Single Mom Finds Happiness in Creating Art
Mary Bel is a single mom of 2 teenage kids, works full time, and finds a small glimpse of love, through self-portraiture.
Mary Bel is a single mom of 2 teenage kids, works full time, and finds a small glimpse of love, through self-portraiture.
Justin and Kirby share some great tips on how to pose normal people. What do you do when your subject isn't an experienced model? Give them lots of encouragement, and show them the poses you have in mind.
Jessica Kobeissi and Kayleigh June share some quick and actionable portrait tips that don't need any special equipment — what's not to love!
If you are thinking about shooting nude models, there are a few extra things you want to consider beyond other photoshoots. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Environmental portraits are a fantastic chance to show off your creativity and to tell a compelling story about your subject. This fantastic video will give you lots of helpful tips to improve your environmental portraits.
Beauty photography can be a great chance to balance careful, precise lighting and to work on really perfecting precise retouching. This fantastic video will show you the process behind lighting, shooting, and editing this fantastic editorial beauty photo.
When stuck at home, a portrait shooter turns the lens back on themselves.
A successful portrait takes the confluence of multiple factors, including lighting, composition, location choice, posing, expression, and more. This excellent video will show you how location scouting, composition, and posing came together to create two portraits and give you some helpful tips for your own work.
You don't need a model to practice your portraiture; you'll do just fine yourself! Here are some more ideas on creative and unusual self-portraits for you to try.
Stuck at home and running out of photo ideas and new episodes of “Tiger King?” Why not accept a fun new social media challenge to try your hand at celebrity portraiture.
Recreating classic portraits can be both a fun creative exercise and a great way to sharpen your technical skills. This awesome video will take you behind the scenes of recreating a classic Audrey Hepburn portrait and adding a modern twist.
Photographers directing virtual photoshoots through video calls has become the new trend, since lockdown laws were enforced throughout the world. However, one photographer has gone a step further and has managed to produce what may just be the first ever wet plate portrait taken over a live stream, through video call app Zoom.
Photographers who do not specialize in portraiture or other genres involving working with people may not own dedicated professional lighting equipment suitable for the task. But almost every photographer owns a speedlight, and you might be surprised by how versatile they can be for lighting portraits. This great video tutorial will show you how to take effective portraits using a single speedlight.
Posing can be a difficult skill for a lot of photographers to master, and of course, it can twice as tricky when you add in a second person. If posing couples is something you need to work on, this fantastic video will give you tons of helpful advice for posing couples for engagements photos.
There’s something magical about watching a Polaroid coming to life in your hands. The little piece of instant film is a moment of captured time that is always a joy to have, but there is something about the scope of Ken Yu’s Polaroid Project that makes it truly special.
A lot of more advanced portrait styles require the use of multiple lights to fully craft the images, but you might be surprised by how much you can still accomplish with just a single light. This great video tutorial will show you how to light and shoot this eye-catching black and white portrait using only a single strobe.
With all the lockdowns across the world due to the coronavirus pandemic, quite a few photographers have been left without subjects to shoot. If you want to keep shooting, you might have considered turning to self-portraits but be at a loss for how to pose yourself. If you are struggling with that, this fantastic video tutorial features professional models giving a range of helpful tips for posing in self-portraits.
New York is the city that never sleeps. It’s a city that’s famous for it’s bustling streets and the weird and wonderful community that populate it. It’s a hub of activity, or at least it was until lockdown.
Who says that during the self distancing period you cannot meet and photograph others from the comfort of your own home? Who says you need your camera at all?
A photographer has taken striking portraits of his wife, a nurse, to illustrate the importance of why we must stay home during these unprecedented times. The pictures serve as a visual reminder of the front line workers facing a daily battle against the current pandemic.
If there's one subject you're always going to have access to, it's you. Here are three great ideas that can work as templates or inspiration for some self-portraits to try.
Beauty images are a wonderful chance for you to find your personal style through your choices of lighting, posing, and editing. This excellent video tutorial will show you how a photographer used two lights and gels to create a unique beauty image.
If you have an ear for music or you're tuned into pop culture, you're likely aware that Kenny Rogers passed away last week. Did you know that he was also an avid photographer? Did you know that Rogers was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum?
This photographer specializes in photographing red squirrels, and has spent over 6 years doing so, even running squirrel workshops and publishing 8 squirrel books. Here are some of the best shots he’s captured which illustrate the intriguing personality of the animal.
Strict laws around social distancing has meant an abrupt halt to most photographers’ shooting schedules. One creative wedding photographer, however, is finding a resourceful way to continue taking portraits while documenting lockdown: he’s using his drone to take pictures of his neighbors and their families.
Truth, at best, is always an unstable concept, especially when combined with the medium of photography. This fascinating short video from Jamie Windsor takes one of the most famous portraits ever taken, reveals its deception, and explores the implications.
While many photographers are using the lockdown to brush up on their skills or work on personal projects, this Condé Nast photographer found a creative alternative to producing full-fledged photoshoots with models.
With most of us on lockdown to some degree, the number of video calls for work and pleasure have increased exponentially. So, you might as well work out how to make yourself look halfway passable, rather than the cave-dwelling ogre you might without forethought.
While stuck at home, self portraits are a great way to practice photography and editing. So watch this video by a grand master of those two thing, Brooke Shaden, for some insight and a glance at her workflow.
They say there's nothing new under the sun, and perhaps they're right. But with a little innovation, you can certainly create some less old.
Sitting at home starting to bring you down ? Michael Sasser has brought you 8 tips to maximize your downtime during quarantine. Most of which are items you might have been putting off for some time.
A long time ago, I got to visit a friend down in the south of England. We drank (quite a lot of beer), we ate (lots of chocolate brownies), and we set up to shoot a moody portrait.
It's always best to get it right in camera, but sometimes, there are cases where subtle things may go unnoticed but become visible later during the retouching process. Having the right set of tools is crucial.
Sarah Lyndsay is brand new to the YouTube scene, but an experienced photographer already and known for her epic landscape self-portraits. In her first video, she shares five tips on how she makes her photos.
We often see videos that pit amateur photographers against professionals, but the twist of this one is showing what a photographer in eighth grade can accomplish when shooting against a professional. It is quite impressive!
One photographer is using her anxiety disorder to fuel and inspire her creative work. In her self-portrait series, entitled "Static," she used static electricity to shock 4x5 film, creating unique patterns and light bursts in her double exposures.
So, you want to photograph yourself but don’t have anyone to stand in to get your focus set? No problem, all you need is a tripod and a coin for sharp selfies, every time.
Long-time friend of Fstoppers, Pye Jirsa, goes over how to properly light a scene for the punchy and dramatic look, or the balanced and natural look when using flash.
Not all of us work with professional models that can turn on the natural-looking poses when the lens is bearing down on them. Whether it’s Auntie Jean or an aspiring model-to-be, some people just don’t feel comfortable in front of the camera, and this often makes for awkward-looking portraits. So, here are five tips you can use on your next photoshoot to put them at ease and take better portrait photographs.
There are times when I've wanted to photograph people, but haven't had any around to flex my photographic skills. That's when I've been able to turn to a subject that's always available and willing to work on my schedule: me.
Gender has become more and more of a prominent subject in contemporary society with the open challenge to gender roles, definitions, biases, and identities.This exhibition aims to embody the difficult and ever-shifting landscape to raise awareness for power and privilege associated with gender.
There's a lot of different reasons why someone would need a new headshot, but producing one with a pure white background may not be the simplest task.
I love longer focal lengths for portraiture, but how is the X-T4 and a 200mm f/2 for it?
A few weeks ago, Pye Jirsa from SLR Lounge traveled back down to Puerto Rico to battle Lee and I for the "World's Best Photographer" award. Today, we have the results and the full behind the scenes video of the shoot-off. Brace yourself; things do not go as expected.
Pye from SLR Lounge is once again visiting us in Puerto Rico. In this four-minute video, we each teach a quick and easy two-light setup.
This is the surreal moment a photographer captured a newborn baby giving a "death stare" to the doctors who were trying to make her cry. The process is undertaken in order to help remove liquid from a baby’s lungs, but even at just a few seconds old, little Isabela was having none of it.
This series of photographs was initially intended to celebrate the beautiful diversity of black women in honor of Black History Month, but by the end of the shoot, it had become so much more than that. I’m going to attempt to explain the powerful effect this shoot had on me, though I have to admit I may not have the words to properly elucidate why.
A few years ago, I reviewed the Hasselblad H6D 100c, and one of my biggest complaints was the lenses. This is not the case with Hasselblad's X1D system. Every XCD lens I've tested has far outperformed my expectations, and now, I've found the best portrait lens I've ever shot with.
Mastering natural light can take a lifetime of practice, but there is one type of natural light that will produce amazing results in almost any situation: I call it "cave lighting."
Whether you are doing it professionally or simply looking to use your skills to capture lasting memories, family portraiture can be a challenging but rewarding genre. This helpful video will show you both how to light and pose family portraits.