Walkthroughs

Shooting a Photo of Politicians’ Empty Campaign Promises

'Politricks': "the word "politics" altered to convey the empty-campaign promises often experienced after politicians get elected." About a year ago I had this thought of making a picture from this word.

Developing Film With Beer and Other Nostalgia

I had been working at a liquor store to get away from myself and all the photography things I knew well. The extra money was nice, however, my photography burnout had my creativity hostage and didn’t seem to have an end anytime soon. So when Dogfish Head announced their Super 8 Beer and the claim that you could develop film in it, I had to try it. Not actually develop film in it -- hell no! I’ve been digital for twenty years and a film cameras’ place was on the shelf for decoration and memories.

Shooting K9 Charity Calendar Photos for the Waterloo Police

The classic cop story: a devious crime, a detailed investigation, an exciting high-speed chase, an intense interrogation, a news conference with flashing popping as the police show off their impressive bust… except this one involves more drool, flying fur, and a gruesome pile of bones -- dog bones, that is.

Photographing Rhinos in Kenya

As I was winding up the fieldwork for Land of Giants, my book about "big tusker" elephants, I shifted focus to another of Tsavo’s majestic inhabitants: the black rhino. Tsavo West is one of the most ruggedly wild and beautiful landscapes I have encountered in Africa, and a fitting bastion for these ancient mammals.

Watch New Yorkers Get Surprised with Polaroid Street Photos of Themselves

Brooklyn-based photographer Josh Katz made this 11-minute video of a social experiment he did on the streets of New York City to "turn street photography on its head." Instead of shooting photos of strangers and walking away with the images, Katz shot Polaroids of people, handed them the picture to keep, and then tried to strike up conversations as the prints developed.

Freediving to Photograph Humpback Whales

The ocean is fascinating in every way. We know so little about its mysteries and tend to ignore its importance for all living life. What is it about the underwater world that draws people from all over the world to explore its depths? For me, the allure of marine life welcoming me into their natural habitat rather than the other way around is beautiful.

How to Create Killer Match Cuts like Daniel DeArco

Creative consultant and talented videographer Daniel DeArco is one of the best there is at creating impressive transitions from shot-to-shot in his videos. In his latest video, he'll take you behind the scenes to show you exactly how he created one of the coolest cuts in his recent empathy video.

Dramatic Portraits with An Optical Snoot

When a light source is large relative to a subject, that light is considered “soft.” Soft light casts a shadow with a less defined, soft edge. Skin and other kinds of texture will be minimized. When a light source is small relative to a subject, that light is considered hard. Since the light comes from a smaller area relative to the subject, the shadow cast by hard light will have defined edges and the appearance of skin texture will be maximized.

This Crash Course Will Help You Master Luminosity and Luminosity Masks

Photoshop expert Sid Vasandani of StyleMyPic has put together a fantastic, in-depth look at luminosity masks that could significantly speed up your photo editing workflow. If you don't understand luminosity or you've never used luminosity masks, this tutorial could legitimately change the way you make selections.

5 Tips for Shooting ‘Explosive’ Toy Photos on a Budget

Kirk Schwarz over at Practical Photography recently put together a short tips video for anybody who wants to get into toy photography. If you've never taken these kinds of photos but have always wanted to try, you'll find Schwarz' tips for shooting an "explosive" toy photo on a budget in the video above.

A Photographer’s Journey to Yemen to Shoot the Dragon Blood Tree

Yemen isn't exactly a popular destination among photographers these days. The US government has issued a "Do Not Travel" advisory for the country, warning that there's a risk of terrorism, civil unrest, health risks, kidnapping, and armed conflict. But photographer Marsel van Oosten recently traveled to the Yemeni island of Socotra, the "jewel of the Arabian Sea," to photograph the dragon blood tree.

I Built This DIY Camera Rig for Shooting Through-the-Viewfinder Videos

Recently I made my own custom-built camera rig for shooting Through-The-Viewfinder videos on a Nikon Z6 through the viewfinder of an old Lomo Lubitel 166. With my setup, I can have the whole camera in the frame but without distracting hands visible. Here's how I did it.

This Photographer Uses Clever Tricks for Extraordinary Photos

Jordi Koalitic is a Barcelona-based photographer who has racked up over 1.3 million followers on his Instagram by specializing in "creative photography." Koalitic shares not only his finished photos but also behind-the-scenes photos showing the tricks he used to create them.

A Wet Plate Portrait of Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg exploded into the public consciousness last month after the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist gave an impassioned and scathing speech to world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. Earlier this month, wet plate photographer Shane Balkowitsch got 20 minutes with Thunberg at Standing Rock and used the time to make 2 wet plate portraits of her.

How One Photo Took Me Two Years to Make

If you are anything like me, when you go out on a photography shoot, you end up taking many images and lots of different compositions as the light changes, and an inevitable outcome is a number of good shots but no stunners.

How to Shoot Explosive Toy Photos

Toy photography is a really fun way to create really epic-looking images on a tiny scale. It really hones your skills as a photographer, as lighting and action are what makes this look so dynamic and amazing.

Shooting 250MP Portraits with a 42MP Sony a7R II

The latest Sony cameras have the ability to shoot "pixel shift" images that create an ultra-high-resolution version of your scene. But what if you don't have a Sony a7R III or IV? Do what wedding photographer Ben of Bach Photography does in this video and steal a technique from landscape photographers.

How to Shoot Handheld Focus Stacks for Macro Photography

Handheld focus stacking is a brilliant solution for many scenarios. It saves you all the troubles of using a focusing rail in the field and provides a maximum of flexibility. Whenever you need more depth of field than you can get with trading off image quality, this is the way to work around it.

Stretching as a Photographer with My First Mass Headshot Photo Shoot

One of the great things about our jobs as photographers is that we get asked to do so many diverse things. To me, new and different assignments keep me fresh. Sometimes we get asked to do things that push our limits or are even beyond the bounds of anything we have done before. This is the story about how I approached a recent project that pushed me to the limit, and how I was able to tackle it and win.

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.

I Shoot Fake Miniature Scenes with the Real Milky Way

Breaking the rules and thinking outside the box is something a photographer should always try. You start your journey with photography capturing everything interesting you see, jumping from one genre to the other until you find your favorite style.

Macro Video of Bioluminescent Shrimp Shot with a Sony a7 III

Sometimes the world blows you away. It was like that for us when we first started shooting sea fireflies on rock formations back in 2016. The visual power of these creature lighting up the shoreline was just stunning. It made us want to learn more about these creatures and think about innovative ways of shooting them.

How To Capture Award-Winning Sports Photos

As a newspaper staff photographer for 26 years, I’ve seen enormous changes in our industry over that time. There’s been an explosion of interest in sport and sports coverage, so there’s never been a dull moment in all those years.

A Comprehensive Intro to Darktable: A Free Lightroom Alternative

Anthony Morganti of IAmMrPhotographer.com recently teamed up with photographer and fellow YouTuber Rico Richardson to produce a comprehensive introduction to the popular (and free) Lightroom alternative Darktable. If you've been wanting to try this open source RAW editor but don't know where to start, this video is for you.

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!

How to Light a ‘Big Budget’ Photo with $5 Lights

I have a client who builds amazing luxury apartment complexes all over California, and I’m their pool guy. I know it sounds funny, but they call me whenever they need exterior images and pool images (they call another photog to do the interiors of the model apartments).

How I Captured a Day-to-Night Composite on Expired Film

After my recent success at mixing vintage Verichrome Pan film with Kodak Instamatic film, I wanted to try this splitfilm trick again. And I wanted to create something that was a “day versus night” exposure, using the lights of an amusement park or the midway of a county fair to build my image.

Landscape Photography with an Old $79 Camera from 2007

Photographer Toma Bonciu of Photo Tom recently decided to experiment with doing landscape photography with an outdated digital camera. He bought a Canon PowerShot S5 IS from 2007 for $79 from Amazon and took it out into the great outdoors to see what he could get.

This Crazy Camera Rig Spins a Phantom Camera at 150RPM

Steve Giralt is a photographer and "visual engineer" who uses wild-looking camera rigs to capture eye-popping shots seen in ads. His latest project involved a large, heavy camera rig that spins a Phantom VEO 4K high-speed camera around a tabletop subject at 150 rotations per minute.