Editorial Photography

ESPN's Body Issue 2014 is out -- and the results are stunning. Every one of the 59 images in the "Bodies We Want" piece is a beautiful portrait of the pinnacle of the human form. There is no doubt these are professional atheletes with perfect, sculpted bodies. No puffed-up editing, no extraneous fluff. This is the real deal: clean, sharp, and on point. Oh, and did I mention there's a BTS video? No, wait. There are 13 BTS videos featuring the likes of Jamie Anderson, Michael Phelps, Venus Williams and many others.

Lighting is key. It has an influence on just about everything we do when making an image. Light will affect what time of day we shoot, where we place our subject, our shutter speed, our aperture, how we edit the images, blah blah blah. You get the idea, right? Understanding and controlling light is crucial to the success of your work.

I’m always one to preach the importance of prevention and preparation before walking into a photo shoot, but there are some things you just can’t prepare for. The more you shoot the more you come to find that gear will tend to fall apart after a excessive number of uses... and abuses.

Last year Mercedes-Benz USA (@MBUSA) ran a very successful social media campaign using Instagram and some of its top influencers to spread the word about the new CLA which you can read about here. Now, they are at it again with a new approach on the much anticipated Mercedes GLA. What better way to advertise than to hit social media with some absolutely stunning adventure photos? 

Late last year I was contacted by one of my magazine clients to shoot their upcoming cover with Panic At The Disco front man Brendon Urie and it had to take place across the country in Las Vegas in about a week (I am NYC-based by the way). I scrambled to find some cool locations in the region, knowing full well I did not want to shoot in some cramped hotel suite. Little did I know that with some good researching and shrewd negotiating, I would find some of the coolest locations I have ever photographed, and just moments from the Las Vegas strip.

If you are into TV series, you would have definitely heard about Downton Abbey, beginning in the years leading up to World War I, the simple drama portrays the lives of Crawley family and their servants. The series is a window that takes you back in time to show what goes on in a aristocratic society of that era with some historic moments in the mix.

Buying expensive gear and mastering lighting and technique play an important role in photography but ultimately, these things are secondary in achieving a solid portrait when facial expressions are factored in. No matter the genre of photography, whether it's fashion, weddings or family portraits, connecting to the subject is far more important than any other detail in shooting portraits. When portraying a personality or specific mood, there is a necessity to connect and extract emotions and moods.

Whether you’re traveling around or venturing out beyond your own backyard, cities offer an endless supply of interesting locations and moments for photographers. To take advantage of their potential you’ll have to not only identify the best compositions but also execute them well. Here are some tips that will help to take your city and cityscape photography to the next level.

A month ago I flew to North Carolina and was the Director of a 5 person crew for a week-long video shoot at a multi-million dollar corporate facility. Then just last week, I spent 4 days in Albuquerque as a Production Assistant, shooting behind the scenes images and getting lunch for the crew. My ego almost stopped me from taking that gig, but I’m glad it didn't. Here’s why.

I’m a huge fan of Annie Leibovitz and the imagery she has captured over the past few decades. Being a self-taught photographer, I looked to her work time and time again for inspiration and motivation. Over the course of a year, I scoured the internet for information on her lighting setups, equipment and methodology. But, the more I dove in, the less concerned I became about equipment and the more I felt the need to simplify my style.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of testing out the Phase One IQ250, and so I thought I would put together a practical write up of my time spent the Phase One IQ250 Camera System, the Capture One software, and whether or not either one has found a permanent place in my workflow.

Lindsay Adler launched her new company this spring, Dream Shoot Rentals to provide couture dress, accessories, and props to give photographers a source to execute their visions and build their portfolios. Lindsay explained her new vision for this company: “While teaching across the United States, photographers are always asking how they can get a hold of gorgeous clothing for their shoots. Often pieces are too expensive or difficult to attain.

Adobe was very clear that the 2014 updates were mainly focused on what they have seen to be a rapidly evolving market: Mobile. Adobe is seeing a rapid pace of change, explosion of mobile, and a world that is continually and incredibly connected. But their software, for real-work at least, is still tethered to a desk. Adobe thinks this is a problem, and sought to solve it.

So you've been working long hours at your desk or computer, rarely see your friends, when you're not working, you're thinking about work or shoots. Your portfolio and income may be improving (or trying to), but you feel like your personal life is falling apart in the process. Does this sound all too familiar? Well it all hits very close to home for me and it's what put me in the hospital last week.

Last week, Adobe teased one of the many new features they will be unveiling this week during their launch event in New York (and online). A question that I saw asked in the comments of that article, as well as again posed during a recent Adobe briefing I attended, asked that since we were promised fast and regular updates as a part of the Creative Cloud model, why then are we waiting for a major hyped release? Well, I have an answer for you.

I've been shooting professionally for just over four years now – “professional” as in starting a legitimate business where I charge money to take photographs of my clients. We could wax poetic on the distinctions between “amateur” and “professional” that don’t involve the exchange of money, but the area that I want to focus on has to do with the responsibilities and perceptions that come along with people hiring you as a business.

When you think of conceptual, high-fashion photo shoots, you imagine big budgets. Turns out, couture shoot concepts don’t have to cost more than $100. Professional photographer Amanda Diaz is demonstrating how to do just that right now during her CreativeLive class aimed to help photographers concept, style, and capture stunning images on a true DIY budget.

The music business is a brutal, cutthroat, dog-eat-dog world and I lived it for nearly 10 years. Since the age of 16, I struggled as a touring musician, surviving off nothing but cold Spaghettios and sleeping in a decade-old 8-passenger van. I was fortunate enough to explore the nation and see things that most will never see, but by the time I left the business I was completely burnt out.

We’re often told that we need to focus our photographic efforts on one genre and that you shouldn't try to be an expert at everything. While I agree that you need to target your marketing at a specific photographic field, many people take this advice far too literally. They disregard other genres and miss out on a tremendous amount of valuable knowledge that can be obtained through the exploration of genres outside of our comfort zone. 

I've had some pretty amazing experiences in my life. Fstoppers.com has given me incredible opportunities like meeting Bon Jovi, or riding in the first Lamborghini Aventador in America. Our international workshop last week took a year of planning and insane amounts of stress. On top of it all, I had the flu during the entire week. Even still, last week was the most rewarding week of my life.

Released this past weekend, Britain's Sunday Times Magazine pays tribute to some of the most iconic and powerful photos from the last century in a short video they've entitled "Photojournalism." The simple two minute video creatively adds motion to the images, in an attempt to bring back the feelings and emotion the photographers were facing during the time these powerful images were captured.

Cosmopolitan Magazine has released its July issues and they all have one thing in common; Katy Perry. She will be gracing the covers of all 62 international editions of the magazine making her the magazine's first ever global cover star. No doubt that this is a landmark achievement for Katy Perry but is it also a clever strategy to further cut costs by the magazine industry?

When it comes to camera memory cards, most of us gravitate towards Sandisk and Lexar. Maybe PNY or Sony too. Samsung has been making memory cards for other companies for quite some time, but only recently have they decided to branch out and brand them as Samsung. So how do they perform? Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, quite well.

Israeli photojournalist Ziv Koren is one of the most successful photojournalists in the world and mostly known for his unique/striking Arab-Israeli conflict images. In the past 25 years he won multiple prestigious international awards and captured some iconic news photos we all know and appreciate. Recently Jared Polin sat down with him in his studio in Israel for a very interesting 45-minute video interview that you won't want to miss. [Interview starts at 1:16:30]

Newborn photography is one of the hottest genres of photography today. And with more and more babies being born everyday, the demand for talented newborn shooters has never been higher. Here are ten reasons from Stephanie Cotta on why you should be photographing newborns.

It was something I’d been thinking about for a while. Casually admiring others and how they went about it so naturally. Watching from afar, admiring the differences between them and me and wondering if there every was going to be a day when I was comfortable enough to do it myself. The more I watched, the more interested I became. Soon, I began visiting websites, looking at the photos and day dreaming what it would be like when I had the nerve to do it myself.

If you're like me (and basically every photographer I know), you're a little bit paranoid. Your heart skips a beat when you hit "Format" on your memory cards. You don't trust a source unless it's backed up. ioSafe was not originally built for photographers, but it certainly caters to them with a fireproof, water proof and basically life proof design. With the addition of specialized apps, ioSafe looks to be a the way to store and monitor your precious images and video.

If you’ve made the transition, or are planning on making the transition from photography as a hobby to photography as a job, you’ll invariably come to a point where you’ll just want to throw your hands in the air and give up. These bouts of self-doubt and frustration will likely occur many times and seem to appear not only during your lows but even at the highs. These feelings are normal, and it is those that rise above them time and again that end up successful.

It all started with a conversation between filmmaker Justin Gustavision and I this past Friday. Justin works for Nadus Films who just released a brilliant award-winning documentary “BBoy For Life” which shows how break dancing has provided teenagers a way out of Guatemalan gang life. The film has been picked up by Starz and Discovery Channel, yet their social media presence could be considered dry, when it should be arousing a well-deserved tornado of hype.

You might someday find yourself working within the overall vision of someone else – like an editor, an art director or, in this case, a director of photography – when shooting on assignment for publications as big as Sports Illustrated. Limited time with your subject and being asked for simple lighting against a simple background isn’t uncommon in this industry. So how would you go about getting the type of photographs your employer wants plus creating a dramatically lit and colored set for yourself?

What does nostalgia for broken things say about us? Over the last year or so, we’ve undoubtedly seen an exponential increase of the intentional “glitch” used in visual arts. The glitch – defined as a short-term fault in a system – has gained tremendous popularity as a visual style. My theory is that a person’s predilection toward a preference for random events can be explained as both a desire for nostalgia and perhaps even a loss of control – and that very act of self-awareness can aid in becoming a better thinker and artist.

“Make me look skinnier” is one of the more frequent requests I get from my clients. Although those kinds of requests are usually accompanied by some laughter as more of a joke than anything, there is some bashful truth there that we, as photographers, need to be aware of. Of course, you have probably heard the old adage “the camera adds ten pounds,” but do you know why and how to combat it?

A few weeks ago I released a video featuring my friend and fellow photographer Blair Bunting in the backseat of an F16. The video blew up on Reddit (#1 in r/Videos making it to the top 5 of the front page), was featured on Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Daily Mail, Telegraph, CNN, ABC World News with Dianne Sawyer, hundreds of other blogs and even was officially recognized by YouTube. But for reasons still unexplained to me, it has been removed from YouTube and there is nothing I can do about it.

During an initial meeting with local publication NFocus Magazine, the Editor-In-Chief asked for a unique aesthetic on Louisville's theater and arts community and wanted a massive group shot, but not your traditional group shot. I threw out the idea to shoot actors and their "characters" from directly overhead on a theater floor, as if they were action figures laid out and organized. Two seconds after I uttered the idea, I realized I had no clue how I would pull it all off.

When you’re backed by the likes of Silicon Valley superstars like Youtube co-founder Jawed Karim, Y-Combinator, and a half-dozen or so other techie entrepreneurs, you know you’ve got something good. That something good is Lumoid, which rents photo gear at unheard-of prices, especially when you add in a few perks...

When I met Laura Grier at WPPI this year, she showcased her latest editorial fashion shoot with a behind the scenes video.  It isn't everyday you get a backstage look at the work and creativity that goes into this type of photo-shoot. Not only are the photos incredible, but the designs and creations showcased on the models are one of a kind. Truly an inspiring piece.

When each of us picks up our camera, whether it be for the first time or the ten-thousandth time, our finished work is a product of everything which has inspired us. Everything we've seen, everything we've done, everything we've learned and grown from can be seen in our work in at least some small part. That's why, I believe, it's important to not only look back at our work on a regular basis with an eye critical to how technically proficient we've become, but to look back at our work from an influence-based standpoint to see how much of ourselves we can find into our work.

If you've been a long time reader of Fstoppers, you might recall one of my original editorial pieces: How China Changed the American Lighting Industry. At the time of its publication, I had just come off a recent spell of a few years at an American photographic lighting company and got to see first hand how American greed led to a Chinese takeover of the industry. In the years following that article, the problem hasn't gotten any better. If anything, it's gotten far worse, and to the detriment of you as a consumer.

Anyone who reads Fstoppers knows about Peter Hurley and his successful headshot business. Aside from being a great photographer, Peter is also a respected educator and speaker. We always see him in action in the different videos, and see his working techniques and creative direction, but we never really had the chance to hear the story of how he became the successful photographer he is today. Check out this very interesting video where Peter talks about how he went from being on the Olympic team, to being a headshot photographer.

There is a major problem in the photography industry, and it's the photographers fault. Photographers spend countless hours in the right side of their brain taking photos, then more sleepless nights bringing those images to life in post. They agonize over the processing, feedback from peers, and then publish the images for the world to consume. Sadly 97% of these photographers aren't copyrighting these images making them much more attractive to steal.  We need your help to fix this, Adobe.

One of the keys to running a successful photography business is to be constantly innovating and searching for the best ways to serve your clients. A month ago I made the decision to use Pixieset for my client galleries. Here are my Top 10 reasons why I feel it is a good choice for all professional photographers.

Photographer Sam Hurd is sharing yet another one of his artistic photography techniques with his followers. He mastered The Brenizer Method, he basically had all of Amazon on backorder for Prisming, he ripped the lens mount right off his 50mm for Freelensing, and then he did some convex Lens Chimping. This time around, Sam attached an old anamorphic movie lens to his 85mm in order to shoot a very cinematic wide field of view. Take a look at how it works!

Brought to our attention by Photography Bay, Amazon has patented a most ingenious invention: a completely revolutionary way to get a "true white" background on an image in-camera, without any post processing. We didn't understand how it was done, but now the US Patent Office has helped us all by posting this granted patent complete with plenty of diagrams supplied by Amazon's brilliant inventors.

The evolution of a photographer is rarely a linear one. We get better, we get worse, we think we’re improving but we’re not, and then with some luck and a lot of patience and practice, we actually start to produce great images. For some that last point is never reached and it’s usually due to a few common mistakes.

I always tether. Whether it's for a client or fashion editorial, the CamRanger has played a very important role in capturing rock solid images. But, before the wonderful technology of wireless tethering came into the picture, I always tethered to a workstation. However, that came with the annoyance of a long tether cable dangling off your camera. I always felt the sense of being trapped or held back from moving freely, I was always concerned and it was always a distraction.

About four years ago - or about a month or so after I picked up a camera and decided I was a photographer - I thought it would be in my best interest to start up a Facebook Fan Page (as they were called back then). I assumed that because a few friends were liking the random collection of photos that I was posting to my personal Facebook page, strangers - and eventually clients - would find my Fan Page, like it, and then money and fame would come rolling in.

Aurora Borealis actually means dawn of the north, and can best be seen during peak winter months around the magnetic North Pole. The peak season of this spectacular event happens once every 11 years with the last peak season being the winter of 2013. If you are like me and were unable to witness this in person, check out this pretty beautiful timelapse from Alexis Coram that can only be described as light version of a Hunter S. Thompson dream.  

Most of the readers of this site I’d wager fall into the category of content creators, not content consumers. That being the case, rants about not being properly compensated for the hard work put in to producing images comes up every so often. But have you ever been on the other side of that situation?

Tamron's VC technology can't be beat: it's simply the best option out there for any type of optical stabilization. I can't live without it when it comes to video, and it's so good it often makes using a steady cam unnecessary. Common complaints with Tamron is often the build quality and sharpness, so let's see how their latest super zoom, the 150-600 f/5-6.3 handled a wildlife shoot.

Commercial shoots are often complex creatures that take a lot of planning and prep work. You'll need the help of your peers to pull off many of the concepts your clients demand and you will need to keep your wits about you as you try to squeeze the entire process into the fast paced deadlines of the business world. I'd like to offer you all some tips and insight on how I like to tackle this process.