Lighting equipment, like all photography gear, can be pretty expensive. However, with a little ingenuity, you can get soft, flattering light with the cheapest of "modifiers." This helpful video will show you how it's done.
The digital age has pushed some of us away from printing our photos, but at the same time, better technology and cheaper prices has made it more possible than ever to make your own high-quality prints at home. This helpful video will give you some tips to help and mistakes to avoid in the process.
As I always discuss, I am looking constantly for every way to streamline every little detail of my workflow as much as possible. Today I want to talk about what you do after you run your actions. It's a very simple thing that I rarely see anyone do.
What if I said there was something more useful for our photographic careers than any social network we've ever been on? With the ability to reach many more people than all your followers on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter combined; no restrictive algorithms, no paying to boost posts, no adverts. Do you want in?
It's certainly not easy to make money in photography, and if you're trying your best to do so and still not succeeding, it can be very frustrating. This helpful video examines some reasons you might be struggling and what you can do to correct them.
No matter the sneaky techniques you use to get around it, sometimes eyeglass reflections are just impossible to avoid when photographing people. It’s always best practice to have the client remove the glasses for a single shot so that you have some bare eyes to work with in Photoshop, but for times when this is just not possible or you simply forget to take that extra step, this video will guide you through some great ways to fix that glare, without a ton of cloning or eye-swapping.
Time-lapses are an easy way to add spice to your video productions, but sometimes parts of your scene look awful when displayed over long periods of time. In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can use real-time video to improve objects with oscillating movements.
When you're first starting out with artificial lighting, the vast array of terms to describe and quantify the various parameters of light can be a bit overwhelming. This helpful video will introduce you to the most essential terms that will allow to effectively communicate how any light source behaves.
When the general public picture photographers, they tend to envision a creative individual who goes out and snaps away at anything and everything that inspires them; architecture, nature, sports, or whatever assignment they've been put on. It's likely that they never think of the hours we spend marketing, writing proposals, editing, doing book-keeping, etc.
Consistent photo editing can be a huge factor in ensuring that your brand is cohesive. Knowing how to achieve consistency on a regular basis is a handy tool every photographer should have in their skill set.
Like it or not, Instagram has become a legitimate tool for photographers, and incorporating it into your business toolkit can get your work in front of more eyes and increase your client and inquiry influx. This informative video will show you some pitfalls to avoid when using the app.
I'm sure you have some favorite photographers you follow on Instagram or the like whose every image seems impossibly good, so much so that it can sometimes feel like you're chasing an impossible standard of achievement. Well, guess what. I guarantee you they take bad images too.
Glitter always sounds conceptually fun, doesn't it? The word "glitter" immediately brings out visualizations of outlandish Disney characters throwing fairy dust into the air! Just me? Fine, just me.
If there's one thing photographers and videographers can never have enough of, it's batteries. However, traveling with them can be an issue, as planes and large lithium ion batteries generally don't mix. This helpful video will give you the rundown on traveling safely and legally with your batteries.
Posing can be one of the trickiest things to really get right in photography, as it has a lot of nuances that all need to be correct to really make an image work. This video will give you some useful tips for improving your posing and creating better photos.
Pricing your work is tricky. Whether you're a commercial photographer, portrait shooter, or selling prints of your artwork, your career depends on your ability to price yourself well. Does your rate sheet have any of these mistakes?
When shooting tethered, it’s easy to get lost in files and make things more complicated than they should. However, with Capture One there is an easy way to stay on top of things and cut your image selection time drastically.
If you have ever photographed the auroras you know how important it is to know when they will explode in the sky. We actually have data available making that prediction easier than just following the Kp number.
Imagine thinking you came up with with a great idea for a shoot, after which you put the concept together and shoot and edit it all, only to realize that not only had you accidentally plagiarized the idea, you plagiarized it from something you had seen before. Check out this fascinating video on the phenomenon.
When you're shooting outside of a studio, finding the perfect location can be a bit of a challenge. This great video will show you nine locations with lots of potential that you can likely find somewhere near you.
The thought of a full day of wedding photography, with its many layers, can surely be overwhelming. And with that said check out this behind the scenes, wedding day tour to place your mind at ease.
With all the incredible new 4K cameras — BlackMagic’s new pocket cinema, Sony’s mirrorless line — anyone remember last year’s excitement when Magic Lantern shipped 4K raw for the 5D Mark III on April Fool’s Day? Only it wasn’t a prank.
There are a multitude of methods of good composition, use of light, and editing that can be used to draw a viewer's eye to the subject of your image. One of the most common and effective methods is leading lines, and this great video will give you several demonstrations of their usage.
Light is everything in photography. If it's good, shooting feels like you just won the lottery. If it's bad, it can be incredibly frustrating to work in. This great video talks about finding the right time of day for the light you're looking for.
There are a multitude of types of light in landscape photography, and depending on how you're trying to feature your subject and the mood you're trying to convey, each can have its place. This great video will show you the beauty of backlighting and give you some helpful tips and tricks for getting the most out of it.
If you haven't closely examined everything you can do when you import photos in Lightroom, you could be missing the chance to save valuable time in your workflow and increase both your organization and efficiency. This great video will teach you everything you will ever need to know about importing photos into Lightroom.
Check out this short interview which delves into the topic of camera collecting through the eyes of a man enamored with the mid-century modern aesthetic. Not content with just collecting, though; David Silver wants to leave behind a legacy.
It's tempting to chase the idea of being unique in any creative field; after all, those are often the people that stand out. But the very pursuit of that can actually inhibit you from finding your true style, as this great video essay discusses.
Deciding to become a professional photographer is an exciting and scary thing: you're following something you're deeply passionate about and turning it into a career, but with that comes a lot of unknowns. This helpful video will give you a general outline from picking up a camera to getting paid.
Do you ever feel that you want to take your studio images to the next level but only have a few seamless paper rolls laying around? In this short video learn how you can make the most of your seamless paper and take your images to the next level.
When you're first starting out with lighting, the natural thing to do is use your on-camera flash or a hotshoe speedlight. However, unless you're going for a very specific look, this will generally not give you the best results. This great video shows you how even just a single speedlight can give you great results when you move it off camera.
Using gels opens up a world of colors when shooting portraits. But you don't always have to place the gel paper over the light and shoot. How creative can you get when shooting portraits with color gels?
The Retouching Academy has announced a new contest, open to beginner and experienced enthusiast skill levels. Download the contest image file and submit your best retouch by May 15, 2018 for a chance to win some great prizes from Wacom, Capture One, and Retouching Academy.
As professional photographers, there's no doubt in our minds that making photography into a career should be considered "a real job." However, the path you take to become a professional may make or break your career choice.
Seascapes has always fascinated me!.I do not have a preferred vision for seascapes; I love both minimalistic and simple versions, as well as those highly dramatic ones full of action and movement. Here, I will share some of my tips on creating the latter.
Unless you live in the big metropolitan cities like New York or Los Angeles, photographing models is easier said than done. That's because any chance of success in the industry, and the models move to the bigger hubs. That will not change, but there are opportunities to photograph models in generally any location and that's what I did with this tutorial.
The cool thing about landscape photography is that there are generally a variety of appropriate settings for any specific scene or subject; it really comes down to your creative vision and the sort of final image you're looking to create. This great video talks about choosing settings to match what you're trying to portray.
We've all had a special teacher or two in our lives who have influenced our development and had a major impact on the types of people we grew up to become. This heartwarming video documents a surprise tribute students put together for their favorite high school photography teacher.
There are a lot of times when you might want to change the color of something in an image, whether it's clothing, the sky, or something else. This great tutorial will show you how to do just that using only Lightroom.
You’ve probably captured some stunning travel photography from your last couple trips. But months later, your library is still full of unfinished photos. Nothing seems to bring out the potential that’s hiding in plain sight: curves, drastic white balance changes, various crops, random techniques on YouTube. So, they remain in post-production purgatory.
We are all addicted to tutorials; at least, I know I am. I'm also addicted to food, so I need to double up my free time. My goal was to come up with an easy way to watch all the tutorials on my iPad. Sure, you could copy the tutorial files onto your iPad, but if you are like me and have a lot more content than would fit on the iPad and don't want to keep putting on and taking it off, there is a better way!
If you want to be successful as a photographer, you have to know both how to succeed and how to fail, that is, how to embrace not the possibility but rather the inevitability of failure and to turn it into something that promotes learning and growth. This great video examines the idea of just that and how we can grow from failure.
Teleconverters are an interesting proposition: a cheap device you attach between your lens and camera body that gives you an increase in focal length. This great video will give you an introduction to their strengths and drawbacks to decide if they're right for your work.
If you're trying to build a profitable business, you've probably heard people say you need to build an email list and do email marketing. But is that really so? And what kind of time and resources does it take to actually create an email list? Let’s go through it all and see why I don’t think email marketing is really worth it.
When you're first starting out in photography, it can feel absolutely overwhelming trying to learn, assimilate, and execute the information and techniques you need to know in tandem with your artistic vision. This helpful video will show you 11 common mistakes beginners make to help you avoid them and advance your work more quickly.
Many of you will use a laptop in some shape or form every single day. Could clocking up all those hours and the way you use your laptop be having a negative effect on your health?
As creatives, many times it is hard to place focus on organization rather than creating images. Without organization your life can become chaotic and disruptive to your workflow. A few tips to help take back your space and your sanity could mean the difference between booking or losing your next client.
One feature of our digital cameras that evolves with every single generation of sensors and processors is ISO performance. With astronomical ISO numbers now available, just how high should you push your ISO?
Today marks 10 years since I first filed paperwork to start my photography business. It's been quite the roller coaster, and I've learned a lot of things about photography, business, and myself that I didn't expect. Here are some of the highlights from my first 10 years.
I always wanted to shoot the portraits of a classic Bharatanatyam dancer, but by adding a modern touch to the 2000-year-old traditional dance form. Here is how we created dramatic dancer portraits with a little technique and lots of imagination.
