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This is how you use a light meter properly – they’re really not that difficult or scary

While they were once a fixture in every studio and photographer’s gear bag, light meters seem to have fallen out of fashion ever since digital photography came along. And while it’s true that we now have a lot more options for exposing our shots, the humble light meter can still play a very valuable role in nailing the shot quickly and consistently.

The cost of messing up the exposure of a shot, twiddling some dials and shooting another isn’t as expensive as it was in the film days, light meters can still save you a lot of time and hassle. And in this great video, Daniel Norton walks us through how to use a light meter, along with some tips and tricks to make your life a little easier when using one.

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This Basics Guide is everything you need to know to get started with light painting

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Light painting has increased massively in popularity over the last few years. It’s not really surprising. Gone are the days of film where you had no idea whether you’d got the shot or not until hours or days later. The instant feedback of digital and zero extra cost of shooting a thousand photos rather than one has made its popularity pretty inevitable as more people have acquired DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.

But if you’ve never done it before, or you’ve had a go but didn’t get results even close to what you hoped for, it can be difficult to figure out exactly what you did wrong and what information you’re missing. Well, this video, the first in a series, from photographer Susan Magnano will help explain it to you. In it, she goes over the terms, techniques and tools you need to get started.

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How to change the colour of anything in Lightroom in just a few seconds

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There was a time when if you wanted to change the colour of an object in a photograph, you had to load up Photoshop in order to do it. But these days, there are a lot more options out there. And now, even Lightroom is getting in on the action, thanks to the recently added AI selection tools that let you target specific subjects within a photograph and do pretty much whatever you want to them.

In this video, Aaron from Phlearn shows us exactly how we can use those AI selection tools to pick out our subject and then isolate the dress they’re wearing to completely change the colour of it, non-destructively, before you’ve even thought about bringing it into Photoshop.

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7 tips for shooting sharper landscape photographs

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No matter what genere we shoot, photographers always seem to be on a quest for sharper images. No matter how sharp they may already be, we’re always trying to squeeze just a little more sharpness performance out of our cameras and lenses. There are a few things we can do though, particularly for landscape photographers, that don’t involve going out and buying more expensive lenses.

In this video, landscape photographer Mike Smith walks us through seven of his top tips for getting sharper images when shooting landscapes. Some of them you may already know and apply to your own photography, but there are probably at least one or two that you might not have tried.

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How to use a ring light with colourful backdrops for amazing portraits

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I share a lot of lighting setups on here and every time I do, not only am I trying to share something unique, but I’m also trying to share something that’s practical and easy to implement for as many people as possible.

For the most part, I think I achieve that and although not everybody has access to all the kit I do, I still believe that certain elements of every setup I share are accessible by all. This is me trying to soften the blow of this week’s setup, as although not everybody will own all of this kit, cheap alternatives are viable and failing that, at least the DIY background and basic lighting principles involved are very much achievable by all. As always, if you have any questions about any of it, don’t hesitate to drop them down below.

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Five tips to improve your backlit portraits on location

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I don’t know about you, but for me, backlighting a subject – especially on location – is one of the things I love to use and experiment with during portrait sessions. Whether it’s the nice bright clear sun producing a glowy halo or you’re faking it with a strobe, it’s a great way to add some interest and drama into a portrait. They can be very easy to mess up and not get the results you were expecting, though.

In this video, Julia Trotti walks us through her top five tips for shooting backlit portraits using the natural light approach. And as well as talking about the ways to shoot with backlight on location, she also points out some of the pitfalls of using the sun as a backlight and how not to shoot it so you can learn to not mess it up.

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Five tips to get the best video results from low budget 8-bit cameras

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We all have to start somewhere and for those who wish to learn how to shoot video, that usually means some pretty low-budget (and often old) equipment. Those newcomers are often teased on social media for not having the latest and greatest gear and made to feel bad about what they own, but don’t let those types of people get to you. You can do some great stuff with some very inexpensive equipment!

Sure, the older and low-budget gear may have some limitations that more expensive or newer gear might not, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get the shot. You just maybe have to work a little harder for it. And in this video, Nigel Barros walks us through his five gotcha mistakes that often trip up new filmmakers and how to avoid them to get the best video you can from low-budget cameras.

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Turn one light into many and create fake window light sources using mirrors and gaffer tape

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Mirrors are… well, they’re not really a modifier but they can certainly be used as one, so that’s what I’m going to refer to them as here. Mirrors are probably one of the most misunderstood and underused modifiers out there when it comes to lighting, but they can be extremely helpful.

I’ve been using mirrors for my own photography, especially small product stuff, for quite a while now and they’ve been excellent for throwing a little extra light in places. This video from Nate’s Film Tutorials shows us how we can use them for larger subjects to turn one light source into many and even to create the look of things like fake window light, complete with frames and blinds.

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How to create and fake a realistic tilt-shift look without using a tilt-shift lens

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When it comes to lenses that present a unique look none really stand out more than the tilt-shift lens. Largely the domain of architectural or product photographers, tilt-shift lenses shift the plane of focus and the centre point of the lens to be able to correct things like perspective and focus shifts and produce looks that are otherwise virtually impossible to achieve unless you’re shooting large format.

But tilt-shift lenses have another quirky use, too, and that’s making things look miniature. It’s a look often imitated in post but usually, the effect is a little too strong and unrealistic. In this video, Pye Jirsa from SLR Lounge walks us through the process of creating tilt-shift images in photoshop that actually look like they were shot by a real tilt-shift lens for very subtle but effective results.

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How to shoot a clean and simple coloured fill portrait in the studio

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Sometimes you just want a clean and quick setup to start a shoot off the right way. Sure, you may have a ton of creative ideas in store for later on in the day, but they may be new ideas you’ve never tried before or they may be more experimental. If that’s the case, I always find it smart to start a shoot with a tried and true setup that’s not too tricky to do, quick to set up and provides great shots each and every time.

That way, the team knows that whatever happens from here on out with the more experimental work, we’ve already bagged some killer images and everybody is positive about the setups to come.

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