The Forgotten Force Behind Your Photography
Visual weight is an often overlooked but essential component of your photographs. It influences how your pictures are viewed and is what drives your compositions.
Visual weight is an often overlooked but essential component of your photographs. It influences how your pictures are viewed and is what drives your compositions.
Did you know that Canon introduced the world to eye control focus back in 1992? In this retrospective, I will discuss the Canon EOS A2E, the world’s first camera that allowed the user to select a focusing point by simply looking at it.
One of the most overlooked, yet most used items in a photographer's arsenal, is the grip kit. A grip kit isn't something most photographers set out to buy, build, or assemble, it's generally born from necessity. Over the years we find ourselves on jobs needing certain things that we don't have readily available and we end up improvising to get the job done. Usually we make a mental note of how we can be more prepared in the future, which often times leads to adding small "grip" items to our pack list. When we collect enough of these items, they typically make their way into some sort of crate, bag, or box also known as a grip kit.
In many ways, digital photography is not on the same level as film photography. In many others, film cannot compete with digital.
Shooting action sports can be overwhelming and strenuous if you lack the proper knowledge before going out to shoot. Whether you want to shoot motocross, mountain biking, snowboarding, ect.... for the most part all of the same rules apply. Once you start to master these rules your portfolio will benefit from it. Since I get a lot of questions about my action shots I though I would break it down for you guys.
Today, we're going to discuss how dodging and burning can improve your photos and show you how easy it is in Capture One 20.
Are you able to do everything you need from inception of an idea to execution up until delivery with Adobe CC alone, or do you need other apps like Da Vinci Resolve and Capture One for coloring your video and photo projects? With Adobe's latest update, is it possible to do it all using only Adobe?
When it comes to versatility and performance, the Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS Lens is an excellent choice. Available as part of a kit or sold individually, this lens performs exceedingly well. Although there are other lenses with a similar focal range for the X-mount system, and great ones at that, this lens should not be dismissed as merely a kit lens, as it produces some great results.
It seems like there is always a video from a major YouTuber about selling his or her gear, and these videos can rack up hundreds of thousands of views. I’m not sure why that is.
For most beginners, distinguishing hues, or noticing over saturated areas, can be an issue. Even some most advanced retouchers still have problems color correcting their images. Reaching the point where our eyes see colors properly takes time and a lot of practice. Fortunately enough, visual help layers in Photoshop can aid us separate luminosity, hue, and saturation. In this article, I will show you how to isolate the latter two to facilitate your color correction.
Nikon is reported to have closed its factory in Japan, bringing an end to more than 70 years of domestic camera production. Instead, manufacturing will continue only at its facility in Thailand.
I get it. You can’t pay the bills by photographing clients for free, or in most cases for exposure. There are definitely ways of turning exposure into monetary compensation however, that most creatives gloss over. Here are three ways of turning exposure into dollars, just by asking some simple questions to your client.
Over time, you'll likely see your lens develop a couple specks of dust inside the lens. This isn't uncommon, and 99% of the time, won’t affect your image quality at all. However, for the neat freaks out there, it'll become a big issue for you, and you'll want to send your lens in for cleaning. Lens Rentals shows us how they do it.
Do you feel at a certain point, after making a long run of photoshoots, that you're hitting a wall with your creative side? Or have you "lost your touch" so to speak? This is also known as "Creative Burnout." As creatives, we've all been there before. At one point we all plateau and need to find a way to break the "funk" to get back of the swing of things. So how do we overcome this?
Put your camera down. Over there. Immediately. You don't need it if you want to earn more money as a photographer.
It’s officially hot outside in my neck of the woods, but that doesn't mean I can to take a break from shooting outside! I still have to sweat it out, hauling my gear around from location to location and that means my clients have to feel the sting of the summer heat as well. Although it’s steaming out, I don’t want my images to look like they were taken inside the nearest oven set to broil. Thankfully, there is a super quick and easy way to fix those heat flushed skin tones.
James Cameron graces this months cover of National Geographic for good reason. Not long ago, Cameron took his solo manned submarine Deepsea Challenge, to depths no other human has traveled into Challenger Deep.
In the behind the scenes video, we get to see photographer Marco Grob working through pre-production with the team, how the shoot came together in a couple of hours and the tracking down a huge tank (apparently from America's Next Top Model) for the shoot.
Before today’s launch of the Sony a7R IV in the U.S., I had the opportunity to use the new 61-megapixel camera on a few occasions. Ultimately, these hands-on experiences led me to purchasing it for animal photography and in this article I list a few reasons behind the decision.
As photographers, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. But there’s one disadvantage that almost every photographer has in common.
Remember the Nikon D600? It's a great camera other than the fact that the shutter would spray oil all over the sensor. The oil can't easily be seen at wide open apertures but it's a major problem when you stop down. Due to a class action lawsuit Nikon is replacing D600s with new D610... For some people.
Earlier this year Lukas Renlund, a 30-year old professional photographer from Scandinavia, sat down and tried to imagine what the photography industry might look like in 5 or 10 years. That imagination-session lead him to quickly start a new photography/media company named 'Not So Fast | Media'. Instead of offering still photographs to their clients, the new company focuses only on creating motion photographs- Beautiful moving images.
The new iMac is here, and of course, it’s sporting the fancy new M1 processor that’s inside everything Apple these days. That’s great news all around, but I have a feeling that Apple’s got something even bigger up its sleeve for the real creative set.
One of those most important parts of any portrait sessions is what happens after the shoot is over. In the last part of this series I want to talk a bit about the end of your photo session, and how you can ensure you have a happy client that will not only come back for more but will tell their friends how awesome the experience was. Almost every day I get a call from someone asking me to advertise on Google. I simply reply “no thank you” as I don’t feel that Google can compete with word of mouth. As I have mentioned in first part of this series, word of mouth is one of the most powerful advertising weapons you have, with the ability to grow your business exponentially. This will be a bit different for everyone, but I think you can take this and apply it to any type of photography session you do.
I owe a lot of the success I’ve had in my career to the critique I’ve had from other photographers. Since specializing though, I’ve had to unlearn many of those lessons. Specializing has proven to me that critiques from photographers are often wrong.
One of the most important compositional decisions to make when photographing pets is choosing a focal length. Due to perspective and lens distortion, ultra wide angles (generally considered to be less than 24mm on a full frame camera) can yield unflattering results when photographing humans. However, when photographing pets, shooting with an ultra-wide angle lens can do wonders in making your photos stand out.
Long exposure photography is a powerful technique in landscape photography, allowing you to capture the smooth, dynamic movement of clouds and water while keeping stationary elements sharp. One challenge we often face is dealing with moving subjects, such as boats, which can result in blurred images if not properly stabilized. Ensuring the stability of boats is crucial to achieving sharp, high-quality long exposures.
It is pretty common knowledge that photography is based on understanding the principles of good lighting. It's also pretty common for the average photographer not to have the budget to afford a studio and light their subject from 8 different directions. Instead of worrying about not having enough, use the natural light you do have.
Canon's mirrorless lenses have been esoteric, exquisite, and... expensive. While they're certainly spectacular pieces of glass, some photographers have been waiting for the more standard workhorses to come along. The good news is that they are on their way quite soon.
Let's address the elephant in the room right off the bat, this monitor is absolutely massive. I have a fairly large desk and plenty of space at home to house this beast but it still seems large when viewing in the open. Though, it really comes down to how well it feels when working on it. To be blunt, it feels freaking amazing.