Free Soft Matte Lightroom Preset

Published Wednesday, December 18th, 2013

This Lightroom preset is perfect for giving your photos a stylish, but subtle, soft matte effect. The preset is a free sample from our set of Matte Lightroom Presets. For full set includes 23 different presets. This free preset and all of the Matte Lightroom Presets work with Lightroom 4 and 5.

55 Awesome DIY Photography Backdrops

Published Wednesday, December 18th, 2013

You don’t need to have an expensive photo studio to produce amazing photos. With some creativity and a little effort there are plenty of ways to create your own backdrops. And more good news is that the creative aspect has already been done for you by countless photographers and bloggers that have shared their own DIY backdrop ideas. Here you’ll find links to guides, tutorials and showcases that show backdrops that you can create and use in your own photography. Browse through the collection and I’m sure you’ll find a few that will be perfect for your own needs. Most of them can be done inexpensively, and many are relatively easy and quick.

Introduction to High Pass Sharpening in Photoshop

Published Tuesday, December 17th, 2013

High Pass sharpening is just one of many different techniques that can be used in Photoshop to sharpen your photos. Where it differs from most of the others is that it isn’t one of the specific tools designed for sharpening that are located in the Sharpen sub-menu of the Filter menu.

10 of the Best Locations in the U.S. for Wildlife Photography

Published Monday, December 16th, 2013

You don’t have to travel to Africa and go on a safari to capture amazing wildlife photos of your own. For those who live in the United States, there are plenty of great locations throughout the country for spotting and photographing wildlife. In this article we’ll take a look at 10 of the best spots, although there certainly are plenty of others that could be great locations as well. The 10 on this list are located in different regions of the coutry, so regardless of where you live there will be some opportunities that don’t reauire you to fly across the county.

No More Boring Holiday Family Photos – Five Tips From The Pros

Published Thursday, December 12th, 2013

I have a prediction that, in the next few weeks, Twitter, Instagram, and Flickr are going to be flooded with tens of thousands of really bad holiday family photos. There will be the police lineup, with family arranged in a line like the usual suspects in Casablanca. There will be the dreaded “hug and mug” of someone holding a cell phone camera at arm’s length while they side-hug someone. There will be sullen children who would rather be something- anything else so they make themselves look as uncomfortable as any human can look outside of a CIA torture prison or Siberian gulag.

Introduction to Smart Sharpen in Photoshop

Published Wednesday, December 11th, 2013

Smart Sharpen is one of the more advanced ways that photographers can apply sharpening to their photos in Photoshop. For many years, Unsharp Mask was the preferred sharpening choice for most users, but Smart Sharpen offers more fine grained control as well as the choice of superior sharpening algorithms.

27 Awesome Photography Blogs to Follow

Published Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

Several months ago we published a list of 20 Inspirational Photography Blogs, and today I’d like to follow up on that post with links to another 27 blogs that will be of interest to photographers. Whether you are a professional or an amateur, following blogs in the industry is a great way to learn new things, improve your own skills, find inspiration, and stay up-to-date with industry news. And with that in mind, here are 27 blogs that I like to follow.

Studio Lighting – Five Light Set

Published Monday, December 9th, 2013

Last time we covered basic three point lighting and that yielded an entirely decent head and shoulders portrait. With a neutral background three point lighting works great and it’s a basic setup that’s been working in photography for decades.

Today I want to amp up the power a little…you know how I love lighting power. If I hit the test switch and the lights dim across town from the power drain, you know that’s going to be a fun shoot! There’s also method to the madness as today I want to try lighting with a little more fashion edge to it.

Winter Photos for Your Inspiration

Published Thursday, December 5th, 2013

While winter can present more challenges for photographers than other seasons, there are plenty of opportunities for amazing photos in the cold and snow. The same scene can look drastically different from one season to the next, and winter scenes can often produce stunning photos. In this post we’ve collected 25 examples from various photographers that show just how beautiful winter photography can be. Use it for some inspiration and get out and find opportunities for your own winter photos.

Introduction to Unsharp Mask in Photoshop

Published Wednesday, December 4th, 2013

Unsharp Mask offers photographers the ability to sharpen their images with a degree of control that can be adjusted depending on the photo. While there are several one click sharpening options in Photoshop, these use automated settings that may not always be the best fit for a photo.

25 Incredible Close Up Portraits

Published Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013

One way to create powerful and interesting portraits is to get close to your subject, or use a zoom lens. Close up portraits can often capture emotion and the result is a portrait that grabs the viewers attention. In this post we’ll showcase 25 examples of awesome close up portraits for your own inspiration.

Introduction to Layer Masks in Photoshop

Published Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013

Photoshop’s layer masks are a very powerful feature of layers that allow you make non-destructive edits to individual layers. When you form composite images with multiple layers, you generally need to remove areas of a layer to allow layers below to show through. You could just erase areas, but this permanently removes pixels and you have no way of making these pixels visible again if you later find that you’ve erased more than you should have.

How to Set Up Basic Three-Point Studio Lighting

Published Monday, December 2nd, 2013

The basic setup for three-point studio lighting is fairly straightforward. All you need is a background, a key or main light, a fill light and a hair light. The lights can be strobes or continuous but for the best and most consistent results I prefer strobes.

How to Convert Photos to Black and White with the Channel Mixer in Photoshop

Published Wednesday, November 27th, 2013

The Channel Mixer in Photoshop makes it possible to convert images to black and white with a degree of control that is not possible by just desaturating a photo or converting it to grayscale. Both of those techniques are one click methods that see the same conversion applied to every image.

Introduction to the Channel Mixer in Photoshop

Published Tuesday, November 26th, 2013

The Channel Mixer adjustment layer in Photoshop can be used to apply creative color effects to your images, convert them to black and white, and add color tints to mono images. This tool is pretty straightforward and easy to understand and in this article I’ll run through the various options that are available when using the Channel Mixer.