When looking at lighting, you have a lot of choices with companies like Profoto, Broncolor, Elinchrom, Paul C. Buff, Godox, and others. Have you asked yourself if the lights from those companies fit how and where you shoot? Does it makes sense to buy that $2,000 strobe or would a couple cheap speedlites achieve your vision?
No, I don't mean car chases, transforming CG robots, and explosions. I'm talking about small budget videos and films that sometimes require a lot more investment than you or your clients might think.
Adobe Photoshop is incredibly complex. In such vast software, there are options you would likely never find on your own. Here are five hidden gems that you might not yet know about.
Running a photography business and gaining new clients is exciting, but sometimes clients have unreasonable requests. Here’s how to respond to a client when you have to tell them “no.”
As creatives, many times it is hard to place focus on organization rather than creating images. Without organization your life can become chaotic and disruptive to your workflow. A few tips to help take back your space and your sanity could mean the difference between booking or losing your next client.
Transforming one image look into a LUT can be a daunting process for people who don’t know much about LUTs (Lookup Tables). According to this video, Picture Instruments came up with something easy to help you give any of your pictures or footage the look of another image.
In photography, like any art, you tend to experience ups and downs when it comes to your satisfaction with your work and ability to produce quality, innovative images. This great video examines why things may not be going your way and what you can do about it.
Wouldn't it be great traveling the world and taking pictures for a living? Famed National Geographic Photographer Susan Seubert discusses her career in a recent TEDx talk.
Do you ever feel like you are swimming upstream, trying to keep all of the facets of your busy schedule together as a freelance photographer? There are countless articles, blogs, and books about how to separate your work and free time to improve job satisfaction and productivity, but the secret is not about improving your work-life balance, it’s about ignoring the perception of a work-life balance altogether.
Freckles. Some people remove them and some people chose to enhance them. In this quick Photoshop tutorial, learn the easiest way to bring out the freckles in your subjects and create more dynamic portraits.
Composite photography can seem overwhelming, particularly when trying to tell a story and using photographic elements from different locations. Let me break down how I created this narrative piece to provide some helpful insight.
There is nothing quite as heartbreaking as the actual moment when your creativity is quashed. There are lots of culprits that can lead up to that moment, but I find that it's often traceable to a single action (or inaction) by another party.
Golden hour is great and all, but if you limit your outdoor portrait times to those narrow windows during the day, you're going to quickly be frustrated by the limitations. Learning to shoot outside with flash is an essential skill, and this great video will introduce you to it.
In the evolving world of photography lighting, it can be challenging to know which lights and modifiers are best suited for maximum impact in different places and situations.
When getting into videography, the most challenging part tends to be the sound, especially for us photographers. With the latest Adobe Premiere Pro update, auto-ducking has been brought from Audition to make transitions between audio clips smoother and easier than ever before.
2018 is certainly well underway. It’s getting toward the time of year where we start to let our goals slip. In the UK, summer has arrived and it's far more appealing to sit in a beer garden than it is to lock yourself away at your desk.
Most of my food photography is lit with only one light source and after a few years of taking a special interest in shooting food and drink, I know exactly where I want the light to be and why.
Whether you're shooting your favorite dish to add something casual to your Instagram or Facebook account and still want it to fit the aesthetics of the rest of your photography work, or you're trying to get started in food photography, here are a few tips from Jacs Powell, a food photographer and a "foodie at heart."
You can make it look like two people are sitting with their backs to opposite sides of the same wall. It allows you to transport your audience to a different place in a fun way. This video from Mango Street shows how they did it and shares a tutorial on how you can too.
I take my camera with me on my daily commute. I don't like seeing a shot and not being able to take it, or having to take it with my phone. I've got scenes in the metro, of the city life, and the shapes of the Hausmannian architecture that makes Paris, Paris. This video provides great tips on composing when you're in the city.
For the past few years, I have been getting more and more into video work. When I first started, I had an idea of what frame rate was and I knew how to use it to get the looks I wanted but by no means was I doing anything correctly until probably late last year. In this video, Matt goes over frame rates and a few reasons why you should shoot in different ones.
Achieving soft, directional light outdoors can be difficult. Sure, you can use an overcast day for soft, natural light, but often, this will not give you the most flattering light on your subject's face. In this video, we use my largest light modifier to see how you can turn an overcast day into a professional looking catalog image.
Posing is an art and technique that must be honed. Many photographers may feel they're in a rut with posing or that their routine is lacking. Here are a few reasons why your posing may seem lackluster.
When it comes to landscape, travel, and outdoor photography it has become relatively easy to see an amazingly beautiful photo taken in a specific location, show up, and capture it for yourself. This video demonstrates seven ways a professional landscape photographer goes about using composition to achieve his personal take on the beautiful locations he visits.
Something all photographers have to deal with on a daily basis is how to price their professional work. It’s something that’s not easy to quantify, and each job is usually a different monster requiring its own unique budget.
As a wedding photographer, it's not always easy to find balance between the style of work you're genuinely passionate about and the type of work that pays the bills. So, how can you shoot personal projects to improve your professional photography work?
If you're new to Photoshop (or even a seasoned user), you may not have worked with Smart Objects before. They're a very useful feature of the program, and this great video will teach you the difference between them and their counterpart, raster objects.
Videography can be a tricky area to traverse with a constant push and pull between expensive equipment and cheap alternatives. This video gives you three tips on how you can create smooth and cinematic shots, but without using a gimbal or slider.
Sometimes, it's fun to leave the tripod at home, forget about technical perfection, and just go for a walk with your camera. This fun video will show you some easy ways to make interesting and different photos that should get your creativity flowing.
Most photography tutorials understandably focus on how you can improve your work while you have a camera in your hand. However, this video focuses on two exercises you can do anytime, anywhere, even if your camera isn't with you.
I've recently started getting more familiar with Capture One, though I, like many others, used to feel a little intimidated by the interface and enjoyed the comfort zone I could edit in with Adobe programs. This great video shows you how to get started with the program.
We all have to start somewhere. Taking on that first job can be very intimidating, so here are some tips to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible.
Photographers always find themselves obsessed with exciting toys like camera bodies and lenses but it is often the overlooked items that can make the biggest impact on a shoot. When packing your camera bag always try to find space for a few invaluable tools to common challenges during any shoot. Below you will find some of my favorite little lifesavers that join me every time I shoot.
These aren't quick tips about a neat technique or trick. These five tips are for anyone who is in photography for the long haul, whether you're a passionate amateur or looking to make it your career.
In the digital world it may almost seem as though selling albums or wall art would be a thing of the past. The majority of clients will want to post their session to social media and go about their day. As photographers, it is up to us to educate the client about the importance of having a physical piece of art as well as the right type of art for their home.
It’s a simple tip, but rewards you with more compelling images. Are you paying close enough attention to the details?
While the performance of Adobe Lightroom is an on-going controversial topic, it is still one of the major tools for many photographers when it comes to image processing. According to some, the Lightroom workflow is a bit tricky, and users might be limited to perform some actions, as with changing the effect of the pre-built presets. Ben Jacobsen shares his seven time-saver tricks that also overcome some general problems with Lightroom.
In this short video, Colin Smith at PhotoCAFE comes through once again with an easy way to improve the look of your photographs using gaussian blur in Photoshop. The tip itself is worthwhile, but his "bonus" tip is the key to making it really work.
The biggest hurdle faced by many budding portrait photographers is the need to find amazing subjects to collaborate with. Reaching out to and communicating with models can be intimidating, but it really shouldn't be, as it can very easily lead to a very rewarding collaborative shoot for both parties.
It’s time to get involved in protecting your copyrights if you’re a photographer based in the USA. The H.R. 3945 CASE Act is a piece of legislation that has been winding its way through Congress since October 2017, and it would allow photographers to better protect and defend their copyrights, but it needs your help!
In the first year or so of learning how to edit images, photographers are completely bombarded by information regarding the dos and don’ts for what makes a good photo. This is one area of post-processing that continues to be misinterpreted.
Most clients today look at a digital portfolio rather than a printed book. Granted, the higher up the ladder you go, the more it leads toward print, but for the vast majority of us trying to make a living from photography, digital is king. Here are some tips on how to get bookings from your website.
If you haven’t taken the time to create presets for editing your photos, you need to. Here is a complete guide to creating and organizing your own presets in Lightroom.
What started as an innocuous trip to the craft store ended with myself and a model sitting in my studio with tears running down our faces. I shouldn’t say that it ended there, though, because the first session of A Woman’s Soul was only the beginning of a month-long process of emotional vulnerability, bravery, and change.
I don’t use Adobe Lightroom. I use Bridge and Photoshop to retouch my client’s and my own images. Here are some tips and advice on how to use certain tools in Photoshop to get the best out of your work.
Getting ready for your next trip? Travel is hard enough as a tourist, but as a nomadic photographer, a lot can go wrong. Whether the plane runs out of overhead storage or you’re in a car crash, solid packing will help you to comfortably face the unexpected so you can shoot from dawn till twilight, then change plans last minute with as little inconvenience as possible. Here are some techniques that have helped me nail ultralight packing to travel indefinitely as a nomadic photographer—or skip to the end for my one bag packing list!
Along the lines of my "it's not about the gear" principle that I believe in so much nowadays (believe me, it took years to drum that into my head), this is a quick tutorial on how to use an IKEA lampshade for an unusually simple product photography setup and covers both the shooting and the retouching for the example photos.
Being able to change colors in post can give you a lot of creative control and save a headache when shooting. One difficulty, however, is changing anything that's white. In this video, you'll learn you how to do that quickly and easily.
The first time I shot in this style was accidental to be honest. I'd love to say it was an artistic epiphany but sadly the truth of the matter is that I was too darn lazy to close the windows. However when I took the test shot, I realized I absolutely loved the effect! To think that I was rewarded for my lazine...err....creative moment of clarity!
Everyone wants to bring in money with client work, but not setting aside time for personal projects can be detrimental your growth as an artist, and to the bottom line. Here are three reasons you should always schedule personal projects.
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