Are TFP Photo Shoots Really a Trade or Is Someone Simply Working for Free?

Collaborating with models for trade shoots, often referred to as TFP (Time for Print), provides a wealth of benefits to both parties involved. In this type of collaboration, neither party charges for their services, but both receive valuable assets in the form of high-quality images that can be used to build their respective portfolios.

Is This the Ultimate Camera for Landscape Photographers?

When it comes to choice of camera, many landscape photographers desire two things above everything else: resolution and dynamic range. And as such, the Fujifilm GFX 100S looks like one of the most ideal candidates for the genre. How does it hold up in practice? This great video review features a respected landscape photographer sharing his thoughts.

Is This a Real Photograph?

Photography has often been described as the capture of light on a sensitive medium and its reproduction. But what happens when there's a significant amount of manipulation before the final image can be created? Even more importantly, what happens when this is instantaneous and seamless? Is it a photograph that you've just taken? These are questions that we will have to answer for ourselves in the near future.

Mark Mann As You've Never Seen Him Before

We all know Mark Mann from the close-up, soul-bearing portraits of what feels like every celebrity, public figure, and president in current times. Prolific seems a fitting word that should be permanently grafted to any discussion of the artist’s work. Today, however, we are getting to know Mark Mann in a way that you never have.

5 Helpful Tips to Improve Your Portrait Photography Portfolio

Your portfolio is your calling card and is the place where most potential customers will make the decision to pursue hiring you or not. As such, your portfolio deserves a lot of careful consideration. This helpful video tutorial features an experienced photographer sharing five tips to help you improve the quality of your portrait portfolio.

A Review of the New Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 GM Lens

Sony's new FE 50mm f/1.4 GM lens has arrived, and with it comes some of the company's best design features and optical performance. For many portrait and wedding photographers, a top-level, wide-aperture 50mm lens is one of the most important tools in their kit, and thus, the new lens is likely catching the attention of many. Can its performance match its impressive specs? This great video review takes a look.

5 More Photo Editing Mistakes to Avoid

In a recent article, I shared a selection of easy-to-avoid photo editing mistakes. Today, it's time for five more. Some of them might sound obvious, while others are more subtle. What they all have in common: they can ruin an otherwise great edit.

Here's What Canon Has Planned Next

Canon recently released their corporate strategy for the next few years, and it sheds some light on where they plan to take their camera and lens business.

The Growing Popularity and Creative Versatility of Boudoir Photography

In recent years, boudoir photography has experienced quite a surge in popularity, attracting women of all ages and backgrounds who want to capture their beauty in a classy and sensual way. While it's true that the rise in confidence and body positivity among women has played a significant role in this trend, there are several other factors contributing to its growing popularity.

Settings You Should Change on Your Camera

Modern cameras are tremendously complex and intricate machines, and as such, there are often settings that may not be the best choice for your work and may even cause you to miss a shot or not come home with the best quality images. This excellent video tutorial features a seasoned photographer showing you some important settings you should consider changing to improve your workflow and photos.

A Review of the Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Lens

In recent years, Tamron has entirely reinvented themselves as a company that produces competitive lenses that offer excellent performance and image quality at prices that are often significantly more affordable than many first-party options. One of their latest lenses, the 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD, offers a highly versatile focal length range suitable for a huge range of genres and applications. This great video review takes a look at the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

Why Landscape Photographers Should Embrace All Light

When it comes to landscape photography, many photographers like to stick to the golden light that is only available around sunrise and sunset, when warm, dramatic rays of sunlight cascade through the frame. However, if you only shoot during those times, you are missing out on a ton of photo opportunities. This great video tutorial features an experienced landscape photographer showing you why different times and conditions can make for worthwhile images.

Why You Get Stuck in Creative Ruts and How to Get Out of Them

Creative ruts happen to just about everyone, and they can be both frustrating and detrimental, particularly if you derive your income from your work, often leading to a vicious circle. If you find yourself stuck in a rut and unsure of how to get out of it, check out this great video that discusses why these lulls happen and what you can do to get the creative juices flowing again.

How to Stop Blown Highlights and Get the Perfect Exposure

Balancing the exposure of a complex scene can be tricky, particularly when the dynamic range is wide. In this video, learn the basics of avoiding blown highlights ruining your landscape and nailing the perfect exposure instead.
Unleashing the Power of Wide Angle Photography: We Review the Fujifilm 8-16mm f/2.8 Lens

When I got the opportunity to test out this lens, I jumped at the chance. An ultra-wide angle zoom at f/2.8 would be great for so many different photographic applications: landscape, architectural, interior, astrophotography, events, creative, and video, to name a few. Did I get the opportunity to test it out with all of these? No, but what I did get to try certainly produced the results.

Is This the Best Budget Kit for Starting Photography?

Photography can be an exceptionally expensive hobby, but it needn't be in most situations. If you're thinking about getting your first camera and a lens, this budget setup might give you the most back for your buck.
10 Landscape Photography Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Landscape photography is a challenging genre that requires good technique, planning, creative visions, and sometimes, just a bit of luck. If you would like to improve your landscape photography, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced photographer sharing 10 common mistakes landscape shooters make and how to fix them or avoid them altogether.

How to Improve the Color of Foliage in Landscape Photos

When it comes to landscape photography, foliage is often one of the most important components of an image, and as such, it deserves a lot of close attention, particularly when it comes to color. If you would like to improve your landscape photos, check out this great video tutorial that will show you how to leverage Photoshop to create more accurate and vibrant foliage.

Photographers, Print Your Photos

Although I've probably taken millions of photographs at this point, I rarely ever print them. I moved into a new house in 2022, and a year later, almost every wall was still bare. Well, not anymore. I finally printed 10 giant photos and purchased two Samsung Frame TVs that become art when they aren't being used.
A Review of the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Laptop

The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 laptop is a beautiful device that offers Windows users a lot of versatility in a relatively small package in tandem with long battery life. This great video review takes a look at the 2023 version of the device and the sort of performance you can expect from it in usage.

7 Tips to Improve Your Photography as a Beginner

There are many simple and effective techniques that you can utilize to improve your photography when you're just starting out. Check out these seven simple tips to help you improve your photography as a beginner.

Benro Theta: World’s First Smart Tripod You Will Love

As a photographer, you know that having the right gear can sometimes make all the difference, and this includes tripods. With the launch of the Benro Theta, shooting just became more fun and easy. This revolutionary tripod combines portability, stability, and intelligence, making it one of the most essential tools for photographers on the go.

A Helpful Photoshop Portrait Retouching Tutorial

The majority of portrait photographs are only half finished once the shutter button is pressed; almost every image will require some degree of post-processing to be complete. This helpful video tutorial will show you an effective, professional-level retouching workflow using frequency separation and dodging and burning that will help you create compelling, polished results.

Is This the Ultimate Bokeh Lens for Medium Format Cameras?

Generally, when it comes to medium format, lenses do not have the same extremely wide apertures many full frame or APS-C options do. Nonetheless, there are a few such options out there for medium format users, and they can offer some extreme and unique results. One such option is the Mitakon Speedmaster 65mm f/1.4 XCD for Hasselblad mirrorless cameras, and this great video review takes a look at the sort of images you can create with the lens.

7 Tips for Taking Sharp Landscape Photographs

In landscape photography, sharpness is often one of the top priorities, and photographers will go to great lengths to ensure that their photos are crisp. If you are new to landscape photography and ready to improve, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced shooter sharing seven useful tips sure to improve the sharpness of your images.

A Review of the M2 Pro Mac mini

The Mac mini line has long been popular for offering the Mac experience in a desktop at a very reasonable price and in a small, easy package. The line took a major step forward when Apple started offering their own silicon in the computers, and in the latest iteration, users can now even opt for a Pro chip. So, how good is the new M2 Pro Mac mini? This excellent video review takes a look at the computer and everything you can expect from it.

The Truth About Fujifilm's Optimized Lenses and 40-Megapixel Sensor

Fujifilm recently introduced their latest 40-megapixel APS-C sensor, the X-Trans CMOS 5 HR. Along with announcing two new cameras featuring the X-Trans 5 chip, a list of lenses that are "optimized" for the new sensor was also released. But do you need the optimized lenses to get the most out of the new cameras? I address this and more in my latest video.

Maximizing Your Potential: A Guide for Building Value and Setting Competitive Prices

As a photographer, understanding your place in the market is essential to the success of your business. Whether you are just starting out or are an established photographer, it's important to have a clear understanding of your competition, your preferred target audience, and demand for the photography services you offer.

A Simple and Effective One-light Portrait Photography Setup

A lot of portrait photographers are scared of working with artificial lighting, but it is a skill that is well worth learning, as it will make you a more capable and versatile photographer and better enable you to realize all your creative visions (and those of your clients). If you are new to working with flash, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you a simple and highly effective one-light portrait photography setup.

How You Can Take a Break From Photography and Still Build Your Business

Being a professional photographer can be extremely demanding and can easily lead to burnout and/or a loss of passion for the craft. And yet, many professionals persevere into that dangerous territory out of the need to constantly churn out fresh material. It does not always have to be that way, though. This interesting video features a seasoned professional discussing how he stepped away from his camera for a couple of months but still moved his business forward.

Three Useful Lightroom Tips You Might Not Have Seen Before

While it used to be that Photoshop was the place for any sort of advanced photo editing, in recent iterations, Lightroom has become impressively intricate and capable. In fact, you can now do a lot of things in the program you used to have to switch to Photoshop for, and often, you can perform them more efficiently in Lightroom. This great video tutorial will show you three functions and techniques you might not be aware of and how to use them in your editing.

Avoid These Five Photo Editing Mistakes

Photo editing is a powerful tool that allows you to transform your images in many ways, from enhancing the atmosphere in a photo to increase of image quality. However, common editing mistakes can negatively impact the final result. In this article, we'll explore five of those.

DxO PureRAW 3 Offers Better Noise Reduction, Color Enhancement, and Lens Corrections

I didn't think DxO PureRAW 2 for Mac and Windows could be improved, but it has been, in a variety of both subtle and not-so-subtle ways that improve workflow. The latest, version 3, is out today, and the company says PureRAW 3 features DxO’s latest artificial intelligence technology, DeepPRIME XD, delivering industry-leading noise reduction and RAW image enhancement; greater control over which corrections are applied through DxO’s renowned Optics Modules; and user interface modifications that offer improved integration with every photographer’s workflow.

Peakto Review: A Hub for All Your Images and Catalogs

If you're like me, you've got photos strewn over a variety of storage devices: local, on the web, maybe even some off-line storage. Keeping track of these images is a real pain. I've got multiple image editing apps: Lightroom, Photoshop, Luminar Neo, and some dedicated astronomy editing apps. I'm also a former Aperture user (groan). Lightroom has its own catalog system, and it's very good. But I've also got photos in the Neo catalog (it's not so good as a catalog) and all my iPhone photos in Apple's Photo app.

New AI Software Will Fix Any Photo

Artificial intelligence may end up destroying the photography industry, but until then, let's use it to make our lives easier.
With Tons of Features Is the Isteady M6 Gimbal the Best Yet?

Mobile phones have become more advanced and are capable of capturing high-quality video footage, and with that mobile phone gimbals have also become increasingly popular and are a game changer for content creators, vloggers, and anyone who wants to capture professional quality footage.

Can This Popular Lens Keep Up With the Demands of a Modern Camera?

In the DSLR days, Canon made a few surprising good wide angle lenses for their APS-C cameras, one of which was the EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, which offered a versatile focal length range in a portable and affordable package. Can it keep up with the demands of a modern high-resolution sensor, though? This excellent video review takes a new look at the lens and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it.

Camera Movements to Make Your Work More Cinematic

You can have the lighting, the settings, and the subject perfectly aligned, all with the best camera money can buy, but your videography may still lack that something special if every shot is too static. Here are some simple movements you can make during your shots to improve the results.
How Much Planning Does Your Landscape Photo Need?

Taking amazing photos is the wish of every landscape photographer. You can go out and photograph what you encounter, or you can plan everything in great detail. What do you prefer, planning the perfect photo or taking your chances? Or is there a way in between? Let’s find out.

Helpful Advice for Taking Sharp Landscape Photos

While different genres place different levels of emphasis on getting sharp images, landscape photography generally demands a higher-than-average priority be placed on consistent sharpness. If you are working on becoming a better landscape photographer, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced creative sharing some helpful advice for getting sharp shots on a consistent basis.

Five Fantastic Micro Four Thirds Lenses

One of the best parts about the Micro Four Thirds system is the availability of a lot of small lenses that pack a lot of image quality into those tiny footprints. If you are looking to expand your lens arsenal, check out this fantastic video that features a seasoned Micro Four Thirds user sharing five of his favorite lenses for the system.

Why Photographers Shouldn’t Ignore LinkedIn

LinkedIn is not just a platform for jobseekers; it is a powerful networking and marketing channel for entrepreneurs, such as photographers. If you ever serve other businesses with your photography, then LinkedIn is a great place online to find and connect with the right people in your niche. As they say, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Comparing High-end Video Monitors

Samuel Bilodeau compares some of the best monitors on the market to see how they stack up. Are the prices worth it?

3 Easy Posing Techniques for People Sitting on the Ground

Of all the things that go into making a compelling image, posing is perhaps the thing that photographers struggle with the most. If that is something you have trouble with, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you three easy posing techniques for when your subject is sitting on the ground or floor.