Behind The Scenes

One of the first things any portrait photographer should learn is how to create soft, flattering light.

High altitudes, snow, biting cold, and a lot of equipment. Some shoots are harder than others and this music video looked particularly grueling. Nevertheless, the Nikon Z 9 is well-equipped for such trials; see how it performs in a testing climate.

It's easy to think that if you want to put together a great portrait shoot you need to book an expensive location and have a room full of lights, but sometimes simplicity can be more rewarding.

Car photography is a lot of fun and can be highly dynamic, but it represents one of the hardest products to photograph in a studio environment. Not only do you need a large studio that a car can be driven into, but you need huge lights to evenly light the car too. Or do you?

Being a well-rounded photographer who can succeed in any situation is the ultimate goal for most photographers. However, what happens when you are forced to take a portrait by lighting from below? Today, I take the challenge.

If you've ever wanted to take a photograph of a car that has motion to it, you may have noticed it's not often straightforward. In this video, go behind the scenes of a rolling car shoot to see how it's done.

Have you ever wondered what’s in the mind of a wedding filmmaker? How do bits of footage turn out to be a moving film that tells the couple’s story?

The Nikon Z-series has a highly impressive firmware update coming, particularly for the Z9. Version 2.0 turns Z9 into a videography and sports photography titan, and if you have any interest in using it for either of those (or a great many other uses), you're going to want to check this out.

Being self-critical is too easy or too hard, but in both cases, it can be difficult to be effective with it. In this video, Nigel Danson takes you on a shoot and discusses some of the ways he ensures his photography is improving.

Being a photographer means being able to adapt to any given lighting situation to create images that are remarkable. In this video, Sophia Carey shares some of her insights with a behind-the-scenes look at a night portrait shoot on film.

With film photography once again becoming popular, photographers who wish to take it up must wonder where the current film stock is coming from. Is it from the remnants of film stock that was made years ago? Well, you'll be happy to know that Kodak still has production lines running at its factory and even happier to watch this deep dive into how they make the film that you shoot today.

Portraiture is one of the most versatile genres of photography, housing many sub-genres within it. One of the most impactful skillsets you can acquire for the craft is lighting and so it is important to know the basic setups and what different lighting styles achieve.

There are a handful of places in the world that are simultaneously beautiful for photography and incredibly difficult to ever visit, but Antarctica is one of them. In this video, James Popsys takes you behind the scenes of his trip there and the wonders that await.

When traveling has been so difficult, videos of distant locations become even more appealing. Watch as a Canon ambassador creates a beautiful short film in northern Norway, battling the elements and the pandemic.

Leica is a polarizing brand by virtue of their prices and almost nothing else. But, if money was no object, would you shoot with them? Their Noctilux range is on many wishlists, but how good are they really and can they justify the price?

There are certain rights of passage in photography that we all should try at some juncture of our time with a camera. They act as both important learning tools but plainly, they're good fun to do. In this video, Pye Jirsa walks you through how he created a great-looking portrait using a smoke bomb.

With Canon successfully moving into the mirrorless space, they have a dichotomy of gear. But, in a real-world scenario, how do two of the same lenses — one for mirrorless and one for DSLRs — compare side-by-side?

It has been an eventful few years for Olympus and many of their fans have worried for the future of the camera brand. Finally, a new body has been released and photographers are getting a chance to test it out.

There are lots of lighting techniques to learn, some simple, some complex, and they all offer something a bit different. One of my personal favorites is clamshell lighting and in this video, learn how to do it and when it will work particularly well.

Natural light portraiture is forever popular, but as us photographers know, more light isn't necessarily better. In fact, like half-breed vampires, we shy away from the sun at its brightest during midday.

Are you looking for an easy way to achieve great lighting with minimal gear? Regardless of whether it's because you are starting off and have to stay within a certain budget or you simply do not want to carry and set up a lot of gear, here's an easy way to get perfect lighting.

Golden hour is the holiest of times for photographers of many genres, however, it takes some technical understanding if you want to get the most out of it in your portraiture. In this video, Irene Rudnyk takes you behind-the-scenes of her beach portraiture shoot at golden hour to give you some tips.

The last few years have seen a slew of new and impressive cameras. Nikon's newest mirrorless body has been turning heads, so one veteran wildlife photographer takes it into the field to give an honest review.

Today, we’ll look at three simple questions you should ask when deciding which images make the cut for your professional portfolio.

Canon and Nikon, after a slow start, have both been consistently releasing excellent mirrorless bodies. Their respective newest cameras are more or less direct rivals, so how do they compare?

One deterrent that photographers and videographers often encounter can be loosely defined as "situation"; not having enough space, not being in the right location, and not having the right gear. There is almost always a way.

It is a truism that you learn far more from your failure than you do your successes, and photography is no different. In this video, esteemed portrait photographer, Irene Rudnyk, goes through some of her failed shoots that never quite made the grade.

Let’s have a look at the many people behind the scenes that help us to create our singular vision.

Bird photography is tremendously difficult and so is photographing in a jungle. So, it follows that photographing birds in a jungle will require a lot of skill in patience. Watch as two veteran wildlife photographers go through recent shots and offer some tips and mistakes to avoid.

The sea has so many different styles of photography that can be conducted with it that if you live near an ocean, it can be a brilliant source of both imagery and practice. In this video, one photographer sets out to capture huge waves crashing into a lighthouse.

One way to test your skills and to improve your creativity at the same time is to set yourself a shooting challenge. In this video, Nigel Danson and James Popsys go head-to-head with the challenge of shooting landscapes with only a 70mm focal length.

Scotland has some stunning natural beauty, but the islands surrounding it are often neglected. In this video, one landscape photographer goes to the Isle of Harris and Lewis to conduct some stunning, minimalist photography.

A new year is here and with it comes the opportunity to reflect and make plans for how you will spend the next 12 months. If you're looking for inspiration on how to improve, here are seven quick tips to change your photography for the better.

As the number of lenses available for Canon's RF mount grows, photographers are faced with options and decisions for most focal lengths they would like to buy. Is this Viltrox prime one of the best value 85mm lenses for RF?

There are many ways to light a subject, both complex and simplistic, and while you might be always tempted to go for the most complicated setups, knowing the classics is important too. Classic lighting is classic for a reason and you may find yourself using it more often than you expect.

It can be difficult to consistently push yourself to achieve more, but Morten Hilmer manages it. In this video, he ventures out into the Norwegian wilderness for days on end to capture the local wildlife in grueling conditions.

Working with a new model can be a brilliant way to practice and help someone else with their aspirations, but it's undoubtedly tricky. In this behind-the-scenes video, a veteran photographer works with a model on her first shoot and walks you through some of the difficulties and offers some tips.

Gimbals are now as much of a consumer item as they are a high-end professional one, which means far more videographers are using them. Although stabilized footage is the goal, you can get extra creative with how you use it, and these three techniques can really help you stand out.

Are your portraits missing a few vital factors? These tips might just be what you need.

Light painting might be a staple technique most photographers try and learn early on in their time with their first camera, but it has occasional commercial applications. One of the best examples of that is automotive photography. In this video, see an edit of a light-painted Porsche from start to finish.

Fashion photography has created some of the most iconic portraits ever taken and it's a revered genre of the discipline. However, it's easy to fall into static shots, leaning on familiar poses. In this video, Lindsay Adler walks you through her techniques for adding motion to fashion shoots.

The old sentiment that classics are classic for a reason holds in many areas of photography. There are techniques that most — if not all — photographers should know how to do, and this one in particular, will always have applications.

If you are looking to step beyond basic, one-light setups, it can be a little daunting at first. In this behind-the-scenes video, learn how effective a simple three-point lighting system can be.

Mobile phones have been hauling gains in usability for photography and videography year on year. It's comfortably to the point where a cutting-edge smartphone in the right hands can create images — particularly those that do not require a narrow depth of field — that is indistinguishable from interchangeable lens cameras.

It's easy to look around at local locations and think that you have no chance of creating beautiful, natural light portraits because of them. However, with the right positioning and knowledge, you will be able to create stunning images with great light.

Halloween might not be my favorite "holiday", but it does bring with it some fantastic photoshoots. In this video, watch as Lindsay Adler creates some stunning Medusa-themed portraits using LEDs.

We are not always fortunate to have the perfect background that matches the total vision of a shoot. The same goes for having a huge budget to build the set, which leaves a few options. Spend the time with compositions or use a printed backdrop to complete the scene. To save time, at least in my case, I opted to go with a printed backdrop for the shoot since there would be multiple images.

You can't control the weather, but you can control what the weather looked like. In this video, go behind the scenes of this shoot with a beautiful Porsche 911 GT3 RS and how one photographer made an overcast day look like an epic sunset.

The new Nikon mirrorless body is put through its paces halfway between Norway and the North Pole. How can it handle these grueling and photographically testing conditions?

Go behind the scenes in this eerie, Halloween shoot as one photographer attempts to create images similar in style to the 2016 American horror film, The Love Witch.