The Best Way to Store Your Seamless
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In my first rickety little studio I called a place to take portraits, I had nowhere but a corner to store my rolls of seamless paper. In my little budget corner I found a million ways to ruin whole rolls, or ruin parts of seamless paper on an hourly basis. The ends would get damaged, the rolls would become wavy, and I would typically end up cussing and throwing away seamless that should not have been destroyed. It was money being thrown away. I want to prevent this from ever happening to you.

How to Get the Softest Light Outdoors for Your Photos
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Achieving soft, directional light outdoors can be difficult. Sure, you can use an overcast day for soft, natural light, but often, this will not give you the most flattering light on your subject's face. In this video, we use my largest light modifier to see how you can turn an overcast day into a professional looking catalog image.

Watch Sample 4K Video Footage from Newly-Announced Lumix DMC-GH4
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Last night Panasonic revealed their new Lumix DMC-GH4 capable of producing 4K video and seemingly aimed directly at pro video shooters. There are some who are skeptical of cramming 4K video into such a small sensor and others who can't believe how amazing the camera reads on paper. Check out this sample footage from Lumix and you can draw your own conclusions.

How To Enhance Eyes And Add Fake Facial Hair In Photoshop
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I've blogged about our friend Glyn Dewis before. He's a talented UK-based photographer that also posts lots of free amazing Photoshop tutorials with straightforward tips. Recently he posted a video on how to enhance eyes, which is extremely important in portrait photography, and how to make fake beards using noise and blur tools. The results are impressive!

Are You a Photographer or a FOMOgrapher: Part One
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We’ve all heard it and probably noticed it first hand: social media is destroying our happiness and is directly related to instilling FOMO, the "fear of missing out" in people. We photographers are no exception. So how do we defeat an enemy that lives within our own minds?

How to Build Your Fashion Portfolio on a Budget
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Building a quality portfolio can be an expensive endeavor, especially if you don't budget and carefully consider your costs. Putting together professional quality shoots on a budget can be challenging. After experiencing some of the wide variations in cost for things like models, makeup artists, and the other essential pieces of a shoot, I wanted share my experiences and lessons learned the hard way.

Sony Announces the FS7: A Documentarian's 4K Dream
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Sony's answer to many filmmakers' dreams comes in the form of the refined, lightweight, portable, and ever-enabling PXW-FS7. The FS7 offers internal 4K recording at 60fps and 1080p at 180fps, with a single extension unit and external recorder required to shoot 4K RAW footage. In addition to an ergonomic smart grip with customizable controls and a built-in, four-position ND filter to allow you to shoot truly on-the-go, the FS7 also makes use dual slots for a new 128GB XQD G-series card that supports 440MB/s read and 350MB/s write speeds.

Why a Cage Will Help You Shoot Better Video
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"If I want to shoot great video in the future with my 4K, video enabled DSLR, what should I buy first?" This is a question a get a lot of the time from photographer friends. Given they already own a tripod, my first answer is always to start with a cage. Here is why.

We Review The Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD
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The Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD is a super telephoto lens available for Fujifilm and Sony APS-C cameras, and it has quite a few tricks up its sleeve. In this review, I detail my experience using this lens for sports and nature photography using Fujifilm cameras.

Fractal Filters Make Prism Photography More Convenient Than Ever
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Prism photography isn’t exactly a new thing. In fact, many photographers have been taking advantage of the unique, light bending properties of glass and clear resins to add an artistic flare to their images for some time now. The issue previously had been finding a prism that would work for you and fit neatly into your kit. Fractal Filters has recently released their latest set of prisms designed specifically for photographers that meet the need for convenient photo-prisms.

Free Photoshop Course From Lynda.com Through May 10th
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Want to improve, or just possibly brush up on your photoshops skills? Lynda.com is offering a free 1 hour and 37 minutes video to help you enhance your photos. In this course, the Photoshop senior product manager takes you on an insider's tour of the key photo-enhancement features in Adobe Photoshop CS6. Even if you consider yourself a master I'm sure they have some tricks for you. This course is only available through May 10 so act fast.

Is MōVI Worth The Hype?
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These days, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the advertising hype surrounding a new cinema product. All it takes is a slick promo video and clever marketing for companies to set the Internet ablaze. As the hype and expectations build, words like “game-changer” and “revolutionary” are thrown into the mix.

How to Successfully Pre-Produce a Photoshoot
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Looking on photography groups and forums, you'll quickly find a reoccurring problem among photographers. No Call, No Shows. It’s going to happen regardless of your location and the seriousness of the industry, and security deposits sometimes scare clients away all together. So how do you counteract this and ensure that your talent and team are timely, and even show up?

The Only Thing You Need To Do To Become a Better Photographer
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There is nothing I love more than when someone takes the gloves off and drops a serious dose of truth. Especially about getting better as a photographer, and even more so in the age of "I'll fix it in post." In this video from 30-year veteran documentary photographer John Free offers some great advice for becoming a better street photographer, and absolutely perfect advice on becoming a better photographer overall.

Everything You Need To Know About RED's Newest Sensor
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One of RED digital cinema’s biggest strengths is building up hype around an upcoming product. The company is praised as innovators by the film community, for building cameras like the Epic and Scarlet. When other companies were content with 1080p, RED was building cameras with 4 times the resolution. Years later, RED users can’t help but chuckle as companies like Sony are developing 4k televisions – technology that RED’s competition once thought to be excessive.

See How Canon Makes their Digital Cameras
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Michael Zhang (PetaPixel) dug up this promotional video that shows in great detail how digital cameras work and how they are made. If you are a photographer (and I know you are) or have an engineering background then you will find this video fascinating.


Canon Premium Library:
"An introduction to how digital cameras work that also highlights Canon's unique

Phottix Brings a Collapsible, Soft Box-Style Beauty Dish to Market
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About two years ago, Chimera showed us the first collapsible beauty dish at WPPI, something that promised to make traveling with the bulky, often heavy modifier a lot easier. However, with a price point of $230, it was a bit pricey for many. In the past few days, Phottix has released their version of the collapsable beauty dish. It has several distinctly different features that separate it from the Chimera version, but there is one thing that will stand out: the price is only $75.

The Light Eater: The Biggest Challenge of Large Format Portraiture
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Shooting portraits in large format film is extremely rewarding. There's a simplicity of the process, from the posing to the static camera position, that helps ground both the photographer and the subject in the moment. Beautiful images may be your reward for such patience, but it's not without its challenges. For me, the biggest challenge shooting portraiture is not working with the camera, but the insane amount of light you need to throw at it. For the uninitiated, here are some facts about the format and its light-eating characteristics that you may need to consider.

Sony a9 III Global Shutter Versus High-Speed Sync
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Have you heard the buzz? Sony just unveiled the Sony a9 III, boasting the groundbreaking feature of being the first full frame camera equipped with a global shutter. This technological leap has sent shockwaves through the photography industry, but it's also sparked a flurry of questions, particularly regarding its compatibility with flash and whether it outperforms high-speed sync. But before we delve into that, let's demystify what a global shutter is and how it revolutionizes flash photography.

Is the Surface Book 3 a Macbook Pro Killer?
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The newly announced Microsoft Surface Book 3 is reportedly their most powerful laptop ever. So could it be good enough to destroy the competition? Namely, the new Apple Macbook Pro 2020. Photographers and creatives alike love Apple products for editing workflows, but could this be the beginning of the end for Apple's domination of the creative market?

Tutorial on Photographing a Nude Body (NSFW)
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Who doesn't like a little artsy nudity now and again? The guys at PHLEARN certainly aren't against it in their latest tutorial that teaches one of the many methods for this type of photography.

The Problem With Lightroom Presets
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Lightroom presets come with a mixed bag of acceptance. Some think they are an abomination to a learned skill and craft and should never be used, whereas others enjoy the look and feel they provide to their images. It's not just as black and white as that, and it's down to the individual whether to use them or not, but one thing to make no mistake about is the time it takes to create them.

[Game] Color – A Color Matching Game That Tests Your Vision And Knowledge
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Color, a simple yet addicting game that will test your patience and vision. In the industry, we deal with color all the time. Everything from shooting to dealing with calibrating screens, color plays a huge role in what we do. The game runs through varying level of difficulty, starting with hue, saturation, complementary colors, and goes up from there. It's very easy to play but hard to master.

The Demise of Olympus: How and Why Did It Happen, and What Does the Future Hold?
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Olympus was once the doyen of the photographic industry, with the OM range beloved for its svelte lines and high-quality manufacturing. Revitalized by mirrorless in the digital era through its collaboration with Panasonic, their OM-D range is iconic. So, why were they bought by the private equity fund Japan Industrial Partners — specialists in restructuring — and what are the portents for the future?

4(+1) Things You Need To Be a Photographer in 2022
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There is a ton of advice on what gear to buy and what gear not to buy as a photographer. It is written from a billion different standpoints, each one with a slightly different take. I didn’t feel any of those articles resonated with me, so here is one that I hope will resonate with you regardless of the genre or niche you’re going for.

Five Essential Tips for Building a Professional Photography Website
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A photographer's online portfolio is paramount in this day and age, but you already know that. However, we are at a juncture in which the caliber of a photographer's website can be the difference between being hired and being overlooked. Here are five essential tips for ensuring your website gives you the best possible chance of being hired.