As a former computer scientist, I’m all about finding efficiencies in my workflow and making my life easier. Some people might call it laziness. Logically, after years of shooting with a traditional DSLR kit, I was ready to ditch it in favor of moving to a small and light mirrorless set up.
Los Angeles photography studio Kremer Johnson has come up with a unique idea for their latest personal project. The series features such impressive portraits you will immediately think you should know the subject. The thing is you don't; the photos are just that well done.
Primarily, I'm a NYC Wedding Photographer. However, I also photograph business headshots in my NJ Studio as well. I love doing this as a side-gig that brings me extra money for practically no work at all. To be honest, I wasn't really all about it when D.C. Headshot Photographer Moshe Zusman told me I should start implementing it into my business.
One of this year's more popular memes has been the "distracted boyfriend" meme in which a girlfriend looks at her boyfriend in disbelief as he turns around and eyes another girl right next to her. Perhaps the most clever and fitting adaptation (for us) yet has been the above image from the D850 Facebook page.
Silhouette portraits are always fun to experiment with, and it’s easy to assume that we are limited to sunrise and sunset for capturing this type of image. With knowledge of camera exposure settings and a single off-camera flash, this style of portrait can be produced at any time of day or night.
Being a commercial photographer means being able to deliver no matter what the conditions are and pushing the boundaries for the client. In this video, as you’ll see, French photographer Philippe Echaroux was given the challenge to go even further and create stunning portraits using only an iPhone, a flashlight, and a Big Mac box. Yes, you read that last item correctly!
EISA recently named the Sigma 135mm f/1.8 Art as the best DSLR lens for 2017-2018, and based on my experience with this lens, I have to agree. It is a fantastic lens and performs at a very high level, with incredible detail rendering capabilities and beautiful bokeh. For the longest time, the 135mm focal length had a little bit of a gap that really needed to be filled.
Giving your portraits a cold, dramatic finish is a neat way to give them an alternate look that makes them stand out a bit. This helpful tutorial will show you how to take a standard portrait and transform it, and it does it using only Lightroom.
In person sales (IPS) have been a part of the photography process for years. With the onset of digital, it died down a bit, much to the disservice of both photographers (who are missing out on sales) and clients (who are missing out on memories).
Photography is not only a creative outlet for the photographer, but it also can provide healing to your clients. Most boudoir sessions are sought after in order to gain confidence, many family sessions are there to capture generations for preservation, and even underwater sessions can provide a healing to clients who are in need of the surreal emotions that come with being submerged.
It’s already the fourth time Jessica Kobeissi got together with three other photographers to challenge themselves on a shoot. Each artist is given the opportunity to choose the outfit and location for one set, and then everyone has to come up with something in their own style. For this episode, the photographers were Joey L, Brandon Woelfel, Dani Diamond, and Jessica Kobeissi.
The idea of discounting our work is something most of us don’t even want to consider. We’ve spent a ton of time honing our skills and have more invested into our work than the consumer can possibly understand. That’s why mini-sessions are perfect — if you have the time.
The ability to create images with powerful composition is one skill that separates great photographers from good ones. If you photograph weddings or anything involving outdoor portraiture, keeping these three tips in mind will help you to create strong compositions wherever you go.
We often aim to capture great expressions when cueing and posing subjects, but we sometimes overlook basic elements that may distract our viewers.
Photographer Tony Ross and Designer Nephi Garcia imagined what Disney princesses would look like as fully grown queens, and the concept resulted in this wonderful series that captures the imagination and unites daughters and mothers and mother-in-laws. Check out the final images and go behind the scenes of this Disney-themed shoot.
You really are spoiled for choice when it comes to posing female subjects in your photographs. Working with males, on the other hand, can be a little more limiting, as a lot of the shapes which look great on the fairer sex don't always translate over so well. Use these key fundamentals when trying to get the best out of your male subjects even if they are not models.
Careful selection is the first and most important step in our creation process that is often left out of conversation. Nearly every client I photograph asks me "How do you choose?" It's actually a great question. After perfecting this process, I guarantee your solid and confident answer will blow their mind.
One reason why I gravitate to photographing pets and children is that their unpredictable nature lends to capturing more genuine images that portray their true personalities. In my experience, the parents’ favorite portraits of their children are the candid photos in which the children are completely unaware of the camera and can just be themselves.
Barry Harley, an editorial photographer from Northern Virginia, took whatever tools he had at hand to create an image reminiscent of nothing less than Annie Leibovitz's Vanity Fair group portraits.
The best photographs and films don’t just bring beautiful visuals to the table. They also place story right at the center of their very make up.
Quite possibly one of the most overlooked aspects of lighting a subject is the rim light. Not only is it a great method to make your subject pop off the background, it's a quick way to give your portraits a very professional look. This helpful video will show you everything you need to know about creating proper rim lights.
Just recently, I was able to test out the Venus Optics 105mm f/2 STF lens. After having it and using it here and there for a few months, I came to the conclusion that it would not be a bad addition to my photo bag. There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this lens considering I've never really had a prime telephoto lens before.
In a world saturated with photography, you have to find ways to stand out. If you are able to put in the extra skill and effort to make something that is unique, it can quickly gain attention. Backlighting is one technique I use to accomplish this. Initially, backlighting seemed like a difficult task.
A couple of months ago, I finally pulled the trigger; I broke out my wallet and dropped a (rather large) chunk of change on my first mirrorless camera kit, the Fujifilm X-T2. I had been researching mirrorless options for almost a year, and finally landed there for a multitude of reasons.
In this video, Photographer Andrea Belluso uses strip softboxes to create dramatic portraits of his friend and pilot along with a gliding airplane. Strip softboxes create soft light with a long highlight on the aircraft body.
Understanding light is at the heart of photography. The topic of light is a vast one but there are some fundamental concepts which should be mastered before all others. One of those is the difference between hard and soft light.
There are plenty of reasons you may want to blend natural light with flash. I know I rarely shoot with more than one strobe on location so the ambient light often acts as a fill light or rim light. Regardless of your reason to do so, knowing how to easily achieve this is extremely important.
You've probably seen some pretty comical behind-the-scenes images of the kinds of positions photographers put themselves in just to get a shot. They climb trees, hang off cliffs, stand in the middle of rivers, lay down in the dirt, all just to frame up that perfect shot.
Composition may be one of the most widely discussed artistic aspects in photography. In theory, the idea is simple. Putting it to work, particularly in motion arts, is easier said than done. Composition is one of the most important creative aspects of any filmmaking. Simply put, it is the act of defining the position, arrangement, and view of objects within the frame.
Lindsay Adler is best known for creative fashion and beauty work, but aside from her stunning and unique photography, she’s a great speaker and educator. She recently gave a two-hour master class at B&H on how to create a portrait that is a work of art.
Glasses can be a real pain when shooting portraits. Perhaps the subject's glasses don't have the anti-glare coating or even if they do, sometimes your light source can still wreak havoc with reflections. Today I want to share a quick tip on dealing with this issue. Sometimes the reflections can be so bad, they cover a huge part of the actual eye.
Photography can be quite an expensive hobby or career. Needless to say us photographers love our gear and always want more of it - or at least I do! Over the past couple of years, I've been transitioning from being primarily a wedding photographer to incorporating more studio photography in my business.
LED lights are all the rage these days. Though they're already used quite a bit in the video industry, they're starting to make their way into the stills side of things, with folks like Peter Hurley embracing them. This great video examines the process of shooting portraits with LED panels, as well as the pros and cons of using them over strobes.
When you're shooting portraits, whether in studio or outdoors, you're probably used to controlling your lighting to avoid undesired casts, but there's a potentially surprising source of such casts you might be missing. Check out how much what your model wears and what even what you wear can affect your final images.
If you're just starting with shooting portraits and retouching them, learning and subsequently mastering the myriad of techniques used in Photoshop can be a bit daunting. This helpful video will get you up and running.
Photographers stand behind the camera and models stand in front of it. It's been that way since the dawn of time (or at least cameras). This fun video examines what happens when you switch those roles and the kind of results you'll get.
The difference between good and great posing is all in the details. Whether you photograph men, women, or couples together, knowing how to make everyone look their best is 110% your job as a photographer.
There are three areas that are the most noticeable in posing, the places that an experienced photographer can be differentiated from an amateur one: hips, hands, and height.
Allow me to put on my curmudgeon hat for a moment, but do you ever feel like photographers shooting for big publications will sometimes go for wild off-the-wall creative concepts that seem to just fall flat? That's how I feel about these portraits of "Game of Thrones" actors for Time magazine from British Photographer Miles Aldridge.
You don't need a ton of gear to produce dramatic portraits. By using focal length and lighting to your advantage you really can add so much more power to your images.
We talk a ton about different lighting setups and how they affect tonal transitions, strength of shadows, etc., but rarely do we investigate how the way we work with our lights affects our subjects' pupil size, and yet, that plays a large role in a person's perception of a portrait.
From Vanity Fair covers to designer fashion shows and theater stages, artist Sarah Oliphant has painted her way into the fabric of fashion by creating beautiful canvases worthy of framing on a scale large enough to become the industry's leading backdrop painter.
University photographers often end up rubbing shoulders with some pretty famous alumni, and that privileged position sometimes offers the chance to shoot some compelling portraits of said celebrities. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always mean you’ll have a lot of time to bust out the strobes in the studio. Sometimes, all you have is 90 seconds, a speedlight, and a hallway.
After losing almost my entire photo kit due to blatant stupidity on my part (yay insurance), I was put in the unenviable position of rebuilding a camera system from scratch. Being a portrait photographer, I immediately gravitated towards full-frame bodies. I was close to pulling the trigger on one when it hit me: Why not try a crop sensor? I'm glad I did.
A casual conversation leads to an interesting question. There I was again. Spouting endless drivel at the beginning of a date. Trying desperately to impress her with my chatter.
No, keep your iPhone in your pocket and forget about the duck lips. We're not talking about selfies; we're talking about self-portraits. Step to the other side of the camera and learn how to take better shots of yourself.
Much like the way the Willie Geist of Sunday Today describes his senior portraits in this video, mine were definitely a somewhat lackluster experience.
American renowned former White House photographer and photojournalist, Pete Souza, for his first ever audio interview hosted by Ohio University, speaks of his time documenting the professional and personal life of former President Barack Obama. As part of Scripps College of Communication annual Schuneman Symposium for Photojournalism and New Media, Souza exhibits a selection
The traditional workflow to edit a portrait from start to finish usually requires a few different apps. But why complicate things and not just try and rely on one single software to get to the final result?
Just when you thought you needed that crazy portrait lens, along comes someone shooting with nothing more than a drop of water. Check out this cool portrait series shot in a very unique way.
Note: You can turn on English subtitles by clicking the "CC" button in the player and using the gear icon to select the language.
Cleaning hair in post-production is without a doubt retouchers’ and photographers’ worst nightmare. It takes up a lot of time, energy, and precision, but more importantly, there are so many techniques out there that often we forget about even the most basic ones. In this very comprehensive video, Aaron Nace from Phlearn shows how to retouch hair in the most simple way possible.