Lighting How To

We regularly preach the importance of taking a selective, rather than a global, approach to processing your images. This simply means limiting your adjustments to specific portions of a scene that really need work, instead of making enhancements to the image as a whole.

Nailing exposure is a critical aspect of all genres of photography as you refine your skills, and this can be difficult when shooting outdoors under varied illumination. This is a particularly challenging task when the light is everchanging as clouds pass through a scene, or when subjects in motion move in and out of sunlight and shadow.

Many photographers shy away from portraiture for a couple reasons: Either they lack an understanding of on-camera flash, or they don't own more complicated (and expensive) lighting gear. Today you'll learn an alternative approach that delivers beautiful people pictures without supplemental illumination.

We addressed the first problem in an earlier tutorial and today you'll learn how to cope with the latter. Instructor Simon d'Entremont is an accomplished Canadian pro, specializing in wildlife imagery, and he walks you through the steps he takes to capture great images when the light is far from ideal.

Among the most challenging conditions faced by landscape photographers is bright midday light. In this situation you can either go home and try again under better conditions or understand how to make the most of harsh light.

Dodging and burning is a classic image-editing technique dating back to the heyday of film and the darkroom. Back then, dodging was used to lighten a specific portion of an image, while burning did the opposite.

There's still time before the seasons change to capture eye-popping macro photos of insects, and the quick tutorial below will help you level up your game. You'll learn seven pro tips in just seven minutes, before it's time to switch gears and think about making close-ups of snowflakes.