Nathan Elson, a commercial photographer from Calgary, Canada, just posted a great no-nonsense tutorial outlining his basic lighting set-up. Oh, FYI, there's also a great contest that Elson has put together with Strobepro. Go take a look.
Pitching can seem like a really scary thing to start doing. But I fully believe that anyone can pitch effectively, they just need to know how to! So today, I’m going to break down how to get started.
Sharpening an image using a high-pass filter can really make it pop, however sharpening the entire frame doesn't always provide the best result, and adding tons of layers can become cumbersome. Fortunately, PiXimperfect's Unmesh Dinda has come up with a great new way to sharpen selected areas without adding a lot of unnecessary layers.
Many people have asked me over time why most of my headshots are taken in portrait orientation and so tight? I used to joke around, saying I shot that way because I am a Virgo and my style of shooting is very much “in the box”. I then realized I could simply sum up three main reasons for why I shoot in portrait.
There are many ways easily to cut out an object from an image using Photoshop, but inevitably, the very edge of your object is imperfect. In this video, Colin Smith at PhotoshopCafe shows us how clean up those edges not just quickly, but perfectly.
The tone curve can seem a bit intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's by far one of the most intuitive, efficient, and powerful ways to adjust your images. This great video will introduce you to both how the tone curve works and how to use it.
In our first two segments of building a business plan, we’ve talked about defining your product and forming a long term vision. In this final section we will talk about some of the practical steps you need to take to take those hypothetical concepts and put them into action.
You can do all sorts of creative things to portraits, but if you don't get the skin tones right, chances are your viewer will notice something off. This great video will show you a quick and effective method for color correcting skin in Photoshop.
It's no secret that color toning in photography is a incredibly deep subject that helps bring life to the vision you have in your head. This video is a great entry point on the subject to help get you going in the world of color toning.
Photographer Michael Muller has been shooting the biggest names — often for the biggest movies — for more than 30 years. In this video, self-confessed lighting newbie Sawyer Hartman heads to Muller's studio to learn a few tricks of the trade.
Most photographers learn the basics of aperture in regards to depth of field and light-gathering ability, but some of what you learned is probably wrong, particularly when it comes to f-stops. If you're ready to get geeky, check out this great video that explains the truth behind it all.
The Smart Object has to be one of the more powerful tools in the Photoshop arsenal. If it still confuses you a little — and I know it does — check out this in-depth video on the myriad ways in which it can be utilized.
When someone asks me what my favorite photography-related purchase has been, my Wacom tablet is always one of my first responses. Here is how purchasing one could help you and how to get the most out of it if you do.
Making selections in Photoshop can be an incredibly tedious and time-consuming task, so it helps to know every possible method for a variety of situations. This helpful video will show you two lesser known but quite powerful procedures.
Taking professional-level interior photos is a surprisingly difficult skill to master. Here are five tips for improving your interior photography.
It can be hard to measure long-term progress in photography, as we grow in slow, small steps. But it's important to know how far you've come and where you still need work, and this helpful video will give you five ways to check just how much progress you've made.
We all know what it is like to shoot in difficult lighting situations and to end up with shots where the skin tones of your subjects just look off. If you don't want to spend hours playing with a bunch of controls or spend a bunch of money on fancy actions and presets, then check out out this quick tutorial, which walks us through color grading for skin tones simply by using Curves in Photoshop.
If you know anything about SEO (search engine optimization), then you know that finding good keywords is, well, key. Here are a few ways to find new keyword ideas and how to implement them on your website.
Rather, the rule of thirds needs to die a fast and painful death for all the damage it has done to the art and photography world.
Not just any old space can or should become a photography studio. Make sure you have taken the following 12 things into account before making such an important decision.
With social media being such a critical part of a photographer's online presence, developing simple strategies for Instagram is a key part of presenting your work to the world. These simple tips will help you to grow your following and make the process enjoyable as well.
Sometimes you might not have time to take every photo you’re editing into Photoshop but you still need to make significant changes to make an image look great. This tip can make your photos stand out without spending a lot of extra time in your editing suite.
If your portrait or product shot has a wrinkled, creased background, how can you easily clean it up and remove them in Photoshop? Learn how with these simple steps.
Diving deep into Photoshop can seem daunting, but to suit both beginners and more experienced Photoshop users alike, Colin Smith from Photoshop Cafe has created a video covering useful tips and tricks on using layer masks to strengthen your Photoshop knowledge.
This great tutorial video will show you how to better sharpen your portrait images in Photoshop.
When it comes to taking images of couples, one of the biggest struggles photographers deal with is posing. Since posing can make or break and good image, these five tips can take your posing to next level.
The most significant hurdle when running a photography business is booking more clients. If you feel like you’re in a “booking rut,” here are a few ways to help spread your brand awareness and book more photo clients.
Light makes or breaks a photo, and when you're shooting natural light, being able to find the right kind is crucial to getting the shots you want. This great video talks about what to look for and how to shape natural light for a great portrait.
In a saturated market of incoming photographers each holiday or tax season, it is easy to get discouraged when you are trying to get paid clients in the door. When we think of photography sessions we generally tend to lean on the idea of photographing only people in portraits. Families, boudoir, fashion, and even underwater sessions. With so many other creative ways out there to get paid why not tap into another resource for marketing?
Getting ready for your next landscape photography expedition? If you want to bring back winning shots, you need a variety of great places to shoot. Points of interest are easy to find, but the easy-to-find places are prime targets for hordes of tourists.
If you’re getting started with portrait photography, I recommend checking out this video to get up to speed on the most important things you need to know.
A lot of people are fans of the portrait look in which the subject really seems to "pop" off the image, as it's a striking and attention-grabbing style. This helpful video will show you three quick steps to recreate that look in your own portraiture work.
Sometimes, you'll come home with an image that seems rather unremarkable, but when you play with it for a bit in Lightroom, it suddenly becomes something you hadn't envisioned when you first shot it. This great video will show you how to split toning saved an image.
All the talent in the world doesn't mean a thing if you undercut yourself with bad habits that can damage your career. This great video explores six bad habits that can cut a career short and how to turn them around to increase your chances of success.
One of the most frustrating things a photographer has to deal with in today's market is having their work stolen or used for free. If you post images online, the chances of your work being used without your permission isn't just likely, but inevitable. How then can you as a photographer protect your images while at the same time publishing your work so you can promote your brand? In this free excerpt from our Making Real Money tutorial, Monte Isom shares the exact steps you need to take to both protect your work and recover damages caused by illegal infringements.
Being an artist isn't easy, especially when the world is against our way of life and creation. The artist life is discouraging for sure, and every once in a while I still have days where I just want to lay in bed. I have learned that you can't let yourself have many of these days if you want to be great, there's always someone else who's pushing through it. Whether you're a professional or just a hobbyist, being uninspired sucks. Luckily there are so many things you can do to beat the gloom and keep on creating.
When you're first starting out post-processing work in both Lightroom and Photoshop, any sort of editing can feel like it takes a long time, just because there are so many ways of going about things and it can take a little while to get your bearings. This great video will show you seven quick and straightforward fixes for photos using Lightroom.
Composition is a complicated topic. It's easy to throw out the Rule of Thirds because talking about things like balance, rhythm, and focus can get overwhelming but, if you stop at the Rule of Thirds, you could be robbing your images of complexity
Understanding the internal light meter of my camera is one of the best skills I've ever learned. It helps me to shoot in fully manual mode, so that I rarely look at the back of my camera. Let me tell you how to get a correctly exposed picture from the first click just by using your camera's internal light meter.
Color grading is amongst the most important step of retouching. Along with lighting, it sets the mood of your image and can also help tie together the different elements of your composition. Learning all the different ways of altering colors in a picture is probably as important if not more important than knowing how to retouch skin or remove objects. In this 20-minute long tutorial, Michael Woloszynowicz explains everything there is to know about the color balance layer adjustment and how to use it to color balance your images in the best way possible.
When it comes to shooting implied nudes, it is not as easy as simply stripping down as one might think. Soft posing, flattering light, and the trust from client to photographer is essential to capture that perfect look. Having a solid portfolio of this genre is essential to bring in new potential clients who can form a bond with your work. So how does one start out shooting implied looks if you do not already have a portfolio to show potential clients?
One of the most obvious telltale signs of an unprofessional commercial or product image is color. The most famous and readily cited issue is color grading, but it's not the only problem and the uniformity of color is often neglected. That is, the even color of the object or two objects' colors truly matching. As always, I will couch my method in the sentiment that it may not be the optimal technique, but it works very well for me.
If photography is an art, so is retouching. While there are school teaching photography classes, fewer offer retouching programs. Many photographers starting out seem to be looking at the same tutorials over and over again, without ever actually getting anything out of it. Frequency separation, dodging and burning, or curves will only get you so far before you hit a wall. In past the two years, I’ve been looking at other crafts to step up my retouching work. Here are five things I have spent time on that you should look into and why.
My high school enemy is my new best friend. I'm talking about a glorious thing called "tests." In the photo world, a test is a shoot set up for the sake of portfolio-building, experimentation, fun, or all of the above. It's not a paid shoot, but these suckers pay off big time. A test shoot is when you book a model (we'll talk about how) to shoot a concept that you put together. As I'm writing this, I actually have my journal open on my desk in mid-plan for a test that I'll be shooting later this month. Let's talk about a few reasons why testing is so important, how to find models, reach out to agencies, and what you need to do once your model is booked. Dig in!
This is the second part of The Ultimate Guide to the Dodge & Burn Technique. Check out Part 1, where I covered the fundamentals of light and shadow rendering in painting.
So, now that we understand that the shadows and highlights are what makes our 2-dimensional pictures appear to have more volume and dimensions, let's move on to the technical side of the Dodge & Burn implementation in retouching.
This is the second part of the article on how to learn to "read" lighting in photography. If you haven't read the first part yet, please start here: How To "Read" Light In Photography - Part 1.
And for those of you who have been waiting for the second part, let's jump right back in and see what other cues we can use to breakdown lighting in other photographers' work.
High-end retouching is normally done in Photoshop, so can similar edits be achieved in Lightroom without ever leaving the software? The following tutorial is based upon the tips and techniques provided in lesson 19 of Mastering Adobe Lightroom by Pye Jirsa and is only part of the 49 lessons available in the tutorial.
Photos often lack a real punch when we import them for editing, this is especially apparent when importing raw files to Lightroom because it strips the shot of the overriding camera settings making them seem lackluster. Luckily, there are 10 simple ways you can make your colors pop once again.
Lens filters are useful for achieving a variety of photographic effects in camera, such as long exposures of moving subjects. But did you know you can achieve the same great results with Photoshop CC?
When we capture a 3D environment in 2D, the perceived depth can be lost due to the colors in the scene. In this short tutorial, I'll show you one way of bringing back the depth in your image.
