Fashion

For an instant, she stares blankly out into the distance as she would for any photograph. But almost immediately, she takes notice. You're there. She turns her head, looks over, and then slowly turns back, looking down at her outstretched legs. Her eyes move slowly, looking down, as her chin lifts her gaze from the top of her legs to her feet. She's admiring herself — for you. She even starts crawling toward you. You turn your head to look around ("Toward me?," you think, but no one else is there). You turn back to her. The clip is over. You can take off your Google Cardboard viewer and go back to flipping channels on your living room TV.

This story happens much more often than any of us would like to believe. A beautiful model receives a text from a highly respected photographer asking if she would be interested in doing a swimwear shoot at the beach. The model has heard great things about the photographer or maybe has even worked with the photographer before and jumps at the opportunity to shoot with him. The model, back home for the holidays, drives 7 hours across the country for an opportunity of a lifetime only to find out that she has been catfished by a creeper posing as a real photographer.

With his brother, Romeo, the face of numerous Burberry campaigns, Brooklyn Beckham has now been spotted working on the other side of the camera for the famous fashion house. The teen, who last year was reportedly working in a West London coffee shop for £2.68 an hour, is the official photographer behind Burberry’s latest fragrance campaign, entitled "This Is Brit."

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! When you are working on your portfolio you rarely have the means to hire one, so better to get efficient with it on your own. If you are a landscape or a still life photographer, move along gleefully.

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. Here are the dos and don'ts and a little bonus at the end.

As a photographer and an artist, one of the most rewarding accomplishments you’ll have is when you see your work featured in some type of way, whether it is in a magazine, an art gallery, an advertisement, etc. In this piece, I will take you behind the scenes of the exciting and riveting experience of a fashion editorial, from the preparation, to the actual shoot, post-processing, and beyond.

In a move that places it in line with many other European countries, France has instituted a law that bans underweight fashion models. Those that violate the new law face strict penalties for doing so.

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. To satisfy those of you who are just like me, here's the second post in my before/after series which not only shows you my images straight out of camera and the final product, but which uses each image to explain a bit more about what I do in post. If you want to dig in way further than these, I cover every step of my post processing in my Editing + Consistency class. Enjoy, friends!

Fashion photography is most probably one of the most desirable fields of photography. We are lured by the prospect of working with the hottest and trendiest people out there. That is where I come from and all I can say is: what does not kill you makes you stronger.

The world’s best photographers are defined by their styles. For example, you can instantly look at an image by Martin Schoeller or Annie Leibovitz and recognize what you’re seeing. Their work is distinctly theirs. I believe that a big part of a photographer's success lies in finding this style. It may not come easily to everyone, however.

Moustaches and Beards. The ultimate sign of masculinity, or so some say. Every year there is a National Competition, "The Just for Men National Beard and Moustache Championship presented by Hanes X-Temp," to show off all of hard work of beard connoisseurs. Photographer Cristopher Benitah was there to capture the show.

Ahhh…..rejection! Everyone has experienced rejection many times in their life, but it is especially prevalent in the fashion and photography industries. I’m sure you have been rejected as a photographer before, whether it was by a gallery, publication, or model you have wanted to work with. I can safely say that if I had a dollar for every time I experienced rejection as a model, well, you get the picture. I have been rejected by some of the sweetest photographers, who unintentionally made me feel like I should never have reached out. Similarly, some photographer’s rejection tactics needed some major fine tuning and left me feeling fed up with how some people in the industry tend to act. As a model, I 100% understand that I will be rejected 9 times out of 10. It is completely okay to say no! Saying no is healthy! But it should be done with professionalism, tact, and respect.

That’s right, I said it: If you aren’t sharing content on Instagram, you are shutting the door on a world of potential opportunities! With over 200 million users, this social network has the power to become one of your most important means of promoting your photography business.

With approximately 3.4 million cats entering animal shelters every year in the U.S. alone, the need for adoption is stronger than ever. That's why Fashion Stylist Ryen Blaschke and Commercial Photographer Shaina Fishman teamed up for "Cats in Hats," a wonderful series featuring rescue cats and kittens that are currently up for adoption.

A simple Google search will turn up millions of results on what photographers should do/not do when working with models. However, nine times out of ten, these articles are written from a photographer’s perspective, and the model’s voice is rarely heard. Well, today is your lucky day! I have jumped in to give you the model perspective! Whether you are shooting underwater, commercial, fashion, conceptual, etc., some of the same rules of etiquette apply across the board.

International candy day is upon us which means that there are going to be opportunities galore to capture some cool shots of the living dead. One way to make your photos feel a bit more horror inspired is to make them look like they were taken decades ago.

So you found the perfect model for your concept, reached out to him or her, agreed on a date, showed up at the location, and are about ready to shoot. You have never met this person in your life. Now what? We have all seen those unfortunate shots taken by our fellow photographers where the client or model looks wildly uncomfortable. We want our models to look at ease in every frame, and this can be accomplished by following these four simple steps.

With over 40 years of portrait work under his belt, American Photographer Will Shively has become one of the most successful commercial fashion shooters in Columbus. Will found himself at a crossroads when he first decided to pursue his passion for photography. He got his BFA in painting from Ohio State University and was working for a design firm before being let go with a newborn on the way. But despite the risks involved, Will worked nights as a janitor at a local manufacturing plant while teaching himself the art of photography.

So you want to travel with a model? I've been shooting portraits for around four years now, and have started to (finally!) add more traveling to my life. Unintentionally, it turns out that my travel partner, my friend Victoria, also happens to be a model. In a relatively short span of time, Victoria and I have shot together in multiple countries and states, including Florida, North Carolina, New York City, Ireland, Italy, and France. In my career up until this point, I had worked with a variety of models, choosing them based on how they fit a location or look. Here are some of the pros and cons of the experience.

Jake Hicks is a U.K.-based photographer who adds dramatic color to his portraits. He was kind enough to share a few tricks he uses to achieve his signature technique. It doesn’t matter if you are using studio lights or speed lights, this is a simple recipe you can use to color and bounce light and create different effects in your work.

As someone who prefers to shoot using natural light, I have realized that sometimes, a photo begs for artificial lighting. For years, I struggled with how many strobes to use and where to place them. I lost patience and focused instead on natural light. By spending the time to learn how lighting actually works, I eventually gained a better understanding of how to use strobes. In this article, I hope to share with you how to use just one strobe to create jaw-dropping results.

It seems that a lot of photographers tend to avoid direct sunlight and for a long time, I did too. Occasionally, I would backlight subjects, but I would never dare light them directly with the sun. I decided one day that it was time to embrace the sun. In this article, I break down my methods for achieving a good photograph in direct sunlight, discussing what has helped me and what you should avoid.

The well-known underwear and lingerie company is at it again with its Photoshopping ways. Victoria's Secret has a long history of Photoshopping their models, but this time, have they gone too far with an editing job that's not just unnecessary, but very poorly executed as well? Check it out for yourself!

In a possibly misguided attempt to bring awareness to the refugee crisis, Hungarian Photographer Norbert Baksa shot a fashion shoot with a theme based on the refugees escaping from war-torn Syria. The response hasn't been positive.

As a self-taught photographer, I’m an advocate of learning through doing. I didn’t study it, but I can imagine that reading all the Photography 101 books that are available still wouldn't prepare you for actually being on a set, with a model standing in front of you, and a team awaiting your creative direction. In my journey, experience has meant everything. Here are some of the things I’ve learned over the years that may help when shooting your own portraits.

"Oh, this is going to be good," I chuckled to myself. Fstoppers co-founder Lee Morris had just posted an article and video called "The New iPhone Fashion Shoot: Bikinis, Foam Core, and Flashlights." I knew the response would be fast and passionate. I wasn't disappointed.

Five years ago I filmed the iPhone Fashion Shoot, a 10-minute video in which I take professional looking images with the iPhone 3GS. That video was supposed to inspire photographers who assumed that their work was suffering because their gear wasn't ultra expensive. The video became extremely popular and became very polarizing. The majority of people thought my images looked good because I used fancy lights.

As we all know, the human experience is unique. Your life and your opinions will never be the same as any other persons. This is why there is a subjectivity to art. When viewing and creating art, there will not be two artists who imagine the same piece. Since photography and retouching are both art forms, it would be plausible that the same applies.

Nick Saglimbeni teamed up with the visual effects guru Raffael Dickreuter to create a lighting tutorial unlike anything I've ever seen before. Instead of simply filming their location, they completely recreated it in 3D to teach photography and lighting on an entirely new level.

It's Monday so it's time for another speed retouch and episode of Retouching Mondays. This week image comes courtesy of last weeks winner, Ben Scott. If you would like me to retouch your image and send you back the full-high res final image, all you have to do is post your image in the comments and wait to hear back. I will email the winner on Thursday morning, so post your newest favorite image that you want retouched. It can be any genre, beauty, fashion, landscape, wedding! I'll record the retouching and send you the final image to use as you wish! Take a look at the speed retouch of Ben's image and let me know in the comments if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Now lets take a look at the before and after and the challenges for this week's Monday Retouch.