Colors that are just right, an impressive atmosphere, a personal photo editing style… RGB curves are a powerful tool for getting what you want from your pictures’ colors and overall mood. Even though it may not seem so at first, working with Curves is easy, and the results are worth it. We’ll teach you to work with them and give some examples to show you how to use them to achieve your photography goals.

Like your camera, most photo editors include a histogram function. And Zoner Photo Studio is no exception here. Do you know the right way to work with a histogram?

The first of a series of articles on how to find shot locations outdoors and what elements within them to put to work. There are few limits outdoors, and so this is a good environment for practically every type of photography.

Everybody today has a smartphone. And while the cameras in our phones still lag far behind real cameras, you can use a phone for a number of other things that are closely related to photography. There’s a whole sea of mobile apps for photographers, and it’s not easy to sail among them. We’ve done it for you and made a few picks. Take a look at our favorites.

On the one hand, portrait retouching is a complicated skill that takes years of practice to master fully. But on the other hand, Zoner Photo Studio offers a number of tools that will let you get started with retouching very fast. Read up on the retouching basics that every portrait photographer should master. With our guide, you’ll learn them fast.

What do you do when you want to gorgeously document the look of your shot location, but the weather just isn’t there? One thing you can do is to replace the sky during post-production. This is a creative technique where you take advantage of work with layers. You’ll need both your original photograph and one with a more interesting sky. Ideally they both should have been shot at the same focal length. And what do you do after that?

Sure, you can go to a friend, hand them your phone or camera, and let them just take a snap. That’s one possibility. But you’ll get better results if you think a little first. A profile photo is actually a portrait, and so it follows portraits’ usual rules. Master the basics among these rules, and you’ll take great profile photos one after another.

Landscape photography doesn’t work the same way every time, but a few basics will apply for most of your photo opportunities. If you’re not sure what camera settings to use or what tricks will get your landscapes looking even better, turn to this article for advice.

You can use blending modes both in your work with layers and in your work with editing effects in ZPS. When you’re working with layers, you’ll find the controls for blending modes in the right panel under the Layers line, above the list of layers. During edits themselves, you’ll always find the blending mode controls (“Blending Options”) by the specific adjustment you’re applying (e.g. Curves, Grayscale, Blur, etc.). ZPS offers you over 20 different choices of blending mode. The best way to get to know them is by trying them out.

Already on its own, Zoner Photo Studio offers a very wide variety of tools for photo editing. But in addition to its built-in tools, it also offers access to plugins. These expand its features and offer you even more ways to edit your photos. But—how do you install and work with plugins?