When you're working with models (or anyone really), there are certain things you should keep in mind, both to make the shoot go smoothly and successfully and to ensure that proper boundaries are established and everyone involved feels comfortable and respected. Here are five dos and don't of photographing models.
If you shoot photos on a professional level, there’s a chance you also shoot video. If you shoot video, there’s a chance you edit. And if you edit, there’s a good chance you have to work with audio at some point. But, it may not be something you know a lot about, especially if you are just getting started with editing video.
Albert Watson. Legend. Period, end. With a career spanning five decades and multiple iconic images, his career in fashion and portraiture would be the aspiration of any budding photographer. Alongside Irving Penn and Richard Avedon, PDN recognized him as one of the twenty most influential photographers of all time. And in a new video by Profoto, the man whose subjects have ranged from Alfred Hitchcock to Kate Moss, discusses his approach to lighting, photography, and life.
Usually, people preach long lenses for portraiture. They can give you strong bokeh and they don't distort faces. But what makes an appealing portrait? Perfection? Admittedly, you can't rule out anything. Perfection in portraiture is desirable, but mostly as a base requirement. Perfection can only take you so far. What is certain is that when looking at portraiture we are looking for something to hang on to. We are looking for something that we can relate to and engage with.
Shallow focus was the go-to for us all when we first got our DSLRs that could shoot video. It looked so beautiful, and to a certain degree, it even looked professional. For a while. It was overused, and at some point, if your video consisted of only shallow focus, it was the determining factor to show whether you were a pro DSLR filmmaker or an amateur. But, it certainly has it's place, and the Nerdwriter shares how and why “The Handmaid's Tale” used it in this video.
Color plays such an important role in photography and video. It sets the mood, creates the atmosphere, and leaves the viewer with an emotional impression of what they experienced. "Game of Thrones" is most likely one of the most watched series of the past few years. It has dragons, medieval-style characters, a wall, wars, and superb actions scenes and special effects. Vox analyzed every season by playing each episode back and taking a screenshot every 10 seconds.
A sharp, well-defined jawline is a very popular look in portraits that can really increase the interest of your images and draw the viewer's eye to your subject. This video will show you how to achieve that look with a few quick adjustments in just one minute.
Thomas Heaton is a landscape photographer based in the United Kingdom and has grown exponentially in popularity since gaining steam on his YouTube channel in the early part of 2016. While known for giving a great professional insight into the world of professional photography, he’s also a great educator on handling yourself in the outdoors. In his latest video, Heaton goes through the entire contents of his hiking backpack and explains each items utility and how it fits together as a system.
The "Orange and Teal" look is immensely popular for videos of all shapes and sizes, from YouTube travel videos to Hollywood blockbusters. It not only adds depth and color contrast to a shot but also gives footage a pleasing, warm golden hour look and feel. In this video, PremiereGal demonstrates how you can easily add this color grade to your video in Adobe Premiere Pro without plugins or look up tables (LUTs).
Many digital photographers appreciate the look of film, but don't own the necessary equipment to shoot it, whether that is due to the hassle or the cost. There are many ways to mimic the look in post-production, however, and this great tutorial will show you such methods to do it.
We all love a good composite, don't we? C'mon! You're probably going "No! They're all fake. It's all Photoshop, therefore it should be easy and shouldn't be a genre of photography at all! While some bad composites do exist, why not look at the other side of Dali's surrealistic, time-melting deserts and analyze the way it makes you feel when you study these types of images? How about we dive into the rabbit hole head first and find out what it takes to create a composite image?
So I'm just going to come right out of the gates swinging and put it out there; dedicated Facebook business pages are not relevant anymore. The year is 2017 and Facebook has evolved into one of the most efficient advertising machines out there, giving users the opportunity to spend money at every glance. In doing so, it has become the same old commercial that everyone hates and has destroyed the need for a Facebook business page at all.
The Fstoppers community is brimming with creative vision and talent. Every day, we comb through your work, looking for images to feature as the Photo of the Day or simply to admire your creativity and technical prowess. In 2017, we're featuring a new photographer every month, whose portfolio represents both stellar photographic achievement and a high level of involvement within the Fstoppers community.
Camera bodies and lenses are factory calibrated by default, but sometimes they require further adjustments to achieve better results when focusing. With the Nikon's AF fine tune feature on supported models, you can manually make precise adjustments to fix any focusing problems.
Los Angeles photography studio Kremer Johnson has come up with a unique idea for their latest personal project. The series features such impressive portraits you will immediately think you should know the subject. The thing is you don't; the photos are just that well done. All the models are simply people who responded to a Craigslist ad titled "Characters Wanted," agreeing to be compensated $20/hour for their time. I reached out to Neil to find out more about this brilliant idea.
Have you ever looked through someone's Instagram account and noticed that all of their images seemed to have a consistent color palette or style about them? If you've ever wondered how that is possible, give this video a watch. Sean Tucker dives into the details of how and why some creatives choose to present a consistent style, and then he goes on to process a small set of photos to show how it can be done.
When we think of landscape photography, we likely don't think of driving rain and 50 mph winds. But just because the weather isn't all blue skies and mild air doesn't mean we shouldn't be out there with a camera, braving the elements.
With a little work, it's possibly to create fairly convincing lens blur using Photoshop. This tutorial will show you just how to do just that.
The Nikon D850 has more people excited about its release than any other camera for quite some time. With a plethora of features and a wickedly competitive price point, it looks to be quite possibly the most complete all-around camera ever released. This hands-on first look examines if that translates well in real-world usage.
Do you have images or films that are sitting on your file servers and nobody, except for your team and the client, knows you did them? Even if you don't, you will eventually have a few some day. How would you handle such requests to not publish images and can you take any advantage of that?
Where did you watch the eclipse? I thought I had a pretty good view, standing on a 180-foot terrace overlooking a forest with the city skyline in the background. It turns out that was nothing compared to the view from the perspective of space.
When I was starting out as a professional photographer, I felt I had to be all things to all people. Any work that came in, no matter what genre of photography, how boring or bizarre, I said yes. If a company came to me with a request and they said they couldn't afford my quote, I'd bend myself in to unnatural shapes to accommodate them, because some money is better than no money, right? I eventually came to the conclusion that this was unsustainable and I began to say no and to quote those awful click-bait titles, you'll never guess what happened next.
Lets face it, even days after the total eclipse over the United States, people are still completely enthralled by the celestial event. Hundreds of thousands took to the sky on August 21st, 2017 and witnessed the rare occasion, and of course many photographers took advantage of the day. We’ve seen some incredible images come out of the event (check out Top 10 Solar Eclipse Photos Found Around the Web).
There is such a variety of plugins these days it is hard to know which ones are the most useful. Each user will find ones that work better for their own needs, however, these few choices here are perfect for everyone using Lightroom at any capacity.
It's quite common to shoot photo sessions in unimpressive locations; it goes with the territory when shooting on-the-go and outside of a studio. Fortunately, we have options to help us transform boring locations into beautiful backdrops, and it’s easier than you think. Making simple light modifications and quick edits in post can mean the difference between creating average imagery versus creating imagery that impresses your clients.
In order to evolve as photographers, we need to keep making pictures and push our personal and professional boundaries. Stagnation can be one of the most demotivating situations to experience, as a photographer and as a human being. On a day off, AKA the freelancer's life, with nothing more to do than reading, watching tv shows or browsing the web, it can be difficult to motivate yourself to get up and do something productive. (Of course, slow times are important, but I'm sure you know what kind of days I am talking about.)
I still remember the first time I heard the word. Senior year of high school. Sitting lazily squeezed into a metallic desk-chair combination unwillingly decorated with the carvings of amateur graffiti artists from years past. The boisterous post-recess classroom went quiet as my favorite teacher, and apparently everyone’s favorite teacher, Mrs. Wallace entered the room. With an ever-present sense of flair, she strode to the chalkboard and wrote out eight letters in big bold type. P-A-R-A-D-I-G-M. I didn’t know what it meant. Heck, I didn’t even know how to pronounce it. But, in that moment, I was introduced to not only a new piece of vocabulary, but given a dynamic tool to develop as an artist, and as a person.
Color casts are one of the most common issues you'll have to tackle when editing photos. Unfortunately, the fix isn't always as simple as adjusting the white balance and/or tint, as casts may appear at varying intensities in different areas and luminosity ranges of your image. This helpful video shows you a more advanced way to tackle them.
Perhaps one of the most fundamental skills a filmmaker needs to have down pat is the ability to focus well. This gets all the trickier when you or the subject are moving. This helpful video will show you four ways to keep your subject in focus and walk you through various scenarios to show you which method works best in each situation.
As I wrote in my previous article, 3DLUT Creator is a magnificent piece of software for color grading, and it has become an essential part of my coloring processes both for video and still work. There are now more buying options for those who don't need all the extra features that some might. Meet the Grading Edition.
Vincent Munier is a Nikon ambassador, but more importantly, he’s probably one of the best animal and wildlife photographers. He’s photographed quite a few subjects in his career, but shooting the snow leopard in its environment was an exceptional project. It's one that Nikon supported and we now can enjoy through this beautiful video.
Google recently demonstrated research that makes the process of identifying and removing watermarks from images automatic, which would obviously introduce a huge problem for stock agencies. Luckily, they also showed an easy solution for protecting the images.
The Liquify Tool is one of the most powerful features of Photoshop, with abilities that can subtly or vastly alter the structure of features in your image (and not just those on humans). Just like any powerful tool, though, it takes a bit of finesse and know-how to get the best results, and this helpful video will give you that knowledge.
Lightroom is a nuanced application full of controls, sections, subcontrols, subsections, sub-sub- well, you get my point. One of the least often examined tabs is buried at the bottom of the Develop Module: the Camera Calibration tab. This video gives a helpful explanation of exactly what that tab controls.
Instagram has been a strong tool for many photographers and creatives around the world for nearly seven years, but many still get confused by all the small details you sign yourself up for. The terms of service for many social platforms are a daunting and simple to bypass when clicking to sign on for the first time. Take this as a simple reminder: you want to make sure to at least read through the major bullet points before joining any social platform, as you are signing yourself up for a lot more than you think. Control of who you follow and unfollow could be one of those things you bypass.
I find it interesting how often I see new photographers make the exact same editing mistakes I made when I started out. Every photographer who has at least a few years of experience can look back at some of their first sessions and find a number of things that they continually did wrong. I recently took a look at some sessions from my first year of photography, as well as asking a few other photographers to do the same, and continually found the same common issues.
When first getting started, photographers often become mesmerized but also overwhelmed by the sheer scope of learning they must do to figure out all the various new gadgets and doohickeys that they have recently acquired. Usually, this focus tends to be towards more expensive photo-related tools, while some of the seemingly trivial tools end up being cast aside with the thought that they simply aren't worth the effort and can't possibly be all that important. When I was first getting started I wish someone had given me a good shake and simply told me to spend a few dollars and pick up the following tools as they would be invaluable for the indefinite future.
DaVinci Resolve is a fantastic tool and has everything most videographers need to create perfect looking videos. However, the playback can be a bit slow and thus make the whole workflow a pain. But there is a one-click solution that will make your life much better. When I found out about it, my editing process became much faster.
Amongst the drones available on the market in 2017, the DJI Spark is surely not amongst the top ones in terms of files quality. The sequences it creates are quite difficult to color grade in postproduction and thus it makes it hard for videographers to mix the clips with footage from another camera. However, there are ways to improve what you can get out of Spark’s videos. Casey Faris gives us one of the tricks he uses to maximize the dynamic range of the images.
Ring lights used to just be a fun type of portrait lighting style, but now are becoming more and more popular for YouTubers and vloggers who need a soft, even light on their face for a camera that sits close to them. Caleb Pike from DSLR Video Shooter is a self-proclaimed do-it-yourself enthusiast, and made this tutorial on how to make a light that is similar to a ring light, but creates a triangle shape instead of a circle.
The ability to create images with powerful composition is one skill that separates great photographers from good ones. If you photograph weddings or anything involving outdoor portraiture, keeping these three tips in mind will help you to create strong compositions wherever you go.
The idea of discounting our work is something most of us don’t even want to consider. We’ve spent a ton of time honing our skills and have more invested into our work than the consumer can possibly understand. That’s why mini-sessions are perfect — if you have the time.
There are many things that go into the final mood of an image. My intention was to have a California-like warm sun with a heading-to-the-beach kind of feel for this car photo. The challenge was that I had to shoot it in the high desert. We have pine trees and some lakes, but the ocean is far away. So we found a windy road heading down to one of the small lakes and planned out our session.
Anker, a company known for their chargers, battery banks, and cables also produces a series of affordable and compact solar chargers. These devices, when combined with large mAh battery banks and various USB chargers, can be used to charge just about any electronic device, keeping a photographer up and running no matter how far they may travel.
Most of the successful photographers and videographers that I know are effective at constructing a plan and making it a reality. And for the most part, this works, and when it doesn’t they usually have a backup plan. This is the base expectation for most people that have actually put time into developing their career. If you've worked long enough, you know that the odds are pretty great that things won’t go exactly as planned, so you prepare for that. But what I find is overlooked so often is not necessarily the forethought to make a Plan B but the forethought to consider how you will handle yourself when things inevitably go wrong.
There seems to be a surprising amount of contention relating to whether or not you should watermark your images. Some people are adamant that yes, you absolutely need to put your stamp, so to speak, on images that you're putting out there online. Other people feel that a watermark is tacky, or that somehow it's presence cheapens the quality of the image that it has been applied to. As I have found with most things in life, context is king when it comes to watermarks.
In part two of our Micro Four-Thirds lens guide, we focus on some of the best telephoto lens options. The 2x crop factor of this format offers photographers and videographers some seriously impressive reach which is compact and affordable compared to full-frame alternatives.
You really are spoiled for choice when it comes to posing female subjects in your photographs. Working with males, on the other hand, can be a little more limiting, as a lot of the shapes which look great on the fairer sex don't always translate over so well. Use these key fundamentals when trying to get the best out of your male subjects even if they are not models.
When I first discovered ShootProof, I loved it. The idea of handling all of my file delivery as well as print sales from an online platform easily through my website was just amazing. But after a good amount of time, I grew frustrated with a couple flaws in their system that were deal-breakers for me. I then switched over to Pixieset and haven't looked back. Pixieset isn't near the giant that ShootProof is (yet), but ShootProof could take a few lessons from the up-and-comers.
Living in the live music capital of Texas, there is no shortage of opportunities to experience incredible shows while taking some memorable shots. Capturing the excitement can be tricky, however, as dim lighting and moving subjects don’t usually play well together. Here are some tips for making the most of your next concert.
