If you’ve studied and practised photography for long enough, you know that a great photo is one that gives the viewer a unique perspective on the world. That can be done in many different ways–by choosing a unique subject, by taking the photo from an unusual vantage point, by carefully selecting depth of field or [...]

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A little while ago I wrote about the Nikon Coolpix S800c, the Android-powered camera that is essentially a smart phone/point and shoot hybrid. The S800c is now part of a revolution – sort of. It might be more accurate to just call it a pioneer, like those first airplanes that weren’t particularly safe and really [...]

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This week I received a letter from a reader who asks a very poignant question. Olivia Polerowicz wants to know: “I was wondering how to take good pictures in not so interesting places. The thing is, I live in a not particularly interesting place and so my photos kinda show it. I have a problem [...]

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If I had to guess, I would say that 99 out of 100 hobby photographers never bend their legs. It’s not so hard to see why – human beings view the world mostly from one or two perspectives: standing up and sitting down. Occasionally we will also lie down in a place other than our [...]

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For photo organization, nothing beats an old shoebox. Actually, everything beats an old shoebox, which is one of many reasons why modern photographers ought to be thankful for digital. Digital photos don’t have to be printed and filed away somewhere, and we no longer have to keep track of the physical location of our negatives, [...]

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If you spend a lot of time on Flickr or just browsing through photography books in search of artsy, eye-popping images, chances are you’ve seen some really cool pictures of smoke – pictures that you aren’t quite sure how to duplicate. While it has its place in scenic photography, I don’t mean the smoke from [...]

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Once upon a time, our cameras were big heavy things with interchangeable lenses that we lugged around in bags. OK, for some of us this is still true, but for much of the general population digital cameras are going the way of, well, film cameras. There’s always been something of a divide between point-and-shoot cameras [...]

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If you’ve spent much time working in black and white, you already know how important it is to understand contrast. Contrast is what keeps your black and white images from looking flat. Contrast adds dimension, and dimension can go a long way towards making a photo more engaging. It invites the viewer into the image. [...]

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Digital photography has done a lot of great things for us. It’s made film unnecessary, which means that individual shots no longer cost anything and you are now free to take as many pictures as you want without fear of wasted film. A related benefit is that you no longer need to choose a specific [...]

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In our last tutorial on RAW images with Photoshop Elements, we touched on some of the things you can do with using the bundled software known as Camera RAW. There are a number of reasons why you might want to start taking your photos in the RAW format. For one, it allows you to go [...]

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There’s no getting around it. Landscape photography is hard. Not only do you have to get out there at the right time of day, you’ve also got to make sure the sky is doing something interesting too. Oftentimes, we get one but not the other. So if you’ve ever wondered how to replace a dull [...]

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I have said in previous posts that RAW photography isn’t for everyone. It definitely takes a little more effort to get into RAW, but once you do, you’ll find you have a lot more control over your images. A lot of people ask me if it’s worth getting into RAW photography, and I always say [...]

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Whenever you paint something in your house, be it a wall or a door, you want to avoid getting paint on everything. So you use masking tape. Masking, or Selecting, in Photoshop Elements, is the same thing. The only difference is that there’s so much more you can do with it. Masking is a way [...]

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Once you go with RAW files, it seems like you never go back. I’ve said before that RAW photography isn’t for everyone. Even so, I feel that there comes a time in every photographer’s life when making the switch to RAW just makes sense. For me, it came just after my purchase of a high [...]

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Let me start by saying something I think we can all agree with. Clichés are victims of their own success. Something only becomes a cliché because it looks good and people like it. The only problem is that the theme gets overdone, and it loses its originality. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You [...]

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