Urban lifestyle photography has seen a surge in popularity in the last 10 years, particularly with the rise of Instagram. Here, COOPH give eight tips for improving your urban lifestyle shots.
Actions and presets are incredibly useful ways of speeding up your workflow when processing photos. Instead of individually re-creating your settings for each photo in Photoshop or Lightroom, you can essentially copy and paste all your preferred adjustments. Let’s check out the differences between the two.
This past February I had the great privilege of meeting Allan Henry, general manager and the main driving force behind the up-and-coming camera bag company Atlas Packs. After our first interaction, I knew that this product and company were doing something special.
So you want to start photographing models and want some tips on how to do it? Here are some guidelines on how to make your model give their best one the shoot day.
Have you ever photographed a scene with a monitor, smartphone, or television in it and needed to swap in a better looking display image? Commercial photographers run into this all the time. Here’s how to make your composites look realistic.
Most of us know about the exposure triangle, which dictates how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO balance each other to create the total exposure. But rarely if ever do we dive deep into what exposure really is at the fundamental level. This great video will give you a fun, scientific breakdown of exposure and metering.
In the magical world of Photoshop, there are lots of different ways to change an object's color from one hue to another, but achieving a change from color to a realistic white is sometimes challenging. This video from Helen Bradley will show you one way to get quick, realistic results when changing an object from color to solid white.
Oftentimes the weather gods aren't kind to landscape photographers. It's part of the thrilling aspect of the genre. This handy video shows you how to use split toning in Lightroom to rescue your landscape images.
Every season offers different photographic opportunities, and with springtime upon us, there's a bevy of ideas and techniques to try out. This great video will show you 13 tips and ideas to get your springtime photography off to a great start.
Though the free version has some limitations, it’s one of the few free nonlinear video editors out there. Let’s take a look at DaVinci Resolve.
Composition in landscape photography is tricky business, as you don't have something like a person as an obvious subject, and you need to find harmony between numerous competing elements at vastly different distances. These two great videos will give you ten tips to improve your landscape compositions.
There are quite a lot of complaints like: "Canon won't release a 4K video camera." At the end of the day, most photographers and filmmakers publish visuals online, and most viewers watch them on sub-2K mobile devices. Here's how much resolution you truly need.
"Gear isn't everything." We seasoned pros say it all the time, but often when standing under a pair Profoto B1 flash heads, so it can be hard to swallow for some. Well, if ever you needed convincing, this might just do the trick.
Photoshop tricks and tips are like puppies and potato chips: you can never have enough of them. This helpful video will show you nine Photoshop tips and tricks in just 90 seconds.
With a basic clear tank or transparent plastic sheet, there are several creative ways to photograph water just waiting to be explored. These techniques can be as basic or intricate as you want them to be.
As a photographer or videographer, you probably have a few (dozen) cables laying around. Believe it or not, there is a proper technique to wrapping them, and it not only makes them easier to store and quickly unwrap, it helps them last longer as well, saving you money.
When it comes to shooting portraits, photographers almost always reach for an 85mm lens or even the 70 - 200 mm lens. As great as these two lenses are for portraits, they often fall short when trying to capture an environmental style photograph. In this video, I'm going to show you the most widely used lens in my camera bag and how shooting wide angle can sometimes create a better photograph than shooting telephoto.
It is the story in the picture that speaks to us. And it is very important to sharpen our storytelling skills every now and then. In this video from Chase Jarvis, Joe Mcnally steers the discussion with three quick tips that will enhance you to improve storytelling in your pictures.
In between my music and photography work, I have a lot of hard drives. But even so, I've never had one fail, until just two days ago. It went without warning: no crunching sounds, no notifications, just a red light.
The last five years has seen huge advances in the consumer videography market, and it’s all getting smaller. It's so much so that one can now carry a versatile, fully equipped, professional videography setup inside baggage small enough to carry onto a flight. Here’s how.
Photography agents are nothing new. They've been around for a long time, but since the advent of social media they seem like something we are all a lot more aware of; anyone who's anyone has an agent, right? However, there are a few misconceptions out there as to what an agent offers.
When it comes to taking a great photo, many photographers argue that it starts and ends with great composition. I’m not sure I’m so black and white in my outlook, but good composition is hugely important without a doubt. And one of the most overlooked parts of great composition is adding foreground interest. Today I will discuss how foreground interest in your photos can really improve your end results, and what you can do to nail the foreground every time.
Despite a photographer’s best efforts, there will come a time when a client is unhappy with some part of their experience, whether it’s customer service or the finished images. Since it’s bound to happen, how should a photographer handle unhappy customers? The answer is: catch them before they can be disappointed.
Every focal length has its own challenges, and when it comes to wide angle lenses, creating effective compositions can be particularly difficult. This helpful video will give you five tips for creating more compelling wide angle shots.
When you're first starting out in photography, the temptation to buy that top-of-the-line, five-dimensional autofocus, spacetime-warping camera is strong (that temptation never actually goes away), but there's a better way to go about things. This great video examines how to think about buying your first real camera.
Have you ever been curious about what it is like to work with professional models and the process of matching your talents behind a camera with an agency’s catalog of models, but never really knew where to start? Here's a great how-to about getting started with working with a professional modeling agency.
There’s a slew of backdrop options out on the market today for you to choose from. Sometimes, those options don't always fit your vision, whether because of budget or creativity. So, what do you do then? Why not make your own canvas?
Understanding how to use reflected light and negative fill are two of the most valuable lessons to learn as a photographer. Make sure you have these concepts in your photography arsenal.
What does photography mean to you? In this article, I share my story about how photography changed my life and my journey as an artist. See my ups, my downs, and see what it took me to get where I am today.
There’s infinite possibilities when it comes to photo lighting. Worry not, here’s a show-and-tell guide for many of the most popular flash modifiers.
When I spoke with photographer Anthony Manieri, he was sitting at home in the middle of editing images from a routine event before preparing to fly to Los Angeles to do another shoot for a personal project that has been more successful than he ever anticipated. He didn’t expect a one-off shoot to turn into a personal project taking him around the world creating portraits of diverse, mostly gay men to promote positive body imagery.
You're trekking across Scotland and you come up to a waterfall that's screaming to be photographed. In your mind, you already know you want that beautiful, streaky, long-exposure water. As luck would have it, you're hungry, shaky, and your tripod is enjoying a day off in your Airbnb. What's next?
If you are anything like me, the latest and constant changing Instagram and Facebook algorithm is on your last nerve. Do you recall the last time you said, "Oh cool, a new Instagram algorithm!" or anticipated positive changes coming from the social media giant?
I had originally been using a simple program called NameChanger to rename all my files before importing them to Lightroom, but ever since I realized that Lightroom had all the controls that I needed for setting up custom naming sequences for my files, this is all I use anymore. Here's how you find and use it. It's pretty simple.
These days there are a million things that you need to juggle simultaneously as a working photographer. You need to be managing your website, social media, and constantly be replying to emails. We tend to forget the actual craft of photography and most importantly telling your story with light.
There are several different methods for tethering during a photo session and there are multiple methods for organizing one’s archives. But my gradual progression to a Capture One driven universe has immensely streamlined my photography process and boosted my business.
Being connected to your devices may not always be practical for editing, especially when traveling. Smart previews can help you edit on the go but also free up your storage as well. With the WPPI conference fast approaching this is the best time to create your previews and let your external hard drives stay put at the house.
Product photography might be one of the subcategories of this business that has seen a growth in available work, thanks to all of the e-commerce opportunities. By using specific techniques, you can showcase any product in a non-conventional way to have it stand out from the rest. While most of product photography consists of an all white background, you can experiment with items available around the house to show the same item in a different light.
As a photographer, becoming a digital nomad empowers you to see the world as a native, not as a tourist. It’s helped me take better photos, boosted my creativity, and given me more time to dedicate to photography outside my day job. You don’t need to wait till you hit the road: you can start becoming a digital nomad now before you ever sell your house.
Photography is one venture that has an endless amount of opportunity and possibility. With these possibilities comes a tremendous potential for education and improvement.
Half of creating a landscape image is in the editing process. This is where you shape the photo to match your personal style and to make whatever statement or evoke whatever feeling you'd like it to. This helpful video will show you how to add depth and drama to a landscape shot using Lightroom.
Why fix it in post when you can do it right in camera? Learn how you can get a perfect exposure in camera every time!
Minimalism in any art form is a deceptively difficult thing to pull off successfully, as the increased importance of every element shrinks the line between profound and mundane to a razor's edge. Nonetheless, the practice of minimalism — even if only ars gratia artis — can be a sort artistic sieve through which a clarity of your own expression emerges.
Interested in learning some new lighting setups when using a beauty dish? I've created a video sharing five different ways that I utilize a beauty dish for my studio portrait work as well as discussing some of the benefits of each setup.
Ever wondered how people created those "impossible" photos of them sitting off the ground? Here I teach how to make a levitation photo in just under 10 minutes using some simple tricks in camera and finishing it off with Photoshop.
Photography in its pure, abstracted state is generally a happy pursuit for those who are passionate about it. In its practical implementation, there are lots of things that can make us grumpy or even disillusioned. This great videos talk about five ways to be a happier photographer.
Portrait photography can be a tricky genre, as it relies very heavily on your ability to interact with and bring the best out of the people in front of your lens, making it just as much psychology as photography. This great video will give you some tips for working with subjects as well as some helpful career advice.
Of all the focal lengths, I personally think wide-angle lenses might take the most getting used to when it comes to creating compelling imagery that takes advantage of their unique properties and avoids their pitfalls. This helpful video will give you some great tips for taking better shots with them.
In an ideal world, we’d have every aspect of our business set up correctly from the start, but that isn’t realistic. The future version of your photography and your business will be shaped by the lessons that you are learning now.
You book a commercial job and the client wants a beautiful face to grace their next ad. The client relies on you, the photographer to help with the process of hiring the model. The crew you hire rely on you to select the right candidate for their needs. That's great, right? Get the most radiant face, possibly the one with the highest social media numbers for that extra bump and you're set! Is that how it works?
