Below are the most bookmarked articles by our members.
While beautiful, classic family portraits will never go out of fashion, sometimes clients desire something that shows the fun, frivolous nature of their relationships with each other, as well as the lifestyles they love. A fun, outrageous portrait that shows the special family dynamic may be just what your clients are looking for.
When we start out as photographers, it can be a little underwhelming, I mean, we all have this idea of what we're capable of and yet we start out working on small jobs (often) with low budgets. Assisting helps you keep your enthusiasm while rising up through the ranks of experience and gives you access to productions possibly decades away from your current skill set.
One of the most fundamental skills almost any photographer needs to have in Photoshop is the ability to accurately and efficiently select parts of an image. This helpful video will introduce you to Photoshop's various selection tools and explain which to use in different situations.
When your shutter is open for five minutes or longer while you take long exposure photos, what do you do during that time? Today I’ll share four things I do that have helped me become a better photographer and much more productive.
Depending on the capabilities of your camera, where you're shooting, and how you want the final image to look, you sometimes should consider underexposing a portrait slightly. This great video examines the benefits of underexposing a portrait and when you should think about trying it.
Lately, I have been loving an edgier look to light and images I have seen in a few other photographers' works. As I mainly shoot beauty, I don't really get to light like that very often, but I wanted to give it a go myself and try some edgier and harder looking light.
This video shows how to record your voice directly in Adobe Audition and then tweak it to sound like the guy you've heard with that famous movie trailer voice.
Beauty photography can be a lot of fun to shoot, and that is what keeps me eager to keep progressing in my craft. But it does come with its own set of problems!
There are three basic elements that control the exposure or overall brightness in your images: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. But aside from controlling exposure, these camera settings also have a couple of side effects. To help understand all this, Dave Morrow comes to our rescue by teaching the exposure triangle.
Let me admit something: I'm not a technical photographer. Bless those that fuss with all of the specs and have an analytical approach to photography, I suppose that I rely on my own method. As a self-taught photographer, I acquired knowledge by watching other photographers create. Each had their distinct style, some were technical and others instinctual but each was equally an artist.
These days you can find web-based invoicing and business management tools that are quite powerful, yet cost a monthly usage fee. The one I found used to have a $20 monthly fee, but got bought by Fiverr and is now free to use as you wish.
At some point, all creatives fall into ruts where it’s difficult to imagine new concepts. Unfortunately, inspiration doesn't always present itself. Sometimes we have to create it. Below is a list of practices I follow.
In the competitive world, marketing one's work is very crucial to the success of every photographer and professional. And if you are an introvert, it might look like one uphill task, but not when you understand the knacks to build confidence.
Like it or not, Instagram is a viable tool for a lot of photographers to showcase their work and find potential clients. This great video will give you eight tips for increasing your likes on the app.
Are you thinking of designing and outfitting a portrait studio? I recently did just that, and through a little research and a lot of trial and error, I discovered some great, versatile finds that make life in a photography studio much easier.
The in-between stages of fashion photography can be knowing which ideas for stories serve best as test shoots and which are worth pushing forward as a full editorial. Do the benefits of a cohesive editorial outweigh the efforts required to make it? This article breaks down the steps required from idea to execution.
If you are content to remain at the same skill level, taking the same photos for the rest of your career, then please, ignore this article. If you want to become a better artist, read on, but be prepared to be uncomfortable.
Every genre from landscapes to fine art macro shots of insects of the southern United States has its clichés. And while there's nothing inherently wrong with them, doing something different can help you distinguish yourself. This great video will help you create your best portraits and stand out more.
Creating an overhead shot in studio can seem like a basic task at first, but the space can quickly become cluttered as the set becomes more complex and more assistants are on location. This video shows how to build an inexpensive, sturdy camera rig that won’t come crashing down in the middle of a shoot.
The “Blend If” function in Photoshop is usually skipped by most photographers and retouchers. However, it is an efficient color channel-based tool for quick masking and creating smooth transitions when blending different elements. While it is a technique commonly used by architectural photographers for quick sky replacement or smoothing out the shadows, it can be implemented for different purposes in Photoshop and can save great amount of time.
The photography industry suffered a seismic shift with the advent of digital cameras, yet it may be the ubiquitous camera phone that sounds the death knell of the industry as we know it. Everywhere in every hand is instant access to high-quality image-making technology that has forever altered the landscape of photography from what it means to be a photographer to how the viewing public perceives the value of images and image creation. Are professional photographers aboard a sinking ship, or is it simply time for us to learn to swim on our own?
Of all the tools and features in Photoshop, perhaps none strike more fear into the heart of the unsuspecting photographer than the Pen Tool. If you're one of those people, this great tutorial will show you both how the Pen Tool behaves and how to put those rules to use in practice.
Every photographer is their own person with their own style and distinct habits, but there are some tendencies of successful photographers that tend to crop up constantly. Here are five things that successful photographers simply don't do.
It's time to stop buying those standard USB external hard drives. We've found a much better solution.
I've said over and over that there is a natural eye and a photographic eye, and the two are not always made to take in the world the same way. This great video gives an exercise for learning to think more in terms of your photographic eye, which will improve your imagery and ability to envision shots.