Instead of getting overwhelmed by the various ways to go about positioning your camera, frame composition, and then deciding what you're trying to say with your shot selection, this video breaks down the various elements that directors and directors of photography use to convey their intent.
While you can absolutely create professional-level portraits with a single light, using multiple lights will allow you create more advanced and precise setups that simply are not possible with just one source.
Photographing waterfalls is more tedious than it looks. In this instance, physical aspects of the gear you use heavily impact the success of each shot. Here are some important and helpful tools to have out in the field.
Perhaps the greatest challenge and source of frustration in landscape photography is the fact that we have no control over the light. While we can do our best to predict how things will shape up, nature does not always cooperate. When that happens, a bit of patience can be your best friend. This excellent video details why.
Believe it or not, headshot cropping and orientation is a controversial topic in the photography community. In this article and the accompanying video, I give you five reasons to crop horizontally and take just a bit off the top of the head.
When you are new to working with artificial light for portraits, you should generally start with a single source until you are comfortable with all the basic properties and techniques. Once you feel comfortable with those, you can begin to embrace more complex multi-light setups.
If you do photography professionally, you are going to eventually have a dissatisfied client. It is something that happens to all of us, and it is not even always your fault. So, what can you do when that happens? This excellent video tutorial offers some helpful advice that will make it easier to handle those difficult situations.
Whether you are a new or highly experienced photographer, the allure of new gear can be strong. And there is nothing wrong with geeking out over the latest and greatest, but when that starts inhibiting your growth as a photographer because you are blaming the tools for a lack of technical or creative growth, it can become a serious problem.
It used to be that you generally used Lightroom for organization and light adjustments and Photoshop for heavier editing. However, in recent years, Lightroom has taken some remarkable steps forward, and you can now perform major edits without having to leave the program. This great video tutorial will show you how to use some of Lightroom's tools to add atmosphere to an image.
Film photography is experiencing a real surge in popularity, and the beauty of it is that there are decades upon decades of used film cameras available, meaning you have a ton of options in which to find the perfect model for your needs and budget.
Even if you are a landscape photographer who has mastered the art of taking and editing photos, knows how to plan and compose a shot, and creates good images on a constant basis, you might reach a point at which you feel stuck with your photography. In this article, I share one way of breaking through this barrier to take your photography to the next level.
With every new update that's released, it seems that Lightroom is becoming ever more powerful as an editing tool. Learn how to use Lightroom to target specific elements in your image and easily change colors.
Both long exposures and panoramas are fantastic ways to create eye-catching photos that encourage viewers to stop and really examine every detail in the frame. Combining them takes a bit of careful technique, but the results can be well worth the effort. This great video will show you how to about shooting them and the sort of results you can expect from the process.
Coloring outside the lines is a good metaphor for when a photographer decides to take a leap outside the norm in a photographic genre.
If you are simply photographing a single person and they are occupying the majority of the frame, it is not hard to know where to place your focus point, but things can get a bit more complicated if you are dealing with a group of people or a particularly intricate scene.
The wonderful thing about macro photography is that there are always compelling subjects within arm's reach, but on the other hand, it generally requires a dedicated macro lens. If you are interested in macro photography but not ready to invest a lot of money in it, a potentially viable intermediate option is extension tubes.
Becoming a professional photographer is a dream of many, but the road to getting there is anything but short and straight. So, how long does it take to actually get there? This great video features an experienced photographer discussing the journey and offering some helpful insight and tips for finding success along the way.
Whether you are a portrait, wedding, or family photographer, one of the most useful skills you can learn is how to balance ambient light and flash. If you would like to improve your portraiture work, check out this helpful video that will show you a method for balancing flash and ambient light to create more balanced and complete portraits.
In the age of the internet and social media, it is easier than ever to compare yourself to hundreds of other creatives with just the swipe of your thumb, and that can be a really dangerous thing. This great video offers some helpful advice for becoming both a successful and satisfied photographer.
Since the pandemic, running remote photoshoots where the client is not physically on set has become more commonplace. In this article, I'll share my best tips on how to run a successful and efficient remote photography service.
Pretty much every genre of photography seeks sharp images, but in landscape work, sharpness is often of a particular importance. If you would like to take nice, crisp photos, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will give you seven useful tips to help you take sharper landscape photos.
The modern autofocus systems are advanced. Sometimes, it looks like you will never again miss a shot when it comes down to focusing. But the autofocus can still fail under certain circumstances. Let’s look at the moments when even the most advanced autofocus can give up.
Portrait photography is a challenging genre, as it takes a combination of technical savvy, creative vision, and the ability to work with people to create successful images. If you would like to improve your own portraits, check out this helpful video that features an experienced photographer giving a lot of great advice sure to help you make better photos.
When it comes to portraits, perhaps no feature is more important than the eyes, and as such, giving them a little extra attention in the post-processing stage can help you take your images to the next level. This great video tutorial will show you how to edit eyes using only Lightroom.
When it comes to portrait photography, soft light is often the method of choice, as it provides flattering renderings suitable for a wide range of styles and subjects. If you are new to working with artificial lighting and interested in learning more, check out this helpful video tutorial that will show you how to create elegant soft light for portrait work.
When you are a hobbyist, you can drop whatever money you can reasonably afford on gear if it makes you happy. However, when you are a professional, gear is a business expense, and as such, you have to pay more careful attention to its impact on your bottom line and if you truly need it.
Night photography can be technically daunting. Even with modern cameras, it's not easy to capture high-quality night photos. While photographing the stars already requires high ISOs combined with wide apertures, capturing details in the landscape is even more difficult in the dark.
ND filters are tremendously useful for landscape photographers, giving you far more creative control over your images and the abiilty to make photos that simply would not be possible otherwise. If you are new to landscape photography, check out this neat video that features an experienced photographer showing you some of what you can accomplish with one.
Needless to say, there's a fair few logistical complexities when photographing ice cream. After shooting for a vegan ice cream brand for a couple of years now, here are my best tips for running a smooth shoot when you’re capturing ice cream.
A good composition is a tricky and often elusive thing, particularly since it is not as easily objectively codified as something like the right camera settings for a given scene or situation. As such, any heuristic tricks to go about finding a compelling composition are worth knowing. This excellent video tutorial details one such trick and why it can be really useful.
Sharpness is one of the most fundamental and crucial aspects of a good image, and there are a lot of aspects and techniques you need to have down pat to ensure consistently successful photos. If you are new to photography, check out this awesome video tutorial that discusses some important tips and techniques for ensuring you get sharp photos every time.
When it comes to portrait photography, learning to work with artificial lighting will make you far more versatile and enable creative opportunities that simply would not be possible otherwise. If that is something you would like to start diving into, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you the fundamentals and have you ready to tackle your first shoot.
Sharp images are the desire of every photographer, but there are many factors that can derail that pursuit and leave you with frustratingly soft photos. If you are struggling to get crisp shots, check out this helpful video tutorial that discusses six reasons your photos are not as sharp as you would like them to be and what you can do to fix those issues.
Canon Canada just launched Canon Creator Lab as part of what I'm calling its new community-building mandate. A lot of corporations these days talk about building community, about creating a space to encourage growth. Most of it seems to be lip service at best.
When you think of landscape photography, you probably think of using a lens with a wider focal length range, such as a 16-35mm. Of course, there is a reason such lenses are so widely used, but they are not the only option. In fact, much longer focal lengths can create equally compelling photos.
Almost every landscape photo requires some degree of editing to create a finished product. Lightroom is far more powerful than it used to be and offers some impressively capable and efficient tools for editing your images. This excellent video tutorial will show you five tips that will make your Lightroom landscape image editing both easier and better.
Lighting portraits is about more than simply creating a technically correct exposure and rendering your subject in a flattering way. It is your chance to create a certain atmosphere and develop a recognizable personal style. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to use hard lighting to create a cinematic portrait.
Seascape photography is so different from shooting landscapes. Its dynamic nature makes it one of our most exciting and challenging subjects. The distinct difficulties of capturing the ocean require a different set of skills and learning some of the secrets of the sea.
Most expensive lenses include a lens hood. For the cheaper lenses, you have to order a lens hood separately. Is a lens hood so important you have to use it, or can you do without such an accessory? Let’s look at lens hoods a bit in this article.
Canon Canada has opened applications for the second installment of its groundbreaking FUTURES program, geared to developing emerging photographers between 18 and 24. How often do we see major corporations make a point of nurturing, not just sharing five-minute videos, but actually committed to nurturing?
Knowing how to compose a frame and choose the right camera settings is only half of what it takes to create a good photo. The other half is knowing how to edit the file into a polished final image. If you are new to photography, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you nine effective techniques for creating more compelling and eye-catching images.
Fstoppers has teamed up with Infinite Tools to bring you the best retouching plugins online. These tools are relevant for every type of photographer and will dramatically speed up and improve any retouching workflow. We are offering them at 20% off in the Fstoppers Store through July 5th.
CreativeLive, the online learning platform for creatives, founded by photographer Chase Jarvis and now a Fiverr company, has announced its acquisition of the full catalog and website of Wildist.co, a popular online resource for outdoor and adventure photographers.
Backlit portraits can be a fantastic way to add drama and visual interest to a photo, but they also require some special considerations to get the effect you want and to maintain the best possible image quality. If you would like to improve your backlit portraits, check out this great video tutorial that features five excellent tips to help you get your photos just right.
Adding artificial light to your natural light scene is a relatively simple technique that you can use to create an image that depicts the scene more dramatically than it appeared to your eyes when you were there.
What a time to be alive for photography! Advances in technology, combined with reduction in pricing and the “gear wars” that brands wage against each other continue to make image-making hardware of the highest quality more and more accessible to the every person.
The default behavior of pretty much every camera is to activate autofocus through a half-press of the shutter button. This works perfectly well for most scenarios, but you can often improve your experience and hit rate by using a different method: back-button autofocus. This helpful video will show you why it is so useful and how to take advantage of it.
Summer is here, and many wildflowers are in full bloom, making it a great time to grab your camera and head out to enjoy the warm weather and photo opportunities. If you want to improve your wildflower images, check out this fantastic video tutorial that offers some helpful tips and also discusses some common mistakes and how to fix or avoid them in the first place.
Lightroom is more powerful than ever before, and it is entirely possible to edit a landscape photo from start to finish without having to switch over to Photoshop. If you would like to learn how to do so and pick up some useful tips along the way, check out this great video tutorial that will show you one such edit done entirely within Lightroom.
While browsing through various photo-sharing platforms, you might get the impression that everything has already been photographed. After all, millions of photos get uploaded each day to Instagram alone. But if you take a closer look, you'll see a lot of repetition. Many photos show the same places, the same compositions, and often similar light and editing.