This week I finally got around to editing some footage I shot at SXSW this past year in Austin, Texas. I imported all of my clips into Premiere and began the laborious process of sorting, organizing, and cutting in and out points for all of the clips I wanted to use. Then I laid down a music track to cut against and around this time is where all the fun ended.
Almost all portrait photographers will incorporate some degree of skin softening during their retouching workflow. Some of these techniques can involve hours of painstaking dodging and burning. For photographers that routinely shoot families, weddings, and newborns, a quick finishing step can generate rapid and pleasing results.
National Geographic was probably the first place I found truly inspiring photography as a kid: I was particularly drawn to both the color and the lighting of the images. In this great tutorial, Bob Holmes, a National Geographic shooter, walks us through his philosophy and thought process when reading the light in a scene.
Most people have one eye that is slightly more closed than the other, and it does show in photos more than when you are just looking at the person. Today, I want to share a quick tip about how I open eyes and even them out.
If you're just getting into shooting and editing video, you're probably running into the veritable plethora of editing techniques and tricks that you need to have at the ready to produce content. Luckily, this great tutorial will get you off and running in Premiere Pro.
Instagram has evolved in many ways over the past few years, but the most significant change was probably the addition of stories. They are a unique way of sharing things that may not be worthy of your photo stream but still a part of your life or work that you want to share.
Recently I found myself setting up lighting for a headshot session only to find out my flash was stuck on full power. The "on" switch for the flash worked just fine and it fired as normal but all its buttons simply didn't work, presumably because they were worn out.
In last week’s article, I detailed my experience interning with photographic legend Art Streiber and how his extensive use of preparation has helped him to create some of the most iconic images in photographic history. In this post, I’ll attempt to take you through my own method of preparing creatively for a shoot so that I can get exactly what I want, and often a whole lot more.
Love it or hate it, social media has taken over many of our lives. And in the case of a photographic life, no social media name reigns more supreme than Instagram. With its photo dependent backbone and emphasis on visuals over verbals, shutterbugs rush to the app either as a means of expression, or a means of impression.
As with any craft, there are fundamental techniques which should always be considered regardless of the job, model, or location. Even working professionals overlook general rules from time to time and occasionally need to be reminded.
One of the biggest struggles for new photography businesses is growing a client base. Real estate and landscape photographer Serge Ramelli draws from his own personal journey to success in sharing some great tips for marketing your photography business and gaining new clients in a hurry.
Lighting is equal parts art and science. The science part often comes in understanding how different surfaces absorb and reflect light and how that impacts the setup you'll require. This great video shows you three general situations and the unique considerations you must make in each of them to properly light your subject.
Each day there are new ways to accomplish the same task, especially with the ever-evolving social media whirlwind. Today I want to share my favorite two methods I use for sharing to Instagram (or any other social platform, but primarily Instagram since posts need to be made from your mobile device).
Color theory for photography and retouching is more important than many would like to admit. Knowing how to create a visually strong color photography starts there. You can always go by the feeling, but failing to plan is planning to fail. Learning all about colors takes time and finding the proper resources is not an easy task.
Fashion photographer Lindsay Adler, who is known for her lean, bold, and graphic style is hosting a free webinar on May 1, 2017 to help you train your eye to identify posing problems and fix them in your images.
Sometimes, whether it's for artistic reasons, historical accuracy, or the sheer novelty of it, you want to take your footage shot with your super-fancy, ultra-modern videographic apparatus and make it look like it was shot on a camera of yesteryear. This great video will show you how to do precisely that.
Being good at photography or filmmaking doesn't automatically lead to a successful business. You have to make yourself known to the world. Making that possible doesn't always require a lot of money. In this article I will share my personal approach to marketing my photography and filmmaking business.
Sometimes, we admire them for their cleverness, sometimes for the weight of the meaning they carry, and sometimes just for their beauty. Here are some of the best shots in film of all time.
Image sharpening is one of the most important steps in a postproduction workflow. However, with a myriad of options and methods to do it, it can be a daunting understanding exactly what you're doing and why. This great tutorial will show both what sharpening an image does and how to do it.
White balancing shots is not always as easy of a task as it seems. Sometimes, a gray card cannot be used, other times the lighting is too poor and the colors don’t come out perfectly. However, Blake Rudis from f64 Academy has found an extremely efficient and quick solution to color correct any shots in three easy steps.
As a photographer getting into video, it’s frustrating when you are not able to reproduce what you are used to with Photoshop. For example, the simple task of the replacing a sky in a frame can eat up a lot of time when you don’t know what you are doing. But thanks to DaVinci Resolve and Aram K, the process is actually much easier than you could imagine.
Masking plays a crucial role in the quality of your retouching. There are so many tools available to create and refine masks, that’s often times we forget the most basics and useful ones. One of them is a bit hidden and it seems like many don’t even know it exists!
Fear of rejection, of criticism, of failure, most of deal with many types of fear as creatives. Fear can be healthy, but it can also be paralyzing. This great video addresses a lot of where it comes from and what we can do to get past it.
If you take a look at the work of your favorite landscape photographers, one likely unifying factor is their colors are all vibrant without being gaudy. This tutorial will show you how to make your landscape shots pop by using Photoshop.
I'm personally obsessed with the cinematic look in my stills work. I think it's timeless, elegant, and endlessly interesting. If you'd like to add that same style to your own portraiture, this tutorial will show you how to do it using just Lightroom.
If you work as a photographer long enough, your pictures are going to be used without your permission somewhere. Tracking down where that's happened can be tough, but this great video will help you in that endeavor.
I'm taking a second to reflect on the lessons I learned from working with the legendary Art Streiber. Part one in the series is the benefits of preparation.
To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail.
As the number of people interested in wildlife photography continues to grow, and the capabilities of modern equipment expand the boundaries of what is possible, many of us are seeking new ways to produce work that is fresh. This has meant exploring new techniques and searching for untapped frontiers in wildlife photography.
If you are like me, and many others, you love photography. It is something you think about constantly and wish it could sustain you full time if at all possible. So you set out to become a photographer and then… You realize the world is full of photographers. This is nothing new to you either, it should be pretty obvious right out of the gate.
When we talk about studying photography and film, there's typically an unspoken understanding that we're referring to examining highly acclaimed work. It does us a lot of good to examine work at the other end of the spectrum, however.
It can be easy to pull our cameras out of our bags and start shooting, leaving the fate of the shoot to our post-processing skills and imagination after the fact. However, to really ensure we always get quality images that match our vision, it's important to be prepared. Making a habit of these 14 things will ensure that you consistently get those shots.
For many photographers, the majority of their subjects aren't models and aren't trained in posing. And so, it falls to the photographer to really be able to guide the subject to finding suitable looks. This great video gives you some quick tips on how to do just that.
My background was in design and web development before I was a photographer. So in my eyes, it's easy to see a connection between design and photography, and how that should translate to a photography website, however I am still surprised at how many photographers’ websites are very much behind the times. Mostly because most photographers are not designers or programmers.
Last week, I posted an article about how to create amazing portraits with on-camera flash. My hope was to help anyone who was on the fence about shooting with flash feel more comfortable and confident in their ability to shoot with flash.
San Francisco based commercial and sports photographer, Alexis Cuarezma, has just announced he is launching a YouTube channel with 100 videos on photography. He'll be discussing topics such as lighting, working with models, and taking full advantages of your locations.
Photoshop offers so many different tools that achieving one simple task can be done in numerous ways. Finding the method that works best for you and the one that matches the result you have in mind is important. Greg Benz is back with a new tutorial and shows us how he uses the Perspective Warp tool to enhance his landscape photography.
I personally love fog; I think it adds a beautiful otherworldly element to images. This great video walks you through the process of working in fog and finding compositions that are enhanced by the murky environment.
Two things converged for me recently: an increase in questions sent to me regarding my commercial photography and the unexpected popularity of my bite-sized Photoshop tutorials. Both occurrences are born from the same inquiry of understanding how certain things are achieved.
Surprisingly small changes to the position of your camera can actually make your images much more successful. Ed over at Photos In Color decided to set himself the challenge of trying to make the perfect headshot in studio conditions.
If you're just getting into landscape photography, it can be a bit of a different experience from other genres. This great video will help you get oriented and off doing it the right way.
Makeup artists are an invaluable part of the creative team for many photographers. In fact, there are certain genres of photography that rely so heavily on makeup artists that we simply couldn't work without them. Unfortunately, there seems to be a few serious problems cropping up between makeup artists and photographers.
There are some abilities that should just be second nature to photographers. Here are 17 such things to make you have down pat to keep you prepared to shoot and looking like the pro that you are.
Don't worry, we're not about to turn an image black and white save for one spot. The Selective Color tool is one of the most powerful ways to precisely and efficiently make targeted adjustments in Photoshop. This great tutorial will show you how to take advantage of its capabilities.
When getting into video, filming may not be the biggest issue. Post-production plays a significant role and can be quite overwhelming. There is tons of software out there, and it’s difficult to know which is best for what. Learning how to use these programs is even worse when you are a photographer.
Shooting events with a ton of people can always be a bit overwhelming at times. There are thing constantly happening all around you, pulling your attention in every direction. Add to this being in another country and at an event such as the Holi festival, and you have a recipe for mass mental chaos.
A spectacular shot of a bride in her gown can be one of the most enduring images in the spectrum of bridal photos. I’ll state up front that I am not a wedding photographer, but as a fashion photographer specializing in bridal fashion, I’ll wager that I’ve shot more bridal gowns than the average wedding photographer.
Cinematographer Matt Workman has created an extensive video detailing the methods and tools used by Director of Photography Linus Sandgren to create the Academy Award winning look of La La Land.
Gear heads rejoice! Or, sing, perhaps.
I recently moved to Paris from Cape Town, South Africa. I don't speak French yet, but I have made some friends here due to the photographic industry mixing with the fashion and beauty industry quite a bit. I decided that I needed to get out and meet some photographers and maybe learn and share what I know while having a good time.
A common saying among proponents of prime lenses when confronted with the versatility of zoom lenses is: "Zoom with your feet!" However, that does not produce the same effect. Learn about the difference between changing your crop and changing your perspective in this quick lesson.
If you're just getting started in photography, the veritable plethora of rules, terms, and settings can be a bit overwhelming. And while it's important to build up your knowledge of all those things, this great video offers some more practical advice.