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Even Homer Simpson has been photographed shaking hands with a former president, so why can't you? Thanks to the magic of Adobe Photoshop Elements--or any other photo editing program--you can become a virtual Forest Gump and put yourself in the same scene as Gerald Ford, Keith Richards, or Neil Arms... More...

Once again, it's time to shake out the virtual mailbag and answer some of the questions you've been asking. The most interesting questions--and the ones with the widest appeal--appear here. As always, you can send me your questions. I can't guarantee that I'll respond to all of them, but I do try t... More...

Based on questions I get from friends, readers, and my wife, it appears that the most vexing problem affecting photographers today doesn't have anything to do with photo editing, flash media cards, or image sensors. Nope, the question I get all the time is, "How do I take sharper photos with my... More...

Many years ago, when my wife decided to follow in my footsteps and become a scuba diver, I lovingly joked that she was mostly interested in buying all the accessories. In turn, she remarked that the only reason I was a photographer is because there's a never-ending parade of gadgets I could buy for ... More...

You have questions, we have... well, you know the drill. Whenever it looks like the mailbag is so full of virtual e-mail that it might burst and cover my cats in messages, I dedicate a newsletter to answering some of the most interesting questions. As always, you can send your questions to me. Free ... More...

Halfway through reading Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's fascinating book Freakonomics, I've started looking for patterns everywhere. So last weekend, I started dividing Hot Pic of the Week photo submissions into categories. The most common subject? Pets. Honestly, that didn't surprise me. I've s... More...

When a good friend of mine recently purchased an inexpensive digital SLR, I knew that something fundamental in the fabric of space and time had changed: This is the guy who always used a point-and-shoot camera and never would have considered a film SLR. So what has changed? To be honest, I'm not su... More...

You might not know his name, but you've almost certainly seen photos influenced by a technique he pioneered for film photography. I'm talking about Michael Orton, the creative force behind a breathtakingly gorgeous style. Here's his process, in a nutshell: Take two photos of the same scene (one in ... More...

Is it true that I lose image quality every time I rotate or resave JPEG images from my digital camera? Scott Edelman, via e-mail Senior Associate Editor Melissa J. Perenson responds: The JPEG format uses lossy compression, so whenever you change an image and resave it as the same file, it will be ... More...

One of the most common complaints that people have with their photos is fuzziness, or a lack of overall sharpness. I often talk about strategies for making your photos as sharp as possible--like increasing the shutter speed--but that sort of thing only goes so far if you're holding the camera in you... More...

One of the most well-known rules in photography is the Rule of Thirds--the guideline that says you'll get better pictures if you place the subject off to the side rather than dead smack in the middle of the frame. Compare the two photos below, for example. Shifting the camera a little when you take ... More...

It's that time again--the inbox is bristling with questions. If I don't answer a few, I'm worried some e-mails will start spilling out through the USB port and onto the floor. As always, please send me your questions. I can't get to all of them, but I do answer as many as I can--and the most interes... More...

Here's an interesting tidbit from the world of science: Every light source, from the sun to a candle to a light bulb, puts out a somewhat different range of colors. What looks like pure white under one kind of light appears blue or red in a different light. Our eyes do a pretty good job of adjusting... More...

Back when disposable cardboard cameras were a popular vacation accessory, an unexpected disaster meant losing only your $15 investment in film and processing. But these days, a digital camera mishap can set you back hundreds of dollars--not to mention the value of all the photos locked on your preci... More...

Peter Jackson's epic remake of King Kong was pretty good, as far as that sort of thing goes. The movie includes every conceivable special effect; it represents a sincere homage to the original source material; and it features surprisingly good acting from over-the-top Tenacious D rocker Jack Black. ... More...

Back in the 1950s, 3D movies were a short-lived fad; wearing special glasses, you got to see things seemingly leap off the screen and into your lap. This was well before my time, but I've been told you could also get something of a headache. I'm always on the lookout for ways to add some three-dime... More...

Why should cats, dogs, deer, and birds get all the attention? Bugs, spiders, bees, and other little creatures make great subjects, too. You just need to know how to use your camera in the tiny world of macrophotography. Virtually every digital camera on the market has some sort of close-focus mode.... More...

The next time you start pining for the good old days of computing, keep this in mind: In 1995 we had to negotiate hundreds of image file formats, and no two imaging programs spoke the same language. These days, with just a handful of common file types for digital photos, we're living on easy street.... More...

My parents live a few thousand miles from me, so I typically check in with them each week on the phone. Last week, my dad asked me a digital photo question, and I had to defer. "Send your question to question@davejoh.com," I told my father, "and if your question is selected, I'll answ... More...

Thanks to the sales of inexpensive digital SLRs like the Canon Digital Rebel and the Nikon D50, my e-mail inbox has begun to fill up with questions about a topic that few folks cared about a year or two ago: color profiles. Many of you, it seems, are learning that there's more than one way to color... More...