Blending modes are an often-overlooked tool for photo edits. And that’s a shame! Check them out, because they can offer you countless new edits that will give you very original pictures.

Today’s cameras are so technically advanced that pictures have lost the atmosphere that lenses once provided. One way to give them some charisma is through clever use of a blurring effect.

Christmas is knocking at the door, and lots of photographers would love to send an original Christmas greeting—their own photos. Today we’ll look close up at one photo that would make a great greeting, to help you delight with a similar one of your own.

Want a last-minute gift based on your photos? Picking thirteen photos for a photo calendar is a matter of minutes—and the rest is just clicking.

Get inspired by our list of thirty topics you can shoot in December, and try to take at least one picture every day.

The great thing about being a photographer is that you can give your loved ones gifts that truly delight. Because who wouldn’t appreciate a printed version of their memories, or something beautiful from you that you (almost) created yourself? Immortalize your photos and make those your gift. You have several possibilities.

Photo editors have some quite powerful tools available for removing objects from photos—for example the clone stamp and healing brush.

Even though panning is a technique that’s mainly used in sports photography, you can experiment with it elsewhere too. For example you can get interesting abstract pictures by using panning on autumn leaves—that is, on something static.

Many people consider layers to be something complicated that an ordinary person can’t even understand. But they’re really something very simple that will help you and make your work easier on even the simplest jobs. Let’s go make layers a part of your work too!

Digital photo processing opens up huge possibilities—everyone is free to edit photos to match their taste and their mood of the day. But this freedom can sometimes tie you up by leaving you with so many variants that you can’t even choose among them. Or at least, I know it happens to me—all the time.