Photographing Autumn Sunsets

Fall presents the perfect opportunity to capture beautiful, vibrant sunset landscapes

William Sawalich

Around September and October of each year, I inevitably gasp the first time I catch a glimpse of the vivid pink, orange and red hues that signal awesome autumn sunsets are beginning to arrive. The sun sets earlier in the day this time of year, and for most of us in the U.S., the early November time change makes it possible to photograph the sunset before... Read more

Flash Blur Fun

Combine flash with ambient light to add motion blur to moving subjects

William Sawalich

When many photographers think about techniques for accentuating motion blur, they consider shutter speed exclusively. And for good reason—as a stationary camera and a moving subject create motion blur, so does panning the camera to keep the subject sharper while the background blurs. But the problem with this approach is that it’s awfully easy for... Read more

Portrait Lenses, Focal Lengths And Faces

Why a long lens produces better portraits than a wide angle

William Sawalich

We’ve all heard of portrait lenses, right? And we maybe even know that lenses with a minimum focal length of approximately 70mm constitute these portrait lenses with popular portrait-specific focal lengths including 85mm, 105mm, 135mm and longer. But do we know exactly why these lenses are considered ideal for portraits? Here’s a look at the... Read more

Photographing Starry Skies

Getting started in astrophotography requires little more than a wide-angle lens, a tripod and dark skies

William Sawalich

Late summer is a great time to photograph the night sky. Cooler evening temperatures make for comfortable working conditions across much of the U.S., and the Milky Way is at its highest point of the year. Here’s a primer for getting started photographing nighttime landscapes that include the moon, stars and even the gorgeous Milky Way. Avoid Manmade... Read more

Layered Hair Repair In Photoshop

A Photoshop retouching technique for effectively eliminating flyaway hair

William Sawalich

When portrait subjects ask me to retouch their favorite pictures, there’s one thing they request above all else: “Can you fix that flyaway hair?” And, as is often the case when it comes to post-production, there are many effective ways to tackle this retouching challenge. But one of my favorite methods involves a layer mask to quickly and effectively... Read more

How To Put Portrait Subjects At Ease

Build confidence in your photography skills and learn to put portrait subjects at ease for better photos

William Sawalich

When I talk to photography students about the things they’d like to learn in a portrait class, a large percentage of them are primarily interested in learning how to interact with the people they’re photographing. Eventually, after years of working with strangers during portrait sessions, this process won’t seem difficult or stressful. But until... Read more

Full Moon Photography Basics

How to photograph the moon without a telescope, using just a regular camera and telephoto lens

William Sawalich

There will be full moons on August 3 and September 2. Why not take the opportunity to get out your camera and a long lens and try your hand at full moon photography? Avoid Light Pollution Start by getting away from light pollution to have a clearer, sharper, contrastier view of the moon without worry about streetlights and hazy skies from urban areas.... Read more

Photoshop’s Top Tools For Image Repairs

Make any image like new—like magic!—with the help of the Clone Stamp, the Patch tool and the Spot Healing Brush

William Sawalich

New photographers may think that Photoshop works magic all by itself, particularly when they see it completely eliminate distracting elements from a photograph with just a few clicks of the mouse. It’s not magic, of course, and a lot depends on knowing how to use the powerful tools this software puts at our fingertips. That said, Photoshop really... Read more

Lightroom Classic Import Improvements

Making the most of Lightroom’s New Raw Default Options and ISO Adaptive Presets

William Sawalich

Last week, we touched on one tremendous new Lightroom tool, but the latest release of Adobe’s awesome image management and RAW processing application includes many new updates, and we want to highlight other favorites. So this week, it’s all about Lightroom Classic Import improvements made to some valuable tools: the RAW Default system and ISO Adaptive... Read more

Using Lightroom’s New Local Hue Adjustment

Selectively modify colors right from Lightroom’s Develop module

William Sawalich

Just a few weeks ago, Adobe introduced several new updates to Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw. One of the most powerful tools, particularly for photographers who relish selective control, is Local Hue adjustment. This allows photographers to make everything from subtle tweaks on a portrait subject’s skin tone to wholesale from one color to another—all... Read more

A Hard Drive For Every Need

Three drives for traveling photographers, video shooters and high-capacity backup

William Sawalich

As camera makers increase megapixels, file sizes also increase—as do photographers’ processing and storage needs. Add to that the fact that so many photographers are branching out into video and there’s never been more need for fast, high-capacity hard drives that are portable and permanent. But one drive can’t do it all; different needs require... Read more

Creating And Saving Transparent Files

How to save an image with a transparent background

William Sawalich

Sometimes we want to isolate a subject on a blank background. Whether it’s a portrait or an object, the process of cutting a subject out of the background is often called clipping or a cutout. Whatever you call it, the key is that for true transparency, the image needs to be saved in the correct file type with a truly transparent background. Here... Read more

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