A very popular and fun look for portraits and candid shots is a warm glow that seems to emanate from a soft, out-of-frame light source. This fun and easy tutorial will show you how to add that same glow to your images using Photoshop.
We're lucky to live in an age when learning photography is easier than ever, but normally, educational content tends to focus on specific techniques or ideas. While that's generally fine, sometimes, it's helpful to see the entire creative process from start to finish to understand why different steps were taken and different decisions were made. This helpful video will show you just that.
Personally, I think that even if we're not all aspiring to be the next Spielberg, good films can be tremendously instructive for both videographers and stills photographers because they showcase such strong storytelling via imagery. Here are six of the most powerful and effective shots in the history of film.
I think few people will deny that Ansel Adams was one of the most influential and important photographers ever, his work enduring as a portfolio of striking examples of mastery of the medium. This excellent documentary takes a deep look at his life and work.
Photography, perhaps by virtue of the medium and its readily accessible nature, is a pursuit often learned by copying the work of others at least to a degree. This great video examines the importance of finding an original creative voice and being brave enough to show it to the world.
When shooting the Milky Way and nightscapes, there are several ways to get cleaner images with less perceivable noise and other techniques to increase dynamic range. Ian Norman from Lonely Speck has been putting out tutorials for shooting at night for a few years now, and his newest video goes into addressing ISO noise by mixing two different techniques to create a better resolving and cleaner final composition.
An article published in the British Journal of Photography (BJP) has questioned the validity of the Photography degree as we know it in 2017. The article profiles one British University who are “dedicated to reinventing the traditional photography degree.”
Finding background entertainment is so important when you are by nature a creative who spends many long and secluded hours in front of a computer. We live in an intensely visual world, and within that space, I find it incredibly refreshing absorbing audio Podcasts in the background as I work.
Recently, Micael Widell was lucky enough to catch the northern lights over his hometown Stockholm. The experience of seeing and photographing aurora borealis inspired him to compile a video of the best tips to capture the northern lights with a camera.
Atmospheric effects can enhance your photos, be it with in-camera techniques or postproduction effects. Light flares are one of the most popular effects that many photographers add to their work, and is one that can easily be overdone. Just like many things within Photoshop, there are several ways of doing it. It can be a fairly simple process using adjustment layers to add light flares and even haze to your photo.
So you have a great photoshoot idea that's been burning a hole in the back of your brain. As amazing as it sounds to you, you continue to push it back. Finding the task of planning and executing said shoot has been daunting to say the least. I'm someone who as a beginner found this to be a problem that held me back more times than once. However, I'm here to say that by developing a process of sorts, this obstacle can become a thing of the past.
A few years ago I was talking with a fellow photographer about the color correction of portraits. While on the topic of using white balance cards and color charts in order to get a perfect skin color, he interrupted me and said, “You can't have perfect skin color with these.” I immediately thought to myself, “Oh, yeah?” Oh, yeah. That was the truth, and I will explain why below.
For a little while now, Instagram has become the place to be for photographers and the word on all digital influencers lips. However, Facebook is not dead, far from it. There are still people on it and it’s still a good place to market your business if you do it right. Making content go viral is amongst the best solutions available, but it requires a little bit of knowledge to do so. In this short 10-minute long video, Lucy Martin and Chris Hau are going to explain to you the key points to making your images or videos go viral on Facebook.
Many times clients have asked to have the shower scene added to their boudoir sessions. For many photographers this may seem impossible to accomplish if they lack a shower, or the space is too small to accommodate. So I asked a few fellow photographers to give some examples of their shower scenes and techniques to show how this can be accomplished regardless of space or an actual running shower.
In the wake of 2017’s only supermoon, which rose on December 3rd, NatureTTL has released a new video detailing to photographers how to plan for, and execute, a great moonrise or moonset landscape photo. For photographers wanting to branch out into a new type of photography, these tips are great for understanding how and when the moon will rise and set, and where to be to get that perfect shot.
Layer masks are one of the most useful tools in Photoshop, allowing the user to apply adjustments to an image selectively. Masking, however, can be one of the most frustrating aspects of post-production, sometimes requiring lots of intricate work. One tool in Photoshop that can make your masking life easier is also one of the most overlooked: Apply Image.
Out of all the things you need to know how to work with in Photoshop, layer masks are one of the most fundamental and important. This awesome and quick video will show you ten shortcuts for working with layer masks in Photoshop.
Photoshop tricks are like chocolate and puppies: you can never have enough of them. This awesome video will show you five new tricks to not only make your workflow more efficient, but also easier and more powerful.
With the advent of digital photography, more shutterbugs than ever have taken to calling themselves photographers and many have even gone into business for themselves. Now, with those same digital camera manufacturers offering better and better video options embedded into each iteration of their flagship still cameras, more and more photographers have added the word “filmmaker” to our business cards and taken aim at everything from short films to features. But being a real filmmaker requires more than the ability to just produce stunning images.
As wedding photographers, we always find ourselves walking the high wire between art and popular demand. But then, is the balance hard to achieve? In my opinion, I’d say it is wise to just put the thought, sincere effort, and presence of mind into your photos. What you capture will be loved equally by the artist in you as well as the couple you shoot - who seek nothing less than spectacular. The picture we are going to dissect is a product of this belief.
In a world where flipping our images between color and black and white is as simple as the click of the mouse, photographers and cinematographers today aren’t often tasked with knowing the complexity of how those vibrant colors actually come into existence. But in the early days of cinema, when competing processes for color reproduction took turns as the next best innovation, one name reigned supreme: Technicolor.
Hyperlapse is a variant of time-lapse where the camera moves between each shot in order to bring motion to the video sequence. The result is visually impressive, but this technique requires a high degree of precision and concentration. Furthermore, the entire process is tedious and time consuming. But thanks to the recent progress of gimbal stabilization, anyone can now produce decent hyperlapse with an entry-level gimbal. Photographer Matthew Vandeputte from Sydney shows us how to create an easy hyperlapse with a $550 gimbal.
If you grew up in a house with a football-loving father like I did, you probably had your young little mind blown every NFL Sunday by the yellow line darting under the players' feet. My dad's answer? "Hollywood Magic." Up until the moment I stumbled across this video that was the only answer I had ever gotten.
Let's be honest, managing our image files is arguably the least rewarding part of a photographer's job. There's very little satisfaction that comes with a well-organized catalog, and even less satisfaction when we can't find the files we need on a particular device. In the mobile age, having access to all your images and catalogs at any time on any device is critical. And, when you get a new computer, laptop, tablet or other device, getting access to your files can sometimes prove challenging, as I wrote about last week when I purchased a new MacBook Pro from B&H.
It's pretty hard to overstate the importance of the relationship between music and imagery in video work. When the music isn't firing on all cylinders, it can ruin what's being shown on screen and severely detract from the overall experience. This helpful video will show you how to find and match music for your video work.
We've heard quite a bit of the importance of shooting personal projects to both growing as a photographer and promoting one's work. This interesting project takes it a step further, using an unusual subject to force the photographer to really explore his ability to create interesting images.
Short documentary films have the power to reveal a unique story, inspire with insights and even motivate change in the brief duration. How easy or difficult it is to make one? In this post, we will discuss the steps involved in making a short social documentary film.
I think few would dispute that the Daniel Craig reboot of the Bond films saved the franchise, but that doesn't mean it's been all perfect filmmaking since. This great video essay examines why even probably the most famous action franchise can mess up action scenes.
There are some professions in which having a college degree is not only recommended, it's a job requirement. Then there are some in which having a degree may or may not be worth it. This great video explores why one filmmaker got a college degree and if he thinks it was worth it.
Ever wonder what happens during a boudoir photography retreat that is aimed to educate those to be the best in the business? The top photographers are the best for the fact that they never stop developing themselves on their craft. Attending workshops, retreats, and conferences are part of how you started out so why stop now?
When you're first starting out with artificial lighting, it can feel a bit like trying to speak French in Russian. In between the modifiers, the types of light, and their placement, each setup is a puzzle. This helpful video will describe the main types of lights you'll have in a studio setup and how they relate to each other.
When you think of the sky in landscape photos, I bet you think of gorgeous sunsets full of luscious, vivid colors or puffy clouds floating over a blue backdrop, perfectly complementing the elements below. You probably don't think of drab, gray skies. Nonetheless, it's still possible to get great shots with less-than-stellar views above, and this video will show you how.
With all the sales on photography tutorials being sold over this online shopping weekend at the Fstoppers store, I'd like to share a little tip that may help some. Customizing your keyboard shortcuts is an essential part of a truly optimized workflow. However, certain basic functions I recommend leaving as default settings.
When you think of landscape and cityscape photography, you likely think of wide angle lenses designed to maximize the amount of the scene you can fit in the frame. And while these are the first choice of many photographers, this video makes a great case for why you should also carry along a telephoto lens.
Let's suppose you had a gigantic zoom lens — so big that you could effectively zoom as far as you wanted to frame any object. If you pointed it into space, how far could you see? It turns out that you could see a really long way away and yet, not that far at all.
It's always a polarizing topic even from the time a new camera body is rumored. The 4K specification brings forward the passion of the most vocal in the video community. But for all the back and forth, will it alone actually make your video better?
There are some things in life you just can't have enough of: chocolate, puppies, and Photoshop keyboard shortcuts being some of those things. This awesome video will show you 10 lesser-known keyboard shortcuts that can make your work in Photoshop more efficient and fun.
Street photography is a tough genre: it can offer an intimate and unfiltered look at life, but many photographers are hesitant to engage in it because it can lead to unpleasant or even dangerous situations. This interesting video examines the many ways one can engage in it beyond just the most well-known approaches.
Life as a videographer or photographer would be awesome if every shoot and subject had the time and patience to allow us to think through every shot and experiment with our creativity, but that's simply not the way things are. Even if you're not sure how to tackle a project, this helpful video will give you a list of shots that will help you get usable footage.
The truth is that many of us get into some form of artistic expression as escapism or at the very least, as a way of expressing our inner thoughts and feelings. This photographer talks about how photography became a means of creating interaction with other humans and even helping to heal his relationship with his father.
If you shoot a lot portraits or beauty work, you likely spend a lot of your time thinking about lighting, including what the right modifier for the look you're going for is. This very comprehensive and well-explained video will walk you through the standard octabox and beauty dish, as well as the more exotic adjustable parabolic reflector and Satellite Staro.
As the holidays draw ever nearer, retailers are ramping up their discounts, trying everything they can to attract consumers before the close of the year. For many photographers, this represents a prime opportunity to upgrade their gear, whether they need front-end tools such as a new lens or camera body, or back-end items such as a new computer to speed up their workflow. Of course, with new gear, comes new challenges.
Instagram Stories have been around for quite a while now, and we have actually already shared a few articles regarding how you can make better use of them to build engagement on your account. In this new write-up, I wanted to share with you a couple of techniques that aren’t too tedious to use on a regular basis to help you build higher quality stories. The goal is to create stories that people will want to follow on a daily basis and thus start to engage more with you. Content may not be king on social networks anymore, but it’s still the only thing that retains followers.
The essence of channeling your inner muse to create amazing photo-journalistic images requires a very specific mindset. Here are a few tips I've learned on perfecting your photojournalism skills to create more powerful intentional images, and these tips can be adapted in other forms of photography to fit your purpose.
When we head out to shoot, we often have some specific image in mind, or if not a single photo, at least a certain way of going about the process. The great video reminds us that the opportunity for great images is often much more diverse than we might initially anticipate.
Natural, fuller eyebrows are a classic look that seem to be enjoying a resurgence recently. This fun and helpful video will show you how to easily create fuller eyebrows on your subject using Photoshop.
Unless you're specifically going for the hard light look, shadows can sometimes be a distraction in portraiture work whose impact you might want to lessen. This helpful tutorial will show you how to convincingly lighten them to help even out the luminosity across your subject's face.
It’s the equivalent of a presidential Twitter feud, but for the photography world. Everyone’s favorite Anderson Cooper lookalike Tony Northrup released a video on November 4 about the benefits and downsides to shooting raw files versus JPG files, and in this video dispensed some advice on when to shoot raw files and when to shoot JPG files (and when to shoot both). Naturally, this elicited a strong response from everyone’s favorite (only?) Fro, Jared Polin of “Fro Knows Photo” fame, who is known for his shirts indicating to the world that he does indeed shoot raw. All the time.
I'm pretty sure many of us out there have at some point or another tried our hand at capturing water drops or freezing the exact moment of a liquid splash. I know that when I first tried something similar way back when, I failed miserably. Here we have an excellent video that breaks down start to finish the process and setup to ensure that your attempt and your results are a total success.
Yes, it can be done completely in Photoshop, but if you're a fan of the real thing or simply enjoy playing in the snow, this fun and easy tutorial will show you how to create an endless supply of snow overlays for your portraits.
