Software How To

Creating soft, blurry backgrounds is a popular technique for making subjects stand out from their surroundings. It’s also useful for eliminating clutter, and directing a viewer’s eye to the most important element of a scene.

Today's video comes from Hamed Photography, a great source of quick lessons for editing images on any device, streamlining the gear you carry in the field, and in-camera techniques for capturing stunning photos with the equipment you already own. Hamed promises that "this video will help you create stunning monochrome images with ease—whether you're new to photography or looking to improve your skills."

Even so-called “purists” who avoid image editing like the plague have to occasionally crop a photo to fine-tune composition. And many photographers, particularly those specializing in landscapes, prefer to “shoot loose” for compositional flexibility when straightening skewed horizons.

If you use Lightroom to process outdoor photos you'll want to pay close attention to the eye-opening tutorial below. In just 12 minutes you'll learn a better way to give all sorts of outdoor images more contrast and texture, without damaging the files.

If you've ever spent hours searching for a photo that you know is somewhere in Lightroom or on your hard drive, you understand the pitfalls of sloppy organization. We're going to fix all that today with some great tips from British landscape pro Jethro Stebbings.

Many photographers prefer shooting portraits outdoors so they can avoid the hassle of supplemental light. The problem, however, is that even the slightest hint of wind can cause flyaway hairs to intrude on a model’s face.

One of the most common ways to ruin a great scene is the failure to attain proper focus. Sometimes that’s due to incorrect camera settings, while in other instances you may have simply focused on the wrong portion of the frame.