We recently released our 14 hour tutorial on How To Become A Professional Wedding Photographer and as promised, we will be releasing excerpts from it for free over the next year. In this video I show you my go to method of lighting posed pictures in a church at weddings. I've tried every method of lighting but I find it easiest to light up the whole sanctuary with my Profoto D1 monolight.
I am sure we have all had those days where you stare at an image and just start moving sliders up and down to see what they do. What happens if I take this slider all the way up and this slider all the way down? For the most part, the results are entertaining, but not really aesthetically pleasing. But every once in a while, you can stumble onto something pretty awesome.
In what could be a seminal case for drone operators in the United States, a Massachusetts man has won a lawsuit that challenged the legality of a local ordinance that restricted the usage of drones and required a registration fee, both beyond the level already set forth by the FAA.
Luka, a boy who suffers from muscular dystrophy, dreams of playing basketball, skateboarding and diving. He dreams of doing all of the things his body won't allow him to. In a series called "The Little Prince" photographer Matej Peljhan strives to help Luka live out these dreams as best he can through imagery. He does this by creating imagined scenes on the ground for Luka to act out the motions of. The result
One of the most popular and sought after genres of photography is taking portraits of both male and female models. Getting started can be quite an uphill battle at times. So how do you really get started?
As professional photographers and videographers, we are constantly striving to stay ahead of the game doing the best we can and give our clients the best possible product. We are constantly looking at new gear and techniques, improving our post-production skills, and putting in long hours studying and editing. While hard work, solid equipment, and good business skills are a must, here are a few simple tips that can help open doors, bring in new clients, and help give you the confidence to make important decisions.
Back for its fourth year, the Natural Landscape Photography Awards has announced the 2024 winners. The competition sets itself apart with an emphasis on its golden rule, “the integrity of the subject should be maintained,” setting the standard for landscape photographers with similar approaches to their photography.
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to walk into almost any photographic situation armed with a whole vocabulary of lighting techniques and be able to quickly select exactly the type of lighting you want for the main light of your photo? By understanding six key qualities of light you can create your own vocabulary of lighting to draw upon and apply for your desired effect in fashion photos, formal, and lifestyle portraits and beyond. Angle, Size, Distance, Shape, Duration, and Color are each qualities of light that photographers can combine and manipulate these qualities in setting the look of their photograph for impact beyond just illumination.
"What the heck just happened?" I remember saying to a friend as we finished Season 5, Episode 8, "Hardhome" of Game of Thrones a few weeks ago. I was in a crowded bar with many other GoT fans as we all just sat in silence as the credits rolled. This was no "Red Wedding" but I still had that "Oh S***" feeling you get when everything hits the fan.
Apple has announced this week that it is going to start rolling out new child safety features. These features are coming later this year in updates to iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and macOS Monterey. Apple says that this program is ambitious and protecting children is an important responsibility.
Having a professional photographer explain exactly how they made a photo from start to finish is something that will always interest me. Having three photographers do this is obviously even better. In this short interview series we get to peak over the shoulders of photographers Romain Laurent, Raïssa Venables and Mat Baker as they explain their individual workflows. Starting with their capture process and continuing on to their post production techniques.
In order to turn a typical sunset into an extraordinary sunset, you are going to do the opposite of counteracting your available light. You do this by picking the colored gel that is the opposite color of the color you want to highlight. Though it may seem like an odd idea, it's actually just simple color theory. The opposite color of magenta is green. By placing a light to medium green gel on your strobe and setting your camera's white balance (WB) to fluorescent, anything that is magenta (such as a sunset) will be pushed even more vibrant.
Hey, friends! I recently shot in a natural light studio and thought I would share some tips on indoor natural light for those of you who are interested. Enjoy!
Residents of a luxury building in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City are quite upset over the recent news that an art exhibit will be featuring photos, shot of them, through their house windows. How would you feel if you heard a photograph of you sleeping or bending over in your house is now part of an art show and selling for thousands of dollars? Would you feel like your private space was violated? Is this even legal? Read on to learn more about the photos and the legality surrounding the whole issue.
Hey introverts, it's the guy you've never actually met at a party because he was busy playing with someone else's dog in the corner, and I've got some good news for you: introversion is not a disease.
If you've been outside earlier this week, you must have noticed the gorgeous moon up there in the sky. Not only it was a full moon, but it was closer to us than usual. The 'Supermoon' is 11%-14% larger and 30% brighter than the normal-distanced moon we see every night. The reason for the change in the distance is the elliptical orbit of the moon around the Earth. Take the big-looking moon, add a telephoto lens, and you get some epic landscape and cityscape photos.
When we talk about Fujifilm's recent success, most of us likely point to their X Series cameras, known for their fantastic design and great system of lenses. Surprisingly however, the bulk of the company's financial success in imaging is not due to their mirrorless cameras, but rather to their Instax line of cameras.
There is always someone better than you, and photography is no exception. But that doesn't mean you have to settle for your lot, even as a beginner, and while improving, there are ways you can ensure you are shooting above your ability level.
You might have noticed a common theme in my articles: "the gear doesn’t matter". A lot of people have called me out on this, especially as in my profile picture I’m shooting on a Phase One with Broncolor lights. And yes, you are right, the kit does matter in my line of work, just not always. Sitting on the fence? Maybe. Here’s my explanation:
If you recall, we published an article a couple weeks ago about an app called Foap, where users could make money licensing their iPhone photos. Well, a similar app called Scoopshot (based in Finland) has just informed me that one of their users has made about $20,000 selling his photos.
The king of kit lenses is dead. Long live the Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS!
When mirrorless cameras first started gaining popularity within the industry, brands and photographers were generally discussing the weight and size advantages. This was predominantly true until larger faster aperture lenses were brought into production and the mirrorless weight advantage was supposedly debunked.
Looking back at my early portraits often makes me cringe. I’m not even afraid to admit it now. It was always a goal of mine to be a competent portrait photographer, but I was incredibly shy and didn’t know how to engage with the people in front of my lens. I was always somehow dissatisfied with my results, as I could never seem to connect with my subjects on a level deep enough for them to let their guard down.
As a photographer you are probably confronted every now and then with unacceptably high noise levels. This may occur when using extremely high ISO levels, or perhaps when lifting shadows too much in post processing. You can try to reduce noise by one or two sliders in Photoshop, Lightroom, or similar software, or by stacking a couple of photos.
Using hashtags is still one of the best ways to get new eyes on your content regardless of what social media platform you are using. This method will save you time and change how you apply hashtags forever.
With the recent flooding of the market with battery-powered monolights, it might seem as if the humble speedlight will only ever be found on top of the photojournalist's camera from now on. The Profoto B1 and B2, the Broncolor Siros, and offerings from various small brands have given us options for high-powered flashes in much smaller packages than before. But sometimes, it is still more convenient to use speedlights than to lug around heavier and bulkier offerings.
There’s a lot of talk about cameras and, consequently, lenses get overlooked. With competing priorities when you buy a lens, here are some things that could affect your decision on which lens to buy.
As you may already know, I spend a good deal of time polishing my photos in post production and have taught retouching in Photoshop for some time. A few months ago I made the move from Lightroom to Capture One and haven't looked back. To test out it's power, I decided to see just how close I could get to my portrait retouching style using only Capture One Pro 8 and forgoing Photoshop entirely.
With the release of the Fujifilm GFX 50R, the Hasselblad X1D II 50C, as well as a burgeoning used market, digital medium format has become more attainable than ever by professional photographers wanting to step up to the next level in image quality. However, the full frame market is firing back on all cylinders, producing cameras that claim to rival medium format, such as the Sony a7R IV. Many medium format users are quick to point out that there is a medium format look that these high-end full-frame cameras are lacking. So, what is the medium format look? Is it real? Why, yes. Yes, it is.
The concept of a portrait lens has always baffled me. When I first started out in photography, reading the Internet and listening to other photographers would have led me to believe that I needed something around the 85mm or 135mm focal lengths if I wanted to photograph a person. Anything else wouldn’t work. Well, that simply isn’t true, is it? Any lens can be used as a portrait lens. In fact, the moment you photograph the likeness of a person with it, it becomes a portrait lens. So why not experiment using different lenses in your portraiture?
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