A tough photographer with a heart of gold—that’s Lucie “Amulett” Věříšová. If you’re thinking of wearing heels to a shoot with this likable lady, think twice—she’d be quick to convince you it’s not the best of ideas. We’ve chatted with her about taking pictures in dark forests, about her models, and about her unusual (but superbly functional) production team. Read the whole interview, browse her great photos, and let yourself be swept for a while into fairy-tale worlds of fantasy.

You can get stronger background blurring in your photos by using a longer focal length, a lower f-number, or a smaller distance to your subject. But what if none of that is enough? We’ll show you a method that will help you get amazing bokeh. And you won’t even need to buy a new lens for it. You’ll just take multiple pictures and then stitch a panorama. This article will show you how.

We’re bringing you a series where we’ll teach you everything you need to know about portrait photography. This time around, we’ll be writing about how to find models for your portraits and what to take care of before the shoot.

In this article I’ll show you how to edit a photo from a nighttime portrait, and I’ll give you a RAW file on which you can try out the whole approach for yourself. This time around, you’ll be concentrating on work in the Develop module. You’ll learn how to rescue night photos that turned out too dark, improve their colors, and give them some spark using effects and local edits.

How can you make costumes really shine in your photos? In this article, you’ll learn where to find models for cosplay portraits, how to prepare for the shot, and what to concentrate on. Then we’ll illustrate it all through the example of a real-world shoot. 

Permanent lights for photography come in a variety of colors and shapes. Among the more exotic of these lights are LED ring lights. And we were interested in seeing what all you can conjure up with ring lights, so we gave one of them a thorough test run. Naturally we didn’t keep the results just for ourselves. We were surprised to see how much this light could do—the effects it produces are attractive, and it’s easy to work with. But we won’t stick to just theory; we’ll also show you how to work with ring lights in practice.

The most important thing in portrait photography is your subject. But that doesn’t mean that their environment doesn’t have any role to play. Not at all! The things that a picture shows in its subject’s surroundings have a share in how that picture feels overall. Even an ordinary bush can ruin an entire portrait—or bring it to perfection.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re taking your pictures with an expensive camera or an old phone. In portraits, the same rule of composition will always apply. And your portraits will look a lot better if you stick to them. Rules are made to be broken, of course, but before you break them, you should know them. So let’s take a look at the basic ones. As you’ll see, knowing them can dramatically improve your pictures.

Quality portrait retouching doesn’t have to just mean removing a few pimples. It can be more comprehensive—and there are several different processes involved in achieving a professional portrait. So take a look at how to get ideal faces in portraits by improving not only the skin, but everything else as well.

Sick of running around with your camera outdoors? Whether you’re cold or you just want a change of environment, sometimes it’s good to head into the warmth of a cozy studio. I’ll show you why every portrait photographer should give studio photography a try. A studio’s configurable flashes will give you almost unlimited control over light, which is a big advantage over photographing outdoors. And it’s so easy to get started. In this, the final part of my miniseries, I’ll show you that even in a studio, you’ll never be bored!