If you’re searching for inspiration in creating a spooky studio setup, look no further. This tutorial details how to create chilling portraits with silhouetted trees and a smoky backdrop, just in time for Halloween.
From coating your lenses with Vaseline to creating pinhole cameras, we all love experimenting with camera and lens hacks from time to time. While it's hardly a new found trick, and while it's not as harmful as it sounds, lens whacking can give you impressive effects to give your footage just that extra bit of finesse and adds a lovely romantic element overall, especially when combined with slow-motion footage.
From Grand Central Station heading out of New York City following another great year at PhotoPlus Expo, my mind is buzzing with excitement. After three photography packed days, a lot of learning, and twelve miles of walking, here are my three of my biggest takeaway points from this years event.
Photoshop has a multitude of distortion tools that allow you to correct parts that distract from your image or they can creatively alter the image into a new reality. With so many options is it best to know which tools work best for optimal results in the final image. With the three most popular and sometimes misunderstood explained here you will be able to take those images that might have been discarded and create something new.
If I have one major regret about how I handled my portfolio when I was first learning, it's that I threw away a ton of images that weren't technically perfect when I should have kept them. Now, I really wish I had a lot of those images back, because they were compelling despite their flaws. There's more to life than perfection.
Creative pursuits these days often seem to be a tightrope act of being true to yourself and creating content that is marketable to a wide audience, especially if your financial well-being is tied to those pursuits. It's important, however, to never lose sight of who you are as a creative. Else, why are you doing this?
Don't worry, this video isn't about all about math. Rather, it aims to give you an intuitive understanding of one of the most fundamental laws of physics related to photography and shows you why it's so crucial to have a solid understanding of how it works.
Adobe recently released the latest version of the desktop version of Lightroom, which is now dubbed "Lightroom Classic CC." Alongside it, they released Lightroom CC, an entirely new application that moves things to the cloud and seems to be targeted mostly toward advanced amateurs, but that also includes some interesting features along with the ability to integrate with the desktop version pros are used to. This helpful video will get you up and running on the new Lightroom CC.
I stumbled upon this video earlier today and it was one of those things that really made me think. What if I didn't do what I do? Would I be happy or would I regret not doing it? I find that a lot of people are content doing the work they do or working the job they work. I believe that it is when we push ourselves to be creative or work harder and put our stuff out there for it to be seen, that we begin to take the right steps forward. The question "why not?" acts as a motivator to go out and create because all the reasons "we can't" are just excuses as to why we aren't.
There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000 ways to convert an image to black and white, but of course, not all methods are equally effective or offer the same level of control over the final product. This method takes a bit more time than most, but will give you the exact results you desire.
The cool part about Photoshop is that for any desired result, there are numerous ways of getting there, allowing you to choose the method that works best with your workflow and what you know. This helpful tutorial will show you another way to color grade your images that you might not have seen before.
As a wedding photographer, outdoor couple shoots are undoubtedly my favorites. On the big day, it gets overwhelming with little scope to get planned shots. We tend to go with the flow. For this reason, outdoor couple shoots are a treat to any photographer as it offers a lot of time and space. Here are my two cents on how to make your outdoor couple shoot an enjoyable and a memorable one.
One of the coolest things you can do with Photoshop is get rid of stuff you don't want in the picture fairly easily in most situations. If you're relatively new to the app, this helpful video will show you two such tools for doing that: the Healing Brush and Spot Healing Brush.
Every single photographer from rank amateur to seasoned pro makes mistakes. Of course, the idea is to minimize the occurrence of said mistakes so you can focus more on being creative and not have to worry about missing a shot. If you're just starting out, here are five mistakes to be aware of when you head out to shoot.
Art is about storytelling. It’s about using all the tools at one’s disposal to convey and idea or an emotion. To connect an audience to a brand, or a personality, or a moment in a way the no other medium can. Along with my own technique, the ingenuity of the on-camera talent and the creative team behind it, plus the tools necessary to complete the job, the location you select for your shoot is one of the many raw materials that will have an effect on the eventual alchemy you bring forth to produce a great image.
"Fight Club" and "Se7en" Director David Fincher's distinct camera work has polarized film critics throughout his career. But with the release of "Mindhunter" on Netflix, this video delves into the nuts and bolts of Fincher’s style, and what this means to the audience.
One thing I absolutely hate about most videos or books about how to be successful in a creative field as an introvert is that they basically tell you to just fake being an extrovert. This helpful video takes the opposite approach, showing you how to embrace your strengths as an introvert to be a successful photographer.
When we think of landscape photography, the default image our mind imagines is probably some sweeping view with gorgeous golden light and epic scenery. Nonetheless, that's not the only look you can get in landscape work, and as this helpful video shows, you can pull impressive images even out of the worst conditions.
The problem with photography (or really, any creative pursuit) is that you can have all the variables in place and have prepared yourself as well as possible, only to feel the creativity drift away from you like some nebulous cloud you grasp at only to watch your hand pass right through it. This video examines the idea of when it's time to take a break.
Photography is, by its nature, an interruptive thing: it freezes a moment in time, and in doing so, it can either subvert the dynamic nature of time and all that moves in it or (if done correctly) can enhance it. This helpful video shows you one element you can add to your images to breathe dynamic nature into a still medium.
The irony of staring at an image forever is that it can actually become easier to start to miss things — a sort of photographic tunnel vision, if you will. This simple trick makes it easy to see every blemish on a subject, ensuring you won't miss anything in your retouching and making your work more efficient.
John Hess of Filmmaker IQ consistently puts out informative, high quality videos on all things film. In his latest video, he goes into great detail explaining the fundamentals of a widely used in-camera effect called "forced perspective". Fair warning, there is a good deal of math involved but the process and results are fascinating.
Decades ago, instant film was one of the most popular mediums for photography. Though camera technology has significantly advanced since instant cameras were in their prime, there are still many valid reasons for experimenting with them from time to time.
Hot spots and shiny skin can be a bit tricky to retouch, but they can also be rather distracting, so it's important to know how to reduce or eliminate them. This helpful tutorial will show you several ways to go about that in quick time using Photoshop.
A few weeks ago we released "Photographing the World 3," the newest installment of Elia Locardi's PTW series. As with with many of our tutorials, we have also produced a behind-the-scenes series that shows exactly how we filmed and produced this landscape tutorial. You can watch all of the PTW 3 behind the scenes here, but in this week's episode Elia covers the importance of scouting, Lee discovers a way to make his sandwiches even tastier, and I test out one of Tamron's newest lenses for time-lapse.
For any one thing you want to do in Photoshop, there are probably at least 50 ways to go about accomplishing it. However, perhaps no tool is more versatile than Curves, which allows you incredible control over luminosity and color and in tandem with masking, can give you tremendous creative editing capabilities, as this fun tutorial will guide you through.
Most of the times, wedding photography is looked at as this big ball of happiness, glam, and glitz where two hearts come together to exchange eternal vows and so many people come together to celebrate it in a grand way. Now that’s the fun part. From a wedding photographer’s eyes, there’s a lot more to it. From client communication to shooting to editing to delivery, there are so many things that a wedding photographer juggles around before signing a project off happily. One of the most important parts of it is the legal contract.
"It's just a flesh wound!" The Black Knight's famously hilarious line in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" toys with our expectation of the relationship between the graveness of events on screen and their effect on the characters contained therein. Here's why (aside from the absurd) injuries are never an accident in film.
When it comes to filmmaking, a really popular look is the cinematic look. This is something that can be really difficult to perfect especially when you're first starting out in the industry. Fortunately, Armando Ferreira, a YouTuber and filmmaker has provided some techniques that are relatively easy to implement. The great thing about the techniques outlined in this video is that they're either completely free to do or may only cost a small amount, making them very viable. Personally, what I love about the techniques Ferreira discusses is that they're so simple to do and even a complete beginner shouldn't find them too difficult.
When I was first getting into photography in college (and teaching myself), I read as many “10 Ways to Improve Your Photography”-type things as I could. My reasoning was this: even if I already knew some or most of what was included in the book or the post, if I picked up just one solid piece of new knowledge, it would have been worth the effort, and it was a quicker read than a long book. To me, those types of articles are still useful. Some see them as clickbait, I see them as an easy way to either refresh what I know or learn a quick tip that may be beneficial to my career when I'm short on time.
The biggest photography education event of the year ends today, October 18. The deadline has been extended a few more hours and now closes at 5:00 PDT. Once it’s over, you won’t ever have the chance to get many of these resources again. Once the sale closes, there are no exceptions for late purchases, so make sure to check out this incredible education opportunity now.
Half the trick to success with Lightroom is knowing how to move around the app efficiently. A lot of that comes down to the right combination of shortcuts and workflow, and this helpful video show you a quick way to organize relevant images and some key combinations to make the process quicker.
When you're creating a composite image, it's a game of balancing and matching a ton of parameters to make the different elements convincingly look as if they all originated in the same frame. This helpful tutorial will show you some of the most important aspects you need to have mastered to create your best composite work.
It’s obvious that color is important in our work; Hand selecting that perfect blend can take our images from decent to legendary. And it's not just photographers that notice the color mishaps. Everyone is influenced by colors. Our eyes are always naturally observing and comparing them. Color is so impactful on the masses that they are meticulously chosen for ads that reach millions of faces a day, there's no reason why you shouldn't start using the same tactics in your work.
Before it starts to seem like I'm galloping around on my high horse, I'd like to say that this article is more of a reminder to myself than anyone else. I have made the mistake of dismissing someone as a troll just because they disagree with me. In many cases, It's much easier to simply dismiss someone as a troll if they criticize your work instead of taking it on the chin. This could be due to a number of reasons but when we do, we are breaking one of the cardinal rules.
Large format cameras are easily the most technical of their kind, but they reward the photographer with extra capabilities and stunning resolution. This video takes another look at some of those capabilities.
If you own a DJI drone and are anything like me, the first time you looked at the controller menu, you were both overwhelmed by the options and set abuzz by the possibilities all those weird buttons and symbols contained within them. This helpful video will show the advantages of and how to use the Intelligent Flight Modes on the latest DJI drones.
As Halloween nears, we are all soon to be bombarded with a litany of images in our social media feeds of our friend’s unwilling pets being forced to don cute/embarrassing outfits picked out by their fawning owners. In fact, it’s highly likely that we have perpetrated this subtle canine fashion abuse ourselves at some point and time in our lives. How can you help it? They’re just so darn cute. But what is far less likely is that any of us will have achieved the rakish heights of the world’s foremost purveyor of canine imagery, William Wegman.
Nikon's recent choice to promote the new D850 with a pro team of 32 men has started waves of conversation of gender inequality in the arts. During the uproar, I received a few messages requesting for me to share my own experiences that are unique to being a female photographer. Whether we like to admit it or not, America is pretty far from complete gender equality. Many are surprised to learn that the accepting arts industry isn't an exception to the current gender norms. As to not a let male-dominated industry intimidate me, I try to ignore the upsetting gender-specific challenges I face. But there are a few too hard to ignore as they're present in my life daily.
I don't care when the song was originally referring to, because fall is the most wonderful time of the year. As this great video highlights, autumn is full of inspiring creative opportunities that are an absolute joy to shoot and can yield some really impressive imagery. Here are seven ideas for fall photographs.
Adding a rainbow to your images can be done in many different ways. However, not every technique is easily put into practice or can offer a remarkably consistent result. For example, the prism method is very efficient to get the effect on your files straight out of camera, but it can make focusing and composition a bit difficult. In this tutorial, Jessica Kobeissi will show you a couple of simple techniques using only Photoshop.
One of the coolest parts about being a photographer or videographer is that you often get to rub elbows or work with people you might not ever meet otherwise. Here's how to increase your chances of getting a response (and a positive one at that) from those celebrities when you reach out to them.
If you've spent any time on YouTube in the past year looking at photography or videography tutorials, you've likely run across Peter McKinnon's channel at some point. The Toronto-based vlogger has absolutely exploded onto the scene, amassing over 1.1 million subscribers in less than a year. This great video examines what makes him so successful and gives some great lessons you can apply to your own work.
Every landscape photographer needs a good wide-angle lens. Popular YouTuber Thomas Heaton discusses his new Canon 16-35 f/4 lens and offers some tips on the best way to use an ultra-wide-angle lens.
Understanding the internal light meter of my camera is one of the best skills I've ever learned. It helps me to shoot in fully manual mode, so that I rarely look at the back of my camera. Let me tell you how to get a correctly exposed picture from the first click just by using your camera's internal light meter.
Fstoppers is teaming up with 5DayDeal and dozens of other leaders in the photography world for the most valuable photography education sale of the year. The Complete Photography Bundle by 5DayDeal contains $2,500-plus in video tutorials, eBooks, Adobe Lightroom presets, marketing know-how, and so many more amazing resources for just $117 (a savings of over 95 percent). This year, we've thrown in our very own tutorial, Photography 101 to be a part of the charity match bonus which will support some incredible nonprofit organizations.
The day I’ve been preparing for arrived unexpectedly this past Saturday as I went to my Mac to export photos for a client, just like it was any other day. But I quickly found out it wasn’t going to be like other days when I found my photo and video files had disappeared from my Lightroom catalog.
Manual lenses have a fraction of the weight, size, unsurpassed sharpness, and price in many instances over autofocus lenses. With all these benefits there would have to be some form of a con, and that is the issues that arise when adding metadata to your images.
Time-lapse photography isn’t anything new, but it is a process that takes a lot of time to produce a cinematography effect showing subtle motion speed up to make it pronounced. Many motion films and television shows use it to show when a storm is forming, day shifts into night and vice versa, or even showing a busy street or freeway over time. Not only is it used there, many photographers produce their own clips for various projects. So how do you shoot and process a day to night time-lapse?
What is the one part of your photography business that you enjoy the least? The one aspect that, while necessary, bores the living daylights out of you. Now, what if instead of trying to avoid that thing, you instead chose to lean in to the activity and make it your own?
