Tutorials

18-year-old Vijay Suddala created a stunning composite image of the moon from his home in southern India with just a $150 telescope and his smartphone.

If you’ve been outside during a nice sunrise or sunset, chances are good you’ve heard the term “golden hour.” It’s one of the best times to do many types of photography and a beautiful time to be outside. This guide will help you understand golden hour, when it happens, and how to make the most of it through various types of photography.

I do a fair bit of macro photography in the studio, for both scientific and artistic purposes. I’ve used tripods, boom poles, and large copy stands to get the camera in close. The setups were often complicated, and I sometimes felt I was concentrating more on the gear than the photograph.

Transferring photos from an iPhone to a computer is a common task that doesn't have to feel like a chore, yet sometimes it can be frustrating if something isn't working or seems to be taking longer to complete than it should. Thankfully, Apple provides several solutions to move pictures from an iPhone to a computer.

We have all heard that “real photographers get it right in camera.” Whether it is attached to some asinine argument about shooting RAW vs JPEG or a preachy lecture about the pitfalls of using anything but manual mode, there can be a lot of pressure to get perfect images right out of the camera. There can also be an apathetic tendency to just “fix it in post”. Both extremes have their downfalls and I have found that a balanced approach is essential for personal development and happiness.

As photographers, one of the most exciting parts of our job is to print the fantastic photos we capture. As eager as we are to get the prints, we need to ensure we follow the entire pre-printing process to the T to ensure you have realistic prints. One crucial step in the process is soft proofing.

Realizing that your lens was dirty during a shoot is not a great feeling. While some specks of dust and other consequences of a dirty lens can be fixed via spot healing and other post-processing, it’s much easier to make sure your lens is clean to begin with and save editing time. Plus, attention to the state of your lens will help it retain its value over time and increase its longevity.

The rule of thirds is widely considered to be one of the most important first techniques you can learn to create better compositions and help you progress from “taking pictures” to “making photographs.”

Using Photoshop to remove the background in an image so that you can replace it is one of the most frequent things for which it was used, and might still be. The actual placing of a new image for a background is relatively easy. The heavy lifting comes from making a good selection of your subject as this will be used to remove the unwanted background for replacement.

Need to download a photo from Instagram? Perhaps you uploaded a photo long ago and have since lost the original file, or perhaps you are interested in downloading a public domain space photo from NASA to use as your phone's wallpaper. Whatever the reason, the good news is that it is easy to download Instagram photos.

If you are a photographer and travel by air then you know that some of the views from an airplane window can be absolutely stunning. Carrying a camera with you when flying can not only work as a nice diversion to kill time but also allow you to capture some incredible images. While your fellow travelers are busy on their tablets, phones, or sleeping, you can be enjoying and capturing some amazing views!

PhotoPills is a planning tool to help you create images of the Sun, Moon, stars, meteors, and more. It can help you decide the best place to focus for maximum depth of field and calculate the correct exposure when using a neutral density filter to blur water, clouds, and other subjects. What's more, you can use it from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection to plan a photo shoot anywhere else in the world.

Landscape photography is one of the most popular photographic genres. It's easy to get started with the genre, but it can take a lifetime to master landscape photography skills. You don't need a sophisticated camera or expensive lens, and the skills you learn when doing landscape photography translate to other types of photography.

Creating compelling sci-fi and fantasy inspired images was once a task that required either awesome practical effects and lighting, dexterous digital paint skills, or a mastery of complex 3D animation software. Recently, Boris FX, an Academy Award-winning software company that has developed film and television visual effects tools for over 20 years, has leveled the playing field with the introduction Boris FX Optics.

Removing unwanted objects and text out of an image to clean up your photo used to require special software and skills, but these days AI has led to features like Content-Aware Fill in Photoshop that lets anyone do it in just a few clicks. If you do not have a Photoshop subscription, there is a free Web and mobile app called Cleanup.pictures you can use.

Even though the Zone System is over 80 years old, it is still relevant today whether shooting modern films or digital capture. This article is for photographers wanting to learn more about the Zone System for their particular workflow.

Astrophotography. We hear the term tossed around a lot these days but what actually is it? The true definition of the word is photography of the nighttime sky. The sky only—at night.

Wedding photography is one of the most challenging yet fulfilling genres of photography, one that will challenge your people skills, technical abilities, and physical stamina. To succeed as a wedding photographer, you will need to become an expert in a wide of subjects, from how to work your camera to how to market your business.

Instagram is a wildly popular (and often lucrative) photo and video-sharing social network, but sometimes it can become a bit overwhelming, leading to the question of whether it's worth so much effort. It's easy to get drawn into endless scrolling through eye-catching photos when the intention was to spend just a few minutes.

In the past few weeks, I’ve received a lot of requests to share my process for organizing and archiving negatives, and the timing was perfect because a big batch just arrived from my friends at Carmencita Film Lab. Look at this sweet sight of fresh negatives!

Photographers have to deal with a variety of image types and new file formats appear from time to time, usually offering benefits that, while helpful, might not be immediately obvious. This can lead to frustration and hours lost when simply trying to complete a project. That's particularly true when a new camera or device saves images that can't be opened or edited in the normal workflow.

The photographic essay, also called a photo essay or photo story, is a powerful way for photographers to tell a story with their images. If you are interested in creating your own photo essay, this article will guide you through the whole process, from finding a story to shoot to the basics of crafting your first visual narrative.

In a world of increasing automation, at least photography still offers the opportunity to stay alert, active, and in command. While intimidating at first, shooting in full manual mode provides creative control, proper metering in tricky light, and deeper integration into the entire process of making photos. If you give it time, manual photography can help you craft your best images.

Not many other adventure holidays are as alluring as an African safari that comes with the promise of seeing Africa's Big Five animals up close and in the wild. The thrill of coming into contact with wild animals is hard to beat. The following article will provide essential considerations for your next Big Five safari adventure to the African continent.

Graduation portrait photography is an opportunity to develop your portrait skills, make photos that your client will treasure, and have fun. There are important logistics to keep in mind for a smooth and well-executed graduation portrait shoot, and this guide will help prepare you.

The Sunny 16 Rule is one of the simplest rules in photography that helps you gain correct exposure. It’s a formula that will tell you what shutter speed to use on a bright sunny day when the lens’s aperture is set to f/16.

Turning on the lights in your photos can change the whole atmosphere of your scene and let the glow …

My name is David Windestal, and in this video and article, I will share how you can hack and modify a Game Boy Camera to mount serious camera lenses in order to shoot amazing lo-fi photos.

Creating an evenly lit background can be trickier than one would think, but is a skill that every photographer should master. But with the right equipment and knowledge, it gets much easier to capture a pure white, black, or colored gradient background in-camera without the need for heavy Photoshop cleanup in post.

One of my favorite techniques in photography is shooting panoramas with a telephoto lens. I got asked a lot about this technique, so I decided to create a full video and article in which I’ll go through the entire process.

For many years I’ve played with the idea of recreating various lighting looks that many of us may know and love from the natural world around us.

Portraits of sitting subjects can make up a big portion of a gallery, particularly for those who shoot indoors. To help avoid shooting unflattering poses, photographer and educator Jessica Whitaker has shared her best tips on how to capture seated women looking their best.

Camera gear. As photographers, we all love and obsess over our beloved gear; the bodies, lenses, filters, and accessories. Many of us develop a collector’s mindset and tend to amass multiple pieces of gear. 

I always enjoy tulip season in the Netherlands. As a landscape photographer from the Netherlands, I have been photographing them and writing about them for many years from every possible angle. In this article, I will share a guide with tips on how you can shoot Dutch tulip season for yourself.

Spring is around the corner and the little flowers start to pop up everywhere. This article focuses on how to photograph these little flowers with a macro lens.

I had a death in the family this week, as my brother in law Michael Stroud passed away, after a three-week hospital stint. There are many parts of the grieving process, of course, and one big one is revisiting memories, with photos and video.

Some of the most enticing shots in portrait photography depict darker emotions, adding in elements of storytelling that include our shadow sides, and show the subject as a complex human. Portrait, documentary, and news photographers rely on emotions to draw viewers in.

"Flambient" real estate photography involves combining flash and ambient light for beautiful, high-end results. In this article, I will show how you can capture great real estate images using high dynamic range (HDR) and flash techniques.