7 Ways of Finding Inspiration in Places You See Every Day

Published Monday, December 14th, 2015

For most photographers, whether they are professionals or amateurs, inspiration comes easy once they find themselves in a new location, overwhelmed by stunning new visuals. It seems as if photos come to them automatically. But what can you do if you are stuck in the same place, seeing the same scenery over and over again each day? Not the most inspiring situation for a photographer, but don’t let that prevent you from taking some great shots.

Here are 7 different ways how you can rekindle your creative spark, even if your surroundings leave much to be desired.

How to Get a Genuine Portrait by Relaxing Your Subject

Published Monday, December 7th, 2015

It’s always important to make sure that you get the right result from any portrait session. While many different styles of photography can intersect in this genre, it is a popular choice to try to get the most genuine portrait possible. Many photographers aim to really show the personality of their subject through the image, but this is only possible if you can manage to really relax your subject. Your aim is to have them let down their guard, so you can really see the person behind their eyes.

Black Friday Deals for Photographers

Published Tuesday, November 24th, 2015

If you love amazing deals on great photography-related products Black Friday is probably one of your favorite days of the year. And it’s not just Black Friday, many of the best sales have already started, and some will last through the first week of December! We’ve compiled the best deals here to make it easy on you. You’ll find our own sale, plus offers from many other sites that you are bound to love.

So You Want To Be A Festival Photographer?

Published Monday, November 16th, 2015

If you’re a photographer who loves attending live music, it’s almost certain you’ve thought about what it would be like to be in the photo pit capturing the magic yourself. Beyond getting free admission to massive shows, you’ll also get to watch your favorite artists from closer than anyone else in the crowd.

Why You Should Be Taking More Self Portraits

Published Monday, November 9th, 2015

Self-portraits are getting a bit of a bad rap lately. While selfies are socially acceptable and perfect fodder for social media posts, all of a sudden it seems like the only way to go is to use a smartphone camera and add a few filters. That’s not the only way you can do a self-portrait, however. In fact, putting your DSLR on a timer or investing in a shutter release cable could do you a world of good – by letting you turn the camera on yourself. It’s time to compose, frame, and think like a photographer for your self-portrait. Here’s why you should be doing it this way much more often.

How to Use Smart Collections in Lightroom

Published Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015

Lightroom is extremely useful for processing your digital photos, but it is equally powerful for helping to keep your photos organized. Most of us have thousands of photos on our hard drives, and it is very easy to allow them to get unorganized, which makes it very challenging to find photos when you are looking for them. Lightroom’s library module includes many useful functions that can help you to get your photos organized and maintain that organization going forward.

7 Convincing Reasons to Take a Photo Walk

Published Sunday, October 11th, 2015

Photo walks are organized by small groups of photographers all around the world, but you don’t need to be a part of a group or to wait for the next event to go on a photo walk. You can simply take your camera and go on a walk of your own. In fact, there are many reasons why a photo walk can be a great experience. If you’re part of a group photo walk there are a lot of benefits like networking, learning from others, and even getting and giving feedback on different gear. This post is focused on taking a solo photo walk, so all of these benefits can be had even without an organized group in your area.

7 Tips for Amazing Road Trip Photos

Published Monday, September 28th, 2015

A road trip can be a great way to get a break from daily life and capture some memorable photos along the way. In this article we’ll take a look at some tips that can help you to get the most out of your own road trip photos.

How to Create a Vintage Effect in Lightroom

Published Friday, September 25th, 2015

Want to give your photos a nice vintage or retro feel? In this tutorial we’ll look at the specific settings used to take create this vintage effect.

17 Ways to Enhance Your Photos in Lightroom

Published Thursday, September 24th, 2015

Lightroom is an extremely powerful tool for both organizing and editing your photos. Ever since I started using Lightroom several years ago I have been using Photoshop less and less because there is just so much that you can do in Lightroom, and the workflow can be quicker. In this article we’ll take a look at 17 specific things you can do in Lightroom to enhance and improve your photos.

How to Create a Dramatic Effect in Photoshop

Published Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015

In this tutorial we’ll go step-by-step through the process of creating an intense, dramatic effect that can be used to really make your images stand out. The steps used for this tutorial are from one of the actions in our set of Intensify Photoshop Actions. You can actually download an action for this particular effect for free here, and if you like this type of effect the full set includes a total of 8 actions.

Understanding And Using Different Apertures As An Artistic Effect

Published Monday, September 21st, 2015

Apertures are somewhat of a multi-purpose tool. Not only does it allow you to help control how much light is let into the camera as you take a photograph, but it can also be used an as artistic tool to use when composing your image.

Give Your Photo an Intense Portrait Effect in Photoshop

Published Wednesday, September 16th, 2015

With many portraits your post processing will create soft effects that tend to be pleasing, but in some situations you may prefer to create a more dramatic and intense effect. This tutorial will show one method of doing just that in Photoshop. The effect created here is very similar to the effects that can be easily applied with our Dragan-Inspired Photoshop Actions, so if you like this look be sure to check out those actions.

Create a Vintage-Film Effect in Lightroom

Published Tuesday, September 15th, 2015

In this tutorial we will quickly walk through the process of easily creating a vintage film-inspired look in Lightroom. This effect is not intended to replicate the look of any particular film, it is just a look inspired by an old film photograph. The settings used in the tutorial are from one of the presets in our collection of Vintage Film Lightroom Presets. That collection includes 30 different presets, so if you like this effect be sure to check out the full collection.

10 Tips for Amazing Maternity Photos

Published Monday, September 14th, 2015

If photographs are used as a way to remember a specific time in life, what better time to remember than the weeks and months surrounding the birth of a child? Maternity and newborn photography account for a large percentage of business for many photographers, because clients want to have memorable photos of this time in their lives.

In this article we’ll look at 10 tips that you can use to get the best maternity photos for your clients.