal of time planning my shots in order to make my chances of success as high as possible.

How to Shoot Magical Portraits in the Pouring Rain

When it starts pouring outside, most photographers may run for cover and hide from the rain. For photographer Ilko Allexandroff, heavy rain becomes an opportunity to shoot stunning backlit portraits of subjects. Here's a 20-minute video in which Allexandroff discusses his methods, helpful tips, and 6 types of lighting setups he uses.

How to Try Out Infrared Photography Without Modifying Your Camera

Digital cameras usually have infrared filters on the sensor that work to block out almost all of the infrared information reaching it. To shoot infrared photos, photographers often have their camera converted to capture infrared light by removing this filter, but in turn the camera loses its ability to capture "normal" images. If you'd like to dabble with IR photography, there's an easier alternative.

10 Tips and Tricks for the Liquify Tool in Photoshop

Photoshop’s Liquify Tool is a very powerful tool for retouching images, especially photos of people. Learning all of the features of the tool is important to make sure your edits don’t look unnatural. This 25-minute video from tutvid will help you master Liquify, as Nathanial Dodson explores 10 tips, tricks, and features.

5 Classic Portrait Lighting Mistakes You May Be Making

In this article, I am going to highlight 5 key things that I see portrait photographers doing that I consider to be "in need of improvement." And although there are no hard-and-fast rules to photography, try to think of it as being similar to an instrument being slightly out of tune or a meal that's perhaps a little too salty. These are glaringly obvious errors to the well-informed but may not be so obvious to those who are just starting out.

Basic Tips for Posing Female Models

My name is Mark Fitzgerald, and I'm a photographer based in Melbourne, Australia. In this post, I'll be discussing basic model poses for female models. Whether you are a model choosing a pose or a photographer posing your model, this is a decision that can shape the look of the image and therefore the success of the campaign.

How to Create Long Exposure Light Trails in Video with After Effects

In this tutorial, I'll break down how I create light trails from video and how you can create a video panning shot. A panning shot is where a camera pans horizontally to track a subject in a frame, keeping the subject sharp, while blurring the background.

How to Shoot Corporate Headshots: 3 Looks in 30 Minutes

When you’re taking corporate headshots, you often have a tight window in which to fit everything in. But usually you're also going to be expected to create more than one look. Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens runs through his simple setup in this 5 minute video.

How To Build a DIY Triangle LED Light

There are plenty of tutorials on the web for how to create DIY ring lights, but this build has a unique take. The 10-minute video by Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter will take you through the steps required to build a triangular “ring” LED light that can be dimmed.

3 Tips for How to Pose Men Who Don’t Know How to Model

In this typically short and sweet 1.5-minute video from Mango Street, the photography duo run through some techniques for posing a male subject. These tips are especially helpful when posing someone who is not a model and has little experience in front of a camera.

How Lightroom Can Tell You What Lens You Should Buy

Lightroom has a feature that can help you use your photography metadata to make informed lens buying and upgrade decisions. In my personal case, Lightroom proved to me that I don't need a 24-70mm lens. I'll show you how.

How to Make a Solar Eclipse Lens Filter for $15 Instead of Paying $150+

With the Great American Eclipse on August 21, 2017, only weeks away, I decided to put together some solar filters. With the high travel costs to get to the eclipse from Southern California, I saved some money through purchasing solar filter sheets instead of the pre-made filters.

How to Contact and Book a Model for a Photo Shoot

Whether you've been shooting for five minutes or five years, there will likely come a time when you'll have to book a shoot with another person. Maybe it will be a friend or coworker and maybe it will be a full-time professional model.