Welcome to my latest guest post on DIYPhotography.net!

This is the last in this DIYP series…. for now. 2009 is starting with a bang with 2 back to back book shoots what will keep me out of trouble until the end of March. So just maintaining YPS will be a challenge in itself.

If you missed the first 3 parts of my “Exploring Small Strobes” series, you can check them out:

Exploring Smal Strobes – Why Should I Use a Speedlight?
Exploring Small Strobes: Why Use Speedlights Off Camera
Exploring Small Strobes – Wireless Triggers

In part 4, I look at some of Continue Reading »

I would like to take this moment to wish you and all your loved ones a holiday season filled with love and laughs and…. photos!

And even though I send my positive thoughts out almost on a daily basis, I take spacial care during this time of need to send my prayers out to those less fortunate who might have lost their homes, their jobs or worse. I feel so fortunate to have a roof over my head and to earn my living with my passion. I’m grateful that Continue Reading »

It’s been a while since my last Lightroom tutorial so I thought I’d throw one in since I’m using it so much, not to mention that many of you asked for more, more, more Lightroom tuts!

In this tutorial, I’ll be moving away from the the Develop Module and going into the Web Module. I’ll be showing you how to create a Web photo gallery in Lightroom. It’s quick, easy, Continue Reading »

I’ve been asked often about Gimp and if I would write up tutorials for it so I thought that I would post something up.

First of all, if you don’t know Gimp, it’s the most popular and function-rich, stand-alone photo editing software out there that’s 100% FREE! Got your attention?

I wish I could personally write up some Gimp tutorials but, to be honest, I’ve never tried it! I’ve been with my good buddy Photoshop since version 3 (not CS3).  I know that for many of you, Photoshop is pretty expensive especially if Continue Reading »

Has this ever happened to you? You bring your digital images to the print lab and ask for 5 x 7 prints and when you compare them to you original photo files, you have parts cropped out? Now why is that? Did the lab screw up?

Basically, the aspect ratio of your original image isn’t the same as the aspect ratio of the print. Ok, before I go any further, let me explain “aspect ratio”. Aspect ratio is a measurement of the proportion of your image. The largest side divided by the smallest side of your image will give you Continue Reading »

As you guys may already know, I’m a big fan of David Hobby and his Strobist Website. Which makes me a big fan of off camera lighting with small strobes. Which makes me want to share what I learn with you. So much so that I’ve already written quite a few posts on the subject, not to mention that I’m currently doing a compete series on them on DIYPhotography.net.

But today I want to get down to the basics with Continue Reading »

I’ve been asked by quite a few of you on how to soften skin in Photoshop. So I thought that I’d show you the steps I use to soften skin. Contrary to what many photographers use which is the Gaussian Blur filter, I prefer to use the Surface Blur filter.

I actually show both techniques in this photography tutorial so that you can try both and see the results side by Continue Reading »

There are so many cool and informative photography articles out there that I’ve decided to start an “Off-Site Learning” post. This post will be once a month for now and will focus on links that I found engaging and informative. It’s all about getting as much information in you to continue to perfect your skill as a photographer.

I hope you enjoy this new feature at Yanik’s Photo School. And if you find great articles about photography learning that aren’t listed that month, please share Continue Reading »

It’s time for another “steps” photography tutorial. This one is a bit special though. A few weeks ago I decided you give you guys an assignment, the first ever here on Yanik’s Photo School: give me 1 tip for great family portraits. 4 of you responded and I’ve included your great tips bellow.  Not a bad response number considering that most people never post comments.

Of course, I’ve expanded on the steps just a bit. So let’s get right to it, shall we….

Step 1 – Greet everyone. Don’t forget to greet every single person that will be in the shoot, even the children. You need to create a rapport will all of them. Children are often forgotten and they do feel left out. Of course this will affect Continue Reading »

It’s time for another Photoshop video tutorial “quicky”.

In this simple but effective photography tutorial, I’ll show you how to increase the power of the emotions conveyed in your images by adding a simple filter already in Photoshop. Of course, this technique works best to accentuate emotions of love, romance and friendship. We’re actually giving our images a warm, fuzzy feeling… fuzzy being the Continue Reading »