Photo How To

Whether you own a dog, cat, bird, or some other animal, we bet you shoot a lot of photos of your beloved pet. It’s rather odd that many pet photos taken by good photographers look more like snapshots than the real thing, and we’re going to put an end to that today.

Now that temperatures are rising, it’s time to head to the shore for a day of portrait photography before beaches get crowded later in the season. In the video below you’ll learn several quick tips for making captivating images with a unique look.

We regularly encourage Shutterbug readers to step outside their comfort zone and experiment with unfamiliar techniques to capture attention-grabbing photos that stand out from the crowd. If you're willing to try something different, this quick tutorial  from the My Photo Journey YouTube channel is a great place to start.

We're all taught to avoid shooting outdoor portraits in direct sunlight, and some photographers shy away from using flash to fill in shadows and balance the tones. In this quick video you'll learn how to capture beautiful portraits in "bad" light" without supplemental light.

Conventional wisdom is that landscape photography calls for wide-angle lenses. Another “rule” is that if you shoot with long lenses a tripod is absolutely essential. But this quick tutorial takes a somewhat radical approach that you may find surprising.

This may be strange to hear from a travel photographer, but I can make a case that location isn’t everything—light is. And I’d build my argument on the fact that the right light brings out the best in any location.

Converging verticals, skewed horizontal lines, distorted buildings, tilted horizons, and other such "wonky angles" will quickly spoil an otherwise nice shot. This basic Lightroom tutorial explains why these distractions occur and demonstrates a simple Lightroom technique for straightening everything out.