Whether you're an amateur or a new professional, money from photography will likely be on your mind. This video follows a photographer as he goes out and tries to do just that. (Warning: some strong language.)
I've watched with interest as videographers use external small monitors attached to their DSLR or mirrorless cameras. I could see the advantages: the larger screen, the ability to see vectorscopes, histograms, and the variety of focus tools available. At the same time, I wondered if a monitor would enhance my landscape and nighttime photography, so I took the plunge, and here are my findings.
Unless you're a photojournalist, the chances are low that your photos will ever go viral. If you're trying to go viral, you'll probably be prepared ahead of time. If you just so happen to be in the right place at the right time, you may not be prepared for what happens when your photos go viral.
There is a veritable plethora of ways to edit any image, and each method has its own benefits and drawbacks. This interesting videos discusses why one photographer chose to stop editing using sliders, instead relying solely on local adjustments.
If you’ve been following my recent articles, you’ll know that I’ve been on an umbrella modifier trend. I just love how portable and easy to set up they are.
Achieving mastery of a craft takes lots of time and patience. Photography's most devoted practitioners pursue the elusive status of mastery one shoot at a time, one shot at a time, over many years. It’s not easy.
Besides shooting cars or architecture, light painting can also be useful when you want to achieve creative results without spending lots of money.
We may be pro at all things photographic, but is it enough for us to succeed as photographers in this day and age? What are the other components for the winning formula?
Are you thinking of trying out portrait photography and want to get some insight as to exactly what you need to create beautiful portraits without a lot of trial and error? Read on for some tried and true suggestions that will get you started without all the hit-and-miss experimentation.
This is a look at how this affordable home security cam can be used for increasing security of your gear while traveling on assignment. Even though it was never designed for this purpose, unlike a lot of other options on the market the Wyze Cam has just the right features to make it possible.
When you're new to working with artificial light, the entire world can feel quite confusing and a bit overwhelming. This helpful video goes over 10 things a seasoned photographer wishes he had known before he started dabbling with strobes.
White balance is drilled into our head as a particularly technical thing to adjust in our photography and not really something we can use creatively beyond "Warmer or cooler" but there are so many creative possibilities out there.
This past week I passed the one year mark of shutting down my old Instagram when it was about to hit a new milestone, and starting from absolute scratch. Why did I do this? Was it a good idea? Let's dive in and find out.
It really doesn't matter if you make excellent images that make your clients look their best, or that they're using your creative brain and technical mastery to sell their product. Clients deserve massive discounts, and, sometimes you just need to give them a load of images for free because they feel that they did you a favor that one time — conveniently forgetting all the other free and massively discounted commercial images you gave them.
Recently, I teamed up with Ted Linczak to discuss a simple source of revenue that many wedding photographers fail to utilize well: wedding albums. Ted adds tens of thousands of dollars to his business every year with a few simple workflow and sales techniques. In this video, he shares some of his tips.
Colored lighting gels can take the illumination in your images from standard to outstanding by adding color for a touch of interest and depth. And while nothing can create that look quite like the real thing, you can fake an interesting colored gel effect for your images using some simple tricks in Photoshop.
When photographer Felix Renaud first discovered photography, a world of possibilities opened to him. With his background of drawing and cinema, he is drawn towards treating his images as if they were drawn from a film or inspired by a painting. He enjoys creating the ambiance and characters for his images.
Incorporating a body of water into a landscape photo is one of the best ways to add visual interest, create a flow that leads the viewer's eye across the image, and drastically alter the mood you're trying to create. This excellent video will give you seven tips to improve your seascape images.
There is no doubt that the wide-angle zoom lens is the most popular for landscape photography and is my go-to lens in most of my work. It is however, not necessarily the easiest lens to use as it takes in a lot of the landscape.
Making money in photography is hard — even harder when companies ask you to do work for free that they are profiting off of, and we say yes for the exposure/connections.
An easy lighting setup for any photographer to have in their arsenal that creates a highly sought-after look would have to be three point lighting. It’s classic, it’s easy, and you can achieve several highly stylized looks in only mere seconds by moving a light or two.
Dedicated monolights are certainly highly useful for portrait work, but they're also relatively expensive and rather bulky. However, almost every photographer owns a speedlight, and you might wonder if you can use it in place of a monolight for on-location portrait work. This great video shows you the benefits and drawbacks of shooting with a speedlight outside.
Getting started as a professional photographer is a daunting task. Psychologically, it is a huge leap from taking photographs for fun to getting paid for a photograph (or photographs).
One of the most fundamental yet impactful decisions you can make regarding the post-processing of a photograph is whether to render it in color or in black and white. The choice of which is not always clear for a given image, however, but this great video seeks to provide some guidelines for choosing between the two.
Portrait photography can be a tricky genre full of nuance, and posing can be one of the most difficult aspects. This helpful video will show you a variety of portrait poses and tricks and tips to get the most out of your subjects and to produce better images.
Making the switch to Capture One from Lightroom is easier and quicker than you think. There’s this perception that given the two pieces of software are from different companies, moving your Lightroom catalogs to Capture One is some arduous and protracted process, that you’ll have to start from scratch with all your images, re-edit, re-rate, and create whole new folder structures. But that perception is not reality.
Following the announcement of the winners of the World Press Photo competition last week, Spanish photography website Photolari.com compiled the metadata to examine what the leading photojournalists are using to capture their images. The results are quite interesting and demonstrate that the mighty DSLR is going nowhere. Here's why.
Since starting my career as a photographer, one of the more challenging things I found was producing relatively accurate and pleasing looking colors. For a long time, I've been using the ColorChecker Passport from X-Rite because it consistently helped me to produce better-looking colors.
Light and airy photos are one of the most popular looks nowadays for weddings, lifestyle portraits, and more. This excellent video will show you how to edit your images to get that look using nothing more than Lightroom.
The local adjustment brush is one of the most convenient and efficient ways to make edits in Lightroom, but with a bit of work, it can be even more useful. This helpful video will show you a great trick for getting more out of the local adjustment brush in Lightroom.
If you had your time again, would you change anything about your photography career? Here are 10 regrets I have accumulated while practicing as a professional photographer for the last decade.
With today's modern sensors and powerful editing software, it's easier than ever to push files to extremes. But of course, just because you can push a file that far, it doesn't mean that you should. This thoughtful video talks about a better, subtler way to edit files.
When you're new to artificial lighting, it can be a bit overwhelming trying to understand how various setups, positions, and modifiers will produce different results, which is why it can be tremendously helpful to learn some setups that can get you off and running. This helpful video will show you five such portrait lighting setups in just five minutes.
It isn't fearmongering to say that one mistake, and not even necessarily your own, can bankrupt your photography business if you're uninsured. So Fstoppers have teamed up with Insurance Canopy who have created Full Frame Photography Insurance to go over the issue and offer some insight.
To expose a photo correctly is one of the most basic things to learn in photography. It can, however, be hard for even advanced photographers.
When you're new to lighting, it can be tempting to jump into complicated setups to try to achieve popular looks, but you might be surprised by just how much you can get out of one light. This great video discusses why it's important to stick with one light for a while while you learn the ropes.
A Gobo is used to create shapes of light on a subject. It's usually quite a hassle, but the StrobePro Optical Snoot has changed the game.
As a photographer or a videographer, do you routinely get stuck in the same cycle when working on a project, which may or may not include Imposter Syndrome, exasperation, and more? What's your unique "cycle"?
Maybe you've had a prospective client — someone you've never heard of — ring you up to discuss your photography services... and had your brain freeze, making the conversation awkward. Even if you've been landing photography gigs for years, the excitement of an unexpected phone call can throw you off course.
Here in the northern hemisphere, night photographers are starting to come out of their winter slumber and getting ready for the summer night photography season. If you’re looking for some quick tips on shooting star trails on your next over night photography excursion, today is your lucky day.
Are you looking for more realistic approach to creating a multidimensional blur background to your images? Check out this tutorial!
All photographers can agree that you won't stay in business long if you do not charge for your work. But what if I told you that the best way to gain exposure to high-paying commercial clients was to give away your images for free? Today, we sit down with commercial and composite photographer Josh Rossi and explore the concept of free.
Using dodge and burn to retouch skin is one of the best ways to achieve more realistic looking results. However, like any tool, its purpose can be misunderstood or it can be misused with negative consequences. Here are five mistakes to avoid.
If you’re looking for your clients to walk away with imagery they think is top notch, it’s a good idea to understand how they see themselves in front of the lens. Peter Hurley gives us a quick rundown of tips and tricks to create headshots that will resonate with the tagline: "Confidence and Approachability."
Who doesn't love a photography related bargain? The problem is that some of those cheaper deals could cause you some serious headaches further down the line. Here are ten items which you should always avoid buying on the cheap.
Back in 2018, I wrote an article about being a professional photographer and how viable it was. I thought it was time to update this.
Photography's expensive. Bodies, lenses, filters, software: it all adds up. But what about tripods? Do you really need to spend big on them to get what you want?
Heading out into the night with your camera can be an adventure, especially in a city full of people and bright lights. In this short video, street photographer Robin Schimko gives you quick run through of how to pick the best settings for your camera when photographing in low light, including some particularly good tips if you’re shooting film.
Last week on Fstoppers, Nando Harmsen shared his technique for creating long exposures without a filter that involved stacking many, many photos in Adobe Photoshop. With my technique, there are a few extra caveats, however it only involves two photos and a mask in any layer-based photo editor.
Choosing an interesting composition might be the most underrated of all photography techniques. Here is a tutorial on why changing how you frame your subject can make or break your image.
