Wintertime Portraits With Window Light

Stay warm this winter without sacrificing natural light by shooting beautiful portraits indoors

William Sawalich

If you’re like me, you love the look of natural light portraiture. There’s a spontaneity and natural feel to it, and when it works well it looks absolutely beautiful. The problem is, for many of us across the U.S. winter isn’t conducive to shooting outdoors. We’re forced to move inside, where working with natural light gets trickier. Fear... Read more

Photographing Urban Landscapes

While we may tend to think of a photographic landscape as a scene from nature, a city can provide equally compelling opportunities to shoot landscapes, as well

Brian Matiash

Admittedly, when I think about landscape photos, I instinctively think of natural scenes. However, it is also important to remember that there are urban landscapes to consider as well, like the vast expanse of Tokyo. The dictionary defines the word “landscape” as “all the visible features of an area of countryside or land, often in terms of their... Read more

New Features In Lightroom Classic CC

What you need to know to make the most of the new tools in Adobe’s Flagship for RAW file processing and image management

William Sawalich

Adobe has added several new features to Lightroom Classic CC in the last few months, and the updates add some pretty cool functionality that makes it not only easier to work with images the way you want to, but more importantly to improve the results that are visible in your pictures. Here’s a look at the best of what’s new and how you can put it... Read more

New Year’s Resolutions For Photographers

Five things to resolve right now that will make this a great year to be a photographer

William Sawalich

The year is still new and hopefully so is your resolve. If you haven’t yet made your own new year’s resolutions and you’re not looking to exercise more, eat right or spend more quality time with your family, consider making a few new year’s resolutions that might make you a better photographer. Here are five simple suggestions to help get you... Read more

An Awesome And Affordable Soft Light Source

Build your own beautiful diffuse light source simply and inexpensively with LED bulbs and paper lanterns

William Sawalich

A longtime tried and true soft lighting technique is to use round paper lanterns, also called Chinese lanterns or China balls, to create affordable diffuse light sources. These light modifiers are especially useful when grouped together to create a large area of even lighting—like a cloud or a skylight right there in your studio. What’s unique about... Read more

Preserve Details When Upscaling Photoshop Images

A new technology hidden in Photoshop makes turning small image files into big ones better than ever

William Sawalich

Sometimes your image file isn’t as big as you’d like it to be. Perhaps you have a 20-megapixel camera but you have poster-print aspirations. Or maybe when the decisive moment came you had on a too-wide lens or were too far away. In either case, you’ll need to upscale your image. That task has long been fairly straightforward in Photoshop, though... Read more

No Macro Lens? No Problem!

Five ways to make close-up photos without a macro lens

William Sawalich

The best method for making close-up photographs of small objects is with a dedicated, fixed focal length, macro lens. Although some cameras and zoom lenses are touted as having macro capabilities because they can focus close, a true macro lens creates 1:1 magnification, rendering subjects on the sensor as big or bigger than life size. (Slightly less... Read more

Restore An Antique Photo With Photoshop

The effect is huge, and the technique is surprisingly simple

William Sawalich

From 1980s family snapshots to 1880s family heirlooms, many of us have old photos in need of repair. Even images with significant creasing, pitting, discoloration and tears can be restored with just a few simple Photoshop tools. You don’t have to be a Photoshop expert to make massive repairs to damaged old photos. You just have to be patient. Here’s... Read more

Manual Versus TTL

Which flash mode is best?

Text & Photography By Tom Bol

TTL flash used with the Nikon SB-5000 Speedlight. Nikon D500, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm F2.8G ED. Exposure: 1/1600 sec., ƒ/5.6, ISO 200. One aspect of photography I really enjoy is watching how technology changes. During my photography career, I’ve seen cameras go from mechanical shutters using ISO 25 slide film in manual mode to mirrorless cameras with... Read more

Creative Use Of Lightroom’s Dehaze Slider

One simple slider can add punch and pop by boosting contrast and color, as well as pulling details out of the fog

William Sawalich

Do you know about the Dehaze Slider? It was added to Lightroom a few years back and became a hidden gem so beloved that in a recent upgrade, Adobe moved the slider to a more prominent position in Lightroom CC’s Develop module. So now you may have noticed it there, front and center, right beneath the Clarity Slider on the Presence panel. But what,... Read more

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