When you step into the photography realm you hear new words, meaning of which eludes you. One of them, so simple, and still so mysterious is the "f-stop" (or simply "stop"). What does it mean? What does it measure or represent? Read the article "Understanding Light Stops" to be in the know.

Well, it may be just your day and your way. Robert Evans photographed weddings for the likes of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Brad Pit and Jennifer Aniston, and has made portraits of celebs like George Lopez, MC Hammer. And now he presents you with his new website PhotographyMentor.com.

Here is how they describe the website:

Through professionally produced Video Lessons from Award Winning Documentary Film and Television Editors, you’ll “Get inside the Head” of these Pros as they demonstrate and teach you everything you need to know to succeed; including Lighting, Image editing, Post Processing, Business and Branding, Client Relations, and Much Much More!

Watch more about the website in this video.

AskMen.com names top 10 customs that are considered pointless (ridiculous to be precise):

Despite what the wedding planners say, many wedding customs are pretty stupid and pointless. Some ridiculous wedding customs are older, established traditions and others are newer trends, but none of them make much sense -- especially for guys.

In the linked article at "Cup Of Idea" website you will find the tutorial on how to create a nicely looking old image out of a new one. I took a liberty to make some further adjustments to the final result, which I want to share with you.

Here is the layer palette:

My modifications are as follows:

• Add a texture of an old paper as the semi-transparent background (50% opacity)
• Make the image itself brighter by pulling up the upper part of the curve
• Set the blending mode of the image to Multiply
• Add atop an empty layer and use Filter>Render>Clouds
• Blur somewhat the clouds and scale up to make the clouds bigger
• Set the blending mode of the clouds layer to Color Burn

And that's pretty much it, except that I added a layer mask to the image (based on the texture) so the edges are somewhat washed out and bleak.

Note: This beautiful photograph is taken from the tutorial. I hope I am not offending anyone by doing so.

Just found a great blog with various techniques about photography. Jim Talkington talks and shows (in video) his view on various topics of photography. Even those who shoot film can find something to learn and read about.

Here is how Jim describes himself:

My name is Jim Talkington and I’ve made my living as a professional photographer for 20+ years. Currently the co-owner of Daylight Photo (a commercial / advertising photography studio) in Cincinnati, OH, my career has wound its way through many facets of the profession: advertising, photojournalism, editorial, catalog, darkroom technician, retail photo sales, writer…you name it, I’ve probably tried it. And I wouldn’t trade the journey for anything.

Here is a good article that explains the filter types and their mounting approaches for DSLR cameras. If you are thinking about expanding your toolset, then take at this article. The usage of different filters can solve various problems (i.e. contrast scene or glare) and dramatically enhance your photographs. The article comes in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2.

This short but very precise article will tell you 10 ways to make great portraits. And though in some of the photographs presented there you will see a hint on the 11th tip, I will illustrate it a bit more (in addition to the ones described in the article): Break the bubble. This term originated in the cinematography simply means that you tilt the camera - don't align to the horizontal or vertical lines.
The image above is a candid shot, which illustrates the tilted angle of view. I know, it employs (unintentionally) a few other tips, but still due to the tilt it creates a certain feeling - imbalance and dynamic, which may be what you are looking for

If you are a photographer or/and a web designer, you should definitely read this article about images and your website. The idea here is that there is flow on your website - the way the visitor reads and looks through your web presentation. And the placement and type of images could actually hurt the flow and confuse the visitor. Learn how to better use your images!

At Sony website I found a good summary of basic composition tips that can make you take better photographs. These tips are presented in easy to understand manner and accompanied with images. Take a look and see whether you know all of them. I found something new for myself

Chuck Westfall, who is Director of Media & Customer Relationship at Canon, gives a few answers to intriguing questions regarding photo gear. One of the questions is related to the myth that when you turn the Image Stabilizer (IS) on your lens while the camera is mounted on a tripod, the IS will introduce its own shake to the image.

Here is a quote of what he has to say on this issue:

Next, virtually all Canon Image Stabilizer lenses except the now-discontinued original 1995 EF75-300mm IS model have some degree of tripod-sensing. In most cases, what that means is that when the lens senses that it's completely steady, it effectively prevents the IS mechanism from moving. With typical IS lenses like the EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM or EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM, that’s about as far as it goes. In other words, the IS mechanism doesn’t move when the lens is mounted on a tripod, but by the same token, it doesn’t compensate for other sources of vibration such as the slap of the camera’s reflex mirror prior to the beginning of an exposure.

See more answers on various questions by Chuck Westfall.

With this article I open a series of articles that present you a roadmap of a photographer: Feel, Reflect, Execute and Enhance (FREE). As I see it, there are these four stages that the master photographer has to go through in order to achieve a great photograph. In our busy and hasty age (the digital one) people who like photography usually go through one or two of these stages. But I feel that without walking the path from the beginning to the end we will not achieve great results.

Andrew Rodney (his website DigitalDog) leads an online presentation that explains you the issues and solutions to produce correct colors on your monitor and in the prints.
This is a great deep enough introduction (or even lesson) of the color profiling and proofing, which most of the professional photographers must know to get great images not only on the monitor, but on the paper also.

Note: The presentation is available in PDF format