How Can You Force Yourself to Shoot Better Portraits?
I’m rubbish at taking portraits. I’m definitely better than I was, but it’s very much a work in progress. Other than shooting more, how can you make yourself improve?
I’m rubbish at taking portraits. I’m definitely better than I was, but it’s very much a work in progress. Other than shooting more, how can you make yourself improve?
Developing a photographic style that is recognized by your peers is the holy grail of photography. Here are some tips on how you can find yours.
Each niche in photography has its own requirements when it comes to post-production. In this video, I go over my process for editing images in Adobe Lightroom.
Gina Manning Photography has been working with the Bruno Magli team for two seasons now, shaping their brand and new campaign and collections visually. I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest an incredibly collaborative and artistic relationship that has led the way for us to make the art I love seeing in the world!
Godox is well known for producing affordable, high quality lights that a lot of photographers are quite fond of. The Godox V1 is their entry into the round head speedlight market, and it has captured the attention of a lot of photographers, particularly in the face of the much more expensive Profoto A1. Is it the right speedlight for you? This great review will answer that question.
You don't always need to have a complicated lighting setup to shoot high-quality images, and in fact, with a bit of ingenuity and editing prowess, you can make some very creative photos. Check out this awesome video to see how this natural light HDR portrait was shot.
A Wacom tablet is by far one of the most useful tools any photographer can have, and dodging and burning is one of the most powerful editing techniques for almost every genre. This helpful video tutorial will show you everything you need to know about using a Wacom tablet to dodge and burn using Photoshop.
Having now had the Fujifilm GFX 100 camera for a couple months now, I thought I might share a couple of the ways I’ve found most efficient for me to use the system. Perhaps some of the following tips may help you with the GFX 100 or other Fujifilm systems as well.
I guess you will have a zoom lens in your camera bag. It is a very handy tool that allows you to zoom in, and to zoom out. But you can also use it to manipulate the size of the background compared to your subject. Let me explain.
If you’re looking for a complete educational series on using flash photography from indoors to outdoors, there’s a brand new free tutorial that you need to check out!
Discussions about entry-level, mid-level, and pro-level cameras often revolve around the differences in their sensor size or resolution. However, that's just one aspect of many that separate these types of cameras. Let's take a look at the other benefits that a pro-level camera brings to the table.
I know, it’s a loaded question. Heck, it’s a loaded word, that one — good. According to whom? By what measure? Who do you think you are to criticize my work? I know. And, I agree. But I suspect there are still a few checks we can make to see if an image is headed in the right direction. Let’s look at five of them!
Fstoppers recently covered a vlog that detailed the benefits of repeatedly photographing the same location. And now we have further proof that repetition can pay off in photography, this time from the Scottish countryside.
I relish a challenge and I knew this job was going to be hard, but I had no idea how much improvisation would be required to complete this shoot and come away with images that worked for the client. Huge venue, one light, complex action, no reccy visit, and just six hours to get it all done.
We all start somewhere, and that tends to be with a nerve-racking first paying photoshoot. Here are some tips to help get you through yours.
If you are an avid instagram user, you have probably noticed that almost all professionals tether their cameras with bright orange cables to a computer, there is a lot of kit involved in this and finding all the parts can be tricky when you don't know what you are looking for.
When it comes to light modifiers, there are hundreds if not thousands of options: soft boxes, beauty dishes, grids, umbrellas, etc. After all is said and done, I truly think that I have finally found the perfect modifier.
Fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh has passed away aged 74, a post on his official Instagram announced this morning. Lindbergh was highly regarded in the industry, largely for his work throughout the 1990s with supermodels like Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss.
To a lot of photographers, the idea of spending any extra money on another raw processor is too much. But if you have the money, Capture One is worth it. Especially if you work with skin.
There are a couple of ways for models to get into an agency, including hiring a photographer to take photos of them and using those to show an agency their range. This requires the photographer to work quickly and efficiently to get as many different looks as possible in a compressed amount of time to save them money.
As a photographer, I am not someone with extensive experience in using artificial continuous light. What better way to push yourself forward than to find something you aren’t familiar with and dive in head first? Self-growth for the win!
Jumping straight into weddings as a lead photographer? Have you considered second shooting first? Find out the reasons why you should in this article!
Most portrait photographers have a preferred focal length that they tend to use for most shoots. Two of the most common focal lengths are 85mm and 135mm, and this great video compares the two to help you choose the right lens for you.
Making food look amazing on set is as much the job of the food stylist as it is the photographer and retouchers. Here are the tools that a food stylists uses to get the job done.
Today, I thought I’d take you through the sometimes agonizing process of figuring out the best way to light on location and some of the tools and techniques I use to get around the obstacles.
Lens choice affects everything about a scene in a movie. In this video for Vanity Fair, Newton Thomas Sigel explains some of the reasons why cinematographers choose wide angle, normal, and telephoto lenses.
Perhaps one of the key things that an aspiring photographer needs to learn is that the quality of light is one of the most important elements in making a great photo. Often, it's the light that makes or breaks the photo.
Taking a peek into the daily routine of a professional, photographer or otherwise, can produce some interesting sights. Every photographer’s professional life is unique, yet most of us face similar daily challenges and strive for similar successes.
The "Masters of Photography" courses are a collection of online lessons provided by, as the name implies, some of the top photographers around today. I tried their Joel Meyerowitz course to see what I could learn about street photography from one of the best in the game.
In this Behind the Scenes Video, Daniel Schiffer shows his workflow in shooting an insane cooking sequence.
If you want to get serious about video editing, I highly suggest learning to use Adobe Premiere, but if you want to edit a video as cheaply and as quickly as possible, this is the video for you. I'm going to teach you how to edit a video in 15 minutes.
As always, I get comfortable in my workflow then something new comes along that I didn't know I needed. This can of course be a good thing as long as we aren't closed minded to change. Today I'm going over an awesome new feature of the new NBP Freqsep Control update version 2.1.
Photography is a secretive business, but in this video I show you exactly what equipment I use as a professional food photographer.
We all love to drool over those beautiful, fast (and oh so expensive) f/1.2 and f/1.4 lenses. But do you really need that top shelf glass, or would you be better served by saving your money and investing in a cheaper version? This great video talks about some of the more intangible facets of lenses and why it's about more than just the widest apertures.
Weddings are a nonstop whirlwind of technical and creative challenges, and the more knowledge and tricks you can have for both categories, the better. This awesome video follows a photographer behind the scenes at a wedding and focuses on his use of off camera flash to help you learn how to quickly and effectively turn dull and drab lighting into professional images no matter where you're shooting.
I'm the first to admit I love Lightroom. Sure, it has its issues, like occasionally slow performance on good hardware and an admittedly aging interface, but I'm comfortable with it. There are a number of tasks, though, that you just shouldn't be using Lightroom for. Want to know what they are?
Sony cameras have some incredibly powerful and advanced autofocus systems with intricate settings and numerous customization options. At times, however, all those capabilities can almost be a bit overwhelming. This helpful video will show you the ideal autofocus settings for portrait shoots.
In most lenses, the center of the frame might be razor-sharp, but the corners and edges always appear a little soft. It’s something that’s been a problem for thousands of years within optical devices, with many researchers giving up hope until a recent breakthrough from a Mexican physicist, who has now developed a formula that will change how lenses are manufactured.
There will always be paid advertisement, and you can explore that. Do not forget about the possibility of free advertisement from people in your lives. Your friends and family are there to help. Getting a recommendation from your close circle serves as a powerful tool for the new photographer.
As still photography cameras and motion cameras continue to merge with technology, so have, to an extent, the expectations of our profession. No better way to prepare yourself for the future than to learn from the masters.
Adding some video production offerings to your photography workload has become pretty common for a lot of photographers. Even though a lot of the technology is transferable, not all the skills are, and shooting interviews, both in the setup and getting better dialogue, can be difficult to learn.
Whatever is your wedding photography style, inevitably, a part of your final gallery will be filled with photos of guests. So, how can we make them less dull and repetitive? How can we "wow" our clients?
Macro photography is the art/practice of photographing tiny things. If you have the spare cash, It's easy to just go out and buy a macro lens to start shooting, but in order to get those crisp, back to front, pin-sharp images, a little bit of technical know-how and computer wizardry is essential.
Many of us have either done this ourselves or have a friend that has done it. I'm talking about getting out to a location only to learn that you don't have a usable memory card or battery.
Photography is an art full of popular techniques and styles that are used and emulated by millions of photographers worldwide. Are some of those techniques overrated, though? This interesting video examines what one photographer thinks are five of the most overrated photography techniques in use today.
Before I became a photographer, I had ideas as to what the career might be like, boy was I wrong. Here is what a week as a professional photographer looks like.
It still boggles my mind that Adobe hasn't added color wheels to Photoshop in 2019. It's a tool loved by colorists and video editors, yet photographers are forced to rely solely on curves and sliders instead. Fortunately, the guys at Retouching Toolkit fixed Photoshop once again.
It is common in landscape photography (and other genres) to want to wait for the best conditions before heading out to shoot, but sometimes, that can make you miss other great shots. This awesome video talks about the importance of not becoming too reliant on conditions and instead learning to rely on your skills to make great shots.
Astrophotography can be a very tricky and specialized genre, but it is also highly rewarding when you get it right. This awesome video will walk you through the entire process from start to finish to get your first image.
In his latest video, wildlife photographer and educator Steve Perry talks about specific autofocus problems to be aware of in the field that could prevent you from getting sharp images.