Like it or not, Instagram has become a legitimate tool for photographers, and incorporating it into your business toolkit can get your work in front of more eyes and increase your client and inquiry influx. This informative video will show you some pitfalls to avoid when using the app.
Pricing your work is tricky. Whether you're a commercial photographer, portrait shooter, or selling prints of your artwork, your career depends on your ability to price yourself well. Does your rate sheet have any of these mistakes?
When shooting tethered, it’s easy to get lost in files and make things more complicated than they should. However, with Capture One there is an easy way to stay on top of things and cut your image selection time drastically.
Deciding to become a professional photographer is an exciting and scary thing: you're following something you're deeply passionate about and turning it into a career, but with that comes a lot of unknowns. This helpful video will give you a general outline from picking up a camera to getting paid.
You’ve probably captured some stunning travel photography from your last couple trips. But months later, your library is still full of unfinished photos. Nothing seems to bring out the potential that’s hiding in plain sight: curves, drastic white balance changes, various crops, random techniques on YouTube. So, they remain in post-production purgatory.
Today’s corporate hard-hitters are busy people who don’t always have time for an entire photo session when they look to you for business portraits. For this reason, you must be prepared to accomplish a variety of looks in a time-efficient manner. This video from Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens focuses on the importance of making short work of corporate portraits.
This video covers a wide range of tips and tricks to make your set runs smoothly, things occur as you planned, and small items don’t go missing. I’ve seen some of these used by YouTubers mostly, but there are a hundred of them, so use what you think is best suited to your shooting style.
Color correction is one of the most fundamental and important post-processing skills a photographer can have. Photoshop has some helpful automatic tools to help you with this process, but with just a little bit of tweaking, you can get better results. This helpful video will show you just what to do.
One of the most fundamental and powerful features of Photoshop is the Curves tool, and knowing it inside and out is key to all sorts of compelling and convincing edits. This helpful video will introduce you to the Curves tool and how to use it effectively.
You'd be surprised how just a few extra items packed in your camera bag could help you to steer away from many problems that may arise while out on a shoot. Consider adding these 16 objects to your photographic arsenal.
Creating compelling compositions in landscape photography can be a bit of challenge that requires a nuanced touch and an eye for subtle geometry. This great video will give you nine tips to create more effective compositions in your landscape imagery.
Photography is of course something we all love, but it takes time, and when it's not your profession or you're busy with client work, finding time to shoot what you love can feel next to impossible. This great video explores what we should do when we don't have time for the photography we want to be doing.
Creating a realistic composite goes far beyond just combining and masking parts of an image. This tutorial provides an in-depth look at how seeing and blending colors can give an image a realistic final result.
At this point in time, I have lost track how many photographers I have run into who view other photographers around them as mortal enemies. Don't be that person; instead, realize that your camera-laden peers can be incredible sources of friendship and reciprocity.
Raw processing is quite a detailed procedure and the possibilities are limited only by your knowledge and experience. That means there is always something new to learn, especially when it comes to editing in Lightroom.
The film look is currently enjoying a resurgence, and with that have come many preset packs and the like. While some of those are great, practicing how to create the look from scratch is a good way to learn to be a better editor. This helpful video will show you how to do just that.
Your brain is the most sophisticated and irreplaceable piece of equipment you bring to any shoot. But this fantastically complex machine is also littered with mental glitches called cognitive biases.
If you've spent 10 minutes behind the camera, chances are someone has asked you, "What do I do with my hands?" For women, the possibilities range from graceful, balletic caresses to angular, fashion-driven poses. But, what do you with with men? These are my top three tips to always have an answer.
Focus stacking is a technique in which one takes multiple shots of the same scene at different focus distances, then merges them together to create a final photo that is as sharp as possible from front to back. This helpful tutorial will show you how it's done.
For the longest time, I've been trying to move away from using Lightroom and instead use Capture One all the time. Even with the latest update, Capture One is still much faster and more effective for editing, especially when it comes to the high-resolution files I normally work with. The only thing that prevented me from switching over completely was the lack of support for the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport.
Work smarter, not harder. This quick tutorial will make the painstaking process of removing stray hairs in Photoshop easy.
There are three basic elements that control the exposure or overall brightness in your images: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. But aside from controlling exposure, these camera settings also have a couple of side effects. To help understand all this, Dave Morrow comes to our rescue by teaching the exposure triangle.
Let me admit something: I'm not a technical photographer. Bless those that fuss with all of the specs and have an analytical approach to photography, I suppose that I rely on my own method. As a self-taught photographer, I acquired knowledge by watching other photographers create. Each had their distinct style, some were technical and others instinctual but each was equally an artist.
When each frame takes a half a minute or more to capture, the road to learning long exposure photography can be a long one. Here’s a much-needed shortcut to get started with this classic photo technique.
Have you ever had an incredible idea, but couldn't find a model to help you? Learn how to bring your vision to life through the art of self portraits.
Portrait photography (or any genre involving people) is difficult because no matter how good your technical skills are, there's a prominent human element, and your success hinges on being proficient at working with your subjects. This great video will examine five common portrait photography mistakes to avoid.
Some nice bokeh balls can be a great way to add a little something extra to a portrait. This quick tutorial will show you how to take almost any nighttime photo and create your own bokeh overlays using Photoshop.
When you're working in Photoshop, it's easy to stare and stare at an image for hours and somehow still miss some little detail; we get tunnel vision, our eyes get tired, etc. This is when check layers can be an incredibly useful way to ensure you don't miss a thing.
Adobe Lightroom and Camera Raw house some solid color and toning options. These can be applied in a non-destructive way, and in general will get the job done, our photos finished and out into the world. However, for many others, Photoshop with its plethora of adjustment layers is hard to best when heavy color work is applied.
Photography of any kind at night can be a slow process getting started. Photographing the Milky Way, however, may require a little bit of extra technical knowledge ahead of time before really letting your creative side take over. In this video from PhotoRec TV, Toby Gelston breaks it all down before jumping into it.
When you're first starting out, you can't just call up an agency and expect to shoot with a model. Most of us started by grabbing friends and bribing them to stand in front of our lens. Of course, most of our friends aren't trained in posing, however. This helpful video will show how to pose people who aren't models.
When it comes to studio product photography, we use a lot of tools in the studio. Sure, there’s the obvious: cameras, lenses, and lights. But today I want to talk about one of those little indispensable tools that can really make all the difference on set. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years of working in a studio environment, it’s that you can never have enough clamps! There’s always something that you need to hold in place, or simply rig.
Selecting and masking hair on a solid background isn't too terribly difficult, but doing it over a non-uniform, complex background can be very hard. This great tutorial will show you how to select and mask a subject's hair and convincingly composite it into another image.
You wouldn't expect that certain locations alone could assist you in learning the art of photography, but they do — especially if you are one that needs to experiment to learn. Photographing someone in these two locations will force you to learn about all kinds of light, get creative with posing, and help you create images that are full of substance and all the elements of art.
Moody, dark, and dramatic — the term "film noir" immediately invokes cinematic scenes of crime-solving detectives and notorious mobsters in our minds. Film noir is interesting as a genre in photography too. In this article, we take a look at how to shoot film noir style portraits inside a studio.
Eyes really are the window to the soul, and the way they look in your images can be the difference between a picture being good and really great. If you have a portrait that you feel is lacking something, then adding depth and dimension to the eyes may be just what you need.
As a commercial photographer and digital artist, I spend a lot of time in Adobe Photoshop. One thing that I love to do is find creative solutions to solve visual problems using Photoshop. I know we all get stuck in our ways from time to time, but If you do any retouching or compositing work for living, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to experiment and find new ways of doing things. Photoshop is always evolving and it’s important that we use these new digital imaging technologies to our advantage. In this article, I go over a technique I discovered to add steam from scratch in Photoshop.
When you think of studio lighting, you probably think of elaborate multi-light setups, and while those certainly have their place, there's no reason you can't create compelling imagery with a single light. This great video will show you how to achieve exactly that.
Almost every hobbyist photographer has considered making the transition to full-time professional. Similarly, almost every professional photographer has made that transition from hobbyist to professional. There are myriad factors why that career move isn't always possible and a great deal of them stem from the central notion of money, or lack thereof. Whether you want to organically build your photography from hobby to side-hustle and then to a career or you merely want to improve you earnings in any of those categories, developing a niche can make a crucial difference.
Sharpening photos taken at higher ISOs is a tricky thing, as you run the risk of making the appearance of noise much worse very quickly. This helpful video will show you how to sharpen high-ISO photos to enhance detail while still reducing noise.
Half of every portrait is in the edit. This awesome video will show you how to take a portrait and give it a dramatic edit in Photoshop that subtly draws the viewer's eye to the subject and showcases the emotion you're trying to convey.
The trend in the portrait, fashion, and beauty industry is to come back to a more natural look while still removing the unwanted blemishes. But without the proper techniques and settings, it’s difficult to make an image flawless while avoiding the overly retouched look. Zoë Noble is a talented photographer and retoucher based in Europe, and she’s created a series of tutorial to teach the methods that will help you reach that high-end look. In this one, you’ll learn how to use dodge and burn to even out the skin.
Cleaning skin is one of the most tedious tasks there is when it comes to portrait retouching. It takes quite a bit of time, and when done improperly, the texture can quickly become mushy. To keep the final image as natural looking as possible, there are a couple of techniques that can be used to limit the number of pixels we alter. In this tutorial, Zoë Noble demonstrates how she uses the clone stamp tool to clean the skin.
For some of us, growing our social media isn’t where we excel and we need some help or advice on how we can improve our following. Over the years, social media platforms have grown and changed. Many photographers have left Facebook or are in the process of ditching it for their photo-sharing application Instagram and putting all their efforts into this platform instead. So how do you grow your following on Instagram?
Lightroom is likely where you spend a lot of (if not the majority) of your time working on images, so any tips that increase your efficiency or control over your images can add up to big time and quality gains over the long run. This helpful video contains 10 lesser known Lightroom tips and features that should be of use to most any photographer.
Making sure your images are sharp is a necessity for every photographer. Getting your focus right in camera is of course key but there is always room for improvement in post. Like most things in Photoshop, there are multiple ways to sharpen an image, but my absolute favorite is the High Pass filter. Colin Smith of photoshopCAFE explains exactly how it works and why it's the best way to sharpen your images.
Multi-light setups can seem complex and intimidating for several reasons, not the least of these are all the variables involved. Where do you put the lights? What power settings do you use? How do you balance everything? What if there is ambient light from other sources? Then there’s the cost aspect. How can I afford enough lights for these complex set-ups? Luckily, I’ve made things complicated for myself so I can make them as easy as possible for you. Let’s break down these three shots and find out how you can light a complex scene without making your wallet cry and, hopefully, without too much hassle.
Ever wonder what happens during a boudoir photography retreat that is aimed to educate those to be the best in the business? The top photographers are the best for the fact that they never stop developing themselves on their craft. Attending workshops, retreats, and conferences are part of how you started out so why stop now?
The eyes are one of the most crucial parts of a person when it comes to portraiture and retouching, as they are the first thing a viewer looks at and generally the establishment point of human interaction. This helpful tutorial will give you a complete guide to retouching eyes to give them a natural, vibrant look that instantly draws the viewer in.
At this point I have lost track how many times I have been given inaccurate counsel from other well-meaning people, such as, "Make sure you copyright that so nobody can steal it," or "If you put it online then you give up your rights and it becomes public property." Such advice will only ever come from people who don't actually understand copyright laws. When it comes to copyright issues and navigating them, the only advice worth following is advice that can be backed up by law. If you receive advice that can't be backed up by legitimate copyright law then the advice is simply someone's opinion.
