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I've actually had quite a few people request that I create a tutorial for my production processes wherein I add background textures into my studio shots. I know, it has taken me forever to get around to actually putting it together, but it's here now! The tools that I will go over in this tutorial are quite handy for a variety of uses. But for this tutorial, we will specifically use them to select and mask the background in a studio portrait shot.

Is your Instagram really working for you? We all know how important a tool such a social media is to help create a brand and attract clients who may want to hire you. If you're finding that your account is struggling to grow then you might be making some of these many mistakes.  

Darkness is one of the most difficult situations to work with. Cameras have come a long way towards improved performance in low light but no light is an entirely different can of worms. Unless your goal is to create more ISO snow than Christmas in Alaska you need to introduce light. Flash is great at pouring some much-needed illumination into the frame but it isn't so great at making sure that your camera is in focus when you do so. Even the best autofocus system in the world continue to struggle in the darkness so, as photographers, it is our job to stack the deck in our favor by leveraging strategy to give our focusing systems a leg up.

There are many paths in professional photography. I have gone down the route of commercial photography, and whilst I am nowhere near where I want to be in professionally, I thought I’d share a few points that can go a long way to making it as a professional commercial photographer.

Have you ever had that gut-wrenching feeling of being defeated after a wedding reception? Let’s be real, it happens. There comes a point where photographing wedding receptions get so frustrating that you either dive deep into off-camera lighting, or you get out of shooting weddings altogether. I can relate 100%. Despite the terrible lighting, there are a couple ways to pull this off without just turning all the lights on in the building and compromising the receptions atmosphere. These are a few of the ways I light a wedding reception.

Traditionally, more involved edits such as dodging and burning are done in Photoshop, but it's often desirable to stay in Lightroom if you can. This helpful tutorial shows you how to dodge and burn a portrait all in Lightroom.

In a world saturated with photography, you have to find ways to stand out. If you are able to put in the extra skill and effort to make something that is unique, it can quickly gain attention. Backlighting is one technique I use to accomplish this. Initially, backlighting seemed like a difficult task. Extra equipment, more work, and setting up stands and lights all made it so intimidating as a new photographer. Now that I am years in, I can honestly say that my backlit shots have captured more attention and sold more jobs than any other one thing in my business.

There are endless instructions and formulas out there you can choose to follow when working towards becoming a photographer. To say that it's overwhelming is an understatement. I know all too well how easy it is to let the discouraging cloud of options cause you so much anxiety that you fail to accomplish anything in a day. Our time, money, and attention spans are limited, but you do not have to let this stop you from following your dreams. I know, there's a lot of tutorials to watch and gear to purchase, but it's what you do every single day that will take you farther than anything. So, here's what I do, and I do it obsessively.

Understanding light is at the heart of photography. The topic of light is a vast one but there are some fundamental concepts which should be mastered before all others. One of those is the difference between hard and soft light.

There are plenty of reasons you may want to blend natural light with flash. I know I rarely shoot with more than one strobe on location so the ambient light often acts as a fill light or rim light. Regardless of your reason to do so, knowing how to easily achieve this is extremely important. Check out this video where I explain my process for balancing strobes with natural light on location.

Lindsay Adler is best known for creative fashion and beauty work, but aside from her stunning and unique photography, she’s a great speaker and educator. She recently gave a two-hour master class at B&H on how to create a portrait that is a work of art. Listen to her and learn how to elevate your imagery and improve your workflow from pre- to post-production if you wish to build a portfolio that stands out.

Adobe Lightroom can be a powerful tool in your photography workflow. There are a lot of features that are included, but as a new user or even someone who has been using it for a while, there might be some useful tricks within Lightroom of which you are still unaware. How many of these are new to you?

If you're just starting with shooting portraits and retouching them, learning and subsequently mastering the myriad of techniques used in Photoshop can be a bit daunting. This helpful video will get you up and running.

Photographers often treat color grading as a trivialized aspect of their workflow. Something that they only worry about once the image is complete and with no greater attention than flipping through a series of filter presets in whichever their flavor of the month plugin happens to be at any given time. Instead, obsessive time and attention is paid to aspects such as cloning, dodging, burning, sharpening, liquefying, etc. Colorists in the film industry have known for years powerful color grading is critical to great filmmaking. Directors know this as well, which is why colorists often enjoy a massive, expensive, personal theater filled with an impressive array of tools to grade the latest mega blockbuster. 

Colorists and video production folks are already familiar with LUTs (Lookup Table) and likely already use them for color grading videos. This is the next level for working with LUTs.

It doesn't matter if you shoot weddings, portraits, or work in the commercial world. With the smallest about of kit and a little bit of knowledge you really can dramatically improve the quality of your images. The guys over at Westcott have produced a fascinating video with Chicago-based photographer and educator Bob Davis. This demonstration is focused on how to enhance the look of your groom preparation shots, but I actually think these tips can be used in various genres of photography.

Becoming as a commercial photographer can't be defined with a formula. Each story is different but lots of stories share similar basic principles. They can be applied not only in the areas of photography and filmmaking, but also in other businesses.

As with any craft, there are fundamental techniques which should always be considered regardless of the job, model, or location. Even working professionals overlook general rules from time to time and occasionally need to be reminded.

Each day there are new ways to accomplish the same task, especially with the ever-evolving social media whirlwind. Today I want to share my favorite two methods I use for sharing to Instagram (or any other social platform, but primarily Instagram since posts need to be made from your mobile device).

White balancing shots is not always as easy of a task as it seems. Sometimes, a gray card cannot be used, other times the lighting is too poor and the colors don’t come out perfectly. However, Blake Rudis from f64 Academy has found an extremely efficient and quick solution to color correct any shots in three easy steps.

For many photographers, the majority of their subjects aren't models and aren't trained in posing. And so, it falls to the photographer to really be able to guide the subject to finding suitable looks. This great video gives you some quick tips on how to do just that.

Makeup artists are an invaluable part of the creative team for many photographers. In fact, there are certain genres of photography that rely so heavily on makeup artists that we simply couldn't work without them. Unfortunately, there seems to be a few serious problems cropping up between makeup artists and photographers.

Implementing gels into your photography is a really simple and effective way to make sure your images really stand out from the rest of the crowd. There are a ton of different ways to use gels to create some absolutely stunning imagery, but in this post I am just going to show you a few ways that you can use them to add color to your background to produce really dynamic portraits.

In this article, I'm going to go through the settings I use to get the best results from my drone photography. These settings can be applied to all DJI drones, Phantom 3, Phantom 4, Mavic, and Inspire, as long as you use the DJI app or Litchi. Let me fly through the basic stuff.

Meeting face-to-face with a potential client is the best way to introduce them to your work. Here are just a few helpful tips to help you turn that handshake into a profitable relationship.