I ran across the incredibly imaginative portfolio of John Flury a few weeks ago. When I viewed his image "Provincial Uprising" where a womans dress was made of human hands I couldn't figure out how it was made. When I first saw this picture I assumed that the hands had been shot separately and then copied over and over again in Photoshop.
All this week at the PRO EDU studio in St. Louis, Michael Woloszynowicz has been hard at work showing off his techniques for an upcoming tutorial series on creating fashion and editorial photography.
Every photographer knows that the eyes are the soul of a portrait. Besides the emotional aspect, there is one important technical factor that, if done right, will light up the eye of the portrait and enhance the connection with the viewer: the catch light.
It's hard to look at our photography with objective eyes. We know how much planning went into the shoot. We know how complicated the shoot was. We know how many hours in Photoshop we spent. The sad truth is, none of that matters. Your image should speak for itself. Let me help you rate your photography fairly.
Inverse Square Law of Light is something we all hear and know about, but don't always know how it really affects our photography. We always hear the math and the science behind it, but there is nothing like seeing it in a visual way to fully understand it.
Last month we shared a really impressive project of an underwater shoot in Bali done by my friend and conceptual photographer Benjamin Von Wong. He stated then that was only part one and that part two would be coming soon.
I’m a huge fan of Annie Leibovitz and the imagery she has captured over the past few decades. Being a self-taught photographer, I looked to her work time and time again for inspiration and motivation.
In photography - and in anything else, really - it seems as though when we first discover something new, whether it be a new camera, a new technique, and/or a new system of doing things, it’s fairly natural I think to want to use it all the time.
You might someday find yourself working within the overall vision of someone else – like an editor, an art director or, in this case, a director of photography – when shooting on assignment for publications as big as Sports Illustrated. Limited time with your subject and being asked for simple lighting against a simple background isn’t uncommon in this industry.
Brought to our attention by Photography Bay, Amazon has patented a most ingenious invention: a completely revolutionary way to get a "true white" background on an image in-camera, without any post processing.
Last week Fstoppers and Peter Hurley hosted a free Illuminating the Face release party on Spreecast (view it here if you missed it). Since I had learned so much from Peter's tutorial I figured it would be exciting to use some of his studio lighting techniques for my own webcam session. What I didn't expect was all the emails, tweets, and live questions concerning my lighting setup.
Brandon Cawood, from Dalton GA, has taken appreciating first responders to the next level. What began as a personal project to photograph local EMS personnel, soon blew up and went viral. Cawood captures priceless moments in the daily lives of firefighters, police and other public safety personnel. He has a movie poster style and pulls it off in a flawless manner.
At the time of writing this post it is a gorgeous spring day and I have no doubt our readers are out shooting and enjoying it. If you have opted to stay in, these six videos provided by Lastolite and taught by the best-in-our-business Joe McNally are what you should be watching... no studying. Seriously.
Rain on your wedding day can be quite a downer for most brides even though many cultures see rain as good fortune, cleansing and fertility. Often brides wonder how they are going to still get good photos if it's raining. Here are some tips for photographers that I've picked up over the years having shot numerous weddings in the rain.
Knowing the importance of color matching strobes indoors is crucial when combining strobes and ambient lighting. Fixing mismatched lighting temperatures can be extremely difficult in post process. Ian Christmann, a commercial and lifestyle photographer discovered a method which will change your life.
It's no secret that we creatives are often introverted, or simply don't know the first thing about self-promotion. Thus there are thousands and thousands of brilliant talents out there that very few have discovered. I have been on a mission of finding such gems and helping them expose their work to the worldwide online photography and digital imagery communities.
No matter where you are in your photographic journey, one thing is certain: you need to know how to manipulate light. The team over at Monte Zucker Education have put together an interesting speed light tour featuring pro Canon shooters Bob Davis and Stephen Eastwood. The Need Light? Speedlite!
As you have probably heard, Fstoppers is hosting a 5 day photography workshop in the Bahamas from May 28 - June 1. Mark Wallace is one of our top instructors this year and he is going to be focusing mostly on the technical aspects of photography. Recently Mark released more information about each of his 4 classes.
When it comes to shaping the light sources photographers use, there are a lot of modifiers available. Each lighting modifier has it's own characteristics which can make it difficult to determine the best light for your project.
Photographing weddings can be tough for a lot of people, and the area I find most of my assistants struggling is at the reception. Many times throughout a wedding you can rely on natural light, but what is going to make or break your reception images is your ability to master artificial lighting.
Quite possibly the most exciting product announced within the last year comes from lighting company Profoto with the announcement of the Profoto B1 studio strobe. Promising TTL within a 500 watt/sec studio strobe is exciting all on its own, but they also announced that this device is cordless, with a built in battery pack. But does the light live up to its hype?
One of the most important things to know as a photographer is how to balance available light with controlled light. Unfortunately, many in the industry lack the knowledge and the techniques of how to do it. Watch this short video to learn the basics on balancing light bulbs (constant light) with strobes (controlled light) - simple and important.
I would like to wrap up my Secrets to Crafting Top-Quality Beauty Portraits series in a quick roundup on the most common mistakes I have been noticing beginner Beauty photographers make.
I will sure talk more about Beauty photography in the future, but I'd like to summarize a few things at this point.
When looking at portraits, we have a tendency to look at the eyes first. We can't help it, it's part of human nature. This is why I personally believe it is extremely important to capture and refine the eyes in your photos to create more engaging portraits. Retoucher Michael Woloszynowicz created an awesome 4 part video series about how to make your eyes look amazing in post production.
This year for Christmas I wanted to surprise my father with his dream car, an original Chevrolet Camaro convertible in hugger orange with white rally stripes. Being that I'm a photographer I decided to photograph the car and give my father a framed print of the car before I revealed that I am actually giving him the car.
In this article I would like to share some of the basics and tips for those of you who enjoy shooting beauty portraits with controlled artificial lighting.
I am continuing my series of articles about creating stunning Beauty portraits and I would like to talk about on location lighting today.
When you're successful you get tons of requests, but sometimes there's that one that captures your interest and intrigues you. That's what happened recently to Benjamin Von Wong. A woman by the name of Nicole emailed Benjamin's agent asking what she thought was an impossible favor, to be featured in one of Ben's magical and dream-like sessions, on very short notice.
Stock Photographer Yuri Arcurs definitely went big with this experimental photoshoot, to see if it would be possible to shoot a fast moving fighter jet, and actually light it up with flashes. This behind the scenes video shows us how difficult it was to pull off, but that the end result justifies the elaborate and at times frustrating work.
It's been a while since we've released an Fstoppers original video, so today we want to take you behind the scenes with Mike Kelley. If you've been following Fstoppers then you know he's been a writer with us for a while and is also one of the most talented architectural photographers in the country.
I rarely use gels or modifiers on my speedlites because I am lazy and in a hurry on wedding days. I just fix the color issues in post. However today I was notified that a new product was posted on Kickstarter. Meet the MagMod, a simple magnetic band that mounts to your flash allowing modifiers to be slapped on and off.
Max Riché, a commercial photographer based out of Paris recently shot a huge project for the Red Bull Media House using the same concept as his "Becoming and Athlete in One Photo" series.
As a wedding photographer, the engagement session is probably one of the best ways to get to know your clients before spending 8 or more hours with them on their wedding day. These sessions are about the two of them as a couple and how they fell in love. Most of my sessions are held about 2 hours before the sun sets, but what about when you have a couple that wants to shoot at sunrise?
Umbrellas have been a staple light modifier for decades. But if you’ve ever wondered why there are so many types, or how the light quality from your strobe is affected by the size, lining, fabric or shape of the umbrella, then this post is for you.
Guest writer, Corey Rich is primarily an outdoor/adventure photographer, but last winter he decided to do something totally different and shoot CrossFit—the masochistic athletic craze sweeping the nation.
A small team based in Melbourne, Australia wants to change how you view your studio lights. They say their new invention, the LED Light cube, offers answers to age-old problems. Their Cube has no recycle time, better control over light output and no external battery packs.
This is the second part of the article on how to learn to "read" lighting in photography. If you haven't read the first part yet, please start here: How To "Read" Light In Photography - Part 1.
And for those of you who have been waiting for the second part, let's jump right back in and see what other cues we can use to breakdown lighting in other photographers' work.
Just recently Zach posted a guest article on 3 Nightmare Lighting Environments and How to Photograph Them with tips from top shooters Lindsay Adler and Erik Valind. This simple behind the scenes video takes a look at some amazing tips not only covered in the article, but in their book, Shooting in Sh*tty Light. You can catch their creativeLIVE workshop starting tomorrow.
One of the first very important skills I acquired in my Australian Photography course was the ability to breakdown lighting and determine approximate camera settings in images taken by other photographers.
Yesterday, I showed you the process of pre-producing a successful photoshoot and used a recent session as an example on all the steps it takes to put together a successful session with a large team. Today, I put together a breakdown of the entire production and post production process on creating a successful portrait session and a behind the scenes look into what all goes into it.
When we talk about on-location mixed lighting we usually mean shooting with light sources of different nature, such as natural ambient light and artificial, or shooting with lights of different color temperatures (tungsten, fluorescent, flash, etc.).
There are times when I find myself shooting the same stuff or using the same lighting setup over and over again. Repetition helps to improve and fine-tune my skills, but sometimes it just feels boring and degrading, let alone useless for my portfolio.
I have started to see a trend with using projectors to add some flair to photos. However most portable projectors do not pump out the brightest light and cannot run off batteries alone. Meet the Light Blaster.
Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday that has seen a spike in exposure in the United States the past few years making it a perfect subject for a photoshoot. Follow Jay P. from The Slanted Lens as he takes you behind the scenes of his latest shoot featuring a model dressed up as a Calavera (sugar skull) posing in an eerie cemetery backdrop.
One essential part of almost every wedding day is the rings. Not only are the rings a symbol of a couple's love and commitment to one another, they also usually cost a good deal of money. Capturing an amazing picture of the rings can not only wow your clients, it also adds great value to your portfolio. The best part is, getting a fantastic ring shot can be simple and quick.
Summer is upon us, which means fireworks. Previously, we have discussed using alternative methods to get smoke-like effects in your photographs. But using flour can make for a messy clean-up and smoke machines require electricity. Smoke balls, however, are cheap, come in a variety of colors and require nothing more than a lighter.
I find athletic themed shoots to be especially interesting considering the amount of effort and expertise that goes pulling off that one perfect shot. Follow James Quantz Jr in this behind the scenes video as he takes on the challenge of shooting the South Carolina Gamecocks.
As photographers, we usually use two different techniques to capture our images: The first is freezing the moment and capturing the split second we are witnessing. The other option is using a long exposure, to show movement, changes, or show things we don't normally see with our eyes. But what if you combined these two concepts - freezing a moment while adding movement?
Wyn has been featured on Fstoppers quite a few times. Why? His work is outstanding. He comes up with some really cool concepts for shots. From using LED's on a basketball shoot to powder with Gymnasts. He does it all perfectly.
Last week I did a photo shoot for Leo's Wisdom, which is a company that makes handmade, high end jewelry. The purpose of the shoot was to provide the client with product shots and lifestyle images for their promotional needs. Their mood board for the shoot was filled with images depicting lush locations and high society. But we were shooting on a rainy day in Columbus, Ohio.