Waterfall photography is often described as one of the most mesmerizing forms of landscape photography. The challenge of capturing the motion of flowing water, along with the contrast of the surrounding still landscape, can create some stunning visual effects. The use of specific camera settings, lenses, and filters plays a huge role in the final result.
There is a lot of various advice on the internet. A large chunk of it is bad or irrelevant. Editing images is an art. It is an art that takes a while to master. Because there is so much bad info online, I decided to share some of my favorite editing techniques I use to get my signature look.
Sharpness: it's what we all want from our photos and it's something many of us obsess over. If your shot out of camera isn't quite as razor edge as you'd like, there are quite a few ways to get more sharpness in post-production. This method is by far my favorite.
A couple weeks ago I was fortunate to work with Tina Hughes, a talented local clothing designer. Her latest collection blends vintage and modern elements. I thought that my friend's modernist house would be the perfect location for the shoot. We were limited to doing the shoot during the (bright and sunny) day so I used speedlites, a polarizing filter and orange gels to add a moodiness to the images.
Around this time last year, I wrote an article called “Why Other Camera Manufacturers Should Be More Like Fuji.” Although I wasn't the only one saying this, it seems that Sony has taken note.
Aside from being a catchy acronym, Digital Asset Management is an incredibly important concept in the world of digital photography that is too often overlooked.
There are a zillion photographers out there, but there aren’t a zillion clients. How do you make your work stand out? Success comes when a client will book you because it's you and not because you are just another good photographer. In the process, having a recognizable style might also make you a happier photographer. But how can you get there?
Whether you’re a photographer, filmmaker, video editor, first assistant, or even just starting out as a PA, you’ve got to work to survive. There are many lengths of time where the work might seem to be non-stop; you work so much that when you do have free time, you might not even know what to do with yourself. The winds of fate can change quickly though, and you might find yourself all of sudden not having any new jobs lined up. After doing this dance for over ten years as a video producer and photographer now based out of Lexington, Kentucky, I’ve learned a few things about dealing with the stresses of when business is slow.
Back in February of this year, I was invited on a trip that I had never expected to go on. Kinetis, a non-profit based in Israel, invited myself and five other incredible photographers to travel to Israel to document and share what we found. To be honest, Israel was never a travel destination for me. I have always been drawn to colder climates, I’m not a very religious person, and frankly I just don’t really know enough about the country for it to have ever held any power over me. It never really made great sense to me as a photographic destination either, nestled between sparring countries and set amidst a relatively barren desert.
But alas, who am I to turn down a free trip to a far-off destination?
The recent introduction of new lenses for Canon's RF-S mount by third-party manufacturers Sigma and Tamron is a significant development for the industry. These lenses, all designed for APS-C format cameras, are a significant development that reveals Canon's strategic approach to its mirrorless camera lineup.
Being a photographer in the Bay Area, it was hard to not hear the news about the sophisticated break in last week at Mac House Productions. Not once, but twice in the same night, two buglers broke into the Mac House warehouse building, making off with over $150,000 worth of equipment. Now, as the dust begins to settle, it turns out Mac House wasn't the only local business targeted. And a haul worth ten times as much was just around the corner.
Now that the Superbowl is behind us we can all start talking about the best commercials we saw. All over social media it seems the one that got the big win for the night was the excellent commercial from Dodge truck with photos of farmers. Great commercial indeed... but did you know that it was inspired by an idea posted to YouTube back in 2011 by Farms.com. I have shared them both below.
Canon's RF line of mirrorless lenses has impressed a lot of photographers with its stunning optical quality and extreme designs. Many photographers are still waiting on the lens lineup to fill out a bit more, but luckily, it looks like that will be happening fairly soon.
Caitin Stickels, a 29 year old model, actor, and singer from Seattle, Washington who was born with a rare chromosomal disorder known as Schmid-Fraccaro, or "Cat Eye Syndrome," realized a dream she never dared to hope for when she recently starred in a high-fashion editorial, photographed by famed photographer Nick Knight.
Please - do yourself a favor. Stop whatever you’re doing and go and watch the scene from True Detective I’ve linked in this article right now. It is not only possibly the greatest one shot I’ve ever seen, but it’s one of the most stunning pieces of cinema I've seen in recent memory.
This is a pet peeve of mine, so I am going to thank you in advance for indulging me. There seems to be a rampant misunderstanding in certain levels of the photo community as to what editing presets are, and what they actually accomplish. I (like many of you I would assume) am a member of various photo-centric groups on Facebook. In particular, I am a member of groups for people who have purchased Lightroom and ACR preset packs from a variety of creators. Almost daily I see posts in these groups that go something like this: "I thought my photos were beyond hope, but then I applied "WHIMSICAL PRESET NAME" and they were saved! These presets are amazing!!!1!111!!!" Sound familiar?
In today's somewhat over saturated market of boudoir photography, everyone is looking to shoot something new and unique. It can be difficult to find a new perspective on shooting when so many ways have already been discovered. So how can you get creative and grasp the attention of the viewers without reinventing the wheel?
If you know Katelyn James - you'll know that she has enormous talent, but more importantly, she has an enormous heart for photographers and her clients! Photographers from across the United States come to Richmond, Virginia to take advantage of her information filled, intimate workshops and coaching sessions. She is an expert in branding and building a community with her brides.
In 1927, Claude Frisse-Greene shot a series of film around London based on a color (or colour) technique that his father had experimenting with. His father, William Friese-Greene, was an early pioneer of cinematography. His process was called 'Biocolour' which produced the illusion of color by exposing alternating frames of black and white film with color filters, then staining the film again with red or green.
Natural-looking images are making a comeback. If you look at recent issues of big magazines, you will see that makeup is often a nude with some shine to it, retouching is less "doll like," and even simple 1-light setups seem to be the standard. Some people will argue that it has been like this for quite some time. It is true, but I find that retouching is more flagrant than before. Even well known high-end retouchers seem to leave more imperfections in their images than a year ago.
Upgrading your RAM from Apple is a lot like buying your tires directly from the car dealership. It's overpriced for essentially the same product and you shouldn't do it. In this video I cover the benefits of upgrading your RAM from a third party to maximize your computers ability for retouching and file management through various applications like Lightroom.
It was my first wedding to shoot and I had never shot one before. I get stressed out really easily, so doing this was a bad idea for me all the way around. I missed shots, I missed a set of groups, and my lighting for the reception was terrible. On top of not having a clue on how to get a proper exposure for a wedding and what images were important to the couple, I delivered full-resolution files on a plethora of disks that caused more confusion than good. Today, I'm using online galleries provided by Pixieset and flash drives for file delivery.
At the most basic level, photographers seem to be in two camps when it comes to image file types. There are those who care about the look of their images and shoot with big RAW files and those who don’t and use the smaller JPEG files.
RAW files offer a tremendous level of control over noise, tonality and color; a hearty file that can cope with the demands of our creativity.
There has been significant chatter on both the Fstoppers staff and in the general comments we've been hearing and reading regarding Canon's move to introduce slower lens iterations, but with image stabilization, of their older faster glass. We've heard arguments on both sides of the table, but we're curious: what do you think?
So, what are the best settings for wildlife photography? Most people would argue that aperture priority would be the best way to tackle shooting fast action like wildlife and sports. It gives you the best balance between automatic camera settings (like picking the correct shutter speed) and manual control (like the ability to compensate for exposure).
Recently, fellow Fstoppers writer/astounding editor Pratik Naik posted a status on Facebook asking what people's editing routines were, you can read the discussion that followed here. With his permission I've decided to spin this off into a post, and offer some suggestions for our readers facing hours of repetitive retouching in their future. I'm writing from the perspective of a photographer, but I'm sure many if not all of these will carry over into the video world as well. Note that these aren't in any particular order.
As photographers, we have a never-ending, ever-perpetuating growth of photos piling up on our hard drives. Inevitably, whether that work is professional or personal, our photos end up taking space on cloud storage accounts that we keep upgrading whenever we reach the limit. But what if you could cut the size of these files in half without losing any visible quality? You could save a lot of headache, not to mention, money.
Just a few hours ago, Lufthansa 456, an Airbus A380 finishing an 11-hour flight, reported a drone flying just 200 feet above it as it was on approach to Los Angeles International Airport. The near-miss was reported to the LAPD, who immediately began a search.
Less than a week away, Canon will be hosting a two-day online trade show conference where a new, purportedly entry-level cinema camera will be announced.
