On the cover: A Mursi tribal woman wearing a lip plate, Omo River Valley, Ethiopia. On this page: A Komodo dragon, the island of Komodo, Indonesia.
Over the course of my career, I've had many people ask about my camera. They will come up to me and say, "Wow, that's a great camera. I'll bet it takes great pictures." My typical response is, "And I know for sure that Shakespeare had a great pen and it wrote fabulous plays!"
Camera equipment is only as good as the operator. But it is a common phenomenon among photographers to compare equipment, and the assumption inevitably follows that if someone has very expensive gear, they must be a fantastic photographer. That's not true at all.
On the very first photo tour I ever led in 1975, I had a client, Fred, who was 75 years old. He had a very expensive Leica camera and all the very expensive lenses. I was 27 at the time, and we were in Zion National Park. Fred called me over to look at his composition before he took the picture and, to be honest, I was very surprised. The composition was a mess. I suggested he move his tripod in a slightly different direction to improve the shot, and he was delighted with my suggestion.
My point is that Fred had been photographing for decades before I was born, he had the best equipent in the world at the time, but he just didn't have the eye to identify a strong composition. That's what I was trying to teach him.
The price of a camera, the size of a telephoto, and the number of lenses in a backpack have no bearing on how good a person's pictures will be. That will be determined by what's between your ears.
Jim Zuckerman photos@jimzuckerman.com
www.jimzuckerman.com
SELECTING FACES
Great subjects make great pictures. This is true for pretty much every subject you can think of, and it's certainly true for pictures of people. Not every person makes a great subject. Notwithstanding emotions, where you love a picture because you love the person, I'm speaking strictly about photographic art in which a person with a unique, a beautiful, or a compelling face will hold your attention.
When I travel to countries in which I'm focusing on culture, I'm always looking for striking faces.
Age doesn't matter, although I find most of my preferred subjects are either children or older adults. With kids, I look for beauty, innocence, laughter, and candid expressions like the one I captured in the portrait of the young Peruvian boy, below. I don't know what he was angry about, but I quickly grabbed the shot when I recognized this wonderful opportunity.
When photographing old people, I search for character, a depth in the eyes, weathered faces, wisdom, and spirtuality. These qualities make powerful portraits.
To elicit the expression I want, usually I have to watch the person through my camera for many moments. It may take time for them to feel comfortable enough to relax and to give me an honest emotion worthy of photographing. If the person has a remarkable face, sometimes just looking into or away from the camera works well. I selected the Christian monk in Ethiopia, below, because of his weathered face I found to be full of character. I took this shot with a 100-500mm lens set to 360mm. This allowed me to keep a distance with the subject so as not to influence his expression and his mood. This is a technique I use at times in which I'll first identify a person who is photogenic and then I'll watch them through a long lens, waiting for a compelling expression.
When amateur and professional photogra-
phers alike take pictures of family and friends, the inevitable 'smile' is always demanded. I never, ever ask the people I photograph to smile and pretend to be happy. I want my subjects to be real.
One of the techniques I'll use to elicit natural expressions and to encourage typical human interactions -- instead of subjects appearing stiff and looking uncomfortable in front of the camera -- is to photograph two or more friends or family together. For example, I will set up a mother interacting with her child or two or three friends talking with each other where they forget about the camera. In the portrait below of three girls from India,
they posed for the camera but they were such good friends that their pose seemed to convey their close friendship. They just assumed this pose without direction and it worked. In this case, I chose them because they all were very attractive and what they were wearing was beautiful.
Sometimes I'll see a face that I instantly recognize as a great subject. Other times it takes time to find a photogenic person. When I led a photo tour to Patagonia a few years ago, my tour group stopped at a small market in Chile and as soon as I walked in, I saw the man pictured on the next page. He was sitting at a table drinking coffee. I told my group we absolutely had to photograph this amazing face, and through my local guide's Spanish speaking ability, I set it up. The lighting here is simple window light, but it's the weathered countenance and life's hardships written on this man's face that makes the picture. §
Photographing Insects
Spring is here (in the Northern Hemisphere), and that means bugs are out. As annoying as many of them are, insects present remarkable photographic opportunities. Without a doubt, insects are the original aliens. They have six legs, weird bodies, and antennae that would make a person believe they came from outer space. Maybe they did.
To be sure, it can be challenging to photograph insects. They fly, they jump, they crawl, and they definitely don't take direction. In addition, they are very small. That presents all kinds of technical issues.
Magnification
Insects are only impressive in photographs when they fill all or most of the frame so we can see and appreciate all of their bizarre (and sometimes beautiful) anatomical features. This can only be accomplished with macro equipment.
There are several ways to magnifiy small subjects, but the most compact and user friendly pieces of gear are a macro lens in combination with extension tubes. I'd recommend either a 50mm or 100mm macro lens, and a set of 3 extension tubes pictutred on the next page. They are sim-
ply empty spacers with no glass that fit between the macro lens and the camera body. You can use the tubes individually or stacked together. The greater the distance between the lens and the body means greater magnification. Several companies make them -- I've used Kenko tubes for many years without any problems.
The other important piece of equipment I recommend is a ring flash. A flash will freeze the movement of any insect, and the ring design provides soft and diffused light similar to the type of illumination from an overcast sky. This is a much more attractive type of light than you'd get from direct sunlight. The bee above was taken
with light from a ring flash which is pictured above. It fits on the front of the macro lens and produces light that wraps around the small insect subjects. In my opinion, this is the most complimentary type of light for macro subjects.
Depth of field
The biggest problem in macro photography is shallow depth of field. Insects have depth, and the detail, texture, and color that make up their anatomy is so intriguing and beautiful that it's important to render these features as sharp as possible. If the plane of the insect is parallel with the plane of the digital sensor (i.e. the back of the camera), AND the camera -to-subject distance isn't super close, depth of field isn't critical. It's easy to render the insect sharp.
The katydid, below, is an example. I photographed it from about 6 inches, and the wings are fairly flat and parallel with the camera's sensor. I used f/11 for this shot and the insect is sharp. For the Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly I photographed in Michigan on the next
page, the camera-subject distance was about 8 inches. Using f/22, the insect and the Indian paintbrush flower are completely sharp.
As insects get smaller and the camera-subject distance is reduced, and when there are no parts of the subject that can be parallel with the back of the camera, depth of field suffers. The picture of the blue-green snout weevil from Papua New Guinea below, is an example. Notice how the rear end of the insect and most of the legs are soft. In these instances, even f/32 won't provide enough depth of field to render the entire subject sharp.
With situations like this there are only two options. You can accept the reduction in depth of field, or you can do focus stacking.
Focus stacking
Iceland Drone Tour
August 24 - September 2, 2026
Most cameras now have a built-in ability to do focus stacking. If yours doesn't have this, you can do it manually. The camera takes multiple images, i.e. slices, of the subject from the front of the insect to some point in the rear of the frame that you define. The typical f/stop is 8 during this procedure. The number of frames varies depending on the magnification and the size of the subject.
When I was doing focus stacking manually before I upgraded my camera, I was typically doing 15 to 20 frames. The image of the weevil, below, was done with 20 frames. I started at the front of the insect by focusing on the two structures closest to the camera position, took a shot, and then refocused ever so slightly toward the rear of the frame. In this way, I completed the entire insect and stopped when I focused on the rear leg. You can see I left the bark in the background soft.
With automation within the camera, you define the number of frames and when you push the shutter, all of the frames are taken within a couple of seconds. Obviously, you need a tripod for this and the insect can't move.
Shallow depth of field is not ideal when shooting insects. As I said before, they have such amazing detail that it's important to reveal it with tack sharp resolution.
If you are doing extreme macro, such as filling the frame with the eye of a fly, the number of frames you'll need for focus stacking will be in excess of 100.
Once you have all of these frames, Photoshop will stack them together into one amazingly sharp image. The commands are: Edit > Auto-Align Layers, followed by Edit > AutoBlend Layers (select 'Stack images').
Flash and backgrounds
When you use a flash, even a ring flash, the light fall off behind the insect causes backgrounds to become very dark or black. Sometimes this works; other times it doesn't. For example, diurnal insects like butterflies don't look correct with black backgrounds because they are only active during the day. On the other hand, moths look good with black behind them because they are nocturnal.
The solution to preventing backgrounds from becoming too dark when photographing diurnal insects in the daytime is to take a picture of out of focus foliage and then make an 11 x 14 inch print mounted on foam core. When you shoot the insect, hold (or have a friend hold it for you) the print right behind the subject. The flash will illumiate the insect as well as the print, and it will look entirely natural.
The image below of a band tussock moth caterpillar was done that way. I used a ring flash, f/32, and a print of out of focus foliage. The print was positioned about12 inches behind the caterpillar. Notice how soft the light is on the subject, and also note that even with a small lens aperture the background stays out of focus in a very complimentary way.
Alternatively
Working with live insects has its challenges for sure. An alternative approach is to purchase insects that are dead and packaged. This solves a lot of problems, and you can work with exotic species from other countries. In the U.S., it is illegal to transport live insects across state lines, but dead insects are ok.
Another advantage of working with dead insects is they come already identified. If you
need the common or Latin name of the insects, you'l have that information.
The insects arrive in a small package. They are dry and brittle which means you can't move any of the appendages without breaking them. To protect the delicate legs and antennae, you need to place the packaged specimen in a 'relaxing chamber'. This is nothing more than a Tupperware container with a damp paper towel on the bottom. With the lid of the container in place, the moisture relaxes the insect parts and allows you to move them in the desired position. Using tiny insect pins, one on each side of the appendage, lock the position in place and allow the subject to dry. In a few hours, remove the pins (don't put the pins through the insect parts or you will damage them), and now the subject is ready to be photographed. I recommend taking it outside in shade for complimentary light.
The rhinoceros beetle, below, was done this way. I focus stacked the insect with 15 frames, and then I used one of my tropical landscape images for the background. This makes an unusual image because when doing macro photography, we never see this kind of detail in the background. We see it with our eyes, but not with the camera.
You can purchase packaged insects from many onilne sources. Here are two:
insectsales.com bugsdirect.com
You can also find them on Amazon. Just search for 'packaged dead insects'. Some of the items for purchase are more for home displays, but keep looking and you'll find the lesser expensive packaged insects. §
Frog and Reptile
Workshop
June 13 - 14, 2026
Exotic Birds of Colombia
Sept. 23 to Oct. 3, 2026
The Pantanal, Brazil
Nov. 23 - Dec. 2, 2026
Photography Quiz
1. The lens aperture f/32 has more depth of field than f/8 but it is not as sharp because of:
a. Hyperfocal distance
b. Diffraction
c. Defect in optical glass
d. The inverse square law
2. The German equivalent to ASA and ISO back in the film days was:
a. FPO
b. FAN
c. DIN
d. DGO
3. A polarizing filter causes a loss of light in how many f/stops?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4
4. With color infrared film, an orange filter caused the sky to become:
a. Mint green
b. Magenta
c. Deep royal blue
d. Black
5. When photographing out of a small fixed wing aircraft or a helicopter, it's a good idea to shoot with a small lens aperture like f/16.
a. True
b. False
6. A star tracker is a device that allows you to shoot the Milky Way with a long exposure and a low ISO without getting star trails.
a. True
b. False
7. The difference between f/2 and f/16 is:
a. t3 stops
b. 4 stops
c. 5 stops
d. 6 stops
8. The sun will have the greatest influence on the meter reading when it is:
a. In the top middle of the frame
b. In the lower right section of the frame
c. In the center of the frame
d. In the upper left section of the frame
9. With a 50mm lens and 20mm of extension (as in extension tubes), how much light is lost?
a. 1 f/stop
b. 2 f/stops
c. 3 f/stops
d. .5 f/stops
10. The best way to turn the sun into a star effect is to:
a. Use a wide angle lens and a small lens aperture
b Use a telephoto lens with a large lens aperture
c. Use a telephoto with a small lens aperture
d. Sidelighting
Answers on page 52
UPCOMING PHOTO WORKSHOPS
FROG & REPTILE WORKSHOP in Kansas City
This is an exciting macro workshop in which you will be able to photograph about 40 species of colorful dart frogs and exotic reptiles. Held in a hotel conference room, Jim sets up natural backgrounds for outstanding photos. The photo at left shows a Jackson chameleon with the background replaced in Photoshop.
June 13 - 14, 2026
GREAT GRAY OWLS, CANADA
Get up close and personal with these spectacular birds flying with their magnificent wing spans. The slow flying owls are easy to photograph, even for beginners, and you will absolutely love your pictures!
February 13 - 18, 2027
TEXAS BIRDS
Get up close and personal to many species of exotic and colorful birds. We shoot from a blind and get frame-filling shots of cardinals, green jays, crested caracaras, painted buntings, and more. Based in McAllen, Texas.
May 12 -15, 2027
Carnival in Venice
January 30 - February 5, 2027
What's Wrong with this Picture?
Iphotographed this young girl behind the scenes preparing for the Jember Fashion Carnival in Indonesia. Her father was putting on the last details of her costume, and I grabbed this indoor shot with a 100-500mm lens set to 200mm.
The background isn't a serious problem, but I find my eye moves to the left too much. There is nothing to look at there, but the fact that the background is slightly light -- lighter than the girl's skin -- does draw attention. The girl's beautifully decorated face should hold our attention without anything distracting from it. In every picture, the eye is always drawn to the lightest part of the image and it returns again and again.
In the version on the opposite page, I used the burn tool in Photoshop to darken the background. In addition, I used the dodge tool to lighten her face slightly.
Making these subtle changes makes a big difference. Now our attention has nowhere else to go but where it should -- on her face.
Using the burn and dodge tools is an old technique from the days when photographers used darkrooms. It's still valid, though, in the digital realm because it allows us to direct attention to the subject. And that's one of the most important ways we can make our pictures really stand out . . . by having the subject stand out from the background.
When I apply either the burn or dodge tools, I usually lower the opacity so the tonal adjustment happens slowly, gradually, giving me time to assess the change. This way I have more control over how the image will finally look. §
Indonesia Wildlife
October 29 - November 8, 2027
SHORT AND SWEET
1. Elevated perspectives are often very dramatic. Seek them out whenever you can. This shot is looking down on St. George Church in Lalibela, Ethiopia with a priest standing in front of it. The unsual angle makes this image more compelling than it might have been otherwise.
3. Artifical reflections can look great when tastefully done. Here I photographed a Mexican red knee tarantula on black Plexiglas to create a subtle but effective reflection. I illuiminated this with a 20 x 30 inch softbox for diffused lighting, and I think the stark black background adds drama to the shot.
2. Traditionally, subjects should be placed according to the Rule of Thirds -- along one of the vertical or horizontal thirds. In this shot of a church in Austria, I composed it along the right vertical third . . . and it works. Can this 'Rule' be broken such that a subject can be placed in the middle of the frame? Yes, it can. But here the off-center placement looks great.
4. Detailed macro subjects require complete depth of field. With very small subjects, even f/32 may not be enough, but do everything you can to render the small subjects sharp. After all, that's why we photograph them -- to reveal their detail with tack sharp clarity. Out of focus subjects are, essentially, pointless. §
Ethiopia photo tour
Go back in time 20,000 years
January 5 - 18, 2027
Surma tribe
Dallol Depression
ASK JIM
Every month, Jim answers a question from his online students, from people who participate in his tours and workshops, or from subscribers to this magazine. If you have a question you’d like Jim to answer, please drop him a note at photos@jimzuckerman.com.
Q: Jim . . .What ctan I do if the place I'm photographing doesn't allow tripods? Museums, castles, palaces, and so many other places prohibit the use of tripods. It's very frustrating. Janet Lenox, Birmingham, Alabama
A: I agree with you -- it's frustrating, indeed. Confronted with this problem, you have two choices. 1) You can hand hold the camera and raise the ISO until you can use a fast enough shutter speed (and shoot with the lens wide open), or 2) take the ballhead off the tripod and use the flat side pressed on the floor, on the wall, on a railing, or on a column. With a continuous downward pressure, you can use a long exposure and still get sharp pictures. In the very dark Cistern in Istanbul, I took a tack sharp picture of 8 full seconds. I closed the lens down to f/22 for complete depth of field. The guards watched me but said nothing because . . . I wasn't using a tripod.
Partial List of Photography Tours
2026 - 2027
EXOTIC COLOMBIA BIRDS Sept/Oct 2026
THE PANTANAL, BRAZIL Nov/Dec 2026
CARNIVAL in VENICE Jan/Feb 2027
CHILE:THE DESERT to the SEA Sep 2027
ASIA for BEGINNERS Oct 2026
WINTER WILDLIFE WORKSHOP Dec 2026
DUBAI & ABU DHABI Nov 2026
ETHIOPIA Jan 2027
TEXAS BIRDS WORKSHOP May 2027
GREAT GRAY OWLS Feb 2027 VIETNAM Oct 2027
INDONESIA WILDLIFE Oct/NOV 2027
WINTER WILDLIFE WORKSHOP
December 16 - 20, 2026
Mountain lion
Arctic fox
STUDENT SHOWCASE
Each month, Jim features one student who took beautiful and inspiring images on one or more of his photography tours or workshops. It’s really fascinating how photographers see and compose such different images even though we may go to the same places. Everyone takes great photographs on Jim’s trips. Lynn Ulrich, Flagstaff, Arizona. American Southwest photo tour, Patagonia photo tour.
Itook this picture at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Cliffs above the pounding surf offered spectacular views of the violently churning water, and cape cormorants were flying far below my vantage point. I estimate they were at least 100 to 200 feet above the ocean.
I took this picture with a Canon 100500mm zoom set to 200mm. Telephotos have shallow depth of field, and it was impossible to focus on the bird and, at the same time, hold the surf in focus. Even if I closed down to f/22, I don't think both subjects here -- the bird and the surf -- would have been sharp
In my opinion, had the surface of the ocean been less than sharp, the picture would have been fairly decent but it would have lacked visual impact.
Therefore, I took two separate images, first the cormorant and then the water, both being tack sharp. I then composited them in Photoshop. My settings for the shot of the bird were 1/1600, f/8, and 200 ISO.
‘19 Jan. ‘20
Subject index for past Photo Insight issues
1/3 focus law Jul. ‘15
3D sphere Mar. ‘16
90 degree finder Mar. ‘13
Abstracts in soap Feb. ‘15
Abstracts, Shooting Mar ‘19
Aerial photography Jun. ‘13
Aerial photography Jan. ‘21
African safari May ‘16
AI plus Photograpjhy Oct. ‘23
AI, Photos-to-AI Oct. '24
Airplane windows Mar. ‘16
Alien landscapes Jan. ‘13
Anatomy of 8 photographs Jan. ‘16
Anatomy of an Action Shot Feb. ‘24
Angled perspectives Jan. ‘19
Aperture vs. shutter speed May ‘14
Aperture priority Sept. ‘14
Aperture priority and other modes Jul. ‘24
Aurora Borealis Apr. ‘17
Autofocus, When it fails Aug. '25
Auto white balance Dec. ‘13
Autofocus, when it fails Apr. ‘15
Autofocus failure Aug. ‘15
Autofocus failure Jan. ‘17
Autofocus challenges Apr. ‘18
Auto ISO Nov ‘17
Auto White Balance Mar’ ‘21
Autumn Foliage Sep. ‘18
Autumn Color Sep. ‘20
Autumn foliage photography Oct. ‘21
AWB versus Daylight WB May ‘24
Back button focus Oct. ‘18
Backgrounds, wild Nov. ‘12
Backgrounds, busy Apr. ‘13
Backlighting Apr. ‘16
Backlighting Oct. ‘22
Birds in flight Aug. ‘13
Birds in flight Jan. ‘14
Birefringence May ‘18
Birefringence Dec. 24
Birds in flight Mar. ‘16
Birds in flight, camera settings Jan. ‘23
Birds in flight, camera settings Dec. '24
Birds in flight, Strategies for shooting Dec. 25
Bird Photography Jun ‘19
Black backgrounds Aug. ‘23
Blacklight photography Feb. ‘21
Black velvet Mar. ‘14
Black and white conversions Mar. ‘17
Black and white infrared Apr. ‘24
Black and white solarization Sep. ‘17
Black and white with color Jan. ‘20
Black and white plus color Mar. ‘23
Blown highlights Feb. ‘18
Blue monochromes Jan. ‘22
Black Plexy Aug. ‘22
Blur, field Nov. ‘18
Blur technique Oct. ‘17
Bokeh Jun. ‘15
Botanical gardens, shooting Apr. ‘22
Butterfly photography Jul. ‘14
Buying nature Jul. ‘24
Camera buying guidelines
Dec. 21
Camera settings for landscapes Feb. ‘23
Camera setting priorities Jun. ‘17
Canon R5 Mar. ‘21
Capturing lightning Jun. ‘13
Capturing lightning Jun. ‘24
Capturing what you don’t see May ‘21
Catchlights Jul. ‘16
Changing perspective May ‘21
Cheap flash stand Apr. ‘13
Chemical crystals, photographing Mar. '27
Children photography Jun. ‘14
Choosing a telephoto lens Dec. ‘20
Chromatic aberration May ‘13
Chrome Dec. ‘18
Cityscapes Aug. ‘14
Cityscapes May ‘16
Clone tool, fixing an issue Sep. ‘17
Clone tool technique Jul. ‘20
Color theory Nov. ‘23
Composites and Light Dec. ‘17
Composites, Secrets to perfect Jun. ‘24
Compositing images Apr. ‘19
Compositing, 7 steps Jan. 22
Composites, How to make Aug. '25
Composition, different approach Jan. ‘15
Content-aware, New Aug. ‘20
Content aware move tool Jan. ‘23
Contrast vs. exposure Jul. ‘15
Contrast, When it is good Sep. '24
Converting to black and white Mar. ‘22
Correcting keystoning Jun. ‘21
Creating a star field Jan. ‘14
Creating Art out of Motion May ‘22
Creating a Sketch Dec. ‘17
Creative blurs Jan. ‘14
Custom functions Jul. ‘23t
Dark backgrounds Nov. ‘19
Dawn photography Jan. ‘17
Dawn photography Feb. ‘17
Dead center Jan. ‘13
Dead center Oct. ‘23
Dealing with smog Oct. ‘16
Decay photography Sep. ‘15
Define Pattern Sep. ‘18
Define Pattern Sep. '24
Depth of field Aug. ‘16
Depth of field confusion Jan. ‘20
Depth of field and distance Dec. ‘18
Depth of field and obliqueness May ‘21
Depth of field, shallow Apr. ‘20
Depth of field vs. sharpness Nov. ‘20
Diagonal lines, Using Aug. '25
Double takes Apr. ‘20
Drone flying in winter Feb. '26
Drone photography Mar. ‘23
Drone, Lessons from a tour Oct. '24
Drop shadows Apr. ‘19
Dust, Minimizing Aug. ‘19
Dust specks May '25t
eBook, how to make Jan. ‘13
Elevated vantage points Aug. ‘23
Eliminating people from photos Jun. ‘22
Embedded in Ice Oct. 17
Energy saving bulbs Sep. ‘14
Equidistance and telephoto lenses Apri. ‘23
Exploring the power visuals of AI Mar. ‘23
Subject index for past Photo Insight issues
Exposing for the sun
Sep. ‘16
Exposing for silhouettes Mar. '26
Exposure, the sun
Exposing for snow
Exposure technique
Jul. ‘13
Dec. '24w
Sep. ‘13
Exposure, snow Jan. ‘14
Exposure triangle
Exposure, to the right
Exposure compensation
Exposure compensation
Extension tubes
Extension tubes
Face sculpting
Face sculpting
Festival photography
Fill flash
Nov. ‘14
Apr. ‘15
Sep. ‘16
Mar. ‘21
Dec. ‘13
Jul. ‘23
Apr. ‘21
Feb. ‘22
Sep. ‘20
Sep. ‘13
Filter forge Feb. ‘13
Fireworks Jul. ‘13
Fireworks, Compositing Jun ‘20
Fisheye lenses May ‘13
Fisheye lenses Feb. ‘15
Fisheye fantasies Oct. 21
Fixing parallax Oct. '24
Flash backlighting May ‘15
Flash, balancing exposure Oct. ‘15
Flash, balancing off-camera Dec. ‘18
Flat art
Sep. ‘16
Flexify 2 Mar. ‘20
Flood fixes problems Nov. ‘19
Floral Portraits, Indoors Aug. ‘21
Flowers May ‘15
Flower photography Apr ‘21
Flowers in harsh light Jul. ‘16
Focus on the eyes
Focus points
Focus points
Dec. ‘20
Mar. ‘15
Sep. ‘20
Focus stacking Mar. ‘17
Focus stacking Aug. ‘19
Fogged lenses Jan. '26
Focusing in the dark Oct. ‘16
Foreign Dancers, Photographing Nov’ 17
Foreign models Jun. ‘13
Fractals, generating Sep. ‘13
Fractals Jul. ‘19
Framing May ‘17
Framing Jan. ‘24
Freezing ultra action May ‘17
From Terrible to Beautiful Aug. ‘19
Fun with paint Oct. ‘16
Fundamental ingredients Apr. ‘13
Fundamentals That Make Great Photos Jan. ‘19
Fun With Christmas Lights Jan. ‘21
Fun with Food
Graphic Design Jul. ‘20
Garish imagery Dec. ‘15
Generative fill Jun. ‘23
Getting money for used gear Jan.’ 22
Getting the blues out Dec. ‘23
Great subjects Apr. ‘15
Great ceilings & HDR Panos Jul. ‘19
Green screen Mar. ‘13
Ground level shooting Oct. ‘22
Grunge technique Feb. ‘13
Harsh light, the problem of Apr. ‘24
Heavy Lens Debate, The Feb. ‘23
Helicopters, Shooting from Mar. '25
HDR, one photo Apr. ‘13
HDR at twilight May ‘13
HDR, realistic Jun. ‘15
HDR, hand held Dec. ‘16
HDR, hand held Nov ‘17
HDR, hand held Jul. ‘18
HDR panoramas Jun. ‘16
HDR, choosing the number of frames Jun. ‘22
High wind Apr. ‘17
Highlights Apr. ‘14
Highlights, overexposed Feb. ‘15
Histograms, Why I Don’t Use Jun ‘19
Histogram problems Apr. ‘20
Home nature projects Jun. ‘23
Hotels with a view Mar. ‘20
Humidity Oct. ‘13
Hummingbird photography Apr. ‘13
Hyperfocal distance Jul. ‘13
Image resizing Aug. ‘18
Implying motion Sept.‘14
Impossible DOF Feb. ‘16
Impossible DOF Jan. ‘17
Impossible metering situations Feb. '26
Indestructible camera bag Dec. ‘14
Infrared photography Jul. ‘14
Insane ISO settings Dec. ‘22
Interiors Oct. ‘15
iPad: Loading photos Aug.‘17
iPhone photography, pros and cons Apr. ‘22
Jungle photography Dec. ‘14
Kaleidoscopic images Jan. ‘15
Kaleidoscopis images Aug. ‘20
Keystoning Nov. ‘23t
Keystoning, correcting Aug. ‘15
L Bracket Feb. ‘18
L Bracket Feb. ‘21
Landscape photography Dec. ‘12
Landscape photography Apr. ‘14
Landscape photography Nov. ‘16
Layer Masks, The Power of Feb. ‘22
Leading Lines Aug. '24
Lessons Learned from Extreme Cold Feb. ‘24
Light fall-off Feb. ‘14
Light painting Dec. ‘21
Lighting a face Oct. ‘13
Lightning photography May ‘20
Liquify Feb. ‘18
Liquify Distortions Sept/Oct. ‘19
Lenses, Essential Aug. ‘23
Long lens portraits Oct. ‘18
Long Lenses for Flowers Jul. ‘20
Low light photography May ‘15
Luminar 4 Jan. ‘20
Macro flash Nov. ‘12
Macro flash Sep. ‘14
Macro flash Aug. ‘15
Macro flash Aug. ‘22
Macro flash advantage Feb. '25
Subject index for past Photo Insight issues
Macro photography and DOF Feb. ‘22
Macro trick May ‘19
Managing soft focus Jul. ‘21
Mannequin heads Apr. ‘16
Metering modes
Nov. ‘16
Meters, How They Work Jul. ‘18
Meters, when they fail Dec. ‘16
Metering situations, Impossible Jul. ‘19
Middle gray Nov. ‘15
Midday sunlight, The Challenge of Feb. '25
Milky Way, Photographing the Aug. '25
Minimizing dust on the sensor Nov. ‘21
Optical infinity Jun. ‘16
Mirrors Jan. ‘19
Mirror images May ‘23
Model shoot Jan. ‘17
Moon glow Oct. ‘16
Mosaics Jun. ‘17
Mundane to Ideal Nov. ‘19
Museum photography Mar. ‘13
Museum photography Aug. '25
Natural Light Portraits Aug. ‘21
Negative space Jan. ‘16
Neon edges on black Aug. ‘14
Neutral Density filters Jun. ‘18
New depth of field preview Mar. ‘24
New shooting style Mar. ‘24
Neutral Density filters and water Mar. ‘22
Night photography Feb. ‘14
Night Safaris Jun. ‘18
Night to Twilight Dec. ‘17
Noise reduction Feb. ‘17
Off-camera flash Jan. ‘24
Oil and water May ‘20
Online Nature Mar. '25
Organization of photos Mar. ‘18
Out of focus foregrounds Jan. ‘20
Out of focus foregronds Nov. 25
Paint abstracts
May ‘13
Paint abstracts Aug. ‘21
Painting with light Sep. ‘15
Pan-blurs Sep. '24
Panning motion Dec. ‘16
Pano-Mirrors with a twist Jan. ‘18
Parades Sep. ‘13
Parallax, Correctingt May '25
Parallelism Nov. ‘19
Parallelism and DOF Feb. ‘21
Perspective, Super Exaggeration of Dec. ‘21
Photo shsaring Apr. ‘23
Photo terms Nov. ‘22
Photographing Christmas Dec. ‘23
Photographing insects Apr. '26
Photography to Art Dec. ‘17
Photography solutions Jan. ‘18
Photoshop, content Aware Nov. ‘12
Photoshop, sketch technique Apr. ‘13
Photoshop, replace background Apr. ‘13
Photoshop, actions palette Dec. ‘13
Photoshop, layer masks Feb. ‘13
Photoshop, the clone tool May ‘13
Photoshop, soft foliage Oct. ‘13
Photoshop, mixer brush tool Sept. ‘14
Photoshop, b & w with color Jun. ‘14
Photoshop, drop shadows Jul. ‘14
Photoshop, creating texture Feb. ‘14
Photoshop, face mirrors Feb. ‘14
Photoshop, liquify Mar. ‘14
Photoshop, face mirrors Aug. ‘14
Photoshop, digital spotlight Sep. ‘14
Photoshop, enlarge eyes Nov. ‘14
Photoshop, darken the periphery Dec. ‘14
Photoshop, mirror images Dec. ‘14
Photoshop, beam of light Apr. ‘15
Photoshop, polar coordinates Mar. ‘15
Photoshop challenge Jan. '26
Photoshop, chrome May ‘15
Photoshop, actions palette Nov. ‘15
Photoshop, cut and paste Nov. ‘15
Photoshop fixes problems Jan. '26
Photoshop, geometrics Oct. ‘15
Photoshop, plugins Oct. ‘15
Photoshop, multiple selections Apr. ‘16
Photoshop, sharpening Apr. ‘16
Photoshop, Flood plugin Apr. ‘16
Photoshop, Desaturation Aug. ‘16
Photoshop, making a composite Aug. ‘16
Photoshop new tool May ‘20
Photoshop, place one element behind Aug. ‘18
Photoshop, the pen tool Feb. ‘16
Photoshop, canvas size Jan. ‘16
Photoshop, using the earth Jun. ‘16
Photoshop, define patterns May ‘16
Photoshop, paste into Nov. ‘16
Photoshop, b & w with color Feb. ‘17
Photoshop, open a closed door Apr. ‘17
Photoshop, palettes May ‘17
Photoshop, My favorite plugins Jan. ‘20
Portrait options Jan. ‘19
Portrait techniques Nov. ‘15
Portraits Mar. ‘13
Portraits, mixed lighting Aug. ‘14
Portrait Professional Nov. ‘19
Portraits, Lens choice Sept/Oct. ‘19
Portraits, side lighting Sep. ‘17
Portraits, window light Mar. ‘15
Portraits, outdoors May ‘17
Post-processing checklist Dec. ‘13
Post-processing: Contrast Aug. ’17
Practicing graphic design, Part I Dec. ‘22
Practicing graphic design, Park II Jan. ‘23
Practicing graphic design, Part III Feb. ‘23
Pre-capturing technology May ‘23
Predictive Focus Sep. ‘18
Problem/solution Apr. ‘17
Problem Solving in Photoshop May ‘22
Problem with cruises Jan. ‘18
Protecting extremeities from the cold Dec. ‘22
Protecting highlights Dec. ‘12
Puppies Jan. ‘15
Puppy photography Feb. ’18
Rays of Light Mar. '25
Reflections Feb. ‘13
Reshaping faces Oct. ‘22
Restoring old photos Jun ‘20
Subject index for past Photo Insight issues
S-curves Aug. '24
Safari May ‘13
Safari strategies Jul. ‘15
Seeing as the lens does Nov. ‘14
Selecting faces Apr. '26
Seeking Cool Snow Photos Jan. ‘21
Selective filtering Mar. ‘18
Selective focus Jun. ‘15
Self-critiques Jul. ‘13
Self-critiques Oct. ‘13
Self-critiques Nov. ‘20
Sensor cleaning Jun. ‘18
Sepia and dark contrast Jun. ‘15
Sepia, Traditional look of
Shade May ‘14
Shady side Jun. ‘18
Shadows define the shot Dec. ‘23
Shadows, Paying Attention to Mar. ‘18
Sharp, 6 reasons why photos are not Apr. ‘24
Sharpness problems Mar. ‘14
Shooting from helicopters
Shooting in Inclement Weather Nov. ‘22
Shooting thru glass May ‘24
Shooting through textured glass May ‘23
Shooting through wire mesh Sept. ‘14
Shooting into the light Jun ‘20
Shooting through glass Nov. '25
Side lighting Jan. ‘24
Silhouettes Jun. ‘13
Silhouettes, How to make Apr. ‘22
Silhouettes, Exposing for Sept/Oct. ‘19
Silvered landscapes Mar. ‘20
Sketch, How to Make Jun ‘19
Skies make or break a picture Aug. ‘21
Sky replacement Nov. ‘20
Sky replacement strategies Aug. ‘22
Snow exposure Nov ‘17
Snow exposure Nov. ‘19
Soap abstracts Aug. ‘23
Soft light Jan. ‘13
Smart phone photography May ‘19
Some people are clueless May '25
Stained glass Mar. ‘17
Star photography and noise Jan. ‘18
Stock photography Sep. ‘14
Sunrise & sunset Jan. ‘19
Symmetry Aug. '24
Tamron 150-600mm Apr. ‘14
Ten reasons photos are not sharp Jan. ‘19
Texture, Adding Mar ‘19
Texture Mapping in 3D Jul. ‘21
To Polarize or not to Polarize Jun. '25
Too much lens Jul. ‘24
Topaz AI Gigapixel Mar ‘19
Topaz glow Jan. ‘15
Topaz glow Sep. ‘17
Topaz Impression Sep. ‘15
Topaz Remask 5 Oct. ‘17
Topaz Simplify 4 Dec. ‘12
Topaz simplify 4 Jun. ‘14
Topaz Studio Apr. ‘18
Total solar eclipse, How to shoot Mar. ‘24
Translucency & backlighting Nov. ‘18
Travel photography Feb. ‘ 13
Travel portraits Mar. ‘14
Travel tips Apr. ‘14
Travel photographer’s guide Jun. ‘17
Traveling Lighter Nov. '25
Tripods, not allowed Jun. ‘24
Tweaking exposure on the fly Apr. ‘23
Twilight photography in the rain Apr. ‘19
Twilight, Creating Oct. ‘23
Two subject rule Dec. '25
Tripods Mar. ‘18
Two subject sharp rule May ‘14
Two subject focus rule Jan. ‘20
Two subject focus rule Jun. ‘21
Urban heights Jun. ‘21
Ultra distortion May ‘18
Unusual Panos Nov. ‘22
Upside Down Reflections Aug. ‘21
Subject index for past Photo Insight issues Quiz answers
Warm fingers in winter Nov. ‘15
Water drop collisions May ‘18
What NOT to do in photography Apr. ‘18
When diagonals are distracting Feb. '26
When You Needed a Zoom Aug. ‘21
White on White Dec. ‘20
White on White Nov. ‘23
White vignette Aug. ‘15
White balance Feb. ‘15
White balance, what's the best Jun. '25
White balance, custom Mar. ‘16
White balance, What Jun. ‘23
Wide angle conundrum May ‘19
Wide angle distortion, correcting May ‘24
Wide angle landscape technique Aug. '25
Wide angle lenses Mar. ‘13
Wide angle portraits Nov. ‘14
Wide angle lenses Jun. ‘17
Wide angle lenses: Outside the Box Jun. ‘22w
Wide angle keystoning Nov ‘17
Wildlife photos with wide angles Mar. ‘15
Window light Dec. ‘15
Window light portraits Aug. ‘18
Window light portraits Feb. ‘24
Window frames Feb. ‘16
Winter photography Dec. ‘12
Winter bones May ‘13
Winter photography Dec. ‘15
Winter photography Nov. ‘18
Wire Mesh, Shooting Through Jul. ‘18
White balance Mar. '26
Workflow May ‘13
1. b 2. c 3. b 4. a 5. b 6. a 7. d 8. c 9. a 10. a
Your score
90% - 100%: You could have been a pro
80% - 89%: Your glasses probably need a new prescription
