Hardware How-Tos

Create Custom Photo Layouts in Lightroom 3

Harness the new print options in Adobe Lightroom 3 for creating your own layouts, with customized background colors, borders, identity plates, watermarks, and more. Then output your photo layouts to print or to electronic files.

Histograms Are the Best Photography Tool You Already Own: Part 2

When your camera's histogram is telling you things aren't quite right, let the Exposure Compensation control fix things quickly.

Lighting Tips for Shooting HD Video with SLR Cameras

Many of today's digital SLR cameras also capture HD video. If you're in the early stages of exploring this new medium, you may have only flashes, which won't work for lighting video. This how-to includes examples of the kinds of lights you need and how to set them up.

Turn Your iPhone Images Into Art

Cell phone photography is so ubiquitous that it's easy to dismiss, yet with the help of a creative approach and a few apps, cell phone photos can be at home on gallery walls. Read on for advice on subject matter and camera handling, the best apps, post-app processing workflow, and printing suggestions.

Pick the Right Resolution for Printing Photos

When you print photos yourself, you'll get the best results with the correct resolution. This guide helps you figure out what that means--and no, the answer isn't "as high as possible".

Take Picture-Perfect Outdoor Portraits

When photographing outdoors, you're often faced with the choice of direct sunlight that's too harsh, or shade that's too dark. But a few tools that diffuse or bounce natural light can solve those problems quickly and easily.

Photography 101: Vacation Portrait Tricks

With a few camera and lighting techniques, you can capture professional-quality images while traveling, even in challenging locations.

Photography 101: Shooting Kids Indoors

When you photograph children inside (but not in a studio), getting a well-lit shot is a matter of knowing where to put the subject, where to put a few pieces of basic equipment, and a kid-taming trick or two.

Photography 101: Creating The Silhouetted Shot

You've probably seen photos of an object that appears to be in a white room surrounded by light. Because it's such a clean look, it's easy to use in a variety of print and Web projects. Here's how to create a natural-looking silhouetted shot using simple, inexpensive lighting tools and a little digital editing.

10 Tips for Shooting Successful Family Portraits

Everyone from novice photographers to pros will find useful advice in this list.

Shooting Photographs for the Web

Photos that look great as large prints can shrink into muddled, fuzzy messes when viewed on a computer monitor or, worse, a mobile phone. Here's how to compose, shoot, and process your images so they work well on the small screen.

Creating Sharp Images: The Big Picture

To get sharper photos, you just apply the right sharpening settings in Photoshop and you’re done, right? Not quite. To create consistently sharp pictures, pay attention to important factors at every step of your photographic workflow -- especially steps that affect image contrast.

Photography Tutorial: Get the Right Light

When shooting portraits, good lighting is all-important. To make sure you have it, you can buy expensive lighting rigs and multiple flash units. Or you can spend a few bucks and carry just the right mix of sun and clouds in your pack.

Photo How-to: Gifts from the Sky

You can shoot heavenly sunrises and sunsets anywhere.

Sidewalk Serendipity

Street photography hones your vision, improves your technical skills, and heightens your reflexes. Plus, it's free and legal!

Get Dynamic in Photoshop

HDR is one of the hottest trends in photography. Learn how to shoot, merge, and tone-map photos to extend the dynamic range and produce those painted-looking results so in demand right now.

10 Quick Macro Shooting Tips

Eliminate the variables, and you'll end up with nothing but great shots.

Add Videocasting to Your Bag of Tricks

Record, edit, and publish a professional video podcast using inexpensive tools and your imagination.

Make a Pinhole Panoramic Camera

Ever feel like your life is a little too digital? Take a break and make this low-tech camera with your own hands.

Build a Tilt-Shift Camera Lens for Peanuts

This flexible camera lens produces cool optical effects, but it can cost more than $1,000. Here's how to create your own tilt-shift lens for the cost of a few materials.