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
Lightroom View More
Introduction to Smart Telescopes with Erik Kuna
Photographing galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters used to mean a pretty serious investment in gear, not to mention a lot of time figuring out how to make everything work together. Smart telescopes have changed that.…
Tomorrow’s the Big Day! A Few Last-Minute Worldwide Photo Walk Tips
Tomorrow’s the day! Thousands of photographers in cities all over the world will be heading out for my Worldwide Photo Walk, and I can’t wait! I’ll be leading a walk right here in Tampa Bay,…
Using the iPhone as a Behind-the-Scenes Tool with Aundre Larrow
A great photograph may be the finished product, but there’s usually a whole lot happening behind the scenes to make it happen. In his new class, photographer and filmmaker Aundre Larrow shows you how to…
Creative Photo Illustration with an iPhone with Russell Preston Brown
Great photo illustrations still start with great photographs, and you don’t need a studio full of gear to create them. In his new class, Adobe’s Russell Preston Brown starts with an iPhone, one continuous light,…
Photoshop World Starts Monday!
It’s almost here! Photoshop World 2026, sponsored by Adobe, kicks off online Monday with our pre-conference sessions, and I hope you’ll be joining us. We’ve got an incredible group of instructors this year teaching Photoshop,…
The Prepared Wildlife Photographer with Moose Peterson
Wildlife doesn’t wait. When something incredible happens in front of your camera, you might only have a few seconds to capture it. That’s the idea behind Moose Peterson’s new course. Instead of figuring out exposure,…
Start Smart: Build a Strong Foundation in Lightroom Classic with Rob Sylvan
If Lightroom Classic has ever felt more complicated than it needs to be, sometimes the problem isn’t Lightroom. It’s how everything was set up in the first place. In this new class, Rob Sylvan goes…
Calling All Photo Walk Leaders: My 18th Annual Worldwide Photo Walk is Back!
It’s that time again. My Worldwide Photo Walk is back, and this year we’re walking on Saturday, October 3! This is always one of my favorite days of the year, when photographers all over the…
Camera Maintenance Essentials: The Twenty Minutes That Saves Your Gear with Erik Kuna
When was the last time you actually cleaned your camera gear? It’s one of those things that’s easy to put off until sensor dust starts showing up in your images or something isn’t working the…
How to Treat Your iPhone as a Professional Mirrorless Camera with Erik Kuna
Your iPhone is a pretty incredible camera. The trick is learning to treat it like one. In this new class, Erik Kuna shows how to approach your iPhone the same way you would a traditional…
Photoshop View More
How to Stop Nano Banana Stretching Selections in Photoshop
Hey Cafe Crew! I previously said that Nano Banana doesn’t work properly with selections in Photoshop. There was a reason for that. If you make a selection on an existing image and generate directly into…
How to Use the Relight Layer in Photoshop Beta
Photoshop's new Relight Layer brings AI-powered directional lighting into the compositing workflow, filling the gap left by the deprecated Lighting Effects tool. You can place up to three independent light sources, control their color, intensity,…
How to Use the Automatic Blemish Removal Tool in Adobe Camera Raw
Adobe Camera Raw's blemish removal tool scans a portrait and cleans skin imperfections in seconds, without any manual selection. The workflow stays entirely non-destructive when the layer is converted to a smart object first, and…
How to Use a Grey Layer to Spot and Fix Mask Edges in Photoshop
Edge halos and stray artifacts are easy to miss when masking a subject, especially with AI-generated selections. Placing a neutral grey layer beneath your masked subject forces those problem areas into plain view, making cleanup…
How to Use the Light Adjustment Layer in Photoshop Effectively
Photoshop's Light adjustment layer brings Camera Raw-style tonal controls — exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks — directly into a non-destructive layer workflow. The real value isn't in what the sliders do individually, but…
How to Fix Nano Banana Generative Fill Distortion Using a Smart Object Workflow
Generative Fill with Nano Banana on a large canvas often produces stretched or squashed results with visible selection edges. The problem is a resolution mismatch — the model generates into a small area but gets…
Photoshop’s Big 5: The Features That Actually Mattered This Year So Far
Photoshop updates land continuously throughout the year, but not every new addition reshapes how we actually work. While some releases bring minor UI polish or experimental tools, a handful of recent additions stand out as…
How to Fix the Photoshop Scratch Disk Full Error
The scratch disk full error stops Photoshop mid-edit and can even prevent it from opening at all. Understanding what a scratch disk actually is — and knowing where to look — makes the difference between…
Using Photoshop's Light Adjustment Layer for Non-Destructive Tonal Control
Photoshop's Light adjustment layer brings Camera Raw's core tonal controls — exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks — directly into the layers panel as a fully non-destructive, maskable layer. This makes it possible to…
How to Turn a Photo Into a Fine Art Painting in Photoshop
A photograph carries detail that a painting would simplify, and that gap is exactly where this technique operates. By working through a structured layer-based workflow in Photoshop, you can reduce photographic sharpness, introduce painterly texture,…