Many photographers quickly move on from umbrellas, because they can seem very hard to control and a bit unwieldy. However, umbrellas can be surprisingly versatile, and this great video will show you five ways to use them in your photos.
If you want to keep your business relevant or have that breakthrough year you’ve been dreaming of, you need to have a plan in place that continually attracts quality clients. Here is where you can find them in 2019.
Client experience is one of the most important pieces of running a successful business. Kara Marie is known throughout the industry as a successful boudoir photographer, not only for her stellar imagery, but also for the experience she gives to each of her clients. Michael Sasser had the chance to interview Marie to find out just what it takes to provide this service to her clients.
Do you find that you’re a better creative while under the influence of drugs or alcohol? This article explores why substance abuse is so common among artist and explores less harmful alternatives.
As the old business adage goes: "not planning is planning to fail." It's time to get serious about your photography or videography in 2019, with an effective and actionable goal planner. Here's what mine looks like.
It's almost 2019, meaning that it's the best time to update all of our information and branding. New logos, new website designs, new profile pictures, and to go along with all of that, brand new business cards!
High ISO is usually meant to be used when there's not enough light. However, there are cases when you have to take it up from its minimum value even when the sun is bright.
In a field crowded with options, there is no better value for the money than the Fuji X-T3.
We all have our pictures online. But do we have a picture that defines who we are as a professional and what we do? In this competitive world where your digital presence is a business card, what difference does a professional portrait make?
Famed celebrity stylist and creative director Jason Bolden and his team approached photographer Nathalie Gordon with an idea to shoot a campaign for their newly launched sunglasses brand JSN.
I have to admit, when I first saw the Loupedeck on Indiegogo two years ago, I wrote it off, but after trying it, I now realize just how incredible this piece of hardware can be for photographers.
In this behind the scenes article, see how I set up my studio in the athletics office of my school and shot a series of intense portraits of my college football team.
One of the most popular genres of photography and perhaps one of the best for beginners to try is portraiture. This great video will give you a quick guide to planning a successful portrait photoshoot.
It's always refreshing to me to get behind the scenes and see how some cool images are made. Then, to realize that the only light source was a cell phone LED along with a few props, I realized that my studio needs a shopping trip.
One of the first things I learned early on after becoming a full-time photographer is the importance of establishing a diversity of revenue streams. I’m not a traditional commercial photographer whose brand is predominantly focused in one area, or specialty, such as booking client gigs (weddings, maternity, etc), shooting products photography for companies, or catering to the swath of people who need headshots.
The mall, removed. The cheesy decor, gone. The long lines, nope. Santa Sessions have become all-the-rage and photographers are making these shoots more of a high end experience. I witnessed a shoot first hand and to be honest, $10k seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s what I learned.
One of the most useful pieces of lighting gear a studio photographer can have doesn't actually have a light in it. Check out how v-flats can help you shape your light in this great video.
Adobe recently released the new version of Photoshop, and it is relatively faster and smoother than the previous versions. However, it might still crash.
When it comes to making your editing workflow as efficient as possible, customization is key. Photoshop is great but doesn't allow for very advanced workspaces with custom scripts and actions. That's until you start using the Retouching Toolkit 3.0.
I bet that you think that you are pretty good at composing your photos. You’ve been shooting for years, won some awards, nice client list. You got that part figured out. Guess what? Not only are you not “all that” but you really need to work on it. How am I so sure? Check this out.
The elusive v-flat. Once you know what a v-flat is, the next question is always: “where do I get them?” For years, photographers were sent on scavenger hunts looking for 4X8’ sheets of foam, sheets so large, truck rental was required. They were anything but portable. Until now.
It doesn't matter how long you have been a photographer, I guarantee that some of your images will suck. Question is, do you really know why they do?
In many, many genres, you'll often take a shot that's great save for a rather bland sky. When that happens, you can turn to a sky replacement in Photoshop. This great video will show you everything you need to know to make it convincing.
Earlier this year, I released an in-depth tutorial on product photography with Fstoppers called "The Hero Shot: How to Light and Composite Product Photography." As I started publishing images from this tutorial on Instagram, I found it extremely interesting that the most liked image was the cordless drill. It was the most simple image that I created for the series, and I used very basic inexpensive continuous lighting to create it. So, if I were to have photographed this drill using strobes instead of continuous light, would you have been able to tell the difference? I’ll...
Would you consider a pocket-sized smoke machine as an additional piece of equipment? Take a look at our review of MicroFogger, a portable fun gadget that creates smoke on the go!
Whether you photograph weddings, portraits, or something else, a lot of the people you'll shoot will benefit from having their teeth whitened a bit. This great tutorial will show you how to easily and convincingly do that using Photoshop.
It’s ironic, really. Instagram is the world’s largest social photo platform, yet photographers are constantly subjected to their photos being posted and re-grammed without a credit or tag in sight. Here’s why.
Lenses are primordial, yet many photographers tend to attach mediocre entry-level zoom glasses on their camera when there are plenty of affordable quality lenses on the market. Here is a personal selection of some of the best optics that can be found under $300.
I recently wrote an article asking photographers to stop tagging locations of outdoor photographs. Here's a follow-up to that piece, with a great supplemental video from Vox.
When it comes to liquify, less is usually best. Unless you have a model or client who specifically asks for heavy shaping, chances are you are going to have an unhappy client if this tool is overly used.
Photographers, artists, and Instagrammers. A common theme unites all: the use of a camera. But there's also a significant mindset and philosophy, in my opinion, that separates the three.
Here is the why and how I recommend you photograph the sky.
Storage management is a common issue shared by many photographers due to the constant increase of the megapixel counts in our cameras. Here is a detailed guide about the storage options and how to make the right choice based on your photo-video needs.
Don't worry this hack won't invalidate the warranty on your phone and takes minimal technical skill to do. The end result is a dramatic change in how you and the camera see the world.
Culling a large set of raw photos can take a particularly long time as you wait for Lightroom to render previews for all the images, but luckily, there's a faster way to do it. This quick video will introduce you to programs dedicated to exactly this task.
In a genre composed of so many different disciplines, there are a couple truths that cross all boundaries.
There are various reasons why the golden hours are the best times of day to shoot. But to just dismiss regular daylight hours out of hand is just silly. Because daylight can be beautiful too.
Think about some of your favorite and most successful photographers: what do they all have in common? This excellent video explores the traits of great photographers and what makes them who they are.
Editing your images can be a love/hate relationship depending on how you feel about post production. Getting tied down in your workflow can be a result of not having the right displays and shortcuts for better visualization of the final result. A few key tricks will lay out your most used tools and displays to get you in and out of Photoshop.
Most people think of Photoshop as the place where serious editing takes place, but you might be surprised by just how much you can get done using only Lightroom. This great video will show you how to use one of Lightroom's most useful tools, the graduated filter.
Are you looking for a way to add more excitement to your food photography? Well, have you tried making your food float or even go for that exploded-view of the dish coming together or apart in the frame?
When you're new to photography, one of the easiest things to overlook is how working distance affects the final look of your images. This great video will show you how to think about this when you're shooting portraits.
We're heading into the realm of storybook fantasy with this week's Lighting Breakdown that blends natural and artificial light.
I was recently involved in a conversation via Facebook that centered around new camera gear and becoming a better photographer. The saying generally goes: “It’s not about the camera gear at all.” While I generally agree with this way of thinking, it’s not always accurate.
SSL has become the preferred way for all sites to be displayed as opposed to only being used for shopping carts and pages where you would enter personal data. For some time, there's been a transition from http to https, and it was a choice mostly based on the intended activities of your website viewers.
Most people reading this article, going to workshops, and watching YouTube content want to improve their landscape photography. It is the question I get asked the most, and there are many answers and solutions to this. But without doubt, the most important part, but often the hardest, is actually being in the right place at the right time.
With news of Nikon and Canon finally entering the full-frame mirrorless market, there have been endless discussions regarding stats and expectations. Don't let yourself get lost in all the gear talk, and remember that you don't need something new to make incredible photos.
Some artists think better standing on their head. Personally, I produce better edits when I turn photographs upside down.
Raising your prices will not only keep your bank manager happy, but it will also help to accelerate your career. Time to add a few more zeros to your next photography invoice.
Do you want powerful black and white images that really create the mood you're looking for, but haven't quite found the best way to get them yet? In this tutorial I'll show you three ways you might not have seen before and the best thing is, they're simple, fast, and effective.
