Behind the scenes videos are a fantastic way to increase the visibility of your work, and ACDSee Video Studio 3 will help you get your BTS video edited and ready to view in less than an hour.

Autumn is just about over, and though the leaves are no longer on the trees, that does not mean we do not have any use for them anymore. If you gather a pile of leaves and bring them into your studio, you have a wonderful prop for a wide variety of portrait looks with all the control of studio lighting. This great video tutorial will show you how to take fallen leaves and turn them into an eye-catching and versatile props for studio portraits.

Planning any shoot can be intricate and stressful, but fashion editorials sometimes take that even further with the level of preparation you need. Well, here are some key tips on how to better plan that sort of shoot, with some behind the scenes footage.

While people around the world prepare for the holidays, photographers have something else on their mind. For all of us it's that time of year to buy your conference pass, make your hotel reservations, plan shoots with friends and highlight the classes you want to attend at the annual WPPI Photo Conference in Las Vegas from February 26th thru March 5th.

Ty Michael Behind the scenes 01 from Ty Michael on Vimeo.

If you work as a portrait photographer of any kind, it's useful to work with the same makeup artist (or MUA) every time you shoot. You'll cut down on time spent casting and won't have to learn how to communicate in a way that works for a new collaborator every time. But how do you know that your new MUA is the one? Check these key factors that will make them a collaborator you can depend on, time and time again.

Once you have mastered the fundamentals of light and how it behaves, you can start exploring more advanced multi-light setups that allow you make more creative and personal images. If you are ready to level up your portrait lighting, check out this awesome video tutorial that will show you an advanced three-light setup using both v-flats and gels.

One does not often associate violent protests and the threat of sniper fire with portrait studios. However, photojournalist Anastasia Taylor-Lind’s recent portraits of protestors and fighters in Kiev, Ukraine make us question this apparent disconnect. Taylor-Lind's stunning and revealing portraits were taken with a medium-format film camera between outbursts of violence, documenting the men and women fighting for their freedom in Kiev.

The value of participating in non-commissioned projects in a photography career is very high, and photo competitions are a good example of that.

It took me until high school to meet and befriend a set of identical twins. Growing up, I had always assumed identical twins were basically the same person.

If you don’t have a ton of fancy lighting gear at home, this doesn’t mean that you can’t produce gorgeous studio-style images. This in-depth video tutorial shows you how to get great results using minimal equipment from the comfort of your own garage and dives deep into how they're edited in Lightroom.

Strip boxes are an essential tool for photographers looking to refine their lighting techniques. Their dual functionality as both a narrow and broad light source allows for unparalleled versatility in creating both dramatic and subtle lighting effects.

If you couldn't make it to the Photo Plus Expo in New York (PPE) which kicks off today, you don't have to miss out on everything. Not only will our own Zach Sutton be reporting from the show floor, but Sigma is providing a live stream from their booth that they are calling "Sigma Safari," featuring hands-on shooting experiences starring professional models transformed into safari animals.

This video features humanitarian photographer, Karl Grobl as he travels to Cambodia to shoot the Angkor Hospital for Children. In this episode of his new series titled, "Come Along For The Ride", he goes behind the scenes to describe his technique and thought process as he's working. Karl has shot for more than 85 different NGOs in over 50 countries.

For the next episode of Critique the Community, we would like to invite Fstoppers members to send over their best Family Portraits for feedback. Your submission can include families, kids, or babies. We will keep submissions open through Friday, January 12th, at midnight and will release the feedback from Lee and Patrick early next week. Make sure to check out the guidelines below to make sure the picture you provide is eligible to be chosen.

As fall draws to a close and we head into the colder winter months, the scenery around us shifts for the season. If there is something that you'll miss the most from the warmer weather, what would it be?

It is never too late to start a senior model program. In fact, now is the best time of the year to define your program and select your models. Every market is different, but most of us slow down in the winter months. We have photographed the bulk of the senior class in the fall, however there will be a few spring senior's sessions that book right before graduation. This is the time to prepare for the next class. Jen Basford with 3 girls photography and Seniors Ignite joins us for another article highlighting how to plan your senior model program and at what times to execute your marketing for the new year.

If you haven’t heard of the Help-Portrait movement, the idea is pretty simple: photographers and other volunteers get together and donate time and resources to provide portraits to those who can’t afford them. Its founder, Jeremy Cowart just announced that the non-profit organization that runs Help-Portrait is dissolving, but he wants the movement to live on.

As a writer for Fstoppers I hear about a lot of personal projects. This past weekend, my attention was grabbed when I read about how Denver-based photographer Dylan Burr undertook a project to create wet plate collodion photographs. It wasn't his image making process that stood out to me though- it was his subject matter. Read on to see the images Dylan created, but also hear how he is hoping to impact the community through his efforts.

Makeup is one way to create a superb artistic portrait, but it’s not the only method. You could rely on post-production as well to make something different than everyone else does. In this 15-minute long tutorial, Nate from Tutvid shows you how to inlay someone’s face with text.

Publications allowing individual photographers access to their Instagram accounts is an increasingly common practice, and helps to foster a more intimate look at a photographer’s process. For example, Time Magazine allowed several photographers access to its Instagram account after Hurricane Sandy, enabling the magazine to update its almost 600k followers in real time.

The Explorers Club needs no introduction. Some of humanity’s greatest firsts, like the first ascent of Mt Everest and descent to the Mariana Trench, the first people to reach the North and South Poles and, of course, the first two human beings to stand on the surface of the Moon, were all members of The Explorers Club.

The best photographs and films don’t just bring beautiful visuals to the table. They also place story right at the center of their very make up. “Killing The Rock” (KTR) is a five minute demonstration of this, and reminds us of how commitment to our craft combined with small collaborative like-minded souls can tell stories that go deeper and reach further than we ever could going at it alone.

The Christmas holiday brings to mind images of children in their home, opening the gifts Santa left the night before. One pictures the entire family in their pajamas sitting around the living room as wrapping paper flies and the children’s faces light up with surprise. However, for too many children, this image is replaced with the hard, cold reality of celebrating Christmas in a hospital. But The Heart Project along with Santa are out to change those images for a few lucky children.

Cal Mero Underwater Fashion Photographer from DivePhotoGuide.com on Vimeo.

Posing is something a lot of photographers struggle with, particularly since it is not something you can just learn objective values for like you can with camera settings. If that is something you are struggling with a bit, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you five tips for posing couples.

Stuck at home and running out of photo ideas and new episodes of “Tiger King?” Why not accept a fun new social media challenge to try your hand at celebrity portraiture.

Behind the Scenes - Caleb Jones Photo Shoot from Erik Couse on Vimeo.

For several years now, many of us have used Instagram as our primary outlet for sharing and viewing images. However, Instagram has made it clear that the platform is shifting its focus to video. If you haven’t been practicing capturing portraits on video, now might be a good time to start learning how to do so.

Finding the best light to bathe our subjects can be one of the most challenging parts of planning a photoshoot. We strive for those beautiful golden hour photos and sometimes completely dismiss other parts of the day. Harsh sunlight can be difficult and cloudy can be flat, but what about blue hour?

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.

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.

Last month we interviewed Jen Basford of Seniors Ignite and 3 girls photography about reasons why you should have a senior rep program. The full article can be found here. This month we are getting into specifics of what is takes to build a successful senior rep/model program and insight on how Jen built a program that sees continued success.

Look, I think we've all been there, none of us want to have to bring extra stands, tripods/monopods, or even extra cameras just to get behind-the-scenes images (BTS for short from here on out) or video for our websites or social media, even though we'd all love to have that content. After some trial and error, I think I've landed on a fun and flexible solution by using a 360 action camera but there are some things to know before you get started so let’s get into it.

The intricacies of color grading and its impact on the final presentation of a photograph cannot be overstated. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to achieve an expert color grade using Capture One.

Homelessness is something most of us encounter on a daily or weekly basis, but few of us have ever had to personally experience the hardship of being homeless. Many of us probably probably don't realize that today, October 10th, is World Homeless Day; a day started in 2010 which is observed by every major continent and dozens of countries. Its goal is to draw attention to homeless people’s needs locally, and provide opportunities for the community to get involved in responding to homelessness.

We all have our favorite songs that we sing when are going through bad times or want to pump ourselves up. In this hilarious photo series, a photographer captures his friends singing their favorite songs and imagining that the camera is not there. See which song each person was singing!

Graphics are international, with photographic ideas and images spreading like wildfire. They speak a universal language, are pan-cultural, yet have their own local meanings and understandings. This sounds like the world of Instagram, 500px, YouTube, and Flickr, but it’s actually 1858, and the Abdullah Frères are setting up their photographic studio in Constantinople.

Our local high school had an idea to get senior photos taken for the young adults that have been working their whole life to achieve something, only to have it turn into an afterthought overshadowed by a serious global pandemic.