Light meters Light meters can be an invaluable tool for photographers; especially those who use off-camera flash. Mention a light meter in photography circles and you’re certain to get some fierce responses. Sure, some photographers will be indifferent and fewer will be in favor, but most will

How do you take extraordinary photographs of ordinary subjects? Many photographers think that this is impossible. They think that the best photography requires far-flung locations or sweeping landscapes. Yet creating beautiful photographs of everyday things is not only possible, it’s eas

When Adobe announced that they were transitioning their apps to a subscription model of the Adobe Creative Cloud in 2013, I almost fell out of my chair while clutching the cardboard box for my copy of Lightroom 4. It seemed absolutely crazy to me that Adobe would ask photographers and other creative

During the course of your love affair with photography, you’ll use many different pieces of equipment. Some you’ll purchase, some you’ll beg, borrow, or steal. They will all serve one purpose or another. Some you may love so much that you keep forever. Most you won’t. You don

It’s easy to feel defeated before you’ve even started when it comes to creating fine art images. A quick search of any of the popular photography sites brings up beautiful and humbling images from the far corners of the world. However, you don’t need a round-the-world ticket and a

As a photographer, achieving a consistent and clean photo editing style is important for developing your work. Depending on your photographic niche, the way you choose to post produce and edit your images is a key factor in achieving cohesiveness in your portfolio. Utilizing editing software such as

Although it sounds like a highly technical term, ‘reverse engineering’ is something you’ve done many times. Any time you’ve asked questions like “What camera did you take that with?”, “What settings did you use?” or “Where was this taken?”,

About a year ago I reviewed the 2018 version of this software. It was an interesting comparison for me, as I started using it back when it was still owned by Jasc Software (before Corel bought it). Now we have the 2019 version, dubbed Paint Shop Pro 2019 Ultimate. And as someone who uses Lightr

The horizon line is a big deal in landscape and other outdoor photography. You can’t do this kind of photography for long without encountering the Rule of Thirds and the Golden Ratio, both of which are usually applied to the horizon line. Even if there isn’t a true horizon line in

A question seen frequently on photography groups is “What software do I get to process my images in?”. There is the usual flurry of recommendations for the familiar choices and a few random ones thrown in. One option that doesn’t get mentioned as often as it should is ACDSee. In p

Post-processing can make or break an image. It doesn’t matter how much you change in your photo editor of choice, even a small adjustment can damage your image if it isn’t applied correctly. A common mistake I see with post-processing is applying all adjustments globally (i.e. to the ent

Low-light Images often have noise issues, particularly in the dark areas. So you’ve decided to take night time photographs. But the light is so low you’re worried about noise. You want the image sharp and the blacks to be black. And noise reduction reduces sharpness, so it’s going

Effective post-processing can be challenging to learn. If you take photos in RAW format, you need to post process your photos to get them looking good. Here are seven steps I take in Lightroom and Photoshop with most of the photos I take. Typically, the photos I take are documentary-style, and I do

Have you ever wondered what difference studio light modifiers make to your portraits? Are you even convinced that they make a difference in the quality of light? I thought I’d do a little experiment to show you the effects that a few basic studio light modifiers can have on your portraits. Fo

Many people have problems with the color of their photos when they publish them online. There are several reasons why this might be so, but the most common culprits are the color space of the image and whether or not the profile is embedded. Both color settings can radically affect web browser color

Everybody knows that JPEG images are prone to compression artifacts. Meaning every time an image is opened (whether altered or not) and re-saved, the tonal structure of the photo is recompressed using the same destructive process. File recompression always causes additional detail to

In the never-ending search to improve photographic skills, it’s important to push the limits and try projects that push you outside your comfort zone. That’s why a project that involves studying and creating images using low graphic style is an important undertaking that can help to stre

The LaCie DJI CoPilot BOSS is a portable hard drive with an internal battery and added interfaces. The interfaces include an SD card slot, USB-C and USB-A connectors, and a custom cable for connecting the device to a phone or tablet. There is an app available for both Apple and Android devices which

In this third installment of articles on ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018, we look at some of the Cool Tools – either new features or ones that are particularly useful. Read my first two articles here: ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 Guide for Beginners How to do Creative Editing with Lay

Aquariums are amazing places to take your family. But it can be really hard to take good photos as aquariums. Naturally, you want some really cool pictures. But you find out very quickly that aquariums are dark. Really dark! And that your photos turn out blurry. Really blurry! Low light photography