If you’ve never done studio portraits before, check out this uber-helpful video that quickly runs through five basic lighting techniques commonly used by photographers everywhere.

Here’s a beautifully designed cheat sheet by Miguel Yatco that you can use to introduce people to the fundamental concepts in photography. You can also order it as a poster for your wall over on Zazzle.

Manual Photography Cheat Sheet (via Laughing Squid)

Here’s a helpful tutorial that teaches how to shoot in harsh, midday sunlight using a single reflector to soften the shadows on your subject. If you’ve never used a reflector outdoors before, it’s a great primer for getting started. Aside from buying a nice reflector for about $30, you can also find cheap ones for under $10 on eBay, use a car sun shade, or make one yourself with cardboard and foil.

(via SLR Lounge via Fstoppers)

Here’s a crash course on getting started with using Photoshop Layers and Masks by Sean Armenta of Fstoppers. If you’ve been making edits on your photographs directly without creating new layers, watch this video to have your eyes opened to the power of layers.

This past Monday, Japanese lens corp Tamron launched a new 12 week video series on their YouTube channel geared towards helping beginners understand their equipment. Each video is 1 minute long, and will cover topics such as white balance, RAW vs. JPEG, and more. Once this introductory series is complete, they plan on posting intermediate and advanced videos as well.

If you just got a DSLR and would like to be brought up-to-speed for a minute a week, then this might be a YouTube channel to subscribe to.

(via Photography Bay)