Natural Light

Mastering natural light can take a lifetime of practice, but there is one type of natural light that will produce amazing results in almost any situation: I call it "cave lighting."

It's always good when you can learn about different styles of photography by practicing them at the same time. It's even better when they are genres of photography you can do any time, at any location, and can be done without offending people.

Creating dynamic and interesting images in a time crunch situation sometimes means you’ll have to finish your images in post to develop the most iconic and exciting imagery for yourself or a client. This has usually meant a good amount of time spent in Photoshop to extract and then blend your foreground and subject with your sky. In this video you will get to see how Luminar 4 can save you time and help you create an epic back-lit environmental portrait.

I've been looking at photo apps for the iPhone since the phone was first released in 2007. From the start, it was pretty clear Apple wasn't getting the most out of their own camera with the built-in app, and third parties rushed in. If you wanted to take serious photos, many of the apps were wanting, offering stickers and other features most pros would disdain. But not this app.

Shooting in cities at night can be tricky, but can yield incredible results. Here are 5 tips from Pierre T. Lambert for getting the shot.

KCET’s “Lost LA” does deep dives into the lesser-known history of Southern California. In a recent episode, photography takes center stage as they tell the story behind some of the most famous images from one of the darkest chapters in American history.

The Canon EOS R gained Sony-like AI Servo Eye AF with a firmware update earlier in the year, and now, photographer Manny Ortiz takes a look at how it performs. The short answer is that it’s definitely way better, and he says as much, but the real reason to watch the video is to see Ortiz in action on a portrait shoot. It’s fascinating.

Despite Instagram being dominated by beautiful, airy, bokeh ball-laden images of people looking happy, sometimes you just want to create something a bit darker. In this short video, Mango Street give you some basic tips for shooting indoors using natural light to achieve a moodier, more somber look to your photographs.

While a ton of strobes and modifiers might be ideal for creating striking shots, it’s often best to shoot boudoir imagery using natural light to make things flow and keep your model at ease. Experienced boudoir photographer Michael Sasser offers three great tips for using natural light to capture stunning images.

A few days, ago we published three anonymous pictures and asked you to vote on your favorite. Now, you can watch the entire challenge and see who the winner was.

When your only strobe dies on location, you'd better be prepared.

Many photographers love to shoot natural light portraits for a variety of reasons, and with them come their own sets of challenges. This awesome video will give lots of tips to shoot better and more creative natural light portraits.

I usually use natural light as my go-to for quick group photos or for portraits that need to be done very quickly or with very little gear. That doesn’t mean you can’t shape or control natural light to create studio quality images wherever you are. Here’s three easy ways to shape natural light for your next portrait shoot.

Michael Sasser has shared what he calls his most valuable video on his channel to date. Working with 100 percent natural light, he decided to make this video to help other boudoir photographers understand the importance of lighting.

Sometimes it’s fun to set yourself a challenge, maybe shooting with limited gear or with a very quick turnaround. On this occasion, I had no choice. The shoot was conceived and captured in under fifteen minutes, and the images were edited and submitted less than half an hour later. Here’s how it came about.

The shoot done by photographer Ana Dias is a Playmate of the Month pictorial for Playboy US (Miss March 2019). The model is named Miki Hamano, and she comes from Japan. The whole photoshoot was done in a modern villa in Malibu, California.

I shot these images for fashion ecommerce store Zilingo when we were doing a recent campaign/catalog shoot. What a fun team to shoot with! They really have a vision for what they want to pull off and are very supportive in terms of getting there.

Are you thinking of trying out portrait photography and want to get some insight as to exactly what you need to create beautiful portraits without a lot of trial and error? Read on for some tried and true suggestions that will get you started without all the hit-and-miss experimentation.

It’s amazing what mid or entry-level hardware can deliver when you pair it with great software. The best software will be able to make up for some of the weaknesses and exploit every ounce of its strengths – ideally with relative ease. That's what we'll see here with Capture One's Luma Range tool.

I recently heard about three Puerto Rican photographers who would go out and shoot casually as friends. But, what made them unique was that these three photographers specialized in three completely different genres of photography.

"I'm a natural light photographer. I don't shoot with artificial lights. I don't like the look of strobe-lit portraits." That's fine, but why are your post-processed images look so unnatural?

One of the best light sources is the sun, but when you go indoors you are limited to where the light is depending on windows or openings that allow it to seep in. Using the light from that window can be fairly easy, but how do you achieve a good shot with the window in portrait shots?

Last week Lee Morris and I embarked on something I like to call "The Puerto Rican landscape challenge." The goal of this series is to not only showcase some of the most beautiful locations on the island of Puerto Rico, but to also find out, once and for all, who is the better landscape photographer. Today is the beginning of this ultimate challenge.

There are several reasons why I am an unabashedly massive fan of SmugMug Films, the docu-series produced by the eponymous SmugMug.

Photographer Magic Owen was offered the opportunity by HUNGER Magazine to set her own brief for a shoot at the gorgeous venue, Castle Ashby. Having been given the chance to shoot in a location that magical with such creative freedom, Owen decided to create a modernized Wonderland style shoot.

I shoot for a clothing boutique and we shoot outside at the same area weekly. To say I have overused the available locations is an understatement. Sometimes I find myself on the side of the road, next to a rundown building I’ve shot at 20 times already, and think to myself, how in the world can I make this different? I’ll bet most of us have been there at some point.

Shooting portraits in natural light typically means choosing a huge aperture to create creamy bokeh and pleasing subject separation, but keeping your image pin sharp in the right places can be tough. In this short video, photographer Julia Trotti shares her tips on how to nail focus.

If you rely heavily on HDR for your image processing, I have some news for you: It can be a lazy approach, and you may be using it in the wrong applications. It's time to learn about the limitations of HDR and far better alternatives at your disposal.

I always love when I get a few days to get caught up on all my YouTube subscriptions and watch what other photographers are creating. One of the photographers I always look forward to seeing new content from is Detroit-based fashion and lifestyle photographer, Jessica Kobessi.

Los Angeles-based photographers Flannery Underwood and Jon Brandon Cruz have created a joint YouTube channel under the name Black & Ginger. The duo's first video on the channel was a Lens Challenge featuring Detroit-based photographer Jessica Kobeissi and NYC-photographer Brandon Woelfel.