Lightroom is widely used for cataloging and editing photos. But did you know that you can use it to quickly and easily edit video as well? Colin Smith of PhotoshopCafe offers five quick tips on color grading and editing videos in Lightroom.
Datacolor’s Spyder5 series of products is their latest in calibration tools to help digital artists make sure they are always seeing the most accurate colors on any monitor display. There are three models to choose from: Express, Pro, and Elite+, with the Spyder5Elite+ version receiving a large software update last year. Now Datacolor is making it even easier to get a better calibration for your workflow by offering discounted prices when you upgrade to their Spyder5Elite+ model from any of their previous models or competitors products.
Most lighting modifiers come with diffusion panels that soften and even out the light emitted. Some even come with two panels. These panels can have a strong effect on your light, and it's well worth understanding exactly what to expect when you use them or leave them off. This helpful video gives you a comparison of all three situations.
You may have just started your journey in photography or you have been on the market for quite some time, and you still wonder if your website has more to do with getting more clients than you might think. The answer is yes, but only to some extent. Let me tell you what I thought was important for my website and what I think is important today.
An artist recently won a respected photographic portrait competition with a work that wasn't a portrait at all in the traditional sense, causing a large controversy and outcry. For the most part, however, the work is not being given fair or proper consideration it deserves, and that's a shame, because it stunts the growth of a genre.
Humidity, sunlight, water, and most of all, time, are just some of the culprits in the damage most printed photographs will endure. However these memories of loved ones do not need to be thrown away or thought to be unrepairable. A few layers in the digital world can bring it back for your clients.
In November of last year, Jonny Von Wallström sold his feature-length documentary film "The Pearl of Africa" to Netflix. He had been attempting to chase down the video streaming service for several years. This included hunting down contact information for commissioning editors and attempting to woo Netflix employees at every pass. After a number of disappointing setbacks, he finally landed an offer. In a fascinating vlog entry on his YouTube channel Creative North, he discusses his journey to landing a global distribution deal with the streaming monolith.
Mike Olbinski, an award-winning photographer, did it again. Here is his latest production, a stunning time-lapse showing some of the most powerful thunderstorms, supercell structures, and tornadoes of the American Midwest. Olbinski specializes on storm chasing but this season was particularly tough for him. Mother Nature has not been cooperative this year despite his extensive weather forecast knowledge. The storm chaser had to drive 27,000 miles across 10 states during a month to capture the 90,000 frames necessary to finish the project. Hence, he called this video “Pursuit.”
Just recently, I was able to test out the Venus Optics 105mm f/2 STF lens. After having it and using it here and there for a few months, I came to the conclusion that it would not be a bad addition to my photo bag. There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this lens considering I've never really had a prime telephoto lens before.
Almost all photographers nowadays are familiar with modern equipment and use it to create, show, and improve their work. Some is necessary like new cameras, lenses, computers, and some is complementary. It all depends on your work style and the photos you want to create. But let's ask a question here. How much of this technology and knowledge do you need for being a better photographer in your genre?
Blackmagic's DaVinci Resolve is widely known for its color grading tools. It’s what many would call an industry standard thanks to its powerful features. With the Beta 4 of Resolve 14 that was released a little while ago, the software saw its editing and audio capabilities improving quite a bit as well. However, many forget or don't know about them and stick to working with Premiere or Final Cut Pro. Discover in this video how Resolve editing and audio features work. Perhaps you’ll see they are exactly what you needed.
In this video, Photographer Andrea Belluso uses strip softboxes to create dramatic portraits of his friend and pilot along with a gliding airplane. Strip softboxes create soft light with a long highlight on the aircraft body.
I've been waiting for the day that a tablet could capably replace a dedicated laptop for photography work since I bought the original iPad in 2010. That day seems to be closer than ever with the latest round of iPad Pros. Check out this review of their ability to provide a dedicated workflow for photographers.
Over the last several weeks, my social media feeds have been flooded with a torrent of lavender images, each seemingly more beautiful than the last. Late June is generally the high season for the lavender bloom in the famous Provence region of southern France. It's a time of year when photographers, tourists, and bees come together in perfect harmony to dance among the purple fields from dawn to dusk. Photographer Jimmy McIntyre was part of the crowds last month and made an informative and entertaining video on his ten-day trip photographing the bloom.
Back in 2008 the Canon 5D Mark II was a photographer’s dream. The camera revolutionized the industry and opened new creative horizons for many professionals. The low light performance, dynamic range, and image quality were unheard of. This technological wonder was a huge hit in the photography world and beyond, especially in the indie filmmaker community. Later in 2012 came the 5D Mark III, with a solid body but somehow conservative specifications. Since then, it seems that Canon has decided to freeze progress, and lately, take a few steps backward.
If you've got some old family photos lying around that you've scanned and cataloged in Lightroom, you might be interested in colorizing them. Here's how to do that without ever even touching Photoshop.
With every new lens release we get bombarded with wild claims of “sharpest lens ever” and “bokeh so soft you’ll want to lie down in it.” A barrage of MTF charts and comparisons flood the web and debates rage in forums about which lens is better than which. Opinions fly and the knowledgeable and no so knowledgeable lock horns. But what if there were something other than sharpness that we could be looking at to discover a lens’ optical quality. Just what does a high element count with a few ED elements do to the resulting images?
You've probably seen some pretty comical behind-the-scenes images of the kinds of positions photographers put themselves in just to get a shot. They climb trees, hang off cliffs, stand in the middle of rivers, lay down in the dirt, all just to frame up that perfect shot. Well there's almost always a reason behind the madness and sometimes those reasons end up having a much bigger impact than most people might expect. Sometimes it's about getting a really intriguing angle on a particular subject, but I find myself laying in the dirt quite a lot just so I can create a composition that carries more depth. Let's compare a couple different shots that can help make some sense of this.
“Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” What an inspiring, hopeful idea. Unfortunately, it’s not always true. According to this article on USA Today, only about 20 percent of businesses last past their first year, and even less survive past the five-year mark. So, what happens when someone falls in love with photography and thinks to themselves, I should start a business? The answer is: a lot of stuff that is not related to photography and, sometimes, the death of a passion.
In this article, we'll go through the best sources of inspiration to plan a successful photography drone trip to a place you have never been to before. This is not an easy task, as unlike landscape photography, not everything has been photographed from a drone point of view, so just searching the usual photo sites doesn't always give you good results. It's also difficult because not every scene that works from eye level will work from a drone's perspective. It is vital to plan as much as possible to avoid disappointment and maximize the chances of coming home with some nice pictures. We'll also look at the results of the trip's expectations versus reality.
How could you make photo editing more intuitive? Both working professional photographers and beginners would really benefit from a more intuitive, time-saving way of interacting with Adobe Lightroom. Dragging sliders and rating images can be, well, a drag sometimes. I’m actually surprised it took this long for a creative company to dream up a dedicated photo editing console for Adobe Lightroom. But the day has finally arrived. Loupedeck promises to change the way you work with Lightroom and shorten the amount of time you spend sitting at your computer. Loupedeck is here and we’re reviewing it.
Papermakers G . F Smith, with help from the design agency, Made Thought, conducted a survey seeking the "World's Favorite Color" receiving 30,000 submissions from around the globe via online poll since it was launched in January 2017. The winner was chosen by popular consensus was a shade of green submitted by fine arts graduate Annie Marrs and UNESCO working inspired by the blue, grey, and green tones she saw in the River Tay in Scotland.
Just over a year ago today, I took the leap and made my first MagMod purchase. That first endeavor included: The Basic Kit, a set of Creative Gels, a set of Artistic Gels, an extra MagGrid, an extra MagGrip, a MagBounce, and a MagSphere. Over the last year I’ve added (and replaced) a few more items into my MagMod kit that is now to a point I’m now extremely happy with. After that initial purchase though, there was still one missing piece that kept lurking in the back of my mind. It wasn't actually a MagMod item so much as it was something I saw in a video on the MagMod page featuring TwoMann Studios.
LED lights are all the rage these days. Though they're already used quite a bit in the video industry, they're starting to make their way into the stills side of things, with folks like Peter Hurley embracing them. This great video examines the process of shooting portraits with LED panels, as well as the pros and cons of using them over strobes.
Some of the greatest films ever made took advantage of deep focus and Hyperfocal distance to tell a story on screen. Here's how you too can master the concept and add a valuable technique to your video and photography repertoire.
If you've ever been out and about and taken a photo of a tall building with a wide angle lens, you've probably noticed a weird phenomenon in which buildings appear to be falling away from you or into the center of the frame. This helpful video will show you how to correct perspective distortion using only Lightroom.
If you're interested in trying out astrophotography, it's a fun, but very different genre to get into. This helpful video will give you some quick tips to ensure you get it right and get those entrancing shots of the stars.
The Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Mini (SAM) is Sky-Watcher’s newest time-lapse and astrophotography tracking platform. It’s their attempt at a compact lightweight mobile setup that's both beginner friendly and easily packed into your camera bag.
Large-scale film productions take an incredible amount of work by a veritable plethora of talented people fulfilling numerous roles to pull off. It's easy to overlook just how much goes on behind the scenes as the credits roll past, but this great video explains who does what and just how much goes into making a successful film.
With the rising prices of additional baggage when flying. Traveling with all the gear photographers need for the average location shoot is getting out of hand. There are lots of articles and tricks for saving some money but most of us have stripped down our travel kits to the essentials. This of course means for bigger jobs renting extra gear once on location. Manufactures seem to get this and there has been a boom in options, from battery powered strobes to wireless flashes and all sorts in between. Back from his online blogging hiatus, Zack Arias shares how he has solved this issue with an all in one ready to go lighting bag.
After losing almost my entire photo kit due to blatant stupidity on my part (yay insurance), I was put in the unenviable position of rebuilding a camera system from scratch. Being a portrait photographer, I immediately gravitated towards full-frame bodies. I was close to pulling the trigger on one when it hit me: Why not try a crop sensor? I'm glad I did.
Regardless of whether your idea of a "small-town" is one with 100 people or 20,000, the potential hurdles small-town photographers must get over can stack up quickly if you only focus on the negatives. Perhaps your goal in photography is to simply maintain a hobby. Maybe you aspire to maintain a high-profile business instead. Either way, I’m here to tell you that it’s possible to achieve your goals regardless of where you currently reside.
We all have an idea of how a non-linear editor works. You drag the files into the timeline, and move them around to create the interesting video you are intending to produce. But, if you're like me, setting up the project and to make sure no files go missing or aren't imported correctly can be a problem, especially if no one ever showed you how to do this. So I've put together a short way I do it, and then I've included a video to show how you can do it for a short film and how to sync audio. It's a video production starting kit.
If you're new to Photoshop, the Pen Tool can make about as much sense as a ketchup-flavored popsicle. Nonetheless, it's one of the most useful tools in the entire program, and it's definitely worth taking the time to learn how to use it. This great tutorial will get you up and running.
J-Cuts can be described as having the sound enter the scene before the scene appears visually, or it can be used to play out a scene where the audio is used after the shot has ended. They're used in TV and movies, and they're a professional element that sets you and your style apart from those who just cut scenes together. This enables you to get a nice flow in your video, and it all blends and layers to make it more interesting and give your work more power.
This is a how I did it story. Along with some “why.” Unlike most all folks my age, I am very fond of the WW2 history and even more so WW2 aircraft. My favorite plane of all time is the B-25 mid-range bomber. This concept has been in my mind for years, and I waited to actually implement it until I felt I was able to do it right. Had I done it early in my career, I feel the quality wouldn't have been up to the standard I would have liked.
In an era when working on 30 megapixel and higher images has become the norm, a Photoshop document with dozens of layers can quickly become a burden to work with often slowing to a painful delay after each stroke of a brush. The simplest solution is to constantly be crushing those layers down into a single flat layer but this method is the antithesis of non-destructive editing which can make future client feedback rather difficult to implement. Instead, lets focus on few easy tricks you can do to keep your computer running smoothly during the most complex of composites.
We know, we know: gear doesn't matter, except when it matters. I'm not here to rehash that debate. Rather, this is just a great film that shows off what you can accomplish even with a $50 lens and some know-how.
UPDATE: ENDS TODAY! Have you ever wished you could have a decent sized softbox fit in the palm of your hand? Swedish photographer Vincent Palma and his team have created a 24 inch light modifier that folds down into a mere 8 inches. Using the same patented mechanism as our own Fstoppers Flash Disc, the Sundisc will give you even, soft light when carrying large, bulky softboxes is not practical. The Sundisc Kickstarter has already met its funding goal but that doesn't mean you can't get in on this first production run now before the campaign ends Wednesday, June 28th.
If you struggle with self-confidence before or during a shoot, you know it can have a very real effect on how you perform and the images you take. Try these positive affirmations specifically for photographers and videographers to help you get control of your thoughts.
B-roll is important stuff. It keeps your viewer's experience from becoming stagnant, and it can be used to explain or elaborate on the main footage. It's entirely its own art to shoot, and this helpful tutorial will give you great tips to get more and better b-roll footage for your video work.
Being lazy is one of my favorite traits, so walking needs to be avoided at all costs. I'm kidding... well, not really. This wireless remote for my camera has saved me quite literally thousands of steps in my light painting processes.
Just when you thought you needed that crazy portrait lens, along comes someone shooting with nothing more than a drop of water. Check out this cool portrait series shot in a very unique way.
We have all been there: you see an image online that gives you the best perspective of a location but you have no idea exactly where it is located. Sometimes the photographer lists the location on social media, but more often they leave you wondering where exactly they were standing. Last week I set out to film a time-lapse of one of the most photographed skylines in the world. However, finding the exact location I wanted required me to use multiple resources. Welcome to project "New York Harbor."
Printing images almost became a thing of the past with the digital era. However more and more photographers are helping their clients embrace the idea of hard copies to hang on the walls rather than in a drawer on a flash drive. New mediums for printing are becoming popular as unique options compared to the standard print. Are you sure you are setting up your files correctly for the color shift issues with printing on these new mediums?
It’s always important to stop and smell the photos – but what happens when your stop is at night, in complete darkness without any lights to help you out? You improvise. There are a few things you can do to help you compensate for lack of proper lighting equipment.
How many times have you seen a video or photo where a subject or even the artist themselves appear in it multiple times and wondered how they did that? Having a background in graphic design, I always guessed you just merge the footage or photos together and mask sections out to reveal the subject in each area. Well, it is as simple as it sounds but if you are not sure how to get started or how to do that, Peter McKinnon shows how he cloned himself in both photo and video using Photoshop and Premiere, respectively.
We all know the pictures on the packaging of food you buy usually is a lie. It's not how it's going to look when you open it, and it's not going to taste as good as your imagination was telling you it would based on the photo of the package. But it surely works to get people interested and buying one product over the other. How do they do it? This video shares 10 tricks food advertisers use when shooting the images to be used in advertising and packaging. A picture of a piece of bread being broken open, hot and steaming out of the oven, sure looks delicious. Did you know wet cotton wool will steam longer than bread would? Yes, me neither.
When I moved in to my studio a little over three years ago, I needed a place to hang, store, and use my rolls of seamless paper. I didn’t have many — just a few nine-foot rolls of white, gray, black, and green — but I wanted them out of my way. Storing them vertically wasn’t a good option in the space, and storing them laying down is never a good idea. So, I wanted to figure out a simple system that I could build that would do the trick. Here’s what I came up with.
When a D1 collegiate athlete becomes a photographer, you should watch out. Zach Ancell is a commercial sports photographer from Portland and has been shooting for almost 10 years now. As any self-respecting creative, he does his own personal projects between the commercials he shoots. Pan"Tone," which is one of Ancell's recent shoots caught my attention, and he kindly agreed to share all we want to know about the set.
