The foundation of any good photo is composition. Use solid colors and surfaces to rid your photos of everything that doesn’t belong, everything that might distract your audience’s attention. Bring life to your pictures—and don’t underestimate the details. Read on for some tips on how to add life to your pictures. As well as what mistakes to avoid.

You know the feeling—normally you’re always the one taking the pictures. But then one day you’re in an enchanting place or you meet your lifelong idol, and you want to be the one in the picture. Meanwhile, you hate selfies and you find them worthless. So there’s nothing left to do but to let a passerby take a snapshot. How will you teach them the basics of photography in seconds, so you can get something you won’t have to delete?

The summer months bring heat, with heat the sun, and with the sun, sharp light. For a photographer, harsh and direct light is among the most unpleasant light there is.

When you’re getting started in photography, even camera settings can be a sack of troubles. Now add to this the fact that sometimes you pull out your camera or cell phone and quickly snap a picture without thinking. In portrait photography, this can spoil your picture—it can deform your subject’s face. So—how do portrait photos look when taken at different focal lengths? And what should you do to keep from ruining your portrait photos? Read on to find out!

Like many beginning photographers, you may wish for your own studio. But do you really need one? Many pro photos today are born outside the studio. In fact, more and more photographers are avoiding classical studios completely. This trend has been apparent for the past several years. So here’s a tip on how to work like a modern pro from the comfort of your home—by creating your own home studio.

Hollywood has been using color edits to get some fascinating looks for certain films in recent years. The’re especially prominent in war movies like Saving Private Ryan and Fury. Outside film, you’ll find them in Band of Brothers. Contrast and desaturation electrify these works’ atmosphere. The same look does great things for photos too. Read on to learn all about it.

To be in the public eye, you have to be seen, so public figures need occasionally need representative photos of themselves. If you ever get hired to create such photos, you need to be ready to produce great work in minimum time. What’s the workflow for photographing well-known people? In this article I’ll illustrate it using the example of a shoot for Czech violinist Pavel Sporcl.

Every family has their photos, the ones that capture exceptional moments—times of joy and pain. How should you approach this kind of photograph? What are the things to avoid and rules to respect? To learn all this and a little more too, read today’s article.

Join me for a look at one of the most famous focal lengths in history. It’s the fixed-fifty lens. This is a lens of many faces. There are lots of different fixed fifties on the market, ranging from thrifty to luxury. But why are these lenses a perennial favorite, and why should they be in everyone’s bag?

Depending on the visual culture where you live, the genre called naked portraiture may be an occasional part of the “advertising environment” around you. It also turns up in beauty contests and in the marketing materials for cosmetics, hairstyles, and various other products. It combines nakedness and portraiture, though not necessarily in an erotic, unfit-for-television, or offensive way. After all, if it did, it would not be as widely used in advertising—at least in Europe—as it is. If you’re curious about this subgenre, how to photograph it, and what to avoid, read on.