Today, I’ll be going off the beaten path with you.  I won’t talk about lighting, Photoshop or Lightroom. Today’s lesson could actually be a challenge.  You see, we’re going to talk about observation. Obser…what? Yup! Observation. There’s more to taking good photographs than lighting, composition or post processing techniques. Really? Yah, really. One very important journey to improving your photography skills is to observe what other photographers are creating. See what those images do to you; how they make Continue Reading »

Welcome to a new Photoshop video tutorial!

After both my “How to Create Actions” & “Batch Processing for your Actions” tutorials, many of you asked me if it was possible, when adding image size, for both the width and height to have the same pixel size for landscape or portrait oriented images. In other words, have the long edge of the image be the same for all images. The answer is Continue Reading »

After shooting in Cancun, I went back to the author’s home in Miami to finish off a few shots and also to take advantage of the Florida sun. The longer I can stay warm the better!

All my studio gear was shipped directly from Cancun to Montreal so I used my trusty SB-800s to light the final images. I figured with 4 of them plus my built-in flash, plus natural light, I could Continue Reading »

Hello fellow YPS readers!

I’m still in beautiful Miami just finishing up the Spa book photo shoot. I tell ya, I had a blast even though it was hard work. I’m flying back to Montreal tomorrow, Friday the 13th! I’m not a superstitious guy or else I would’ve picked another day but it makes me smile to see people around me think I’m some crazy “fate” dare devil. I also have a black cat and I do walk under ladders without really thinking about it. I have broken several mirrors Continue Reading »

Going to school is not all about learning.  It’s also about finding the right tools to help you achieve what you’ve learned. This is why I created this post on free Photoshop actions. Photoshop actions are used more and more and some creative people make great actions. You can even see my Photoshop video tutorial on how to make your own actions. Sometimes you have to pay for actions but there are tons of free options out there.  Here’s a list of some Continue Reading »

It’s that time of the month again where I share with you some of my favorite photo links.

I’m currently in Cancun shooting a spa book, then a week of R&R in Miami. Life is rough. Hopefully, I’ll have time here in Cancun to shoot a few tutorials! And before I get to the links, I would just like to toot my own horn for a second. YPS made Photography Colleges’s top 100 photography blogs! Woohoo. OK, back to some serious stuff now. Continue Reading »

Welcome to Part 3 of this Introduction to Macro Photography. If you missed Part 1, we looked at what is macro photography as well as the basic lenses and extension tubes available for macro shooting. We also went through various options for keeping your camera steady while shooting macro photos. In Part 2 , we looked at 6 indoor and 4 outdoor lighting setups.

Now, in Part 3 I’ll look at the popular macro shooting themes and I’ll go over some basic macro composition for Continue Reading »

Many of you enjoyed my Lightroom video tutorial on creating a Web photo gallery. But some of you wrote in and let me know that since you didn’t have Lightroom, would it be possible to do a web photo gallery in Photoshop? The answer is yes! I have to admit that since Lightroom, I haven’t touched this feature in Photoshop since Lightroom provides a lot more flexibility and cooler visuals. But Continue Reading »