Lastest FOCUS newsletter

This Months Highlights:

  • ANOTHER SEASON COMES TO A CLOSE
  • INVITATION: SPS AWARD LUNCHEON
  • FOCUS ON: AI PHOTOGRAPHY CRITQUE, NEIL SHAPIRO
  • LEARN TO SEE...AND SERENDIPITY WILL FOLLOW, ESSDRAS SUAREZ
  • APRIL PRINT NIGHT
  • LUBA RICKET CREATIVE COMPETITION NIGHT
  • FIELD TRIPS WITH JANICE PRICHETT
  • ASSIGNED TOPICS 2026-2026, 2027-2028
  • APRIL COMPETITION WINNERS


Check out our archives for past newsletters!

Recent Competition Submissions

Abandoned Warehouse The Flows Trio Wood Plank Stack End Grain Second Lucerne Shaker Cloak Wood Plank Stack End Grain First Morning Rush In Edinburgh This Ol Truck They Had No Idea Ann Lee Pond Fabulous Fern

Lightroom View More

Photoshop World Is Back (and I Hope You’ll Join Us)!

I’m really excited about this one, folks. Photoshop World is coming up September 14–17, and registration is officially open! This year’s conference is sponsored by Adobe, and we’ve got four days of Photoshop, Lightroom, photography,…

One Week to Go!

We’re only one week away from the Photographing People Conference, and I couldn’t be more excited about this one. One of the biggest reasons is the instructor lineup. We’ve got 19 world-class photographers teaching everything…

Scott Kelby’s Bracket & Bounce Field Test

Here’s why on-camera flash makes your photos look flat (and the simple solution) If you’ve ever looked at a portrait taken with your camera’s built-in flash or a speedlight mounted directly on the hot shoe…

What’s New In Lightroom

Adobe’s been busy. Lightroom has picked up some really useful new features recently, so I invited Adobe’s Terry White to join me for a hands-on look at everything that’s new across Lightroom Classic, Cloud, and…

Lighting Made Simple Using Continuous Lights

If you’ve ever wanted to learn studio lighting but got scared off by flash triggers, test shots, and a bunch of settings that seem designed to confuse people, I made this class for you. In…

Mastering Waterfall Photography with Sapna Reddy

Waterfalls are beautiful in person, but they can be surprisingly challenging to photograph. In her latest class, Sapna Reddy takes you into Yosemite during peak waterfall season and shares the techniques she uses to create…

Photoshop View More

Simulate the 2000s Digicam Look in Photoshop and Camera Raw

Early 2000s point-and-shoot cameras produced a distinctive look: punchy contrast, cool color casts from on-camera flash, deep shadows, and a soft glow around bright areas. This walkthrough covers how to replicate that aesthetic non-destructively using…

How to Combine Two Photos in Photoshop Using AI Tools

Placing a subject from one photo into a completely different background used to require a long chain of manual steps. Photoshop's AI-powered tools now handle background removal, color matching, and shadow generation in just a…

How to Remove Skin Blemishes and Fix Skin Tones in Camera Raw

Two recent additions to Camera Raw make skin retouching significantly faster: an automatic blemish removal tool with separate controls for moles and freckles, and a vectorscope-based skin tone indicator for correcting off-color skin. Both features…

How to Use Camera Raw's Blemish Removal Tool in Photoshop

Camera Raw 18.5 introduced an automatic blemish removal tool that does something previous solutions rarely managed: it removes skin imperfections while preserving the underlying skin texture. It also distinguishes between temporary marks and permanent ones…

Portrait Slice Effect in Photoshop Using Step and Repeat

The portrait slice effect splits a single image into offset vertical bars, creating the illusion of a displaced or fragmented face. The entire technique relies on layer masks and a lesser-known Photoshop shortcut called step…

Common Photoshop Compositing Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Most compositing errors come down to a handful of repeatable problems: mismatched lighting direction, inconsistent white points, misaligned perspective, and atmosphere applied in the wrong layer order. Catching these issues early — ideally before you…