What inspires you to pick up your camera? For Ivan Agerton, it’s people – and for all the talk about convergence between the worlds of stills and motion, Ivan is doing it. His ‘stills from motion’ portraits are both a visually gorgeous treat with their sublime use of slow motion, and thought provoking in the connection with the subject Ivan has captured.
As you build up your clientele, you will undoubtedly encounter a host of requests that can blindside you. Many photographers will learn quickly how being a good salesmen is just as vital to their business as the quality of their photographs.
In my opinion, mastering negative dodge and burn is the key to any beauty retouch. There are many steps and many hours that go into a great retouch, but negative dodge and burn is as essential, if not more so, than any of them. The term "negative dodge and burn" is one that I first heard from fellow retoucher Pratik Naik.
Vancouver-based company Tric is attempting to be the maker of the first wireless flash trigger exclusively for the iPhone. They are taking their new invention to Kickstarter in hopes that popular demand will help their aspiring iPhone wireless flash trigger dreams come true. As they say in their Kickstarter ad, "Taking professional photos on your iPhone is a challenge.
Dreaming big is never a bad thing for a photographer. The more imaginative your ideas, the easier it is to stand out amongst your peers. Yet there is often a very real, and very high price tag associated with grand productions. Producing personal projects that you’re passionate about is vital for many photographers in the fashion industry.
Heck yes! I'm pretty dang pumped about this post. Ever since the middle of high school, I've been immensely interested in "the process." You know, that middle bit between point A and point B that nobody but the artist ever sees. I've always loved peeking behind the scenes to see where something started and what kind of work and thought went into creating the finished product.
The photography industry is beyond saturated. Everyone is clamoring for a tiny piece of the shrinking pie. Instead of battling for scraps, California-based photographer Hannah Ray is busy baking her own pie by crashing through the boundaries of conventional commercial photography.
In Part 3 of the Dramatic Beauty Portrait Tutorial, we will finally get into the first main step of the skin retouching process. Basic skin retouching involves addressing subtle skin and texture issues on our portrait images. We will not only look at techniques for skin retouching in Photoshop, but also discuss the theory behind our decision process during the retouching process.
A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to shoot with the Broncolor Siros Monolights for the first time. Until now, my light of choice has been the Profoto D1. I, like many of you, have seen reviews on Broncolor's new monolight, and like many of you as well, have been a bit skeptical about their delve into competing with Profoto's D1 and B1 Series for the high-end monolight market.
Whenever you work with someone new, whether it’s a member of your crew or a client, there is often that initial hesitation that comes with working with someone untested. There is a question of personalities clashing, of their skill, their expectations, and how they’ll handle direction or feedback. The sooner you are able to ramp up production and start capturing photographs, the better.
In Part 1 of our Dramatic Beauty Portrait Tutorial, we looked at the lighting setup, gear breakdown, and shooting of our dramatic beauty shoot. In Part 2 of the tutorial we will now look at two different ways of exporting and preparing your image for retouching. The first method involves creating versions in Lightroom and exporting directly to Photoshop.
In the often collaborative world of fashion and commercial photography, there are many who contribute to the final product. From the styling of the model and the brands involved, to your crew and retoucher. No fashion image is a solo act, yet there are many who will never credit those that were a part of the production.
Today at 6 p.m. EST there will be a live Twitter chat with Russian-born, Indianapolis-based commerical photographer and Pattern Fashion Magazine creator Polina Osherov.
This is Part 1 in what will be an 8 part series for a dramatic beauty portrait. In the series of tutorials, we will go through everything from the gear used, to the lighting setups, and all the way through the complete retouching process. In Part 1, I will breakdown my gear list used for the shoot and I will thoroughly go through my lighting setup.
I am a bartender. After 15 years of slinging drinks it’s still hard to come out and admit that shooting isn't what I do full time. The path I've taken has been a twisted, gnarled, winding thing fraught with frustration and surprise. I've been shooting for 11 years and I never expected to still be behind a bar. But, such is life!
It’s not quite “sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads” like Dr. Evil intended, but the recently released photos of the European Southern Observatory’s new 22-watt LASER show a beautiful marriage of science and photography that’s hard not to love.
When I saw this wedding shoot I was stunned into silence for a few moments. I really didn't know what to think of it!
When building a successful photography business, there is no aspect more crucial than a client meeting. This is your chance to represent the very best of your brand, while putting a face to the person behind the camera. For many photographers, the decisive face-to-face meeting can be an intimidating challenge.
Photographer Jason Lanier is on a mission to end discrimination against the small business photographer. As seen in the video above, he and his group were confronted multiple times while attempting to do a shoot. In the first location they are asked to leave the premise altogether.
Many photographers use the word “make” to describe their process of photography. “I made these images,” you might hear a professional say describing his work. The layman phrase, “take pictures” or “capture photographs” evokes a feeling that the photographer did not put any work into the image, that they simply pointed the camera and the photo just came to be.
This month I'll be traveling to 5 European cities with Vincent Laforet to shoot and edit video for him as part of Project AIR, his new night aerial stills project.
This ingenious video has gone viral as the true level of photoshopping to manufactures 'beauty' is exposed. In this clip, we see 6 hours of photoshopping sped up to fit into a 90 second clip. All of these hours of work has gone into creating just one perfected image of a model.
The creation of a successful fashion image is often a team effort. Aside from the model and the photographer, the contributions of a talented creative team can elevate your fashion photography from good to great. In this article, we will review the key members of a creative team, and how you can cultivate a reliable crew.
This couple took wedding photography to a whole new level when they got their wedding shots taken. They used a series of drones in order to capture their big day. The shots that they created are undoubtedly original and stand out from the crowd... for now.
Shooting in harsh sunlight is always a challenge. Recently I shot a test while out on a trip in Los Angeles. Due to scheduling we had to start shooting around 4 p.m., so we were dealing with hard sunlight. In this post we will look at five different setups you can use to shoot in and manipulate these less than ideal lighting conditions.
Benjamin Von Wong has never been one to turn down a challenge. He consistently creates mind-blowing images in some of the most desolate of places under extreme conditions. This recent venture for Huawei's new smartphone, the P8, is no exception!
Post-Production and Retouching is just as much an integral part of creating a great image or series of images as pre-production and the actual shoot, especially when you are shooting for a client and not just for yourself. Each genre of imagery, advertising, beauty, fashion, etc. has a slightly different set of rules and parameters when it comes to retouching.
Dana Pennington is a Los Angeles-based Fashion photographer. He recently moved to become a permanent resident in Los Angeles, from his home town Denver, Colorado. I had the chance to sit down with Pennington during my first trip to L.A., over the past weekend, and talk to him about his journey into the fashion photography industry.
Fstoppers.com owner Lee Morris recently decided to shave his 5 month beard while having a little fun. Lee created 8 different "characters" with different lengths of facial hair and then released his unretouched images to the Fstoppers.com. These photographers took these files and pushed them to the max, creating 8 hilarious final images.
There is that spark in all of us. For some it's the first press of the shutter. For others it's that first dollar we make for creating art while doing something we love.
Update: Aaron Hernandez has now been found guilty of 1st degree murder. If you're a sports fan, you probably know the huge scandal unfolding right now surrounding Aaron Hernandez, the former NFL star who was recently released from the New England Patriots.
I will soon be releasing a start-to-finish retouching tutorial video here at Fstoppers on my most recent fashion editorial photoshoot. But before I do, I wanted to start warming our readers up with a complete gear list.
When a fashion photographer travels between both coasts of the U.S., shoots assignments in the Caribbean islands, and spans the continents of Europe and Asia for work, it’s safe to say he’s “made it.” Living through those experiences when the stakes are so high prepares you for anything – and that’s experience from which we are all lucky to learn.
Let's face it; the industry is changing. Art directors and potential clients are not looking to simply hire a photographer anymore. They do not care about your lighting, your gear, or even your previous clients. So what do they care about then?
A professional retoucher does so much more than just pushing pixels about. To say the least there is a lot of artistic interpretation, collaboration, technical understanding and skill involved.
Matthew Jordan Smith has gained a reputation as one of the industry's top fashion photographers and also as one of the leading photography educators. Those of us who have seen Smith teaching or in interviews have been left with the same impression: he is a photographer and instructor that is forthcoming, sincere, and passionate.
In a dramatic scene from "Interstellar," the space crew was nearly overcome by a massive wave on a distant planet. Take a look behind the scenes to see the filmmakers and actor Wes Bentley discuss the lighting and composite work required to produce this daunting visual effect.
Knowing when to stop is the hardest lesson to learn for those new to retouching. In this tutorial we will look at how to recover lost texture and over smoothed skin tones, even when your file has been flattened. In this image the texture has been over retouched resulting in a significant loss in the skin texture. The transitions between skin tones have also been slightly overdone.
PRO.edu has released its newest tutorial, "The Complete Guide to Product Photography and Retouching." This in-depth tutorial features over 20 hours of content on shooting and retouching, taught by Tony Roslund. The tutorial is currently available and being sold with a $25-off early-bird discount, this week only.
In Branding and Logo Design for Photographers Part 1, we looked at the initial steps of self-analyzing, market research, and competitive analysis. Now we move into the designing of our photography brand logo with possibly the most important step: identify and separate.
Being fiscally successful as a photographer requires more then just taking great pictures. Branding, marketing, and promoting are huge aspects of the business of photography. One of the first steps photographers often take when starting their business is designing a logo, but this can often be a mistake.
When it comes to compositing, more often than not it's the little things that take an image from good to great. In this tutorial I show you how to pull off a simple yet very effective way to create those small embers and sparks that are all the rage in Hollywood action movie posters. Adding details like sparks, debris, fog, dust, etc.
Perhaps the benchmark of “making it” in this business is to earn an assignment that would cause all but those with the strongest moral character to push both ethical and legal boundaries if an opportunity to supplant the rightful hire were to present itself.
When a client came to me and asked if I could do a composite that featured a dragon, my first response was, "Of course, no problem. This is going to be so much fun!" Immediately following the conversation, reality set in and the haunting feeling that I had bitten off more than I could chew began to overwhelm me.
Last summer, photographer and director Dixie Dixon was called upon by Nikon to shoot a campaign for their new touch screen DSLR, the D5500. This incredible opportunity had one interesting challenge in store for Dixon, however; All of the material would be photographed and filmed — kit lens, auto settings, and Photoshop-free — using the consumer-level D5500 itself.
I first came across the work of Colorado-based photographer Drew Lundquist in 2013 when he was working for the powerhouse advertising agency Elevendy. Lundquist is a composite photographer who specializes in what he labels "theatrical special effects photography." His composite work is extremely clean with an immaculate attention to detail.
Super Bowl XLIX is just two days away and most of us are looking forward to the commercials as much - if not more - than the actual game. This year will feature a Snickers’ commercial that is bound to be the talk of the work place come Monday.
We all know the concept of a skinny mirror or fat mirror but lighting is really what can change your appearance in photos, especially when defining muscles.
I have learned a lot over the years regarding pricing and bidding commercial photography. I still have a lot to learn. I've made mistakes (lots of them) and had some victories (fortunately).
As a photographer, my skill set is constantly put to the test. In most cases, I’m handed an idea on a slab of wood and the mission is to hand that idea translated to a tangible artifact back to my client on a silver platter. It’s never an easy process, but it’s a part of my job.