Like most photographers, you have probably had in influx of senior calls recently. Schools will be back in session in less than a month, parents are trying to squeeze in appointments before their kids get busy with their final year of high school. What are you doing to turn your calls into appointments?

Added colored gels to your lighting can have a bigger change than you first expected. It's not quite the same as shooting with white lights, as there are a few additional factors you have to consider to get the optimal color you are looking for.

When it comes to lighting for portraits, we mostly focus on learning how to light our subjects; after all, that is what the eye is drawn. But a complete image involves accounting for how the background is lit as well, and that can be the difference that makes your photos truly professional. This helpful video tutorial will give you five tips to improve the lighting of your portrait backgrounds.

Like many of us, Brandon Stanton enjoyed taking walks and making photography while out and about. What separates Brandon is his fearless attitude towards approaching the average person on the street and asking to take their portrait, and then finding out what their story is. He runs a blog called the "Humans of New York", and this video gives you an inside look as to his approach and rationale for turning out some amazing images and stories.

How far can you get with a single prop inside a small studio set up? The possibilities are limitless and it starts with your imagination. Getting the most from a single prop is both challenging and exciting. It is a great way to improve your portrait photography. In this case, Gavin Hoey uses a basic black sun hat as the prop and brings out five different looks.

Portraits - they've been the means of capturing the likeness and essence of their subjects since the inception of the camera, and even long before for the subjects of many paintings done though out the span of history. Over the years, the posing, techniques, the lighting, and even more recently, the psychology behind the photos has absolutely evolved to affect every aspect of how portraits are captured. One thing hasn't changed though as much and that's the medium. Fast forward to now, and bring into the frame, Marcelo Mandruca, a photographer from Sao Paolo, Brazil that made his subjects believe they were posing for a long exposure project, but he was in fact, recording video for 60 seconds of each of his subjects.

Dramatic portraits that mix the natural light of the sun behind the subject with a strobe to emphasize the model are a popular look and a fantastic way to practice lighting skills and to build your portfolio. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to shoot one such portrait to produce professional results.

It takes a lot of skill and experience to light a portrait of a single person, but lighting groups can be an entirely different challenge. Nonetheless, depending what you shoot, you may be called upon to photograph groups. When that happens, you will want to be ready to transition quickly. This great video tutorial will show you an effective and straightforward approach for producing quality group photos.

You might be familiar with a few common ways photographers use a v-flat for their shoot, are there other ways you can use a v-flat? Here are some non-traditional ways you can use V-Flats on set and on location.

In my research to come up with ideas for blog posts, I watch a lot of videos. A few months ago I came across a few videos about the wet plate collodion process and I was hooked! The results are so unique that I just had to participate in it myself.

The beauty of artificial lighting is that you can create whatever look you want, wherever and whenever you want. That does not mean things need to be overly complex, however. In fact, just two lights can offer a ton of versatility, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how to use them to create some dramatic and compelling couples portraits.

Photos are, at their essence, about acting as a witness to a feeling or emotion. Neal Treadwell and Hugh Nini's accidental collection, 100 Years of Men in Love, is a witness to love and hope. Showing on HereTV, David Millbern's documentary about Nini and Treadwell's collection is well worth the 60 minute investment.

I recently had the chance to speak to Greg Beadle, one of the official photographers for the World Economic Forum Event in Davos. From the start he made it clear that as an official photographer for the World Economic Forum, it is his job to “promote the annual meeting through photographs that best emulate the positive experiences and results here in Davos.” He said the energy is tangible and throughout the week, world leaders, celebrities, and wealthy elite will come together to discuss and try solve the current issues of the world today. This is what a day as a photographer at Davos is like.

Portrait photography is a challenging but rewarding genre that requires not just competence with a camera and lighting, but the ability to direct subjects and make them feel comfortable in front of the camera. If you are new to the genre and hoping to improve, check out this helpful video tutorial that features an experienced portrait photographer discussing a range of helpful advice and actionable tips sure to help you take better photos.

Photographing people, especially when they are not models, can come with some challenges. Not many have the experience of being in front of the camera. Throw some kids into the mix, and it can become a lot more difficult with a different set of obstacles during your session. What can you do?

Behind the Scenes: Unique Bridal Portraits w/ Michael Corsentino and Photoflex from Photoflex on Vimeo.

Sarah Lyndsay is brand new to the YouTube scene, but an experienced photographer already and known for her epic landscape self-portraits. In her first video, she shares five tips on how she makes her photos.

Lighting people is a difficult but important skill to learn, and an additional complication is introduced when your subject wears glasses. This great video will show you how to eliminate distracting reflections in your subject's glasses while still creating flattering lighting.

Posing can be quite difficult for a lot of photographers to master, especially because it is a bit more nebulous than other more objective concepts like the correct exposure settings. This excellent video tutorial demonstrates a range of common posing mistakes in seated portraits and what you can do to fix them.

It might be the most wonderful time of the year but that doesn't mean there will be snow falling for your photo shoot. In this video, you’ll learn how to photograph and use real snow for overlays in Photoshop.

Street photography — particularly street portraiture — is such an engaging and appealing genre to view, but taking the images is somewhat harder for a number of reasons. Here is a beginner's guide for those photographers interested in hitting the streets with their camera.

Backlighting is a powerful technique that can transform your portraits by adding depth, dimension, and a distinct visual impact. By positioning a light source behind your subject, you can create striking highlights that outline the contours of your subject’s hair and body, making them stand out against the background.

Natural light portrait photography demands a nuanced understanding of how light interacts with the environment. By learning to read and work with available light, you can transform challenging conditions into opportunities for creating captivating portraits that stand out from the crowd.