My high school enemy is my new best friend. I'm talking about a glorious thing called "tests." In the photo world, a test is a shoot set up for the sake of portfolio-building, experimentation, fun, or all of the above. It's not a paid shoot, but these suckers pay off big time. A test shoot is when you book a model (we'll talk about how) to shoot a concept that you put together.
Any resource that explores the art of film and video editing I find utterly fascinating, and this video is a fantastic example of just that. Director/Editor Joey Scoma of Rocketjump Film School created this video that explores many of the different ways that editors can go from one shot to the next.
Histograms in Photoshop and on your camera can look a bit confusing but the concept behind them is actually very simple and straight forward. In this short but informative video from Envato Tuts you get a 60 second crash course on what a histogram is and the purpose that it serves.
As photographers, we're acutely aware of resolving power; it's one of the fundamental measurements of a camera. Have you ever wondered what the resolution of the human eye is, though? It turns out that the answer to this question isn't as simple as quoting a figure. Check out this great video that explains how we should think about it.
New York City born photographer/artist Roger Ballen spent the better part of the last four decades in Johannesburg, South Africa. In that time he has produced a body of work that has been described as a fictionalized visual dialogued between individuals, their architectural space, found objects, and domesticated animals.
There's this nifty piece of software called Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and in my time as an educator in the craft of photography I have seen its use frequently abused and mishandled. The issues affect beginners and pros alike, and stem from multiple issues, everything from technical oversight, all the way to a fundamental misunderstanding of what Lightroom is meant for.
Just like ever camera owner is a photographer, every person who owns an abundance of MAC products is a makeup artist. At least that is how it seems on Instagram these days. There are now more makeup artists on social media than ever, and finding the right ones to follow can be tricky. Following the best makeup artists can make a portrait photographer better.
Just like learning in any practice or aspect of life, the more you learn, the more you realize what you don't know or haven't learned. It's natural; it happens. There's so much for all of us to learn. Here are a few mistakes that I couldn't believe I was making during my photography career.
1. Fix That Chromatic Aberration
If you’ve been working with video in the last few years and are looking to take your post-production to the next level, color grading absolutely needs to be something you consider incorporating into your workflow. DaVinci Resolve is not only a powerful software for doing this, but it's base version is actually free for anyone.
Choosing a correct exposure can be difficult at times, especially in bright light. I've become pretty good and reading my LCD screen and using zebra stripes to figure out a correct exposure on the fly, but there are a few more options. Two of them I had not even heard of before.
Photographing The World Behind The Scenes continues today with Episode 15. In this episode, we are finally able to leave Hong Kong (after our disaster with Vietnam Air in last weeks episode) and we arrive in Cambodia. We captured some amazing images and lessons in Cambodia and Elia almost gets his face bit off by a monkey.
A few years ago, simple timelapse videos were all the rage. To spice things up, videographers started to add small camera movements to their timelapses using motorized sliders. Those small camera movements have become far more complex today as some of these camera movements are miles in length. These are called "hyperlapse" videos.
If you frequent this site, there's a pretty good chance you love photography. But how much do you actually know about its origins? Most of us rightfully jump to the camera obscura when thinking about the beginnings of photography, but how did we get from there to today's modern cameras? Have you ever wondered what the first photo ever taken was of?
Do you feel at a certain point, after making a long run of photoshoots, that you're hitting a wall with your creative side? Or have you "lost your touch" so to speak? This is also known as "Creative Burnout." As creatives, we've all been there before. At one point we all plateau and need to find a way to break the "funk" to get back of the swing of things.
Our second tutorial with Elia Locardi: Photographing the World: Cityscape, Astrophotography, and Advanced Post-Processing was all about different types of cities. We started in Cinque Terre, a region of Italy where cities are basically built into the side of a natural landscape. We then moved on to Rome to shoot ancient architecture.
Current cameras' sensors are getting better year after year. Unfortunately, they cannot create noise-free images at high ISO just yet. I am sure the day will come soon, but in the meantime, there is a very simple technique using Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo to create the illusion of a clean file.
PRO EDU recently released a five-part video series on their YouTube Channel dedicated to RAID. RAID, for those of you new to the term, refers to a system of file storage that can write a copy of everything you save to a separate hard drive so that you have two copies of everything you save.
Are you thinking of becoming an assistant? Trust me; assisting can be brutal, yet it can be exciting as well. It really depends on who you assist. Working in this role is the best way to gain lots of experience, especially when you're working your way to becoming a professional photographer.
Every creative has at least once in his or her career hit a wall and felt down. Breaking through a creative slump isn't always easy. But sometimes, what feels like a creative burnout is actually an accumulation of unproductive bad habits. Creative Live has a way for you to get out of it.
My name is Nico, and I'm a professional urban/street photographer based in London. In this article, I will show how you too can use Twitter to get more photography jobs, develop your network, and get your work seen by the right people.
I don't rate my photos nearly as much as I should. And part of it has been because I've been too lazy to look this exact tip up! Thankfully, Adobe has provided us with one of their now famous under-a-minute Lightroom Coffee Break videos to quickly explain how to auto-advance as you rate your photos. This trick also works for auto-advancing while flagging photos.
Every portrait session with a new subject could bring new challenges. Some people are more comfortable in front of a camera than others, while some just take a little time to open up. I've put together a list of tips that may help you along the way during your portrait sessions.
Getting accurate Autofocus must be one of the most frustrating things an event or wedding photographer deals with on a daily basis.
Keeping a fair amount of texture seems to be an issue for a lot of photographers and retouchers. No matter what technique they use to clean the skin of a model, I often hear people trying to find a solution to get a more natural and visible texture. Here is one for you!
If you look back to the beginning of photography, color didn’t exist. In fact, it didn’t exist for a long, long time. Even as 35mm film pioneered the way that photography was used and purchased, black and white was king. Slowly, as time progressed, color film began to take a foothold in the industry.
Casting is time consuming! It can suck up all your energy. It can leave you exhausted and frustrated. It is mostly the one part of photography that always demands tons of effort, and does not always reward us with the results we hope for. That’s why there are casting directors, both in the stills and film industry. It is a job!
Adobe launched a new YouTube series through their Lightroom channel to give Lightroom users some extra tips on features they may not have come across yet.
When learning about retouching, selections and masks should be on top of the list along with curves and brushes. But each of these tools have so many options, and it is hard to know the in and out of each of them. In this article, I will guide you through different ways to create precise and refined luminosity masks to help you improve your retouching skills.
Jay P. Morgan with The Slanted Lens has released a new video that demonstrates how he and his team were able to precisely capture the exact moment they wanted, using the laser mode on the MIOPS trigger system. Morgan breaks down the tricks for getting just the right shot, without having to rapid-fire a bunch of extra, useless images.
Watch as Josh Connolly tests out the slow motion explosion he bought off Amazon Prime (ya, you heard me) and then learn how to create your very own.
When talking about the differences between full-frame cameras and crop sensors, one of the biggest arguments in favor of full-frame sensors is the ability to produce images with a shallower depth of field. This was always my understanding of the subject as well. But after watching this video, I have seen the error of my ways.
The ability to direct models (any model) in your shoot is key to any visual project. You might have the best location, styling, and lighting setup, but if you don’t have the right kind of emotion in your model's face, it will all have been for nothing. Your mission is not just to press on the shutter release, but to also be a director.
I’ve always been a fan of big lights. There are certainly situations where they aren’t appropriate, but a lot of my work is centered around big, soft light. What has always drawn me to large sources of light is their versatility. Almost every subject looks good with soft light.
Ever tried to photograph a subject, only to find out that you don’t have enough depth-of-field to get the whole thing in focus? Typically our first reaction is to stop down to increase our DOF. Unfortunately that doesn’t always give us the results we expect.
The behind-the-scenes series of our cityscape tutorial with Elia Locardi continues with episode 11. In this episode we fly on one of the longest flights in the world, from N.Y.C. to Singapore. We enjoy seeing the sights of this amazing city and we also try eating some chicken feet. Spoiler: they were awful.
Regardless of what genre of photography you shoot, understanding light and its characteristics is key to creating better photos. For those of us working with off-camera flash, there is another layer to the complexity: balancing ambient and artificial light. On top of that there are various modifiers that can be used for artificial lighting to replicate or create certain effects.
Color correction and grading are probably amongst the most difficult parts of a retouching workflow. What seems to make it difficult in Photoshop is usually the understanding of the different tools available, such as curves and levels. However, there are a couple of tricks that can make it much easier, color palettes and fill layers being some of them.
John P. Hess, over at FilmmakerIQ.com has launched a second video about lens technology this week. This time dealing with the properties of camera lenses. The information contained relates to both still photography and cinematography, and also details the subtle differences between the two as they relate to lenses.
Beginners ask all the time on Facebook groups or in forums how to diminish their retouching time. The truth is, there aren't any magical technique to cut time, only tricks to help accelerate your workflow. There is one, in particular, to make your dodging and burning process more flawless and thus a bit faster by utilizing a Wacom tablet.
One of the most popular and sought after genres of photography is taking portraits of both male and female models. Getting started can be quite an uphill battle at times. So how do you really get started?
The more time I spend shooting portraits and beauty work, the more I love retouching. There is something about spending hours in front of a computer and paying meticulous attention, all while jamming out to great music that I find super meditative and enjoyable. When it comes to retouching, there really aren’t many shortcuts.
For the seasoned photographer, assistant, or grip, knowing how to use a C-Stand may seem like common sense. However, if you have never used or seen one before, there are a few things you should know about these multi-functional stands.
We've all been there, we work so hard preparing, shooting, editing or whatever it may be when we're involved in taking photos. After everything is finished and the photos look amazing, we cannot wait to share our photos to the world. But are they the highest quality possible?
Our behind the scenes journey around the world continues today with episode 10. This episode takes place in Rome Italy as we film three separate lessons for our "Photographing The World" cityscape tutorial.
Ever since the middle of high school, I've been immensely interested in "the process." You know, that middle bit between point A and point B that nobody but the artist ever sees. I've always loved peeking behind the scenes to see where something started and what kind of work and thought went into creating the finished product.
The beauty of art… there are no rules, no curriculum, no set path that you must follow in order achieve what you aspire to be. While the freedom to learn as you wish at your own pace is great, a little guidance and direction didn't hurt anyone. In this article, I’ll explain further.
Last year we teamed up with Elia Locardi to film 2 separate tutorials on Landscape and Cityscape photography. We flew around the world twice with Elia, filming for 3 months in 7 different countries. We wrapped up the first season (episodes 1-8) a few months back and today we begin season 2 (episodes 9-18)
Cooperative of Photography has brought us this slick little video that gives us a taste of the evolution of camera technology from the past 200 years condensed down into a sub-two minute demonstration.
MacPhun released Aurora HDR just a few weeks ago and touts it as the most advanced high dynamic range (HDR) software in the world. Certainly, veteran users of Photoshop and Lightroom might be skeptical.
Earlier this year we teamed up with Elia Locardi to produce the most in depth photography tutorial on landscape photography: Photographing The World: Landscape Photography and Post-Processing. Today we are excited to release the next installment of Photographing The World.