Finding your specialty can be difficult for any profession, but the vague advice of needing a niche as a photographer — while important — is unhelpful in isolation.
If you’ve been feeling stagnant with your editing style, now is a great time to invest time into improving your skill set. Here are six techniques you should consider using on every image you take.
Photographers of all genres rely on new inquires as well as returning clients to fill their calendar for the year. Keeping up with returning clients is easily done, however getting the fresh new leads does not have to be a difficult task if your website has a few minor additions.
Nearly 10 years into taking photos, it’s safe to say I’ve been bored of my own pictures lately, and have been increasingly open-minded in looking for new ways to keep my work innovative. Delving deeper into creative concepts, the best way I feel I’ve improved as a photographer is by exploring set design and focusing my efforts on the pre-production.
Subscribe to business or productivity "influencers" on the web and you'll receive a variety of tips: “Nap this long,” “Consume more of these,” “Turn that device off!” But how do these techniques apply to photo editing, and can a one-size-fits-all productivity approach help us photographers use our editing time more efficiently?
Composition is one of the most important aspects of successful landscape photography, but it's also one of the trickiest and most nuanced. This helpful video will give you seven tips to improve your landscape photography compositions.
If you have ever struggled with portrait lighting in the past or could not decide on what lighting modifier to use on a shoot. Then you need to check out this 3D portrait lighting software, it is pretty cool.
More often than not, we’re our own worst enemies when it comes to landing the types of jobs we long to be hired for. Are you making it more difficult than it should be for potential clients to hire you for those photo jobs you keep waiting on?
I shoot for a clothing boutique and we shoot outside at the same area weekly. To say I have overused the available locations is an understatement. Sometimes I find myself on the side of the road, next to a rundown building I’ve shot at 20 times already, and think to myself, how in the world can I make this different? I’ll bet most of us have been there at some point.
It's probably happened to you: you're shooting away and someone, usually the venue owner, approaches you. You get that sinking feeling hearing those dreaded five words: "Can I get a copy?"
Are you just starting out and in need of ideas on how to improve your compositions? Or maybe you're an amateur photographer who already knows most of these tips, but could use a refresher. Either way, this helpful video by COOPH is for you.
Today I want to talk about business maintenance and some of the less fun aspects of your business but important nonetheless. New Year's is a great time to go through and look at all your channels, social media, website, etc and see if there's anything that needs cleaning up or adjusting.
People will tell you there are no shortcuts, but that is only true if you think a shortcut is a magic "Masterpiece" mode in your camera or a special action in Photoshop.
Successful concert photographer David Bergman has been shooting in front of screaming fans for years. His new workshop can land you right next to him in the shooting pit for one of his big-ticket clients.
Shooting portraits in natural light typically means choosing a huge aperture to create creamy bokeh and pleasing subject separation, but keeping your image pin sharp in the right places can be tough. In this short video, photographer Julia Trotti shares her tips on how to nail focus.
A new year means new possibilities. Each year, most photographers put aside money for specific items such as gear, repair, equipment, and more. The one item many forget is education. This is an important part of growing as a photographer and needs to be addressed each year to keep the creative mind flowing.
There are countless tools, tricks, and techniques photographers use to edit their photographs. This is one I use 99 percent of the time when editing my landscape images.
There’s nothing quite like a sunburst to add that last punch to a fantastic landscape. Last week we covered the composition, settings, and environmental factors needed to snap a crisp sunburst. Today, we will finish up in Lightroom and Photoshop.
It is relatively easy for most photographers to take a few quick snaps even at slow shutter speeds and get sharp photos. But if you've ever spent hours on an assignment or shooting an event, the constant handholding of your gear and general body fatigue throughout the day can slowly make getting sharper images harder and harder.
More and more photographers are starting to also add video work to their services, and while there are certainly some similarities between the two, it's important to understand the differences and unique requirements of video. This great video will show you five of the most common mistakes photographers make when they first undertake video work.
Got a gimbal for Christmas? I didn't, but I'm not bitter about it at all. In fact, I'm so happy for you that I thought I'd share this video by The Slanted Lens to help you on your way to getting some smooth, cinematic shots.
Filmmaking requires a lot of forethought and discipline to stay organized. For those of us interested in recording our toes dipping into the proverbial water, it's a good idea to learn to storyboard. In this video, photographer Iz Harris breaks down her simple process for those new to the concept.
When it comes to outdoor portrait lighting, does size really matter? In this article, you will discover a few reasons why size is important on your next outdoor portrait lighting photo shoot.
While it is true that a photo or design element is instantly copyrighted the moment it’s created, there are still a few good reasons to update your copyright on your website and within your metadata in photos at the start of a new year.
When you make the big leap of faith and decide to turn your passion for photography into a business, one of the most difficult tasks is working out how much to charge for your services. Whatever it is, you should never make this mistake.
The five-in-one reflector is one of the first accessories any photographer should own, and it's something you'll likely hang on to throughout your career, as it proves itself endlessly useful and versatile. This great video shows the wide range of different looks you can achieve using a single light and reflector.
You’ve covered your bases for that ever elusive amazing sunset shot: you’ve checked the time for sunset, mapped the exact location of the sun, and have composed a few frames so you know what to do when you get to the location. But what about the location itself?
Just after Christmas can be a great time to grab yourself some photography related bargains. Follow these crucial tips to save thousands of dollars and stay safe online.
Second shooting is a great way to gain experience and fill out unbooked weekends, but there are a lot of things you can do to maximize your returns.
When beginning to work with video, many new learners will struggle with choosing the correct frame rate for their projects. In this quick, but information-packed video, Gerald Undone guides us visually through what the different frame rates look like and gives suggestions on how to mix them.
With product photography and videography, capturing the details is very important. You don't need a ton of space to capture some amazing video clips of various products; see how you can get epic clips right in your home!
Nathaniel Dodson of Tutvid brings us another lesson in Photoshop mastery, as he flies through a portrait edit lickety-split. If you're a little green to editing portraits, however, you might want to view this video a few times, because the methods are widely used.
Color toning is one of those finishing touches that can add a lot of personal style and elegance to a photo. This great tutorial will show you how to quickly and effectively color tone an image.
When you're new to lighting, the veritable plethora of principles, terms, and techniques can be a bit overwhelming, but there are a few fundamental principles that you should absolutely learn to ensure your understanding is secure. This great video talks about one of those principles.
Chromatic aberration and color fringing can often be overlooked, or simply dismissed as an unavoidable issue with lenses used. However, if you're one who would like an effective way of removing that from your shots in post production, this tutorial is meant just for you.
If you've ever found yourself in an impromptu situation where you knew you could get a really cool shot if you just had a little bit of extra light, the techniques in this video might knock your socks off with their simplicity and creativity.
Sam Abell is one of the most famous American photographers of the 20th century, particularly known for his frequent work for National Geographic. This awesome full-length documentary will teach you vast amounts about what it means to take a photograph.
The Sigma 40mm f/1.4 Art is such a ridiculous lens. Whenever I've thought about 40mm lenses I thought about the Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 pancake lens. I'm sure many of us have owned one of these lenses; it's actually pretty good. The tiny form factor, relatively fast autofocus speeds, and great image quality. Obviously, this lens was just too small for Sigma.
Last year, Fstoppers produced a tutorial with Monte Isom, which has helped numerous photographers including Gregg Shipman. In this video, Shipman details how he earned an extra $31,000 in just one photoshoot using the knowledge gained in the tutorial.
December can be a trying time for photographers running a business. As business slows down, discouragement can creep in. Luckily, however, January is around the corner, which means a new beginning and new goals for a new year.
One of the greatest challenges that we have as photographers is to try to show a three-dimensional world in only two dimensions. That missing dimension, depth, can only be implied. There are many ways to create a feeling of depth. Lighting and composition are two, but my favorite is using what I call dimensional framing.
In an effort to please everyone, setting expectations and educating your clients is something that creatives often shy away from. But why not create a shiny little brochure to educate your wedding clients?
As photographers, it is often incredibly simple to just stay in your safe lane and stick to photos. I know people that have been photographing for years and never once touched the video function on their DSLR. They are intimidated by it. But adding video to your marketable skills is far simpler than you may think, and with today’s rapidly changing landscape, it’s an incredible tool to add to your repertoire.
I'm sure we've all been guilty of over-processing our images from time to time. Have you made any of these six mistakes yourself?
Everyone wants to be a better photographer. Whether you're just starting out or are an established veteran, we're always wanting to be better at our craft. Today's video has some accessible tips for improvement that anyone can put into practice right away.
Shooting and editing photo sessions can be time consuming and altogether frustrating if you don't have a streamlined system. Here, a seasoned pro gives away some great tips for shaving time and frustration from your workflow.
When you're shooting with strobes onto a plain backdrop, one of the most common problems you're likely to encounter is a shadow from your subject on the background. This helpful video will show you how to deal with this situation.
Cleaning up sensor dust, hot pixels, acne, or other particulate distractions that can manifest themselves in your photographs can be frustrating and tedious. Fortunately for you Adobe users, Lightroom has done its best to try and make that as easy and simple as possible.
Managing your color is one of the most subtle yet important aspects of creating consistently top-notch images. This helpful video will show you how to keep your colors consistent from the shoot to the edit.
Postproduction for photographs, in our digital age, seems to be a never ending topic particularly since cameras and choices of software are always improving with ever better capabilities. When taking digital negatives and processing them for a completed product, techniques like high dynamic range processing can allow for more creative control of an image, which is precisely what this tutorial covers.
