I remember seeing a poster on the wall of my fourth grade elementary school class that said, “What’s right isn’t always popular, and what’s popular isn’t always right.” The quote is attributed to Albert Einstein, and while he was most likely speaking with regard t

To help you compose more exciting and beautiful photographs, there are certain key composition techniques that you can use. Natural framing is one that is widely known, but needs careful and thoughtful application. Using framing can create extremely impressive and elegant images when done right. Her

Here is a quick and snazzy tip on adding some cool retro and vintage frame overlays to your photographs, including polaroids and borders, using Alien Skin Exposure X. It’s easy as pie, and takes seconds! Unlike Photoshop, adding frames in Exposure X does not require masking, or the use of laye

How the $*#$ do I use this thing!!?! While I hope you take this article as tongue and cheek, and realize that a decent amount of this is talking to my early self – the reality is that there is a pretty consistent learning curve that many photographers go through. While hopefully your learning

Do you have an image that you would like to give the Hollywood treatment to, and really help make it pop? In this article, I’ll be showing you a method that you can use to give your images the blockbuster treatment, and take them to the next level. The best part about it is that you don&

As a landscape photographer, I participate in many online groups, and I also teach classes where I get the opportunity to see less experienced photographers’ work. I often see some very good work, but many times I also see missed opportunities. Newer photographers just getting started photogra

Smooth water effect edited in Affinity Photo using the Live Stacks feature. Even if you don’t shoot landscape photography, photos of waterfalls with the smooth water and glassy appearance are awesome. The gist to achieving this, and I do stand corrected if I have this wrong, is as follows: Sl

Earlier, I wrote an article called: why asking what camera settings were used may not be as helpful as you think, and in it, I touched on the concept of reading an image. Learning to read images – from a technical perspective and not a conceptual one – is something that I believe al

In this digital age, where we wander about with thousands of digital images held captive in our smart phones, there is something special about printed photographs. They represent something tangible and reverent – something that was worth transforming into an enduring p

Blurry backgrounds are nothing new when it comes to photography. The technique of blurring the background to emphasize a subject in the foreground has been used by photographers for decades, and by painters and other visual artists for hundreds of years. Now thanks to the proliferation of digi

Photography styles are always down to personal taste, in my opinion. I respect that; people have different preferences, and in the same vein photographers can’t please everybody. This also applies to black and white photos, which will be the focus of this article. I have clients

Photographing popular tourist destinations can at times be a great challenge. Hundreds of people are walking within your frame, and regardless of the direction you’re facin,g it’s nearly impossible to capture an image without people in it. I often visit beautiful landscapes, many of whi

Here are five steps you can take which help to increase the sharpness of your photographs: 1) Keep your lenses, filters, and camera sensor clean Somewhat of an obvious point, but a very important one nonetheless. If your lenses and/or filters have dust or debris on them, however small and unnoticea

The Winners of the Tamron 16-300mm Di II VC PZD Macro All-In-One Zoom Lens and Tamron 18-200MM F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC All-In-One Zoom Lens are… A HUGE Thank You to everyone who entered our recent contest to win a 16-300mm Di II VC PZD Macro Lens from our friends at Tamron. Again, this was not act

Post-processing can be a minefield. Beginners especially can feel overwhelmed when confronted by amazing software, that can do almost anything, like Photoshop for example. However, everyone starts from somewhere, and not everything is terribly confusing. I am personally a fan of simplicity, when it

With a limited budget it’s easy to feel limited by your gear (or lack of gear I should say) but with time, and experimentation, you can discover ways to use the gear you have now, to make compelling images. In this tutorial you will be given a few pointers on how you can use just one LED light

Whether you’re running a photography business, or sharing your photography on the web with friends, it’s important to know how to properly size your images for various uses. Generally speaking the smallest size you can share, while still retaining enough quality for the viewer to appreci

If you wonder what composition really means, it is basically what elements you choose to put in a photograph, and where you decide to place them in the frame. When composing a photograph you need to consider several things: What is the story you are trying to tell? In other words, what do you want

Adding a texture overlay to your images is an amazing creative tool. It adds another dimension of depth in the image; it makes it dreamy and adds a painting flavor. It also creates a timeless feeling, especially useful when you want to give a vintage look to your pictures. You will really love this

There are two ways you can approach color reproduction in photography. The first is to try and reproduce the colors of the subject as accurately as you can. If you take a photo of someone wearing a red sweater, then you want the photo of that sweater to have exactly the same shade of red as the