Photography News

Every year, I make it a ritual to look back at the photographs I’ve taken—not just to see if I ended up with a set of images I’m actually happy with, but to understand what they say about me. Reviewing a year’s worth of images can reveal patterns you didn’t know were there: the subjects you’re drawn to, the way you use light, the emotions you chase. It’s an honest reflection of who you are as a photographer—and who you’re becoming.

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Most photographers are now "hybrid creators. Besides taking still photos, they also need to create high-quality videos. However, shooting great video is often harder than it looks. Technical issues like low resolution, shaky shots, or digital noise can easily ruin a perfect moment. These common problems often make professional-looking results feel out of reach for many photographers.

Are you also troubled by these issues? This post explores how AI video enhancement can help photographers fix common video problems and streamline their workflow. Let’s get started.

 

 

What are Video Quality Problems Photographers Face

 

Even experienced professionals regularly encounter footage that is technically usable but visually disappointing. In fast-paced commercial, wedding, or travel shoots, there is rarely time for multiple retakes, and lighting conditions are often beyond full control.

Some of the most common video quality problems photographers face include:

• Heavy Digital Noise: When shooting in low-light environments like weddings or indoor events, increasing the ISO often leads to "grainy" video. Unlike film grain, this digital noise looks messy and reduces the professional feel of your work.
• Low Resolution from Older Gear: You might have a great new camera, but your older "B-roll" cameras or drones might only shoot in 1080p. When mixed with 4K footage, these lower-resolution clips look blurry and out of place.
• Soft Focus and Blurry Details: It’s easy to slightly miss the focus on a moving subject. In the past, a soft-focus video clip was a "throwaway," as traditional sharpening tools only made the video look "plastic" and artificial.
• Shaky and Unstable Footage: Handheld shooting adds a nice vibe, but too much camera shake can make viewers feel dizzy. Built-in stabilization often crops the image too much, losing important parts of your frame.

While these problems used to be permanent, the rise of AI technology has started changing the game. Instead of deleting imperfect footage, photographers can now "rescue" it during the editing process.

 

How AI Video Enhancer Improves a Photographer’s Workflow

 

AI video enhancer isn't just about adding a filter; it’s about using smart technology to "rebuild" the missing parts of your video. Let’s look at some real-life ways this helps photographers:

Case 1: The "High-ISO" Rescue. Imagine you shot a beautiful evening ceremony, but the shadows are full of noise. An AI enhancer can analyze the frames to separate noise from real detail, giving you a clean, crisp look that looks like it was shot with a much more expensive lens.

Case 2: Matching Different Cameras. A photographer might use a high-end mirrorless camera for the main interview and a small action camera for a different angle. AI can upscale the action camera’s footage to match the sharpness and 4K resolution of the main camera, making the whole project look consistent.

Case 3: Reviving Family History. Many photographers are asked to help with legacy projects. By taking a grainy, 20-year-old family video and running it through an AI model, you can restore facial details and remove old "tape noise," creating a 4K version that looks like it was filmed yesterday.

To help photographers handle these tasks with ease, many AI video enhancement tools have emerged. A prime example is EaseMate AI‘s video enhancer. It allows creators to instantly convert low-quality videos to 4K clarity. It can sharpen fine details, correct colors, and reduce digital noise automatically, making your footage look more appealing, credible, and professional.

You just need to upload the video you want to optimize into the enhancer, determine the video quality, and hit “Generate”. Then you can preview the video and download it with no watermark.

 

 

Best Practices for Photographers to Use AI Video Enhancers

 

Using AI tools is exciting, but the goal is to enhance your work, not make it look artificial. To get the best results, you need to treat AI as a partner in your digital darkroom. Here are several practical tips to help you maintain a professional, high-quality look while saving time in post-production:

• Enhance before color grading: Run your footage through the AI before adding heavy filters or LUTs. AI works best when it can "see" the original pixels clearly.
• Don't over-sharpen: It’s tempting to dial everything to 100%, but "less is more." Keep some natural texture so your video doesn't look like a video game.
• Preview moving parts: Always check a few seconds of action, like a person walking or water moving. Make sure the AI is keeping the motion smooth and consistent.
• Save your originals: Technology moves fast. Keep your original clips so you can re-process them in the future as AI models get even better.

 

To Sum Up

 

AI video enhancement tools are becoming an important part of how photographers manage increasing video demands. They help photographers rescue flawed footage, accelerate editing workflows, and enable higher-quality video delivery. With thoughtful use and the right software, AI can transform video from a post-production headache into a creative advantage.

 

Previously we've talked about setting yourself a colour challenge but if you want a challenge that's slightly shorter or fancy taking on a few throughout the year, have a go at our one lens challenge. 
 

Basically, we want you to select one lens, yes just one, go for a walk, take a series of shots then share them with ePz. Try to make it a lens you've not used for a while, or one that takes you out of your comfort zone.

A lens with a fixed focal length would be our choice for this but if you only have a zoom take that along and pick just one focal length to use. If you don't, it won't be much of a challenge! If you're not a DSLR owner or you are but don't fancy carrying it around with you, don't worry as a compact will be just as useful for this task.

Above: Will you choose a wide-angle or more telephoto focal length to work with? 

Working hand-held shouldn't be a problem but if it's a particularly dull day or you just like having a little extra support take a tripod along. As you're only using one lens there's no real reason to take a bag along but do pocket some spare batteries and a polarising, UV and ND filter as you never know when they'll come in handy. Polarising filters are great for reducing glare and an ND filter can help slow shutter speeds, too.

Wildlife or going more specific, birds and ducks could be a theme you choose for your project. 

Before you start snapping away you really need to think about what you're going to photograph because without a zoom your focal length is limited so rather than relying on the lens to do the work you have to get those grey cells warmed up and your feet moving to find a position/shot that works.

Try shooting a variety of subjects or why not set yourself a theme? Photograph a series of portraits – your neighbours, butcher, postman or combine two challenges together and only photograph items of a certain colour with a fixed focal length. Try making it even more challenging by only taking a single shot for each of the items/people/animals you pick to photograph.
 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Photo Month Forum Competition  

A do-it-all zoom sounds like freedom until you hit the usual traps: soft corners, jittery focus, and a slow aperture right when you need light. The video takes the Tamron 25-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 into an actual portrait shoot and treats it like a real tool, not a spec sheet.

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The photography internet loves a good "this technology is dead" narrative, and mechanical shutters have been on the chopping block for years. Every time a manufacturer announces a new mirrorless body with blazing electronic shutter speeds, someone declares that physical shutter curtains are finally obsolete. The reality is considerably more interesting. Both shutter types remain genuinely useful tools, each with scenarios where it clearly outperforms the other. Understanding when to reach for each option will make you a more capable photographer than simply leaving your camera on its default mode.

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Xtra is an innovative U.S.-registered startup founded by an experienced team dedicated to advancing imaging technology. Having established a strong foundation with products such as the Xtra Muse, Xtra Sphra360, Xtra Edge and Xtra Edge Pro.Xtra’s latest product is aimed at those needing a lightweight, highly versatile solution to film BTS and POV content on the move. They call it Atto. And looking at the specs, it’s rather impressive!

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Gear guilt is real when you’ve got a closet full of tools and a nagging feeling that the next purchase will finally fix your work. The smarter question is when equipment actually earns its keep and when it just sits there, quietly draining cash and attention.

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Photoshop 27.3.0 just dropped, and it targets the exact spots where edits bog down: local contrast tweaks, expansion quality, and cleanup around faces. If you do any real retouching work, this update changes what you can trust inside one PSD without detouring into other dialogs.

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You can get a sharp foreground and a sharp horizon without living at f/16, and without turning your hike into a tripod march. This video shows how focus stacking in Photoshop can clean up the usual weak spot in wide landscape shots, the near stuff that never lands in focus.

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Now that the trees are bare, they can make better subjects for line-based shots of them as there are no leaves to distract from the trunk.
 

1. A Walk In The Woods

Densely wooded areas can make interesting patterns when shot straight on. Just watch your exposure as it can be a little dark. As a result, you may need slightly longer shutter speeds and for this, you will need to carry your tripod.
 

2. Visit The Park 

Venture to your park and take a walk around the paths and you're sure to find trees at either side of you. If you have a particularly long row of trees where the canopy stretches over the path, try standing at one end and use your telephoto lens to exaggerate the length of the lines. If the canopy is rather thick you may need longer exposure times. Just watch out for blurred leaves if you do opt to use them as anything that moves will be blurred in the final shot.

 

 

3. Guide The Eye

An empty path dusted with autumn leaves surrounded by two lines of trees looks great but make the most of the long lines and use them to guide the eye through the image to an object at the other side. In a park, this could be a museum, bench, a statue or even someone walking their dog. 

A telephoto lens is perfect for this type of photography, as it can make the tree lines look like they last forever, adding a further sense of mystery to the shot.

 

4. Fog & Mist

If you have a misty/foggy day use the weather conditions to bring a bit of mystery to the shot, hiding what's at the end of the path of trees. Try experimenting with slow shutter speeds too as you can turn the fog into a smooth river that circles the trees. This effect will work really well when the trees have shredded all of their leaves leaving the skeleton of branches behind.

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Photo Month Forum Competition  

You've captured what you believe is the perfect sunset. The light was extraordinary, your composition was deliberate, and the histogram looked pristine. You import the file into Lightroom or Photoshop, apply a standard S-curve to add some contrast, and suddenly your beautiful sky transforms from a smooth gradient into something resembling a topographic map. Instead of that seamless transition from warm orange to deep blue, you're looking at a series of ugly, jagged steps. What happened?

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Lightroom can make a flat landscape feel like it has a clear subject, but only if you control where the light goes. This video shows how simple masks can push attention without turning the edit into a fake-looking mess.

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Photography arguments don’t stall because people are uninformed. They stall because professionals, hobbyists, and spectators speak from different realities while using the same language. This text maps the fault lines that make most debates structurally impossible.

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I have long wavered between being a "bag 'o primes" shooter and a zoom lens shooter in my personal work. Sure, as a photojournalist and sports photographer, the choice was always easy: zooms. But for everything else, are zooms the best choice?

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If you use Lightroom Classic, masking is the line between “good enough” and an edit that looks intentional. This video focuses on the masking tools that let you target light, color, and texture without pushing the whole frame in the same direction.

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A wedding job can look like a Saturday with a camera, until someone vanishes and couples are left staring at a calendar with no plan. The video takes that nightmare scenario and turns it into a blunt checklist for how you avoid becoming the person everyone warns about.

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Spring may be a long way off but this doesn't mean you have to wait until flowers start raising their heads out of the ground to start photographing them. Your local florist or supermarket will have a selection of flowers you can take home and turn into a photographic subject all year round and the best bit is that you get to stay warm and dry as you can shoot your images from the comfort of your home.

 

1. Gear Choices 

When it comes to gear, a compact with macro capabilities can work just as well as a more advanced camera that uses interchangeable lenses so don't be put off if you don't have a macro lens and DSLR in your camera bag. A tripod's always handy but as you're working indoors you don't have to worry about using anything too robust and you can use a variety of light sources (something we discuss further into the piece).
 

2. Backgrounds

A sheet of white Colormatt makes a good background but you can also use a white sheet of paper, material or anything else you think will work well! A white nylon shower curtain or even unbleached baking paper can work well when using natural light as they can easily be taped to windows. A Wimberley Plamp is useful for holding backgrounds in place as long as you have somewhere sturdy for the other end to clip on to. A Spare tripod or even a light stand will work well as your support for the clamp but if you don't have a clamp, taping your background to the stand can work just as well. Clothes rails also make good stands as backgrounds can be clipped to the horizontal bar you'd usually hang clothes from or you could use a still-life table if you have one. 

 

 

3. Props & Vases

Having a selection of vases and other containers to choose from will be useful as you'll not be stuck with just one option if you find it to be particularly difficult to work with and clothes pegs, masking tape and florist wire are all useful items to add to your collection of tools so you can persuade stems to go in a particular direction or move an unsightly leaf out of view. To add more height, try using plant stands or any other sturdy object that'll give you the boost in height. 
 

4. Natural Light

Working with natural light is often the easiest and cheapest option but if you do have studio lights to hand, do consider using them. If you want to get a little more creative why not try using a desk lamp or similar which has a bendy neck to make the positioning easier? Do check your white balance, though, as depending on the bulb you have in the light it may need adjusting. Reflectors will always be useful and as DIY versions are easy to make, it means you can create a tool that's great for bouncing a bit of light back into your shot rather inexpensively. All you need is a piece of card covered in foil or you could simply try using a white piece of card. 
 

5. Adjust The Flowers 

Once set up, it's important that you spend some time turning the flower(s) and adjust the positioning while looking through the viewfinder or at your camera's screen. Look from above, from underneath, the front, the back, the edge – there’s usually one angle that suddenly stands out and is 'the one' that you should shoot. 
 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Photo Month Forum Competition  

Getting a landscape file to feel deep and directional often comes down to what you do in editing, not what you did in the field. This matters to photographers who want edits that look intentional without turning every frame into a loud, crunchy mess.

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Light is an ingredient that photographers can not be without and if you learn to understand the basics of it right from the start, you'll improve your images drastically. So, to help you understand this topic a little further, we'll take a look at how daylight can vary, what subjects different times of the day/year suit best and how you can further enhance the light that's there to improve your shots. 

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1. Sunny Days

A sunny day presents many advantages when it comes to photography including faster shutter speeds, smaller apertures and good colour saturation. However, really strong sunlight at certain times of the day will actually spoil your shots rather than enhance them. The strong sunlight around noon can be very harsh and as a result produces bleached out colours, excessive contrast and deep, downward shadows which aren't flattering for any subject (particularly portraits where dark shadows under the nose, mouth and chin will appear). A rule of thumb many go by is to head out with your camera before 10 am or after 4 pm when the sun produces longer shadows. If you do have to capture your portraits when the light's at its strongest, use fill-in flash or bounce light back onto your subject with a reflector (position it close to your subject and you'll see an immediate softening). 

 

2. The Sun's Position

As a general rule, you don't want the sun behind you when photographing people, because your subject will be staring straight into the sun and squinting unpleasantly when it's too bright. Side-lighting, with the sun hitting your subject from just one side, creates much better results, especially if you use your reflector to bounce light back into the shaded side of the face. For even more dramatic results, try shooting into-the-sun to create a silhouette or use your reflector or flashgun to capture an image with a halo of light around your subject. 

 

Photo by Joshua Waller

 

3. Overcast Days 

A better type of light for portraits is the type you get on a sunny but light cloudy day as the clouds soften and diffuse the light - very much like that produced by a studio softbox. This type of soft, directional light isn't only great for portraits either as a wide range of subjects, including landscapes and many types of nature photography, also benefit from this type of light. 

On days where cloud cover is slightly thicker and as a result, there are very few shadows, you'll probably want to stay away from landscapes and architecture. Instead, focus your attention on macro photography such as capturing images of flowers in your garden. 

 

  4. Winter Light

During the winter months, the sun sits low in the sky all through the day making it an ideal time for expanding your texture and pattern collections. Although, you don't want the wintry day to be heavily overcast as there will be no shadows and light levels are very low. However, this doesn't mean you can't take images on grey days, you just need to have a slightly different approach. Landscape photographer John Gravett got it spot on when he said:

"There is no such thing as bad weather - only different types of lighting."

When working with very overcast conditions, especially when it's raining, much of the colour of the landscape is taken away so take advantage of this and capture some photos in monochrome. By doing so, you'll be able to focus on textures and tone rather than colour which will emphasise the mood of the day and other elements in your shots.  

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Photo Month Forum Competition  

 

Nikon has introduced the NIKKOR Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 zoom lens to its full-frame Z series, a lightweight and versatile option for photographers and creators in everyday use. With a wide focal range that covers landscapes, portraits, and close-up shots, this lens is designed to be easy to carry while still delivering sharp detail and smooth autofocus. Its compact build makes it a practical travel companion, and its budget-friendly price point opens up full-frame creativity to more users.

Sales start on 22 January 2026 with a recommended retail price of £529 in the UK and €619 in ROI.

 

From Nikon:

Nikon adds the highly versatile NIKKOR Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 zoom lens to its range of Nikon Z full-frame lenses. With its lightweight build, flexible wide-angle to mid-telephoto reach, and superb close-up performance, this travel-friendly full-frame zoom lens inspires discovery. Easy to carry and to handle, it's perfect for photographers and content creators who want to explore their creative potential.

The NIKKOR Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 makes a brilliant travel companion and a great everyday muse. Photos or video, the 24-105mm focal-length range allows plenty of space for experimenting with framing and composition, while the smooth, fast autofocus helps to get the best out of every shot. Sharp close-up performance encourages new subjects and perspectives: users can capture beautifully balanced detail shots thanks to a short minimum focus distance at both ends of the zoom range and a 0.5x reproduction ratio.

Lightweight and sealed for comfortable portability, the NIKKOR Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 is a great walkaround lens: perfect whether capturing the vibe of a destination on a trip away or getting in valuable daily practice. It balances beautifully with smaller full-frame Z cameras like the Z5II, creating a compact kit that's ready to go whenever the creative urge calls.

Dirk Jasper, Product Manager at Nikon Europe, comments: "With the NIKKOR Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 we're taking another step towards making dynamic full-frame photography attainable for even more people. If you're just starting out on your full-frame journey, this versatile, budget-friendly zoom lens delivers the flexibility and the image quality you need to try new ideas and expand your creativity with confidence."

 

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Summary of key features

Versatile 24-105mm focal-length range: the broad wide-angle to medium-telephoto focal-length range is great for everything from landscapes and cityscapes to interiors, portraits, detail shots, and video.

Lightweight and easy to carry: this full-frame zoom lens weighs just 350 g (approx.). When paired with the Z5II full-frame camera, the complete kit totals only 1050 g (approx.).

Superb close-up performance: a 0.5x reproduction ratio enables close-up shots with nicely balanced background elements. The minimum focus distance is just 0.2 m at 24mm, and 0.28 m at 105mm.

Fast, quiet autofocus: a high-speed stepping motor (STM) powers smooth, whisper-quiet AF. It performs brilliantly with a Z camera's subject detection, and focusing sounds won't ruin video footage.

Customisable control ring: for the smooth, silent adjustment of key settings. Easily switch to manual focus, adjust ISO, or make precise aperture adjustments to create a natural shift in brightness when shooting video.

Travel partner: sealing helps keep out dust and drips, for worry-free portability.

New HB-93B bayonet lens hood: Available as an optional accessory. Minimises stray light and reduces flare.

Budget-friendly: the NIKKOR Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 zoom lens will be available solo and in kits with selected camera bodies (details to be found with your local Nikon authorised dealer or on local Nikon pages).

For more information, please visit the Nikon website.