As a lot of the interviewees we’ve had on PetaPixel have shared, a great way to improve in your photography skills is to experiment. Even though many of the experiments I share on PetaPixel have nothing to do with directly improving your photography skills, they’ve definitely helped me gain a deeper understanding of various aspects of photography, post-processing, and manipulation, and I hope they can do the same for you. Today, I’ll show you how [...]

You’re only 50mm Away from Becoming a Better Photographer It’s true. There is only 50mm separating you from the photos you always wanted to take. Of course it is a 50mm prime lens that is between you and your goal. All the happy owners of this wonderful lens will testify on its behalf as to how their skill where strengthened by this marvel. I got a 50mm prime lens this summer (a Nikon 50mm 1.8D [...]

This is a Photoshop tutorial showing you all the steps you need to take in order to photo-manipulate yourself into a Na’vi (based on the characters in James Cameron’s movie “Avatar”). I used Photoshop CS2 in order to create this, but newer and older versions should do the same, as I used basic Photoshop tools only. I hope you will find this helpful. Step 1 Import a photograph of your choice, but make sure its [...]

Hey everyone! I’m back with the second half of this two part series about using Photoshop as a means of extracting a subject from its background, and am very sorry that it took this long to get it done. In Part 1, we undertook a basic review of what channels are, and how they work. If you haven’t read that article already, I suggest that you review it before proceeding here. Part 2 is (as [...]

This tutorial is not too advanced but mostly to help to understand the power of shadow and light in short terms! There’s no “boring” text here. So if you are not used to Photoshop, do yourself a favor and read it all before continuing to the next step! You might learn something! The thing about a good picture is to give it a feel of depth. You need not to give the receiver any reason [...]

Tutorial Details Difficulty: Advanced Completion Time: 2 hours Requirements: Food Ingredients, Basic Lighting Kit Final Product What You’ll Be Creating Food photography is a highly specialized form of studio work. It requires some knowledge of cooking, a firm grasp of lighting and some creative juices to bring everything together. Being a slightly obese American, one of the most basic foods we love to gorge ourselves is a good, old hamburger. But the first rule of [...]

Conceptual photography essentially is the photographer trying to convey a message or “concept”. Usually this message is conveyed through some abstract symbolism which can be interpreted by the viewer. Even though most photographers have a specific meaning they are trying to get across, usually the image can be interpreted in many different ways. Below are some great examples of conceptual photography to inspire you. Enjoy. Alexander Gubin Xabier.M Dylan-K (Matt(ikus) Andre Arment Abel Tonkens Santy [...]

Tutorial Details Difficulty: Basic Completion Time: 1 hour Requirements: Camera with adjustable shutter speed For many photographers, darkness is their worst enemy. After getting a basic understanding of how cameras work, the next things photographers must understand is how to operate in low light. Most new cameras have advanced dedicated flashes (sometime built into them), which can make dark situations easier to shoot in. But almost all modern cameras also have slow shutter speed settings [...]

Creating a Realistic Torn Photo Effect – Image Preview In this tutorial you will learn how to take a standard photo of a girl and tear it into pieces using some stock images and some nifty Photoshop techniques. The image on the left is what your finished product will look like. OK, lets get started… Before we start, you should download the source files… Torn Photo Effect Source Files (ZIP) Step 1 – From the [...]

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a really cool and super easy typographic portrait in Photoshop. We will use the Displace filter and some Blend Modes to achieve the effect. The whole process is quite simple but it might take you some time to add the texts and elements, but once you do that the rest is very straight forward. Step 1 Open Photoshop and create a new document. I used [...]