Studio

Shooting on a clean white backdrop can be one of the more complex in-studio lighting setups around. Properly exposing for full lengths while giving your models room to work can require four or more extra lights and considerable amount of setup time. While taking the time to take care of the details is important for getting the perfect image and saving yourself hours of retouching on the back end, sometimes you just want to get a nice clean background without the hours of prep.

I will start this article off by saying that I am not a pet photographer. I am a portrait photographer that typically captures humans for magazines and ads. However, a couple years ago I started a pit bull charity (Not A Bully) and it unexpectedly led me to some jobs photographing rescue animals. If you're reading this, you already know that capturing animal portraits is a unique challenge in itself. I've done some of the difficult leg work for you and put together a list of tips to hopefully make your next in-studio pet portrait session much easier.

Enamored with the paintings of the Renaissance Period, German photographer Rebecca Rütten created “Contemporary Pieces,” which puts a modern humorous twist on classic Renaissance paintings through its focus on fast food culture.

For many, the 7’ parabolic umbrella seems like a one-trick pony. The textbook move of sandwiching the camera between the subject and the light for an edgy, high-key look is quickly growing old. In this video, commercial photographer Joel Grimes shows a different way of using the 7’ parabolic to create soft, high-key images best suited for beauty photography.

Have you ever wished that you could simply walk into your studio space and immediately have perfect lighting? Japanese architecture firm FT Architects has created a gorgeous photography studio which uses diffused skylights and windows to harness ambient light and do just that. This beautiful studio located in Kanagawa, Japan seems to be the first of its kind.

Danielle Tunstall is a graphic designer and photographer that puts emphasis on horror. She sets out on each photo shoot not to get the person to look their best, but instead their most appalling. Her work ranges from murderous to straight up disturbing, and her fans love it!

Cosplay is a photography subgenre and lifestyle that I have yet to ever attempt, but something I truly enjoying viewing when it is done well. In the case of this mashup project by photographer Sacha Goldberger, fusing the Renaissance era with modern superheroes, "done well" is understatement. You need to seriously check these out.

Los Angeles-based Italian photographer Guido Argentini produced a series of work called, "ARGENTUM " (Latin for silver), that will be released as both a fine art book and as a film that looks into the making and thinking behind the photographs. Each model -- all of which are professional performers -- was completely painted in a metallic body paint. The effect results in an interesting study of the human form (and, specifically, of the female form) in a way that is not sexual, but perhaps quite objective.