PHLEARN Magazine

How to tell if a photo is AI: the visual tells that still work in 2026, why detector apps disagree, how to read Content Credentials, and how to prove your own photos came out of a camera.

Canva bought Affinity, made the whole app free and charges only for the AI. A year and three big updates later, here is what the free app does for photographers, what Photoshop still does that it doesn’t, and what each one costs.

What is a LUT, how is it different from a Lightroom preset, and which one should you reach for? A plain explanation with before-and-afters from PHLEARN’s free LUTs.

Aaron Nace tested eight ways to upscale a Midjourney image, from Midjourney’s own upscalers to Photoshop’s Topaz Bloom and Gigapixel, and compared them at 100%.

Portrait lighting patterns explained: flat, butterfly, loop, Rembrandt, split and rim, with a diagram for each and one light.

What negative space in photography is, how to place a subject in it, how designers use it for text, and how to add more of it with Generative Expand.

Color theory in photography explained with examples: the color wheel, hue, saturation and luminance, five harmonies, warm versus cool, and how to use them on a shoot and in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Leading lines in photography add depth to a flat photo and carry the eye to your subject. The 6 types, 15 examples with the lines drawn on, and the mistakes to avoid.

Full frame vs APS-C with one scene shot through the same lens: what crop factor changes (field of view, depth of field, noise, lens size) and what it doesn’t.