The Benefits Of Low Camera Angles

When eye level just won’t cut it, getting low is a great way to make your pictures stand out.

By William Sawalich

Robert Capa famously said that if your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough. To that, I’d like to add that you also might not be low enough. A low camera angle, in my opinion, is one of the easiest ways to make a dull photo more interesting and to simplify a photo by eliminating some of the layers of depth between subject and... Read more

Cross-Lighting

The silver bullet of lighting solves some difficult photographic problems.

Text & Photography by Tom Bol

Cross-lighting in an alley. Background light is an Elinchrom Quadra with 30-degree grid and an orange gel. Main light from the front is an Elinchrom Quadra shot through a 27”x27” square softbox with grid. Every photographer knows that beautiful light is critical in creating an impressive image. Striking subjects can look boring in flat light, while... Read more

Mixing Lights With The Help Of Orange And Blue Gels

How to combine light sources of different color temperatures and still nail a neutral white balance.

By William Sawalich

If you want to mix your flash with indoor ambient light, you’re going to find some color problems. Namely, if you balance for the flash the indoor lights will look orange. Or if you balance for the indoor lights the flash will look blue. The same problem occurs when shooting a scene with strong window light as well as indoor tungsten light. In these... Read more

Lit Up

Making the most of available light

Text & Photography By Danielle Cohen

Light makes photography. Embrace light. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography. – George Eastman Every photographer loves the Golden Hour, that part of the day where the light slants from the sun at just the right angle. The world changes colors. Faces soften as people exhale under... Read more

Lighting Hack: The Ultra-Affordable, Super-Portable, Instant Softbox

Need a big diffused light source? Try this simple trick for easy and beautiful light in a snap.

By William Sawalich

I’m sort of a soft light aficionado. I’ve got giant softboxes and small ones. I’ve got a seven-foot-tall octabank and a variety of homemade strip lights and bounces. I’ve got shoot-through umbrellas, silver umbrellas, brolly boxes, diffusion frames, pop-up silks and just about every kind of light-diffusing tool you can imagine. But while my... Read more

Photo Workout: Flex Your Photographic Skills

How do you become a better photographer? You can read articles in magazines like PCPhoto, study books and attend workshops. All of these pursuits will help you learn new and improved techniques for photography.

By DPMag

It’s easy to get distracted by an interesting subject and miss what’s going on with the light. Workout #1 will help you focus your attention on the qualities of the light in your scene. How do you become a better photographer? You can read articles in magazines like PCPhoto, study books and attend workshops. All of these pursuits... Read more

What’s New In Adobe Photoshop CC 2017

The features in the top-of-the-line image editing software that photographers will want to know about.

By William Sawalich

Earlier this month, when Adobe sent out its newest batch of updates to its Creative Cloud software, it also launched a new version of Photoshop: CC 2017. The application features a bunch of improvements for photographers and designers. Here’s a quick rundown of the newest features that make photographers’ lives easier and how to put them to use. In-Application... Read more

A Photographer’s Technique Of Choice

Expressing your soul through favorite photography techniques.

By Alessandra Cave

One could say that sunset pictures are old news. However, one could also argue that the beauty of sunsets never gets old. Do not let photo trends and criticism dictate what and how you approach your photography. If you enjoy capturing sunset images, play with various techniques to capture the warmth and light in new ways. Some photographers adopt... Read more

How To Speed Up Lightroom

A few simple tweaks can make Lightroom run much faster

By William Sawalich

When you’ve been working with Lightroom for a while and your catalog starts to get cumbersome, you may notice the application’s processes starting to slow. You can also notice slowdowns when processing large groups of data-rich RAW files or particularly large files, like layered TIFFs. Here’s how you can get under the hood, so to speak, and rev... Read more

The Spark Of Inspiration

Seeking out and discovering photographic inspiration when you need it most.

Tracey Clark

Photography, like many other creative media, takes incredible skill. There are tools and techniques of the trade that demand understanding and experience to master. Even still, no matter how much you know about photography in the technical sense, there’s an artistic element that every photographer must bring to each frame. And linked to any artistic... Read more

Light Direction And Color

How the position of your light source affects the colors in your photographs

William Sawalich

When we think about light in terms of its affect on colors, we usually go straight to color temperature. A tungsten light, for instance, is warmer than a flash or daylight. A sunset, too, is warmer than normal daylight, which is warmer than the cool blue of shade. But these aren’t the color effects I’m thinking of today. In fact, there’s another... Read more

My Camera Displays an “L” When I Try to Change the Aperture

Can’t adjust your f/stop due to an “L” error on your camera? Here’s why.

By William Sawalich

There are lots of unfortunate error codes that digital SLRs can produce. Canon users may be familiar with ERR 01, which means the lens isn’t correctly mounted on the body and the two aren’t communicating effectively. Nikon shooters may have seen the “CHA/CHR” error message, which tells them there’s a problem with their memory card. But what... Read more

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