Stock photography is an industry that enables many photographers to make a good living. Though some photographers focus their entire career around creating stock imagery, almost every photographer has the ability to supplement their income with images they've already taken.
Is traveling a passion for you? Here are a handful of tips to start making money as a travel photographer.
Sometimes, whether because of location, logistics, or timing, you'll want to mimic the look of natural light using strobes. This quick and fun video will show you how to recreate the look of a setting sun using nothing more than a single speedlight.
Late last year, Imatag announced a new means for photographers and image-makers to protect their work: their service allows customers to embed an invisible watermark which is then tracked on the web, alerting the copyright owner each time that the image is published online. I put their service to the test.
Sony is growing by leaps and bounds, but one of the biggest advantages Canon and Nikon continue to hold is the deep investment a lot of their users have made in native lenses. This great video examines the current state of affairs for adapters and if they can work for you.
If you're ever seen portraits shot somewhere like an arcade or next to a neon sign, you know they offer a neat look full of washes of color that envelop the model. If you don't have access to such lighting, this great video will show you how to recreate the effect at home.
If you've scrolled Instagram for more than a few seconds you've probably encountered portraits shot with very colorful neon lights; bright scenes with 80's vibes shot in arcades or urban downtown areas. If you've wondered how to shoot in a similar style, check this one out.
If you often find that your camera's autofocus doesn't quite hit the spot, it might have something to do with the focus system you are using. Make sure you know the difference between the two types of autofocus before your next photoshoot or camera purchase.
Automotive rolling shots are great way of capturing cars on the road and in action to give viewers the feeling of speed. Moe Zainal is a professional automotive photographer from Bahrain, and in this video, he shares his tricks that he uses while working.
What does it take to shoot for some of the largest magazines in the world? Not as much as you might think.
I see it daily with newbies on Instagram: "like-for-like", "please follow me", "validate my existence, please". The fact that I see it daily also says something about me: Hi, my name is Mike, and I'm addicted to likes.
The sky usually plays an important role in shaping the mood and tone of the pictures you make while photographing outdoors. If mother nature doesn't want to cooperate and give you a desirable sky while shooting, a stock image could help save the day.
The BenQ SW2700PT monitor is a hard sell on paper to those that only look at pixel count. At just over $600, it teeters on the edge of premium monitor territory, but you’ll soon see why it gets a strong recommendation here. Hint: it's not about the pixels.
Relocating is never easy but it can be an incredible step in a photographers' career and craft. A new city, state, or even country is a blank canvas with endless possibilities. These possibilities and work to be done in order to transition can be overwhelming, where do you even begin?
Whether you are a landscape, street, or portrait photographer, there are ways we navigate differently abroad as opposed to within our own hometown. Here are some tips to ensure not only that you come home with photos you are happy with, but also that you get to take home a bit of the culture with you as well.
While I was initially slow to adopt the notion of being literally tied to an external machine while I went full throttle through my photo shoots, I’ve found the process not only beneficial, but absolutely essential.
Most photographers have a tendency to light their subjects from the same side. I personally like to set up my key light on camera right and I also always have my subject look toward that light. Not today.
Many elements have to come together to make a decent short; and I think, in this video by filmmaker Jay Worsley, everything came together perfectly.
My workflow has relied on SmugMug starting back in March of 2008, and after a decade of use, my organization was a disaster. In that ten-year span, the focus of my business has evolved, and SmugMug's features grew with it, and my account was well past due for cleaning house a remodel. Part how-to and part review, check out what I did to revamp my account so you can easily configure your site like a pro.
In the realm of photography, bokeh (shallow depth of field) is extremely popular amongst many. Creating a creamy out-of-focus background behind your subject helps forces the viewer to focus their attention on a particular area. So how do you get that creamy bokeh in camera?
It can be difficult enough to photograph adult models, but using children as models is a new level of challenging. There are a few tips to remember to make your shooting process a bit easier.
After traveling to more than 20 countries in less than 12 months with the Fujifilm X100F, I thought it would be interesting to share some of the reasons why I found this to be my perfect travel companion.
You may recall a shoot by photographer Jenna Martin last year done inside a Lowe’s home improvement store. Its virality sparked a surge in attempts to shoot good photos in poor locations. While many attempted to block such practices, the arts and crafts store, Michaels, just actively encouraged photoshoots in its many branches.
Smart Objects in Photoshop are a fantastic tool to avoid working in a destructive fashion when filters, such as Camera Raw, need to be used in the retouching process. In this video, Greg Benz clarifies three common misconceptions to save you useless worries or precious time.
During the conceptual stages of a portrait shoot, when deciding which color palette to incorporate, could less possibly be more? This brief video from Adorama TV features small home studio savant Gavin Hoey showcasing for us how to create effective portraits in studio within a limited color range.
A lot of us love freelance life simply because it's not the corporate grind. And while that's a great perk, one benefit of the corporate life is a (normally) clear delineation of where work ends and life begins. This great video examines finding that same delineation as a freelance photographer or videographer.
Well, it has been about a year since I published one of my first popular articles titled "Why Us Average Joe Photographers Suck at Instagram" and I think it's time to update some things. If you think I'm better off now with thousands of new followers and busy influencing left and right, you'll be disappointed.
One of the most fundamental skills you can have when it comes to artificial lighting is learning to balance the ambient and strobe. This great video goes behind the scenes of a sunset portrait shoot to show how to do just that to get both a properly exposed subject and background.
Some people are naturally very cluttered while others try to take a very minimalist approach. Does your workspace reflect your personality?
Don't have thousands to spend on lighting gear? One of the most valuable lighting methods you could find out there also happens to be the cheapest: a window. The best part about it, is that it is free!
For months, I’ve been looking for presets that would work in most apps I use to edit my videos and photos but couldn’t find one. That was until I discovered Lutify.me and its LUTs made compatible with Capture One and Lightroom.
Achieving perfect white balance is highly important for many types of photographic work, however landscape photography will usually benefit from a bit of creative coloring.
One of the things that I thoroughly enjoy about photography is the range of possibilities for style. Style is such a personal thing to each of us. We all have our own very different tastes in style, we all come from different backgrounds, and we all have different opportunities for learning and evolving our own styles. Just think about it, even if we were to all use the exact same sets of presets and programs to process all our images, the end results would still be different because of what we put into the shot while actually on the shoot.
Life spent in the photography trenches is what so many of us openly desire. While you may not be ready to turn that page just yet, you can still get the upper hand on positioning for the future you want right now. Here are a few thoughts on how.
There are few universal measures of success in photography, but surely, one of them is having a readily recognized style. Finding yours can be a bit difficult, but this helpful video talks about what it takes to get there.
Getting started in freelance photography can feel like getting on a road you've never taken before and hoping if you drive on it long enough, you'll reach your destination. This great video examines how to deal with the anxiety and expectations you'll experience on your way.
Lightroom tips are a lot like puppies: you can never have too many of them. And while I can't offer you a puppy (likely because I'm keeping them for myself), I can offer you this great video that will give you 25 helpful Lightroom tips in just 2 minutes.
Creating double or even multiple exposure shots isn't anything new. Traditionally it was used in film photography and even recently in Photoshop, but you can do it all in camera too.
Baber Afzal is well known for his dramatic looking fine art cityscape and landscape pictures. In this 12-minute long tutorial, he’ll show you how to achieve the same look on your pictures by taking you through one of his edits in Capture One and giving precious tips along the way.
We've all had times where we are constantly out shooting, coming up with new ideas, and going out to create them. There are also times where we struggle with new ideas and lose our motivation to create. Over the past few months I feel like I've been going through some stages like this but I always try to stay positive and create when I can.
"Social media is awful and we're all going to die someday (plz like and subscribe)," reads the hilariously ironic video description of this short film depicting what happens when a couple steps away from the din of social networks. Check out what happens when you sign off the computer and step out of the house.
SmugMug just recently released its 16th film and this time they're featuring mountain sports photographer Blake Jorgenson, with a glimpse into his relentless pursuit of capturing the perfect moment in extreme conditions.
The same way people portraiture requires imagination and inspiration to create something different, so does dog photography. Have you tried photographing dogs but wished you could have added something to make them stand out more? Phil Harris has created a short video to give you 10 quick and easy tips and tricks to achieve that.
It's no secret that we all have to start somewhere. Usually, that place is not very good. At the very least we all start out in the “room for improvement” category. Assuming that progressing with our work and improving our images, style, brand, knowledge, and skill set is the goal, how to we go about getting better at a quicker-than-a-snail pace? The answer is straight forward, but requires deliberate action. Intelligent investment of time and money is the fastest way to get improve quickly.
Recently, one of the most significant beauty and makeup YouTubers released a video showing what kind of setup she’s using to shoot, and it’s absolute madness. If you thought people on YouTube were still shooting with webcams and the iPhone flashlight, you are in for a real surprise.
A recent trip down memory lane reminded me that sometimes the best place to look for something new, is a to remember something old.
For any of you out there who are like me and move between PC and Mac for your workflow, or those who are considering migrating your workflow completely from the Windows world to the Mac environment, here is a simple step-by-step guide for moving over your most important asset.
Square peg in a round hole. That’s how social media platforms can feel for a creative. None of them were really specifically made to be used by creatives for networking, collaboration, and artistic development. We sort of just made it work the best we could with the options that were there. A new app, Daisie, is set to take on this much-needed role in summer 2018.
There have been far too many occasions in the past where I've been holding back from either starting a project or completing it. I would start procrastinating, finding different reasons and excuses to do anything but the project at hand. This mostly came down to the fact that I was unhappy with the work I was producing. I wanted my work to look like the stuff I saw on Instagram or Fstoppers, however, no practice no progress. Fortunately, for the most part, I have been able to remedy that mentality, although the feeling does creep up from time to time.
Instagram has finally opened up the possibility for its users to schedule their posts ahead of time. After years of users asking for this feature, the announcement was finally made today on Instagram’s business blog. Before you get too excited, though, there are two factors that you need to know.
