Online photography groups are one place that can be a goldmine for inspiration. When you have time on your hands or simply want to try some new Photoshop techniques, you could start in worse places. (Photography blogs are also really great, but if you’re reading this then you probably already know that!). Commercial photographer Mark Manne stumbled across an interesting Photoshop video recently which inspired him to create some very interesting dynamic portraits which create a real sense of fun and movement....

I don’t know about you, but I find movies and TV shows a great source of inspiration. And I don’t mean the story, but the technical side of things. The blocking, the lighting, the editing, the grade, the music used and more all set the tone for what we’re viewing and it’s fascinating to try to reverse engineer and figure out not only how but why they made the decisions they did....

Recently we showed you a tutorial from Unmesh at PiXImperfect on using the Irix Blur tool in Photoshop to simulate a shallow depth of field in the studio. That technique can also be applied to headshots on location, too, but when you’ve got varying degrees of depth throughout your scene, with multiple planes at different levels of depth, it’s not the easiest to work with. In this video, Colin Smith at photoshopCAFE shows us a different technique for simulating depth of field effects in Photoshop CC that solves that very problem....

Not long ago, Instagram rolled out a feature that flags fake photos. The main goal is to remove misinformation and fake news, but the feature seems to have gone too far. It’s now hiding all photoshopped photos, flagging them as “false information.” This could have implications for everyone who uses Instagram to showcase their digital artwork and image composites. San Francisco photographer, Toby Harriman, recently saw the new Instagram’s feature in action for the first time....

After Google’s new time management controls, Instagram is also launching a feature that will tell you how much time you’re spending using the app. It started with information about the new “Usage Insights” feature buried in Instagram’s code. But Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom has recently confirmed it, stating that the app will, indeed, soon tell you how much time you spend scrolling through all those photos. Jane Manchun Wong broke out the news and tweeted about it:...