Photo How To

Soon enough, your camera will join the ranks of the well connected. That’s not to say it will be invited to A-list parties, but only that it will become a participant in the highly touted Internet of Things, now coming ’round the mountain.

No human being is created perfect, and photographers probably know that firsthand. Still, everyone wants to look best in their portraits. That desire usually translates into hours of tedious retouching with Photoshop or the likes of it. Whether you are a fashion, an event, or a wedding photographer, you probably wish to make portrait enhancing a breeze. Well, there is software that can grant you that wish.

If landscape photography is a primary areas of interest, you're likely familiar with the conventional "wisdom" that f/11 is the optimum aperture to use when shooting this genre of imagery. But many accomplished pros consider this "rule" nothing more than a useless myth, and the tutorial below explains why.

One of the primary differences between a photograph and the real world is that reality has three dimensions: height, width, and depth. Your photos, of course, only have two—height and width. Any depth that exists in a photograph is purely an optical illusion. Even if you were able to create a print that was the exact same size as the scene (and wouldn’t that be fun) it would still pale beside the real thing because of the lack of that third dimension.

Photography has taught me to be aware of color, design and patterns, and I am always looking for something interesting to photograph. A few years ago when my wife was making a marble cake, I was drawn to the design in the swirling chocolate and thought it would make a successful abstract shot. I liked the images I took, but I felt more color would make the pictures a lot more interesting.

Freezing rain is falling, your tomcat is suing you for royalties from the YouTube videos he starred in, and every bird in the city boycotts your feeder because of your snoopy telephoto lens. Cheer up! We all have those days when we feel like f/16 in an f/1.4 world. But there’s always something to take pictures of—and it often can be found as close as our own kitchen.

We’ve all been taught to avoid shooting in direct sunlight whenever possible, to avoid blown-out highlights, harsh contrast, washed-out colors, unflattering shadows, and models with squinty eyes. In the shooting and editing tutorial below, you’ll earn how to meet these challenges and achieve beautiful photos.