Editorial Photography

If you are into photographing people, the idea of working with professionals has probably been on the agenda at some point in your career. Whether an editorial photographer, fashion and beauty shooter, or just someone who likes creating awesome fantasy composites, the use of professional models will invariably improve your work. So how do we go about working with these gatekeepers of the people photography industry?

I'm glad you asked!

Over the last couple years, more and more photographers are turning towards a new business model of sharing the digital files with their clients rather than requiring them to place print orders to generate revenue. The traditional business model photographers who rely on sales of prints to make money are furious with the growing popularity of "shoot and share photographers" even going as far as "declaring war" against it. Here's what photographers need to know.

Mental Floss posted this great article that gives us a look into how the first issues of magazines such as Time, People, Wired, Playboy, ESPN, and more looked like. It even gives a brief summary as to what each issue was about.

We've all had that moment. You're out shooting on location, the shots are looking great, the weather's perfect, and then CRASH... a rogue gust of wind tears through your set and blows over your light stand. Bummer, but there's one piece of gear you can take on a shoot to prevent this kind of catastrophe, and it's not a sandbag.

Facebook changed up their News Feed algorithm again in an effort to constantly improve our experience on the site. Their goal is for us to spend as much time as possible on Facebook and in an effort to keep us there they will now be featuring the most highly ranked posts first in our news feed followed by those with less engagement. What does that mean to all of us? In short, it means if you post something boring it now has even less of a chance of being seen. Let me explain.

In the fall of 2010, I decided to shoot my dream assignment. I knew that no one was going to pay me to go out and tackle this subject matter, and I had not seen any photographer do what I wanted to do, so I did it. At the time, I had no idea what the assignment would turn in to or how it would change me as a photographer and a person. Here is what I learned from photographing 35 College Football Tailgates.

7 years of shooting Automotive Editorial Photography has taught me to streamline as much as possible. One area I've simplified to fit my needs is my lighting kit. I used to rent gear wherever I could, but after you use your own gear long enough you almost develop a relationship with it and now I definitely prefer to use my own lights.

I'm not sure when it happened, but sometime in the last couple weeks my website received one simple update that filled in the single complaint I had with the design: it made right clicking to save my images to your desktop a thing of the past. I received no notice and ran into this update by mistake, but I might be happier with my service more now than ever.

Yesterday, I showed you the process of pre-producing a successful photoshoot and used a recent session as an example on all the steps it takes to put together a successful session with a large team. Today, I put together a breakdown of the entire production and post production process on creating a successful portrait session and a behind the scenes look into what all goes into it.

Crazy thought, but not everything that makes a photographer's life better is camera-related. To be good at what we do, we have to unwind. We must find ways to relax. Sounds easy, right? Not so much, as it turns out. I've been looking for something to help me unwind while on the road, and I think I just found it.

Automotive Editorial Photography will teach you many things. Mostly though, it'll teach you how to make something out of nothing and how to operate quickly and efficiently. I can't tell you how many times I've shown up to shoot a car only to be told it can't be moved from where it sits. It's those situations that will really test your mettle as a photographer and I've actually grown to love those challenges. One challenge from last year that I really enjoyed was a RIDES Magazine cover that would require fitting and lighting 10 cars. Here's how I did it.

Ami Vitale is an award-winning photojournalist who has traveled across the globe covering assignments for major publications.

Vitale's bio states that her work has been exhibited around the world in museums and galleries and published in international

Chilling to the bone, Joshua Hoffine's children horror series is one that will keep haunting you even with the lights on. He uses his own daughters as the terrified dreamers in the images, and the results have definitely caught the attention of many people, going viral recently. We get to know the man behind the maniacal machinations and how he captures these childhood fears.

The photography industry is so drastically different today than it was just ten years ago that if you’re going to survive, you absolutely have to be dynamic and ready to adapt to the things quickly. You have to find your niche and go for it full force or risk failure. Hasselblad is doing this with their form-over-function Lunar and Stellar. Yet I’m left thinking… Hasselblad, I’m not certain you thought this latest set of moves through. I’m not certain you know what’s happening to your brand. I’m not certain this is where you need to be.

When scooping other sources, being the first is king. Everyone knows that and the race is constantly moving faster and faster to do so.

There has been some buzz around companies like CrowdMedia, Scoopshot, Rawporter and Blotter whose sole purpose is to get imagery out to major news outlets that have been scraped off of Twitter and Instagram.

It’s very easy to get used to the option of being able to “spray and pray” – shoot a nearly obscene amount of photographs and hope for a few that meander over the line to above average. I know I can be guilty of this sometimes – modern shutters are both a benefit and a crutch. So I issued myself a challenge: go out and shoot without looking.

In case you missed it, Google recently rolled out a pretty big change to their Gmail system: tabs. The new layout comes standard with a few, but you can also add your own. One of the standard options is the “Promotions” tab which, as you can imagine, is quite good at catching and segmenting marketing emails. This is great for users, but scary for marketers, especially given the data MailChimp just released.

There are times when I find myself shooting the same stuff or using the same lighting setup over and over again. Repetition helps to improve and fine-tune my skills, but sometimes it just feels boring and degrading, let alone useless for my portfolio.

But as much as I dislike feeling stuck and repeating myself, I now realize how such times in fact help me to become a better artist and shooter. It's usually the desire to entertain myself and experiment that leads me to new personal artistic discoveries. It's when I'm bored and want to "spice it up", I start searching for new lighting ideas, tricks and techniques.

In what is another phenomenal documentary from the BBC program Imagine..., we are given the chance to view the world and lives of iconic photographer William Klein as he is preparing for a retrospective of his work. Klein is one of the pioneers of street photography (more raw, up-close and personal than Henri Cartier-Bresson) as well as the creator of some of the most iconic fashion images of the 20th century. He is an artist and a filmmaker - making over 20 films, including the first ever documentary of Muhammad Ali.

I have had the privilege of traveling all over the world as a photographer and love shooting photos of locals. They always light up seeing the images of themselves. However, I realized that while they loved seeing the images on the back of my camera, I was missing something important. Many of these people, especially those in third world countries, don't even have a single printed image of themselves. I found a way to change all that.

Rolling Stone magazine is receiving a sizable amount of backlash over their decision to use a "selfie" of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the accused Boston Marathon bomber, on the cover. One of the more shared opinions is that this is glamorizing and creating a celebrity out of an [allegedly] horrible individual; Rolling Stone is typically fond of using musicians and actors on their covers. Perhaps, though, the more troubling complaint is that the cover was "uninspired."

We've featured Lindsay Adler before - and with good reason. At 26, she is already an accomplished photographer and has been published in magazines like Popular Photography, Professional Photographer, Shutterbug and others. She's also a great educator, and this video is no exception. In this episode of [FRAMED], Lindsay talks about her 11 year progression as a photographer - everything from how she started to the specific steps she took to get where she is.

If you're like me, and you upgraded your camera body and Lightroom version before updating your RAM and Processor, you've probably experienced speed issues with your workflow. Lightroom 5 has come to the rescue with the amazing addition of Smart Previews. This is going to revolutionize your workflow!

Today I figured I would try and sow a little truth into the mess that has become the camera phone market. Numbers inflated for PR rather than quality have been put front and center with today’s launch of the Nokia Lumia 1020. As a stance on this whole issue, I really don’t have much of a dog in the fight. Yes, I have spoken for Apple and like the iPhone, but this post does not find its roots in fanboyism. This is a preventive measure for the sanity of professional photographers everywhere.

In what may be one of my favorite 30(ish)-minute commercials ever, Canon 'introduces' one of the greatest living photographers, Don McCullin, to the world of digital photography. McCullin is old-world; he's charming and sweet and sad-eyed and every bit as British. McCullin's shaman into the digital realm is Jeff Ascough - Canon Ambassador and all-around stellar wedding photographer.

LED has come a long way in the last three years. It was not too long ago that serious photographers and videographers were having a hard time with the idea of LED. They tended to be under powered and cast unattractive shadows. But there was potential, and that potential is beginning to blossom. Fotodiox’s LED100WA monobloc-style heads are one such shining example of how far LED has come and what can be done with it.

Only 2 years passed since the 2011 Egyptian revolution where president Mubarak was replaced by president Morsi, and this week the people of Egypt decided to make another change and oust the elected president in what is now known as the largest political event in history of mankind. Over 14 million people flooded the streets of Egypt this week to protest against President Morsi, and Tahrir Square came to life once again.

The Nikon 200mm f/2 VR II is one of those lenses you always read about, but short of running into a professional sporting event, an affluent amateur, or Ryan Brenizer you just don’t see them. They’re rare and they’re expensive, but besides the obvious lust factor of the lens, is it any good?

This is a topic that many paid video and photo shooters tend to feel very strongly about, and I’ve tried to analyze my experiences for some rational thoughts on the matter. If you want your voice heard, leave your opinion in the comments, but first read about how one particular band actually offered pro and hobby photographers press access to shoot images of their performance. For a fee of $150.

After a horrible decision to fire an entire photo staff on Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times media writer Robert Feder, released a Facebook statement from a memo sent out by managing editor Craig Newman. It seems that in the next couple of days, editorial employees will be starting "iPhone Photography Basics."

Large, imposing and drop dead gorgeous, the new Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX DG OS APO HSM AF is one hell of a lens. Sigma has done an outstanding job in recent months producing some top quality lenses and they didn’t let up on the gas with the first Sport category offering in their new global vision. With two levels of optical stabilization, a wide open f/2.8 aperture, crazy fast and accurate AF and a beautiful body build, you want this lens, even if you don’t know it yet.

In surprising news out of Illinois today, the Chicago Sun-Times has let go of all staff photographers and will be hiring only freelancers moving forward. The estimated 20 photographers found out about the move this morning.

Think Tank launched “About A Photograph,” a video series that features stories from photographers about the photographs they have created.

The videos are co-produced by Think Tank Photo co-founders and award-winning photojournalists Kurt Rogers and Deanne Fitzmaurice. Each video will feature some of the world’s leading photographers recounting the stories behind these images that captured global attention.

"Coty Tarr is an active lifestyle photographer based in New York City," so says the not quite so lengthy bio on his website. On initial thought, one might think the concise personal description is a little off-putting, but to anyone that has ever met Coty, it is nothing if not an apt discriptor. In a world where many photographers feel the need for shameless overpromotion (not that there's anything wrong with that), Coty takes a more subtle approach, working tirelessly and letting the caliber of his images and his work ethic speak for him.

Print is not dead and celebrity portrait photographer Sam Jones has created offCamera magazine — part print magazine, website, web television series and podcast — to showcase and profile actors, musicians and artists working at the highest level of their professions. Jones, whose work frequently appears in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Men's Journal, intends for offCamera to be an artistic vehicle for further exploration of the casual chats that often occur on set during his editorial photo shoots.

Charlie Haughey, a retired cabinet maker, was drafted to the US Army in 1967. While being stationed in Vietnam, Haughey was told by his commanding officer to document the war. The twist was that the photos were not to be shot of traditional combat, but as morale boosting photographs of the unit.