Why Great Photographers Have Short Memories
Sometimes the lessons learned as a child are the most useful as an adult. Even if they were lessons to forget.
Sometimes the lessons learned as a child are the most useful as an adult. Even if they were lessons to forget.
Planning a photography trip to Europe? It’s tempting to rely on public transit for city hopping, but as a landscape photographer, it’s rarely an option. Luckily, renting a car is incredibly affordable if you do some research.
As professional photographers, we spend a great deal of time in post-production making our images look their best. Sometimes, we spend too much time there. So, let’s look at five quick tips to keep your Lightroom workflow efficient and effective.
During that important pre-consultation with a client, most likely, she will ask to see an entire session. They have seen your amazing images on social media, but usually just one or two from a session. If you only show a few images from each set, how does your client know if those just weren't the best of the best?
Presets are one of the most useful ways to both ensure greater consistency across your edits and to speed up your workflow. This helpful tutorial will show you how you can create your own sets of presets in Lightroom in no time.
Making men pose can be an uphill task, especially the groom on his wedding day. This is where a little pre-planning can come in handy. This video from Vanessa Joy of Adorama TV throws light on a few quick techniques.
Regardless of what genre of photography someone is looking to get into, most new photographers have a similar question in mind: what are the essential pieces of gear do I need for photography? The answers vary depending on what you plan the genre of photography you plan to enter. If you are looking to venture into landscape photography, this might be the list for you.
A lot of us like a bit of lens flare in our photos as a stylistic choice, but once it reaches J.J. Abrams levels, it can be a bit distracting. This helpful tutorial will show you how to remove it from a photo, particularly when it lands on your subject's face.
Wide-angle lenses are among the most difficult lenses to use in photography and videography. The wider you go, the more difficult they become to handle. Let’s talk today about how to make the best use of wide and ultra-wide lenses.
Many of the reflectors available today come with a few different colored panels that can create slightly different results in portrait photography. Compare the looks with this quick educational video.
When you are starting out in photography, establishing a retouching workflow is one of the best things you can do. This video provides 10 steps to become a better retoucher and gives a helpful order to take when editing your work.
The most stressful part of a photography trip starts before takeoff: booking and travel logistics. Since my first international trip 4 years ago, I’ve learned several booking strategies to minimize stress and maximize bang for buck.
Inalbeo Color grading puts the finishing touches on an image and can transform a plain photo into a striking one. The Inalbeo Filmic and Inalbeo Grade Photoshop extensions offer two options for photographers to grade images.
When you're first starting with artificial lighting, I think it's generally best to get comfortable with one light first, then move up to increasingly complex designs. This great and quick video will show you five different looks you can get from one light source.
Your bags are packed and you're heading to an amazing national park to capture lakes surrounded by mountains or secluded sand dunes towering hundreds of feet in the air. What are the best lenses for your soon-to-be epic photography trip?
Being able to automate repetitive parts of a retouching workflow in Photoshop directly translates into a saving of both time and money. This saving could make the all the difference in meeting or missing a deadline or making it home early to see your family. How can you make it a reality? Actions are certainly one option however they are severely limited to straight repetition of the original steps. Scripting is actually the answer that you have been looking for. Think of scripts as intelligent actions on steroids.
In our age of social media saturation and fast-paced tutorials with loud intros and even louder personalities, it's important to remind one self to breath at least once in a while. This video — which outlines some meaningful reasons for slowing down — was very close to the bone for me.
You know that you have a spent a significant amount of time in Photoshop when you have a collection of keyboard shortcuts that have become second nature for you to use. This video introduces five more that are incredibly effective but are new to most photographers.
When making Stories for Instagram, it's not always ideal to chat straight into the camera, and speaking while presenting a single photograph or a webpage that you've created can be fiddly. These simple tricks make the process a lot easier, and simplifying the workflow, making it more enjoyable.
Shooting during Golden Hour isn’t just for landscape photography. In this behind-the-scenes video you’ll get some great ideas and see how lens flares and using the setting sun can be great for shooting people too.
Approaching people on the street for photographs can seem incredibly uncomfortable, but as this short video proves, overcoming that fear and creating portraits of complete strangers can be incredibly satisfying and make for some fantastic images.
Are you in a creative rut in photography and need inspiration on how to improve your images, particularly your portraits of people? This video offers five suggestions on how to improve your photos immediately.
Got a minute to spare? Learn how to quickly and easily enhance your subject's hair using Photoshop from this helpful tutorial.
In the technological age of social media, the term “street photography” is often overused and misrepresented. PDN recently interviewed three veteran photographers about what their definition of street photography is, and misconceptions about the art.
Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro, there seem to be a number of stock lines we hear over and over about the craft and technique of photography and making a career of it, but just because we hear them, it doesn't make them true. Here are five lies about being a photographer.
While drones are easy to get off the ground, it’s another story to shoot cinema quality looking footage. In this video, Matti Haapoja highlights a couple of maneuvers you must master to create the best aerial videos possible.
When it comes to camera lenses, tilt-shifts are a bit of an odd variety that can be intimidating when you first come upon them. This helpful video will introduce you to tilt-shift lenses, how they work, and why they're a great tool for many photographers.
Photography dreams can come true, and for Adam Coppola, that’s just what happened this year when he opened his newly completed photography studio. I had an opportunity to tour Coppola's newly completed dream studio a few weeks ago.
It's that time of year when the sky is alight with exploding colors, and it's a great time to break out your camera and take it to your local fireworks show. This helpful video will give you lots of tips for getting the best possible shots of fireworks.
Photography is a lot of fun, but it can also be a very lonely journey filled with worry and self-doubt. It is important to surround yourself with other like-minded artists and people who inspire you and that you can learn from.
By now, you’ve probably started a small collection of miscellaneous things you always carry with your photography gear when out shooting. To up your game and be prepared for the scenarios you haven’t thought of yet, check out this exhaustive list of stuff you need in your camera bag.
This video isn't about mistakes like going too heavy on the saturation slider (but seriously, tone it down there). Rather, it talks about three larger mistakes that can seriously impact both your work and your career.
Dramatic black and white images are some of my favorites to create. Here is a step by step walkthrough of how I shot and edited this image in ON1 Photo Raw.
Starting your own photography business is both an exciting and scary time, and of course, you'll want to make sure you have the best business practices in place to ensure that your clients are happy and you're bringing in money. This great video will detail three mistakes to avoid with clients.
I'm sure every one of us has spent at least a four-figure amount in gear that was supposed to make our images and videos better, but in the end, it didn't. Here are a few tips that could save you a few thousand dollars.
I recently got my hands on the new Tamron 100-400mm zoom lens and wanted to try a unique portrait idea. Unfortunately, this photo idea involved wind, tides, fast moving kiteboarders, and the ocean. What could go wrong, right?
If you are an avid Fstoppers reader, you probably already know Brian Rodgers Jr. If not, he’s definitely a photographer you follow. His work is stunning and his approach to still life photography very inspiring. If you don’t believe me, this podcast will probably convince you.
In the last few years, we've seen massive changes occur in the photography industry with whole camera divisions and markets wiped out and replaced. More than likely this will continue and the photography industry is going to be vastly different in the next five years.
Mark Wallace from Adorama has produced another great video regarding light in photography. The capture of light is the most important part of photography, and in essence, the light you use will define the look of the photo and define your photographic style.
Shooting creative portraits does not always require the biggest flashes and the best softboxes. All it takes is your imagination and a basic setup.
Every model is trained is posing, but dancers take it a step in a different direction with their ability to contort, control, and push their bodies in spectacular ways. This great video will show you five tips for getting better photos when you're working with dancers.
Last week Mike Kelley and I competed to see who could create the best images of the iconic dome house in Charleston. We released the images and allowed all of you to vote to determine who won. Today, the results are in.
Anyone that has researched the best practices for gaining followers on Instagram knows that your feed and profile should follow a similar style. I absolutely hated this recommendation and came up with an alternative so I don’t feel so constricted creatively while still maintaining a curated profile.
Landscape photography is a unique genre full of all sorts of quirks and pathways to success. Whether you're new to it or a seasoned pro, this helpful video will run through a multitude of tips to improve your photos and make the experience more enjoyable.
I know, every photo backpack is the same. But the new Lowepro FreeLine BP 350 AW is probably one of the more interesting and versatile bags I’ve seen in a while.
Every four years during the summer, the sports world pauses to draw its attention to the top echelon of professional football. I decided to put together a World Cup inspired shoot, shoot some concepts I haven't done before, and give you a behind-the-scenes, education glimpse.
For many photographers, taking portraits of celebrities, athletes, and government officials seems like the pinnacle of a successful business. Sometimes, however, those jobs require an insane amount of work, risk, and safety precautions to pull off the shot. In today's Story Time With Monte Isom, we look at how Gregory Heisler captured Time's Man of the Year cover with NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani.
The repeated process of exporting images from Lightroom is something you most likely have done many times over. With that being said, if you have not already, save yourself some steps, and set up quick and easy presets.
Do you always resort to the same poses time and time again during your couples shoots? Need new poses for your arsenal? Check out these five ideas for your next couples session.
When a photographer drops a new element into a composite photograph, one of the biggest challenges is using shadows to create believable depth to the image. This video from Colin Smith at PhotoshopCAFE helps make that task easier by breaking down the process into four simple parts.