Although many photographers approach it in different ways, understanding white balance is a key to getting better at photography. Like other camera settings, it’s possible to have your camera set white balance automatically, but it doesn’t always produce the best results.
Lens flare can appear as spots or streaks of light and color or as a washed-out hazy look in your photographs. Some photographers and filmmakers like to use it creatively, but it usually shows up as an unpleasant surprise that can ruin your picture.
Photographic printing was once a widespread and vital art form in itself. While there were (and are) various techniques for producing prints from film, the most common in the film era was the use of light-sensitive paper and an enlarger -- the paper would be exposed to a film negative or positive transparency (slide film) via the enlarger in a darkroom, or a digital exposure unit such a minilab machine, which you used to find in just about every drugstore.
Growing up in the crowded European country of Belgium, few things symbolized the American Dream as much as the iconic Mustang. No, not the Ford muscle car. The wild horse!
One of the most common errors when using Adobe Photoshop has to do with Photoshop not being able to start or complete a command because “the scratch disks are full.”
According to some spiritual beliefs, an aura, sometimes called an energy field, is an atmosphere or quality surrounding something, often a person or other living thing.
It's a common problem — dozens of nearly identical photos on your iPhone, eating up your storage and making it difficult to find what you're looking for. How does this happen, and, more importantly, how can you delete or merge those duplicate photos?
In this article, we are going to take a look at rim lighting. As you might guess, rim lighting is used to light a portion of the edge of your subject. While it is most often used as part of a multi-light setup, it can be used on its own for dramatic effect.
If you were an aspiring photojournalist during most of the 19th and early 20th centuries, then your dream machine was likely not a Hasselblad, a Rolleiflex, a Leica, or any of the other vintage film cameras commonly cited as the most desirable collectibles nowadays.
Producing a decent print is not as easy as you might think. You might get lucky and get a great result the first time. But, more likely, when you start printing your work, you’ll find it might not look as good as you’d hoped. Don’t give up. With a bit of practice and a better understanding of the process, you can quickly improve your printing.
When it was first introduced, many people sharply believed that autofocus would never have a clear place in the photography industry, puns intended. Why have a machine guess where to focus when you can just turn the focusing ring yourself? Today, autofocus systems are among the primary selling points for new camera and lens technology.
Facebook is one of the largest social media networks in the world, with about three billion active users. That equates to a massive demand for Facebook support. Like most prominent internet companies, Facebook tries to handle support with automated systems to reduce the burden on its representatives.
Lens filters are one of the most affordable yet also most versatile accessories you can stow in your lens bag. Some of them, like polarizers and UV filters, are practically ubiquitous in modern-day photography, used both to lend images a unique look as well as to protect your costly gear.
Almost everyone wields a camera these days because they already have one by default on their smartphones. But not just any phone will capture the best results, and that’s why some stand out for particular reasons.
Milky Way season is the best time to learn how to plan and shoot an astrophotography timelapse, capturing the majestic galactic core in motion!
There’s a reason why my iPhone is often the only camera I’ll carry with me. Its imaging quality allows me to take good photos without having to carry any additional gear.
Snapchat is a popular social media app that makes it easy to keep in touch with friends and quickly share selfies, photos, and videos. With 382 million daily active users, it's also a great place to get brand exposure.
What is the animal sighting that tops many visitors’ wishlists in Yellowstone, Canada, or Alaska? You might think the answer is straightforward: grizzly bears. Wolves. Bison. The answer, however, is moose!
Working photographers may seem like they lead an adventurous life, traveling, and capturing images of people and places worldwide. But the truth is, even with all the adventure, most photographers spend most of their time sitting at a desk.
Loop lighting is a very common style of portrait lighting that is seen very often in portrait photography. In fact, if you’ve spent much time at all shooting in a studio, you’ve probably employed loop lighting without specifically trying to.
The world of photography is full of words and phrases that can be confusing for new photographers, so PetaPixel has put together a complete glossary of everything you may want to know the meaning of if you're just getting started.
In landscape photography, it is helpful to have three specific lens filters in your camera bag. These are the circular polarizer (CPL) filter, the neutral density (ND) filter, and the graduated neutral density filter (GND).
One of the greatest things about film photography is its friendliness toward do-it-yourself approaches. Want to hack together a working camera out of discount hardware store supplies? All the power to you! Want to shoot on art paper coated in a home-concocted emulsion, contact-printed using authentic techniques from the 1800s? Why not?
Printing your photography is a great way to display it, give it as a gift, and experiment with different ways to present your work. One aspect of printing that will inevitably come up is the type of paper that you want to print on -- should you choose glossy or matte?
As a wildlife photographer, I'm always looking for ways to capture stunning images of animals in their natural habitats. One technique I've found to be incredibly effective is using a custom-made, DIY, DSLR camera trap, which is a camera setup that is triggered by the movement of an animal.
When a grizzly bear appears in Wyoming's Grand Teton or Yellowstone National Park, traffic comes to a grinding halt. Hundreds of cars get stuck in a traffic jam that can go on for miles - called a bear jam - and everyone's heart rate goes up in the hopes of spotting this legendary predator. Seeing a wild grizzly is the highlight of many family vacations.
If you want to get a rise from fellow photographers, hop onto any online photography forum and discuss ultraviolet (UV) lens filters. You can say they're excellent or that they're worthless. Either way, you're sure to kickstart a less-than-friendly debate. Like most online debates, there'll be no winners.
Food photography is one of the easiest photography disciplines to start out with. You can arrange food however you like. It doesn’t scamper away mid-shoot and doesn’t get tired. It’s also relatively contained and easy to practice.
Film is not making a comeback, it has come back. Photography students I teach are always so excited to start their journey in shooting, developing, and enlarging film, until they start.
DALL-E is the AI image generation app that shocked the world by creating high-quality portraits and artistic paintings without using a camera, film, canvas, or brush.
Zone focusing (ZF) is a great way to pre-set your camera's focus and aperture, then use that setting for multiple shots. Street shooters love it. And it's also great for sports, pets, jumpy kids, parties, or any subjects in motion.
Great portrait photography is so much more than just about knowing how to work a camera. You can memorize your camera’s entire manual and still not be confident in a portrait shoot because most portraits require posing. Luckily, this is the right place to learn how to pose and become a better portrait photographer.
PictureThis is the most popular plant identifier app, and it works with the camera on your iPhone or Android phone. While the recognition of PictureThis isn't perfect, it generally proves to be remarkably accurate thanks to its well-trained AI.
Waterproof cameras are the perfect companion for a sunny beachside vacation, an exciting undersea scuba dive, or even shredding snowy slopes. Waterproof cameras allow photographers to capture unique underwater perspectives and photograph beautiful sea life. They also allow for amazing action shots of watersports.
Lenses are big business: while we have seen the value of camera shipments nose-dive year-on-year, lens value has slowly increased and is now equal to about a third of the camera market. It's for this reason that third-party manufacturers have increased their stake in this market and particularly at the low-cost end where Chinese manufacturers proliferate. Who are these companies and what does their appearance presage in terms of the camera market as a whole?
CFexpress has finally come into its own and multiple companies are now producing a wide variety of capacities at a range of prices. But with so many choices, which one should you buy?
During the century-or-so that film was the dominant medium in photography, a handful of cameras made a mark deeper than the rest and became legendary for their impact and legacy. One of these was the Leica M3.
One of the most basic and common terms in the world of photography is the focal length of a lens. In this guide, we will dive down deep into what focal length is and how it works.
Physical photographs can be scanned with an iPhone and it's easy to get good results with a little preparation and attention to detail. There are several apps that you can use to speed up and simplify the process, each with a different approach. The app that's best depends on your particular needs.
An intervalometer is an important tool for photographers that is useful across a range of photography genres and techniques, including timelapses, focus stacking, and long exposures.