With the COVID-19 lockdown in place across so much of the world, we photographers are catching up on admin and trying to figure out how to scrape any sort of income. If you don’t sell prints via your website, now’s probably a good time to get started, and this short video tells you how to avoid some basic mistakes.
For those of you with a neglected DSLR camera gathering dust on the shelf this is the perfect time to learn some new techniques, like a few basics of still-life photography. Whether you have a dusty DSLR or just a smartphone, this video has some great tips to help beat the self-isolation blues.
Considering that a fairly large portion of you may find yourself, like me, staying home due to current events, I thought it might be a nice moment to discuss one of the best ways you could be spending your time.
These are tough times, and they're likely to get tougher. The virus has been spreading quickly, affecting countries around the world and causing the cancellation of many events. This article isn’t intended to be doom and gloom or alarmist for the sake of it, but rather to help.
One of the attributes of great software is that it has multiple ways to accomplish a single task. Lightroom Classic is one of those in that it has various ways to import files.
Capturing a great street photograph during the day is hard enough, let alone at night.
One thing I love the most about my job is to be able to work with hugely talented people in my team. It’s always so inspirational to be around them and never fails to serve as an outstanding learning opportunity.
Ever wanted to correct a mistake with your exposure or try a cool post-processing technique, only to find that the results weren’t all that you’d hoped? Image data may have inadvertently been lost in your workflow. These five steps can help ensure you have the best chance for technical greatness!
Whether you’re looking to plan a perfect landscape shot to coincide with an astronomical event or just want to previsualize some potential viewpoints before a trip, there are a number of free or inexpensive apps that can help you create your best images.
Not all of us work with professional models that can turn on the natural-looking poses when the lens is bearing down on them. Whether it’s Auntie Jean or an aspiring model-to-be, some people just don’t feel comfortable in front of the camera, and this often makes for awkward-looking portraits. So, here are five tips you can use on your next photoshoot to put them at ease and take better portrait photographs.
With this 30-second check, you can ensure your images have the exact right contrast and levels, with it being particularly effective for black and white imagery.
Getting skin tones just right is a subtle but very important aspect of creating professional portraits and setting your work above that of others. Photoshop has lots of tools for working on skin tones, but if you want to keep everything in one application, this helpful tutorial will show you how to get great skin tones working solely in Lightroom.
Besides looking at tutorials and learning how to handle your camera and composition, it’s often helpful to take a look at the life of inspirational photographers. Here, you’ll find out why you should take a look at the life and work of Sebastião Salgado.
There seems to be an endless line of questions about what gear to get for landscape photography. For classic landscape photography, there are three lenses I could not do without.
The internet has sold photographers the lie that there is a profession to be had photographing models, "model photography." After reading the comments section in a recent article, I thought I would try to shed some light on the matter.
We do not always have the luxury of shooting in stunning locations, which can make it difficult to take great portraits. Nonetheless, you can still take compelling portraits even in drab locations with a little bit of know-how. This excellent video will walk you through the process as a photographer shoots in such a location.
Are you a photographer that owns a business or are you a business owner who offers photography? That realization can sometimes mean the difference between having a successful business or not. Here’s why you should stop photographing people as the sole subject of your imagery.
Being a master of your craft sometimes means taking exciting and memorable portraits in not-so-interesting locations and circumstances. Here are six simple tricks to help make your portraits more creative while removing distracting elements and creating more engagement.
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 2019, 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.
Photography websites are here to stay, despite social media's best efforts. Having a website is really affordable and simple in 2020, but there are several faux pas that could be stopping your viewers from booking you.
Having a new camera is exciting — playing around with settings and looking at the first results on your computer. It is very easy to set the exposure, and some basic settings are not difficult to find, but do you really take time to learn how your camera works?
Recently I was thinking about the year so far and noticed that my output for the year was down compared to other years. Why was this?
I have been fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of some great advice over the years. In this article, I go over the five bits that have resonated the most with me and that I think of on every shoot.
Whether you're a new photographer looking to create some interesting photos on a budget or an experienced shooter that's looking for a little out-of-the-box thinking for your photography, there are many ways to use household objects to spice up a shoot.
Being a photographer comes with perils that only fellow photographers can relate to. Here are 7 things that only photographers care about on set.
If you've found yourself wondering how you can go about using hashtags on Instagram for tagging your work, here's how I go about it. Spoiler alert: I don't overthink it, and I keep it as simple as possible.
Levels and Curves adjustments layers in Photoshop are a staple tool for any photographer who uses the software, but they aren't particularly intuitive to beginners. Here, PHLEARN give a beginner's guide to using both levels and curves.
The process of creating technically solid images can seem a bit daunting. But there aren’t actually all that many variables a photographer has to contend with, nor that many things those variables directly influence. But, as with everything, the devil is in the details.
Even if it is not your professional specialty, product photography is a great genre for any photographer to practice simply because of the lighting challenges you will encounter and the problem-solving skills you will develop. This excellent tutorial will show you how to create a great glassware shot using just two speedlights and a bit of Photoshop.
Creating an accurate selection of a subject's limbs is deceptively difficult. The edges often look sharp and easy to cut out, but that often isn't the case when you put the selection in the hands of Photoshop's AI. However, using this technique, you can accurately smooth out the ragged edges of the selection to create perfect edges and a crisp cut-out.
The concept of working for “credit” is not a new one, nor is it unique to photography. Yet, it is one of the few industries that everyone thinks should work for free.
A common challenge for many portrait photographers is shooting people in a room with very strong ambient light. This tutorial and demonstration video gives a good solution to that, as well as to the challenges of shooting in front of a mirror.
I'm not a portrait photographer, but it is one of the genres that I've been studying and practicing. This video by Chris Eyre-Walker reveals the insights of portrait photographer Ashley Joanna and illustrates the essence of portrait photography: the person in the portrait.
You've photographed a commercial client, they select several images, but want all the unedited versions for a symbolic price. Obviously, you did a good job at shooting, but what about the negotiations in that case?
If you are new to artificial lighting, you might wonder why some photographers employ complex multi-light setups for some portrait work. This great video shows you the difference between what you can accomplish with a single light setup versus using multiple lights, which will illuminate why more complex setups are often preferred.
If you shoot landscapes or anything involving scenes with a lot of depth, figuring out how to keep everything in focus can be a bit of a tricky problem. There are a few ways to go about this, but one of the most efficient ways to go about this is by using the hyperfocal distance. This great video will introduce you to hyperfocal distance and how to use it.
Social media has an infinite, universal audience. But as you define your niche, your potential audience becomes smaller and smaller. Not everyone is interested in macro photography of sand, so how do you maximize your audience? By understanding what your potential value is to your followers.
At the beginning of the year, I worked on a client job for York Fashion week with local agency NIMA and videographer Beetroot Box. The brief was to create a teaser campaign for the upcoming event.
DNG, JPEG, TIFF, PSD, PSB, and more: photographers have more options than ever for saving their files, but not every option is a good choice. Do you know the benefits of each file type and when you should use them?
Both beginner and intermediate photographers are sometimes surprised to find out just how limited a camera meter is. Understanding how the camera meter works and how you can compensate for different lighting conditions is something that can significantly improve your photography.
Shooting interviews is the bread and butter for a lot of videographers, especially those who work in the commercial sector, from in-house corporate communications and internal marketing, to brand awareness and customer testimonials. Most of these setups would require high-key or fairly neutral lighting styles, but what if the client needed more drama?
Are you more into narrative-based video production than commercial ad-based video? In this video, Studio Binder shows you how to reproduce a scene from Christopher Nolan’s Inception for a mere $310.
Some of these photographers are well known in the industry, and others are climbing the ladder of recognition, but all of them have something incredible to offer the genre of fantasy photography.
Whether you're an amateur looking to learn how to be better in a specific area of photography or a new professional looking to dominate a market, how do you know which niche you should choose?
Photoshop is a tremendously intricate and layered program, and there is a multitude of ways to accomplish any one task — some more power and efficient than others. This awesome video will give you 25 helpful tips and tricks for working in Photoshop.
Knowing where to start when you first venture into marketing your photography can be a real challenge. Here are some tips that should help to point you in the right direction.
When I moved from Canon to my Sony a7 III late last year, the first lens I ordered was a nifty fifty: a cheap, incredibly lightweight, relatively fast 50mm prime lens that’s good for portraits, landscapes, and pretty much everything in between. Given that this affordable lens is so universally loved and has such an important role, why does its future look so bleak?
It is totally natural for your subjects to feel vulnerable or insecure during a shoot, but a boudoir session requires an extra level of professionalism and sensitivity from the photographer. This excellent video discusses many things you should avoid saying to your client during a boudoir session.
Gaining followers on social media can sometimes feel like getting stuck on a hamster wheel — a whole lot of effort to get nowhere. Chris Do, of The Futur, aims to make that effort pay off for you and help you launch your social media following into the stratosphere by adding 10,000 followers per week — without buying them.
Virtual Copies and Snapshots are powerful features in Lightroom that often go unused or underutilized. In this article, we'll cover what they are and how they can be used to make your editing workflow faster and easier.
