Let’s face it, hair can be a bitch to work with in postproduction. My clients rarely have hair like you see in a Pantene ad, but of course, I always want it to look that way in the finished product. That’s why this oldie but goodie from Phlearn is worth a revisit.
As photographers we're in a fortunate era where we have more tools at our disposal than ever before. That said, there's one well known one I have used consistently for years, that many photographers neglect.
Not planning on spending any money on new equipment but fancy experimenting with items you can easily find around the house? Here are eight simply camera hacks for you to try out in your next shoot.
One of the most frustrating hurdles we deal with when shooting indoors is the strong color cast that incandescent light emits. I'm going to share with you a quick and easy fix in Lightroom (or Photoshop) to remedy that dreaded "orange glow" when white balance isn't enough.
Everyone's always looking for more pop in their images. And more wow factor. And better light. And crisper colors. But in order to get them, most people tend to overcomplicate things far too much. Learn to use Curves and get everything you need with a minimum of fuss.
We often talk about finding dramatic light in landscape photography that showers the scene in contrast and creates an interplay of light and shadows that generates visual interest. But flat light can be just as effective in its own way, and this great video explores both how and why that's the case.
Every time I go to a theater I can't help but admire the images I see in movie posters, especially those in action and superhero movies. I've wanted to try and take an image in the style of some of my favorite Marvel movie posters but wanted to make sure I could find a model with the right suit to pull off the look. Fortunately, I found just that and more.
Images shot after sunset, using natural light, can be among the trickiest to post-process properly. This guide provides a walkthrough of my post-processing steps for a recent night shot, and introduces a number of techniques I find essential for optimal night photos.
If you, like I, are stuck in less than inspiring locations you might need a little push or kick to actually get out and do what you love: landscape photography.
Nature and wildlife photography can often be a difficult genre of photography to be successful in. But award-winning nature photographer Thomas Mangelsen is an exception. Watch this video to learn about what makes this photographer's work stand out from the rest.
Following the technological progress of recent years, LED panels are becoming ever more popular when it comes to lighting videos and, increasingly, photographs. Getting your head around the various units involved can be confusing so this video can be a useful means of learning what they mean and how they relate to one another.
There is an old saying that "you only find what you are looking for." It's critical for any artist, including we photographers, to know what it is that we are working to create. To have a vision and stay true to it so that it will become a reality. When you go out with the intent of creating images you know what you want, right? You choose the location, the time of day, maybe the lighting, certainly the subject, and of course what gear that you need to bring it all together. We tend to be control freaks to make sure that we get what we want.
At the heart of photography as a medium is a fundamental problem: every photograph is a lie. This slippery instability is often what makes it effective as a tool for communication, but it can also create problems for some of the world’s most respected photographers, including Steve McCurry and, more recently, fine art photographer Tom Hunter.
Have you ever set out to achieve a dream or goal of yours and found yourself not accomplishing what you set out to do? In this quick article, see three things I do to make sure I'm staying on track to achieving my goals.
Whether doing event, wedding, or portrait photography, eventually you are going to find your subject in front of or behind a glass surface. Learning tips to avoid your lighting being reflected on the glass can improve your images and save you time in post-production.
We'd all like to think the number of followers we have on Instagram isn't harming our business, but it seems like it could be. Here's how to give your social presence a jump start in 2019.
Travel photography is an alluring genre. The thought of getting paid to explore and discover the world is one that most photographers have entertained. In this article, I touch on an uncomfortable truth about travel photography and present seven tips based on this truth.
When you're new to artificial lighting, one of the trickiest parts can be understanding the vast array of different modifiers and which one is appropriate for whatever you're shooting at the moment. This helpful video will show you a variety of common modifiers and how they change the look of your images.
Air travel is a fact of life for jobbing amateur and professional photographers alike. At some point you need to stuff your gear in a bag and get on a plane. Here are my top 5 rules for air travel.
No stranger to experimenting with cheap equipment and camera hacks, photographer Mathieu Stern’s latest project involves trialing a lens technically built for use with projectors, which he purchased at a yard sale for just $6.
We’ve all heard it and probably noticed it first hand: social media is destroying our happiness and is directly related to instilling FOMO, the "fear of missing out" in people. We photographers are no exception. So how do we defeat an enemy that lives within our own minds?
Have you ever had an inkling to give self portraits a go? This can be a great way to improve your photography and boost your confidence, but how do you get started? Here's a few tips when it comes to shooting self portraiture!
Go behind the scenes in this video by Outside TV featuring Chase Jarvis to learn what motivates him and makes him tick.
If you're looking for a simple tool that can yield drastic results in a quick and efficient manner while editing your images, then look no further than the targeted adjustment tool built right into Adobe Camera Raw.
Fine-art, wildlife, and conservation photographer David Yarrow is on a tier of his own. Watch this video to learn some of Yarrow's methods and techniques to shooting in the wild.
Watch this video for seven helpful mountain photography tips from fine-art photographer James Lorentson.
One of the most difficult tools to consistently use in Lightroom is the dehaze slider. Here’s everything you need to know to get the most out of your edits with this tool.
Composite work can be fun and exciting, but sometime you may feel defeated at the end when the blending does not match up. Making a believable composite is tricky but not impossible.
The team over at Shutterstock are back once again with their flagship report anticipating the visual styles that will be adopted by photographers and creatives in the year that follows. Will you be embracing these new trends in 2019?
Photographers, with another 10-15 seconds per Instagram post, you can enjoy the benefits of stronger SEO. Here are the steps that you need to take get a boost within Instagram and on search engines.
One of my favorite photography video themes has always been the pro photographer, cheap camera challenge. Just like the others, this episode doesn't disappoint.
I am about to buy my new cameras, so I thought a review of my trusty fleet of Canon 5D Mark II cameras was in order.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC has recently updated to 8.1. With any new software release, there are new features. This new version is no different. Some of these options can speed up your workflow or speed up performance in general.
Anyone who has ever been to New York City remembers their first impression, amazement, and awe. Photographer Michael Shainblum credits this feeling as one of the main reasons he got into photography in the first place. You will be glad he did when you check out this amazing three-minute tribute to the city that never sleeps.
There are a lot of photographers that I have seen go the extra mile for their clients. What James Day Photography has done is gone to the moon and back.
Creating a strong black and white image is something photographers of almost every genre should know how to do. This helpful tutorial will show you everything you need to know to do it in Photoshop.
When it comes to athlete portraits, dramatic lighting is the world standard. There are many ways to achieve the dramatic look, but in this video, you will see how to get it with continuous lights.
Poke around online, and you'll find thousands of Lightroom presets for sale, promising to give you the looks of famous photographers and styles. However, it's really not hard to create your own presets for free, and this helpful video will show you exactly how to do it.
Shooting tethered can have a lot of benefits that can really add to your workflow whether you're in the studio or on location, but it's not without its drawbacks too. This great video examines the pros and cons of shooting tethered.
I have mentioned before that I am always seeking new ways to improve. Today, I want to share one of my daily initiatives that I religiously employ, and that’s my daily color exploration.
Okay, okay, maybe he did not exactly say that verbatim. But after watching this snippet from an interview from Complex with musician John Mayer and fashion designer Jerry Lorenzo, you'll see immediately that his analogy aligns what we go through as photographers throughout the creative process.
Photographers have a long history of finding things unique and affordable for their photography needs. I'm no different, and that's why I just wanted another top-of-the-year reminder. The goodness of the dollar store cannot be overestimated, because they can carry many similar items found at higher-priced outlets. It seems in the past few years, the quality of goods at the discount stores has increased. Am I correct in that assessment?
Selling prints is a tricky business with seemingly infinite reasons for someone to decide they don't want to purchase your image. But one simple question can dramatically increase your odds of convincing a potential customer to pull the trigger on investing in your art.
Spend enough time in photography, and it's likely you'll stop and realize one day that you seem to have drifted away from the reasons you got into it, and you might not even enjoy it anymore. This great video talks about getting back to the basics and not losing sight of why you enjoy taking photos in the first place.
Do you hate using a tripod? Do you find it too cumbersome to use, heavy, and do you think it stands in the way of creative photography? You are not the only one. I meet a lot of photographers during my workshops and masterclasses that find the tripod a necessary evil. And most of the time, it is because they are using it the wrong way.
Not all photography how-tos have to come from photography websites or YouTube photography channels. This video that addresses basic light-painting of a car comes to us from an automobile YouTube channel. If you are new to light-painting or want to give it a try, this video provides an excellent introduction.
With the holidays over and us in that strange time after Christmas but before the new year, we often find ourselves both stir crazy and broke. With this video from The Creative Contrast, they teach us how to solve that by cheaply creating our own collapsible V-Flats.
With 2018 winding down to a close, it's time to start thinking about what to do with all of those wondrous images we've created. Storing them on a hard drive is difficult, because if the hard drive gets lost — so do your photos. The New Year is a perfect time to re-organize your life, do some cleaning, and keep your photos safe!
Larger images provide a world of options for photographers, but if you're not careful, more pixels could mean more problems. If you're one of the many photographers finding yourself with a new high resolution camera after the holidays, here's a guide to wrangling that newfound resolution.
One of the most fundamental things every new photographer should learn is how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO interact to produce an exposure. This great video will introduce you to the three parameters and how each of them determines your overall exposure.
