In photography, like any art, you tend to experience ups and downs when it comes to your satisfaction with your work and ability to produce quality, innovative images. This great video examines why things may not be going your way and what you can do about it.
Wouldn't it be great traveling the world and taking pictures for a living? Famed National Geographic Photographer Susan Seubert discusses her career in a recent TEDx talk.
Do you ever feel like you are swimming upstream, trying to keep all of the facets of your busy schedule together as a freelance photographer? There are countless articles, blogs, and books about how to separate your work and free time to improve job satisfaction and productivity, but the secret is not about improving your work-life balance, it’s about ignoring the perception of a work-life balance altogether.
Freckles. Some people remove them and some people chose to enhance them. In this quick Photoshop tutorial, learn the easiest way to bring out the freckles in your subjects and create more dynamic portraits.
Composite photography can seem overwhelming, particularly when trying to tell a story and using photographic elements from different locations. Let me break down how I created this narrative piece to provide some helpful insight.
There is nothing quite as heartbreaking as the actual moment when your creativity is quashed. There are lots of culprits that can lead up to that moment, but I find that it's often traceable to a single action (or inaction) by another party.
Golden hour is great and all, but if you limit your outdoor portrait times to those narrow windows during the day, you're going to quickly be frustrated by the limitations. Learning to shoot outside with flash is an essential skill, and this great video will introduce you to it.
In the evolving world of photography lighting, it can be challenging to know which lights and modifiers are best suited for maximum impact in different places and situations.
When getting into videography, the most challenging part tends to be the sound, especially for us photographers. With the latest Adobe Premiere Pro update, auto-ducking has been brought from Audition to make transitions between audio clips smoother and easier than ever before.
2018 is certainly well underway. It’s getting toward the time of year where we start to let our goals slip. In the UK, summer has arrived and it's far more appealing to sit in a beer garden than it is to lock yourself away at your desk.
Whether you're shooting your favorite dish to add something casual to your Instagram or Facebook account and still want it to fit the aesthetics of the rest of your photography work, or you're trying to get started in food photography, here are a few tips from Jacs Powell, a food photographer and a "foodie at heart."
You can make it look like two people are sitting with their backs to opposite sides of the same wall. It allows you to transport your audience to a different place in a fun way. This video from Mango Street shows how they did it and shares a tutorial on how you can too.
I take my camera with me on my daily commute. I don't like seeing a shot and not being able to take it, or having to take it with my phone. I've got scenes in the metro, of the city life, and the shapes of the Hausmannian architecture that makes Paris, Paris. This video provides great tips on composing when you're in the city.
For the past few years, I have been getting more and more into video work. When I first started, I had an idea of what frame rate was and I knew how to use it to get the looks I wanted but by no means was I doing anything correctly until probably late last year. In this video, Matt goes over frame rates and a few reasons why you should shoot in different ones.
Posing is an art and technique that must be honed. Many photographers may feel they're in a rut with posing or that their routine is lacking. Here are a few reasons why your posing may seem lackluster.
We often tend to think of the best light for landscape photography as being during the golden hours, but depending on what you're trying to emphasize, different types of light and times of day can be better for your final image. This great video talks about the various types of light and how to orient yourself to take the best possible image.
When it comes to landscape, travel, and outdoor photography it has become relatively easy to see an amazingly beautiful photo taken in a specific location, show up, and capture it for yourself. This video demonstrates seven ways a professional landscape photographer goes about using composition to achieve his personal take on the beautiful locations he visits.
Something all photographers have to deal with on a daily basis is how to price their professional work. It’s something that’s not easy to quantify, and each job is usually a different monster requiring its own unique budget.
As a wedding photographer, it's not always easy to find balance between the style of work you're genuinely passionate about and the type of work that pays the bills. So, how can you shoot personal projects to improve your professional photography work?
If you're new to Photoshop (or even a seasoned user), you may not have worked with Smart Objects before. They're a very useful feature of the program, and this great video will teach you the difference between them and their counterpart, raster objects.
Videography can be a tricky area to traverse with a constant push and pull between expensive equipment and cheap alternatives. This video gives you three tips on how you can create smooth and cinematic shots, but without using a gimbal or slider.
Sometimes, it's fun to leave the tripod at home, forget about technical perfection, and just go for a walk with your camera. This fun video will show you some easy ways to make interesting and different photos that should get your creativity flowing.
Most photography tutorials understandably focus on how you can improve your work while you have a camera in your hand. However, this video focuses on two exercises you can do anytime, anywhere, even if your camera isn't with you.
We all have to start somewhere. Taking on that first job can be very intimidating, so here are some tips to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible.
These aren't quick tips about a neat technique or trick. These five tips are for anyone who is in photography for the long haul, whether you're a passionate amateur or looking to make it your career.
In the digital world it may almost seem as though selling albums or wall art would be a thing of the past. The majority of clients will want to post their session to social media and go about their day. As photographers, it is up to us to educate the client about the importance of having a physical piece of art as well as the right type of art for their home.
It’s a simple tip, but rewards you with more compelling images. Are you paying close enough attention to the details?
While the performance of Adobe Lightroom is an on-going controversial topic, it is still one of the major tools for many photographers when it comes to image processing. According to some, the Lightroom workflow is a bit tricky, and users might be limited to perform some actions, as with changing the effect of the pre-built presets. Ben Jacobsen shares his seven time-saver tricks that also overcome some general problems with Lightroom.
The biggest hurdle faced by many budding portrait photographers is the need to find amazing subjects to collaborate with. Reaching out to and communicating with models can be intimidating, but it really shouldn't be, as it can very easily lead to a very rewarding collaborative shoot for both parties.
It’s time to get involved in protecting your copyrights if you’re a photographer based in the USA. The H.R. 3945 CASE Act is a piece of legislation that has been winding its way through Congress since October 2017, and it would allow photographers to better protect and defend their copyrights, but it needs your help!
In the first year or so of learning how to edit images, photographers are completely bombarded by information regarding the dos and don’ts for what makes a good photo. This is one area of post-processing that continues to be misinterpreted.
Most clients today look at a digital portfolio rather than a printed book. Granted, the higher up the ladder you go, the more it leads toward print, but for the vast majority of us trying to make a living from photography, digital is king. Here are some tips on how to get bookings from your website.
If you haven’t taken the time to create presets for editing your photos, you need to. Here is a complete guide to creating and organizing your own presets in Lightroom.
What started as an innocuous trip to the craft store ended with myself and a model sitting in my studio with tears running down our faces. I shouldn’t say that it ended there, though, because the first session of A Woman’s Soul was only the beginning of a month-long process of emotional vulnerability, bravery, and change.
I don’t use Adobe Lightroom. I use Bridge and Photoshop to retouch my client’s and my own images. Here are some tips and advice on how to use certain tools in Photoshop to get the best out of your work.
Getting ready for your next trip? Travel is hard enough as a tourist, but as a nomadic photographer, a lot can go wrong. Whether the plane runs out of overhead storage or you’re in a car crash, solid packing will help you to comfortably face the unexpected so you can shoot from dawn till twilight, then change plans last minute with as little inconvenience as possible. Here are some techniques that have helped me nail ultralight packing to travel indefinitely as a nomadic photographer—or skip to the end for my one bag packing list!
Along the lines of my "it's not about the gear" principle that I believe in so much nowadays (believe me, it took years to drum that into my head), this is a quick tutorial on how to use an IKEA lampshade for an unusually simple product photography setup and covers both the shooting and the retouching for the example photos.
Being able to change colors in post can give you a lot of creative control and save a headache when shooting. One difficulty, however, is changing anything that's white. In this video, you'll learn you how to do that quickly and easily.
The first time I shot in this style was accidental to be honest. I'd love to say it was an artistic epiphany but sadly the truth of the matter is that I was too darn lazy to close the windows. However when I took the test shot, I realized I absolutely loved the effect! To think that I was rewarded for my lazine...err....creative moment of clarity!
Everyone wants to bring in money with client work, but not setting aside time for personal projects can be detrimental your growth as an artist, and to the bottom line. Here are three reasons you should always schedule personal projects.
While most of us here have been through the experience of your first paid photoshoot, there are definitely a lot of users here using the content of this site to further themselves to a professional level.
Have you ever tried to remove an object from a photo, but just couldn't get it to look right, whether it be because of the lighting, color, or actual selection? This tutorial provides a handful of tips for perfectly removing objects in Photoshop.
When someone mentions Rembrandt in connection with photography, you almost certainly think of the lighting of portrait subjects. It turns out, however, that we can take quite a bit about how he treated light and composition and apply it to landscape work as well.
Despite the veritable multitude of options offered by the program, most photographers can get through their entire careers only using six or so of Photoshop's blending modes. Nonetheless, there's a lot of hidden power in the lesser used modes, and this great video shows you how to take advantage of two of the quirkiest of all: color dodge and color burn.
Portraiture is all about bringing out the character of your subject. This great video goes behind the scenes of a shoot, showing you how lighting was designed to match the intended portrayal of the subject and the resulting photos.
We often draw inspiration from several mediums; art, music, and film to name a few. These inspirations are blended together and found within our work. This article digs deeper into what may give our work moody undertones and makes us feel exactly how we feel when looking at it.
The Pen Tool elicits a range of emotions, most commonly fear and love. If you've mastered it, post-processing life is good. For everyone else, learning the Pen Tool always seems to be put off for a rainy day that never comes. This quick and easy tutorial has five great tips to help you better use this essential tool.
At the core of any image editor is the brush tool, and although many of us don't give it a second thought, it really is one of the most important features to master. Density, opacity, hardness, and flow all affect how the brush works in very different ways. Make sure you know the difference between these settings so you can work smarter when editing your images.
Candlelit portraits are cool, especially when shot inside the studio in a planned way. With a little imagination and a simple technique, you can create vivid candlelit portraits.
Blogging has been an excellent way to boost your SEO and maintain the attention of your clients. It shows off your brand, your images and your writing. However have you thought about how blogging can hurt your business if you lack consistency? If you have been stumped with new ideas on what to write about simply ask your clients to write for you.
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