Capturing Meaningful Macro Compositions

Whether shooting outdoors or indoors, macro photography is a powerful tool to help you create exceptionally expressive images of a world we don’t generally explore

By Terry Sullivan

On the day of our 25th anniversary, I bought my wife a large bouquet of red roses, which I also incorporated into my photo shoot. In this photo of a single rose, I included a small transparent ridge from the plastic wrapping that the bouquet came in, which let me add another layer of complexity to the composition by juxtaposing an artificial pattern... Read more

Winter Photography Do’s And Don’ts

Winter brings unique outdoor photography opportunities. It also requires a bit more forethought to keep photographer and equipment warm and dry.

William Sawalich

I know it can be difficult to get out and take pictures this time of year when cold weather makes it much more comfortable to stay warm and dry indoors. But the payoffs for making the effort to get out and photograph outdoors in winter can be well worth it. Here are a few ways to keep yourself and your equipment safe and warm when photographing outdoors... Read more

Ten Essential Tips For Shooting Sports Photos

Learn how to take your sports photography to the next level

Text & Photography By Patrick Murphy-Racey

For this basketball image, I used a Sony a9 full-frame mirrorless camera with a Sony 24-70mm f/2.8G Master lens. The exposure was 1/200 sec., f/4.5, ISO 200, and I used four Elinchrom 500ELC strobe units in catwalk with sport reflectors and a Pocket Wizard radio system to trigger them. I single frame all of my basketball images when shooting on strobes. If... Read more

Better Compositions With Natural Framing

Shooting past foreground elements not only adds interest to a scene, it can add to the illusion of depth in a two-dimensional image as well

William Sawalich

There are lots of compositional rules designed to help photographers create stronger, more interesting compositions that drive the viewer’s eyes directly to the center of interest. One of the simplest, most powerful and easiest of these to apply is natural framing. By identifying real-world objects that you can “shoot through” and incorporate... Read more

Fit One Filter To Several Lenses

Step-up rings affordably and easily adapt a single filter to fit lenses of different sizes

William Sawalich

Everybody loves buying new lenses, right? Well, maybe not laying out the cash investment in new glass, but certainly the enjoyment of using a new great lens. The only problem with adding a new lens to your arsenal, whether you’re switching camera systems or just adding a single prime to your existing kit, is that you need some other new accessories... Read more

Road Trip!

Head out on the highway for your next photo adventure

Text & Photography By Tom Bol

A classic piece of highway through an iconic landscape. U.S. Route 163 cuts right through Monument Valley; it’s hard to keep your eyes on the road cruising past the enormous sandstone formations. Head north and continue to Zion National Park, or go south and explore the Grand Canyon. Right now my office looks like a tornado just blew through it. Camera... Read more

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

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