Using Depth of Field and Perspective for Better Composition

We all know this problem. You take a picture of a beautiful scene but it just doesn’t turn out the way you want. Something is missing. It usually isn’t a matter of your camera or the settings you are applying. But what is it then? The question at hand is how do you get from a...
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How to Create a Sun-shower Photo on a Cloudy Day

Yes, You Can Change The Weather!
You just brought home a bunch of beautiful flowers, and you’d love to get an interesting photo of them. You take them outside, but it’s a dark, cloudy day. The light is boring, and the forecast is for several days of overcast weather. By the time the...
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Travel Photography Tips – Video Tutorials

Summer is here in the northern hemisphere and you may be heading out on vacation soon. So today I have a couple videos for you with some travel photography tips.
First up is an interview by This Week in Photo podcast host Frederick Van Johnson with our own dPS writer Ralph Velasco.  They talk ...
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How to use Texture to Improve Your Photos

I recently wrote about the importance of texture in my article about converting photos to black and white in Lightroom and my review of MacPhun’s Intensify app. Today I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at this compositional element, and how becoming more aware of it can h...
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5 Not-So-Obvious Mistakes Photographers Make When Starting a Business and How You Can Avoid Them

By plantoo47

When starting your photography business it’s easy to get caught up in how good your portfolio looks, buying new equipment, or how many followers you have on social media. While these tasks are important, you risk overlooking some crucial numbers that will help you to hold yourself ...
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Reviewing the Loka UL Adventure Backpack from F-Stop Gear

The new Loka UL backpack from F-Stop Gear combines lightweight rugged protection for your camera gear with the space you need for other outdoor essentials.

Among the many life lessons learned from my father was the one about always making sure you have the right tool for the job. I think we...
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Weekly Photography Challenge Hills and Valleys

Earlier today I shared a collection of images of hills and mountains. Now it’s your turn.
This week’s photography challenge is to get out and do some landscape photography. Specifically hills, valleys and mountains – get out into some natural landscape.
Some ideas to get...
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A Set of Awe Inspiring Majestic Mountain Images

Summer in the northern hemisphere usually means school’s out and families take vacations. A popular destination, at least where I live, is the mountains. Who doesn’t love driving through, or camping in the mountains.
Here’s a set of majestic mountain images and rolling hills to...
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Review of the Turfstand by Windborne

The Turfstand sheds the legs of conventional light stands and adds ground-anchoring spikes for a new layer of stability in outdoor lighting.

When you stop and think about it, how much is there to really say about a light stand? I suppose we could discuss height, weight or materials, but once...
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7 Proven Ways to Come Home with Better Travel Photos

Your next vacation or around-the-world escapade is the perfect time to brush up on your photography skills.
After all, taking a great photograph is never more important than when you’re seeing people and places you may never see again. Travel opens your eyes to other cultures, and if you...
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How to Create and Use Photoshop Actions to Speed up Your Workflow

What are Photoshop Actions?
Photoshop Actions are very useful time savers. Should you find yourself applying the same Photoshop commands or a series of commands repeatedly to images, wouldn’t it be nice to just push one key and apply that series of commands to your image, or even to a whole f...
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Three Uses for High ISO you Might Not Know

You may already know that the ISO setting is used to control your camera’s sensitivity to light. When you use a high ISO setting essentially you are telling your camera to become more receptive to the available light. This is most often used when you are photographing in low light si...
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Winners of the NYIP Photography Courses Announced

The Winners of the NYIP Photography Courses Are:

A BIG thank you to everyone who entered our recent contest to win one of three photography courses from our friends at NYIP.
The response was terrific with over 650 entries. In fact, it was so great that the team at NYIP decided to offer a...
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How to See in Black and White

Andrew’s book Mastering Lightroom: Book Three – Black & White is on sale now at Snapndeals for 40% off. This is a limited time offer, so grab it while it’s available.
 

In my previous article I showed you how to convert colour photos to black and white in Lightroom. However, no matter ...
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Three Exercises to Limit Yourself and Grow as a Photographer

Today’s digital cameras are marvels of modern technology, allowing even the most inexperienced photographer access to state-of-the-art imaging systems that were the domain of supercomputers, and research institutions only a few decades ago. With prices plunging continually lower, and more...
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5 Tips for Creating a Photo Essay with a Purpose

As a photographer, you are a storyteller. The nouns are your subject matter; the verbs are the color and contrast that keep the story moving. A cast of characters all working together to get your point across. Instead of proper grammar, you ensure proper exposure. Instead of spelling errors, you...
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Using Off-camera Flash to Fix Lighting Problems for Outdoor Portraits

When you’re taking pictures of family and friends outdoors, you are often not in control of the light, and that can lead to poor portraits.
A few of the possible problems include:

Raccoon eyes – deep shadows in the eye sockets (and other the nose) caused by bright overhead sunlight...
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Getting Your Foot in the Door as a Freelance Assignment Photographer

One of the biggest changes photography has seen over the last 10 years is in photojournalism and documentary photography. Some will see this change as good while others will see this change as bad. The improvements made to consumer DSLR cameras, lenses and editing software have opened the doors...
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Overview of Some of the New Features of Photoshop CC June 2014

Recently Adobe announced their newest incarnation of their flagship product, Photoshop Creative Cloud (CC). Some of the new things look really interesting and I can see a lot of applications for them.
In this video French photographer Serge Ramelli goes over some of the new features that you may...
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Thecus N2560 NAS storage for photographers – review

This will be an overview of the N2560 and also a little bit of practical advice for people that have a computer with almost zero disk space remaining, and no clue what to do about it!
Let’s start with the Thecus N2560 network attached storage (NAS) that we were sent to try out.
Thecus ...
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5 Creative Ways to Process Infrared Photographs in Photoshop

Digital cameras have made the process of infrared photography relatively simple and very accessible, compared to the days of shooting with infrared film. No darkroom is required and all you need to get started is an infrared filter on your lens (click through to read my article on How to do ...
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Weekly Photography Challenge Outside the Box Creativity

This time around the weekly photography challenge is a little bit different than our usual topics. This one is pretty wide opened because I want you to get out there and get crazy creative!

By Holger Ejleby

If that is you – get out of there and try something different! Outside the box ...
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A Set of Imaginative Images to Spark Your Creativity

This week’s theme seems to be all about sparking up the fires of creativity. A few articles this week have touched on this theme including:

Creative Reasons to use Intentional Camera Movement
Don’t Know What to Shoot? These 4 Photography Exercises Will Keep You Motivated
5 Ways To...
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4 Tips for Taking Better Photographs of Trees

Can’t see the wood for the trees? I’ve often struggled with the challenge of photographing trees in a way that captures the imagination and takes the viewer on a journey. I’ve learned that for me, there are two very effective ways to consider and photograph trees. Try asking...
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Don’t Know What to Shoot? These 4 Photography Exercises Will Keep You Motivated

Whether you’re just getting into photography, or if you’ve been at it for years; you can keep yourself rejuvenated, and keep the creative juices flowing by always trying new things.
If you’re feeling uninspired photographically, that’s a sign that you need to shake things...
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Kids Posing Guide: Early Bird Discount Ends in 36 Hours

A few weeks ago we launched a brand new Kids Portraiture Printables collection in the dPS store with a 25% off Early Bird Discount (40% off if you get it with the companion eBook).
This post is just a quick note to let you know that that discount ends in just over 36 hours.
The printables...
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10 Reasons Why a Pro is Using a Mirrorless Camera for Personal and Paid Jobs

Everyone can take a picture, but as photographers (professional or aspiring), we have the skill set and the tools to create great images in any situation. We have the ability to turn the ordinary into extraordinary through photography. As the saying goes, the shoemaker’s kids have no sho...
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How to Convert Photos to Black and White in Lightroom

Andrew’s book Mastering Lightroom III is on sale now at Snapndeals for 40% off. This is a limited time offer, grab it while it’s available.

Today I’m going to show you just how easy to use, and effective Lightroom is, for converting colour photos to powerful black and white...
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How to Make Stronger Photographs Through the Process of Visual Design

Photography is an art that relies on light. It also relies heavily on the visual message. You have no way of communicating anything to your viewer except through the visual language you use. If you use strong visual elements, your images will be effective and people will stop and look. If you...
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How to do Surreal Digital Infrared Photography Without Expensive Gear or Camera Conversions

Photos made with invisible infrared light, rather than visible light, yield wildly strange and eerie photographs that always have the “WOW Factor.”  For landscapes or scenic imagery, infrared (IR) photography is highly regarded as fine art. But back in the days of film photography, ...
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Spice-Up Your Outdoor Photos with Wireless Off-camera Flash and Gels

Wireless off-camera flash is a great way to add a splash of light and give a scene an added dimension, or to fill in shadows in high-contrast scenes. The TTL (through the lens) exposure feature makes it easier than ever to get a well-exposed image without the need for a flash meter. However,...
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5 Ways To Break Out of a Creative Photography Rut

I’m a full time photographer that concentrates on shooting restaurant and bar interiors, food, and cocktails. After strictly shooting that subject matter for long time I found myself uninspired, so I decided to do something about it.
I’m going to share four tips I’ve used over...
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Two Videos on How to Take Care of Your Camera Gear

This week I found two different videos on how to take good care of your camera gear from two different perspectives (serious and more tongue in cheek). It’s important to take care of your equipment to make sure it keeps functioning properly and takes nice clean images with no dust...
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How to use a Gobo to add Depth to Your Portraits with Subtractive Lighting

It’s our responsibility as photographers to use the interplay of light and shadow on our subjects to create the third dimension in our two-dimensional media. When the shadows are absent, we should do our best to craft the direction of natural light with tools that do this...
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Macphun Intensify Pro Software Review

Intensify Pro (currently on 20% off for dPS readers here) is a Mac only image editing program from MacPhun. With apologies to Windows users (I really wish this software was available for PCs as well) let’s dive in and see what this software can do.
One of the reasons that you buy plug-ins is to ...
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Creative Reasons to use Intentional Camera Movement

One of the earliest lessons you likely learned as a photographer was the importance of keeping your camera steady and stable. You wanted tack-sharp focus, so you learned to tuck in your elbows and support your camera properly. But why limit yourself when there are so many creative reasons to...
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Weekly Photography Challenge – Black and White

Earlier today I professed my love of black and white photography and shared a collection of some powerful B&W images and some articles on tips for making your own B&W images.
So now it’s your turn to show us your images. The weekly photography challenge this time around is black...
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A Collection of Powerful Black and White Images

I have a background in black and white photography – using actual film and processing in a darkroom. The entire first year of my two year college photography program was spent doing black and white photography only, nothing else. I came to love working in the darkroom and seeing the image...
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8 Reasons to Use Silver Efex Pro 2 for Your Black and White Conversions

You can convert colour photos to black and white in Photoshop and Lightroom (or your Raw conversion software of choice). But the last few years have also seen an increase in the number of plug-ins built to do nothing else, other than convert photos to monochrome.
Today I’m going to look at what ...
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3 Tips on How to Approach Photography as a Hobby

Recently, I gave you a look inside the bag of a hobby photographer on a budget, and after reading all the comments on that post, I got to thinking about a topic that doesn’t really get all that much attention…

There are technical posts that detail things like getting sharper images a...
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Macphun Contest Winners Announced

The wait is FINALLY over! The Grand Prize Winner of Macphun’s Get Outside and Shoot! Photo Contest is:

A HUGE thank you to everyone who entered the recent Get Outside and Shoot! photo contest. The Grand Prize winner receives an Olympus E-M10! Weekly contest winners received their photo...
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Lens Review Canon 300mm f4 Lens for Sports Photography

Recently I went to a Little League baseball game and shot with my Canon 5D Mark III and my newly purchased, 300mm f/4 L IS. It was the first time shooting sports with my new camera, so I was eager to see how the body would perform as well as the lens.

The 300mm is touted as one of Canon’s best s...
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Levitation Photography 7 Tips for Getting a Great Image

Levitation images are magical! They draw the viewer in and make them think about what’s not quite right. If you search the internet for levitation photography, you will find amazing examples. However, levitation photography hasn’t become wildly popular yet. I assume it’s...
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Single Image Star Trails – a Powerful Technique to Create Star Trails in Minutes Using Phototoshop

If you are reading this, you must be among those who have a special place in their hearts for stars, galaxies and the wonders of the universe. With recent advancements in camera technology, many photographers have captured the beauty of the night sky in spectacular ways. The truth is that every...
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