Photo How To

Let’s get this out of the way up front: The old adage that, “you’re not a real photographer unless you shoot in Manual mode” is sheer and utter nonsense. Plenty of pros use Aperture or Shutter Priority depending upon the situation at hand. Feel better?

(Editor’s Note: Exploring Light is a monthly Shutterbug column featuring tips, tricks, and photo advice from professional photographers in Canon Explorers of Light education program. This month's column is by Lynsey Weatherspoon, with five great tips for documenting heritage and cultural lineage.

Yesterday we featured a very helpful tutorial, explaining how to consistently nail exposure when shooting outdoors. But what happens when you make a mistake and a photo is badly underexposed?

The Luminosity Mask is a versatile image-editing tool, enabling you to make selective tone-based adjustments to specific portions of an image. In other words, you can modify highlights, shadows, or midtones in one area without affecting other parts of a photograph.

One of the challenges we all face as photographers is conveying the excitement of action scenes in a still image. In the eye-opening tutorial below you’ll learn an easy method for bringing life to outdoor images with a little help from Photoshop.

When it comes to portraiture, “posing is everything.” So says pro Justin Laurens who regrettably neglected this consideration when first getting started. He admits he was initially confused by how to pose models, and considered this important skill “trivial.”

A couple week’s ago we featured a tutorial for experienced bird photographers, with a variety of tips and mistakes to avoid for achieving optimum results. Today’s episode is for those just getting started, with a complete beginner’s guide to joining in on the fun.