Every genre of photography has its share of clichés, and while that doesn't necessarily mean you should never shoot certain images, it can restrain your creativity by never forcing you to think outside the box and create a shot more representative of who you are as a photographer. This great video examines recognizing and avoiding clichés in landscape photography.
The incredibly prolific David duChemin has managed to squeeze out some more great philosophical and metaphorical nuggets in the latest video of his "Vision is Better" series. Full of his usual optimism and encouragement, he verbally judo-rolls his way through the walls of failure and fear, to prepare you to finally start that large format pet photography business you've been thinking about. Speaking of pets, two words really stand out in this video: Pet. Rock. Greater words of encouragement you will never hear.
Do you have old photographs just hanging around on your hard drive, taking up space? If you do, then perhaps you should consider uploading them to Adobe Stock. You never really know what sort of image someone out there is looking for - they might just want to use that shot that you currently have buried away in the archives. Sometimes, these old shots may require a little bit more work in order to ensure that they will measure up to stock submission standards, but the opportunity to make revenue on work you've already shot makes it a worthwhile venture. If you have old files you want to breathe new life into, the following guide for prepping and submitting those archived shots is just for you.
We all make mistakes when it comes to purchases we make when we're first starting out. As we continue to grow and evolve we continue to make mistakes. Hopefully, our mistakes aren't too financially costly like a camera body or lens that we don't need and never use. When I first bought my camera a couple years ago, I picked up an ultra cheap twenty dollar tripod because the store has one and I thought I would definitely need it. That was a mistake and that tripod was pretty much a piece of junk. I have since rectified that mistake and have found my personal favorite and best tripod I've ever owned.
So your kid just started playing pee-wee football, or maybe you are a portrait photographer who just landed a sports gig. Maybe you’re shooting your first assignment for the college newspaper. In any case, while sports photography isn’t for the faint of heart, here are four technical tips to get you started on the right path.
Wildlife Photographer Michel d’Oultremont knows what it’s like to wait. Sometimes he spends a week and a half just waiting for the perfect light and the animals he photographs to show up. The resulting images are well worth the effort.
Buying a new camera is exciting! Yes, it's often a work item for most of us, but it's a fun tech toy as well, and getting to play with all the latest features can be awesome. However, it's easy to make mistakes as a buyer, and this great video outlines pitfalls to watch for when you're getting ready to pull out your wallet.
I believe that upon our journey in whatever craft you choose, we encounter people who not only inspire, but assist in pushing us to grow more, and photographer Lucas Passmore has been exactly that for me. Initially, from the Midwest, Lucas is a fashion photographer living in Los Angeles. His regards for the history of photography, ability to capture a moment, and willingness to give back to those new to the photography community made him the perfect person to highlight in my first interview.
If there're two things to remember about wedding photography, it's that you have to know your stuff inside and out and second chances don't exist. This helpful video will show you some great tips for posing a large wedding group, lighting them, and picking the proper camera settings.
I have a question for you: do you ever struggle with new ideas in your photography? Want to be more creative and productive? Maybe it's time to change how you think about ideas and creativity.
Autofocus is probably the only auto-feature on my cameras that I like to keep turned on. Knowing how autofocus works in detail is not essential, but having a general overview of it is a must. It may affect your next camera purchase and the knowledge can be helpful in controlling situations where the autofocus doesn't kick in. This video explains very simply, without going into much technical details, how your DSLR automatically finds the focal distance and why it fails sometimes.
What do you do when worst-case scenario hits? When even after doing your best to prepare for it, it cripples you, and you feel like you're stuck in a depressive "Groundhog's Day" of going through the motions?
I recently had the opportunity to catch up with a photographer I follow who shared his wonderful story with me about how he got where he is today. A lot of us have been told we take great photos somewhere along the way and dreamed of making a living off simply taking good photos. This doesn't really happen in the real world since you actually need a niche of some sort. If you happen to live by some of the most amazing houses in the world, luxury real estate is one of those niches that can make the dream a reality.
Adjustment Layers are probably one of the most useful, and most used tools in Photoshop. It's one of the best ways to keep a non-destructive editing workflow in place and offers additional features such as blending modes to add exciting effects to your images. With all this in mind, why don't we see how we can use it to make our Instagram images stand out more?
Technicality and equipment aren't all there is to becoming a meaningful photographer. In my own work it's actually the least important part. My favorite words to hear clients say are “wow, you captured the real me.” The following are tips to get these reactions out of your subjects. They have nothing to do with your gear, but will guide you to capturing your subjects the way they are when they're completely comfortable, instead of the nervous and self-conscious forms of themselves.
Photographers and cinematographers sometimes find themselves in the middle of a shoot wishing they had some piece of equipment to get that shot just right. Whether a gimbal has broken or the light just isn't cooperating, sometimes you just need a creative solution to make the image you visualize in your head. Vlogger and Photographer Hayden Pedersen has put together a video with some clever hacks to help you create the shot you want — video or still — when you might not have exactly the right piece of equipment to accomplish it. And, best of all, you can see them all in less than two minutes.
When you think of landscape photography, you likely think of wide angle lenses that capture large swaths of a scene; after all, those are the most common tools of the trade. However, this great video makes a case for why you might want to consider a longer lens the next time you head out to take some landscape shots.
Sometimes when shooting a portrait the drama created by a silhouette can reveal a more powerful sense of character than a more traditional portrait. One major downside of a true silhouette, however, is that it fully blacks out the subject sacrificing any opportunity for expression or detail within said subject. In a recent shoot, I experimented with an alternative to a true silhouette that uses a light source near to the subject to wrap light around them in a way that creates a sense of a heroic silhouette of the style that could be found on film posters or the cover of a book.
It might be the most wonderful time of the year but that doesn't mean there will be snow falling for your photo shoot. In this video, you’ll learn how to photograph and use real snow for overlays in Photoshop.
With the 2017 Geminid meteor shower peaking this evening, I put together a list of 10 things to think about before you head out into the cold, dark night to enjoy the show. Whether you’re an old pro or a complete rookie at photographing meteor showers, it never hurts to review just to make sure you are at the top of your game.
I think few people will deny that Ansel Adams was one of the most influential and important photographers ever, his work enduring as a portfolio of striking examples of mastery of the medium. This excellent documentary takes a deep look at his life and work.
An article published in the British Journal of Photography (BJP) has questioned the validity of the Photography degree as we know it in 2017. The article profiles one British University who are “dedicated to reinventing the traditional photography degree.”
In the last few years, it seems a number of new filter manufacturers have popped up, significantly improving the competitiveness in this particular market. Neutral density filters have been known for being quite expensive and this one of the key reasons why many photographers still avoid using them. In recent years, however, companies like NiSi Filters and Breakthrough Photography have been delivering some incredible products with much more palatable prices to help photographers get the look they desire. In a previous comparison done by Fstoppers, Patrick Hall demonstrated how good the filters from Breakthrough are, and in fact, they won that particular comparison. Breakthrough claims their filters are the sharpest and most color neutral in the world, so I wanted to see how they perform against NiSi.
This year has been marked by a single hashtag: #MeToo. From Hollywood to the Oval Office, it seems that accusers are finding their voices and taking a stand for themselves and countless others who haven’t been able to speak out. Naturally, awareness of sexual harassment is coming to light in all industries, and the photography industry is no different.
For a little while now, Instagram has become the place to be for photographers and the word on all digital influencers lips. However, Facebook is not dead, far from it. There are still people on it and it’s still a good place to market your business if you do it right. Making content go viral is amongst the best solutions available, but it requires a little bit of knowledge to do so. In this short 10-minute long video, Lucy Martin and Chris Hau are going to explain to you the key points to making your images or videos go viral on Facebook.
Photoshop tricks are like chocolate and puppies: you can never have enough of them. This awesome video will show you five new tricks to not only make your workflow more efficient, but also easier and more powerful.
Go behind the scenes to see how one photographer used every day Christmas lights to create beautiful portraits in her own bedroom.
Chances are that many of you are familiar with the works of Michael Shainblum. Not only was he Fstoppers' Photographer of the Month earlier this year in September, but he also garnered quite a bit of acclaim for his iconic shot of the solar eclipse in August this year. Aside from being an impressively accomplished landscape photographer, Shainblum is a skilled photography mentor. I've been a fan of his work for years now, and to this date, his tutorial covering post processing for star photography is one of the most enlightening courses I've ever purchased.
Today Phase One has announced the release of their updated image editing software, Capture One Pro 11. Alongside the expected performance improvements that comes with new versions, Capture One 11 brings exciting changes to the way layers are handled throughout the application and annotations for journaling or collaborations.
When it comes to photography, there are several different ways to add your own style to your work. One way is within your post-processing, and there are several ways to enhance your photos. Gradients can be applied in many different ways, so how would you use gradients to enhance your photo?
I'm sure we all wonder how we can get our work out there and to be seen by people all over the world. For myself and many others, Instagram has become a huge spot for sharing our work. With millions of people browsing through their feeds multiple times per day, why not post content that people can like and engage with? This service is free to us, and we can be as good as we want at it as long as we understand how to use it and put the time into growing it properly. Here are some tips from YouTuber BMACadelic on how to do just that.
German photographer Max Leitner travelled to Warsaw, Poland alongside an urban gymnast to capture this series of unconventional architectural shots that possess an air of optical illusion.
In the previous article, we analyzed processor and motherboard options along with power supply and computer cases. Next, let’s talk about graphic cards, memory, and heat management issues. On the storage front, the introduction of affordable NMVe drives allows one to go past the bandwidth limitation of the SATA interface found on traditional SSD. Here is a short guide to help you navigate through the current offerings and avoid the marketing traps in order to build the perfect machine based on your budget.
When you’re in the market for buying a new monitor, you’re probably overwhelmed by a host of specifications. Size, resolution, color gamut, and panel technology can make all the difference when you look for a new screen to edit your photos on. As a photographer, not all specs are that important. Dynamic contrast for instance; a feature that adjusts brightness and contrast according to what's on the screen at a given moment. In this guide, we’re focusing on buying a monitor that is geared specifically towards post-processing.
With the holiday sales starting this week it's the perfect time to start calibrating your monitor or upgrade your old device to a new one. Datacolor is offering some great deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So pick up a new device and read through my walkthrough on how to use your new toy.
When shooting portraits, there are certain things or ways we shoot that help us achieve a better end result. We should all be trying to capture the best portrait possible, so if someone shares advice I usually give it a try to see if it works for me or fits the style of my work.
You’ve honed your craft and brushed up on lighting and editing techniques. You’ve built a beautiful website and opened your door as a bonafide professional photographer. You’re ready for those client inquiries to start streaming in, and they do. Then you realize that some of your clients are a nightmare to deal with, while others become like new best friends. You may not know who your ideal client is, and you may not be marketing to them.
I'm pretty sure many of us out there have at some point or another tried our hand at capturing water drops or freezing the exact moment of a liquid splash. I know that when I first tried something similar way back when, I failed miserably. Here we have an excellent video that breaks down start to finish the process and setup to ensure that your attempt and your results are a total success.
Yes, it can be done completely in Photoshop, but if you're a fan of the real thing or simply enjoy playing in the snow, this fun and easy tutorial will show you how to create an endless supply of snow overlays for your portraits.
Most tutorials focus on one aspect of the shooting process or another, which can sometimes make it a bit difficult to understand why each creative decision was made at different steps of the process. This great video follows a photographer from planning to finished image, giving an overview of the shoot, what difficulties he faced, and how he overcame them.
Instagram Stories have been around for quite a while now, and we have actually already shared a few articles regarding how you can make better use of them to build engagement on your account. In this new write-up, I wanted to share with you a couple of techniques that aren’t too tedious to use on a regular basis to help you build higher quality stories. The goal is to create stories that people will want to follow on a daily basis and thus start to engage more with you. Content may not be king on social networks anymore, but it’s still the only thing that retains followers.
It can be easy when you have a certain image in mind to get locked into attempting to get it, causing you to end up missing other great shots because you're either focused on the one in your head or frustrated that you missed it for whatever reason. This great video reminds us that it's important to keep our eyes and minds open when that's the case.
One of the strongest ways to create a style or mood, and even consistency is to really nail your color. For years I struggled with color, and it can be a subjective thing but there are also some basic colors that look good together. The most popular I would say is that of the orange and teal. Orange and teal together complement each other and this is a great video to show you how to get there quickly in Lightroom.
Creating beautiful and compelling imagery through the medium of photography is a difficult challenge. Capturing a scene as it unfolds is both art and truth in storytelling. Today, digital photography presents the effortless platform for image capture. Excelling technology allows anyone to pick up a camera and take excellent photographs. One might say the ease of digital imagery has opened doors across platforms. We’ve seen this paradigm before; we witnessed the introduction of gateway tools in the world of photography since the dawn of the medium, each time bringing in new and excited enthusiasts who will go on to redefine what it is to be a photographer. In 1981, well before the surge of digital technology, there was a camera that similarly ushered in a generation of photographers: the Canon AE-1 Program.
Utilizing layer masks within Photoshop isn't going to be anything new to some of you but if you are one who is somewhat unfamiliar with using masks in your work then this quick tutorial by Colin Smith, with photoshopCAFE, is just for you. Layer masks are best known for hiding or revealing sections of an image in a non-destructive manner. This could be compared to an eraser tool that can be reversed at any time without having to resort to your history panel. Even though the history panel in Photoshop CC now lets you set the controls to record up to 1000 history states, by using layer masks you don't have to undo all of your work in a sequential order in order to go back and modify the layer that you are masking.
Although everyone has a different "favorite" lens, the 24-70mm 2.8 lens usually ends up being used the most. It's standard zoom range and fast 2.8 aperture makes it usable for almost any type of photography. Today, I'm comparing the three most popular 24-70mm lenses to determine which one is best.
The WeeklyFstop depends not only on its loyal readers and participants, it relies on light. Light determines what we see and how we see it. Our photos depend on us controlling the camera so the light coming through the lens exposes correctly. This week's list of photographers submitted some superb examples of photos featuring light.
So if for some reason you've still never tried a graphical tablet for your image retouching or digital illustrations, seriously stop waiting around. Worst case scenario is that you find that you really don't like it so you turn around and sell it. Best case, you revolutionize your retouching habits; pretty much a no-brainer. You can pick up used tablets online at huge discounts or you can buy new if that's your thing. For the sake of retouching, just try one out. Give it about a week if it's your first time with a tablet. Here is an awesome video with some tips and tricks you can apply to get you flowing right out of the gate.
The thing I love about creative people is that just when I think I've seen it all, they do something that never even crossed my mind. Such is the case with this very unusual and very cool time-lapse of New York City that completely blurs the line between day and night.
In this series, I attempt to identify the key professional virtues I have found to be the most important in building my own career, as well as identifying traits of other successful photographers and business leaders that are most key to their success. Today’s virtue: adaptability.
