Two Tips to Refine Your Picture Delivery and Sell More Prints
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For most of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, the wedding season has begun, and the first images are being sent out to brides and grooms. Delivering pictures to clients is more important than most photographers would like to think, especially for weddings. It is an opportunity to surprise customers, get referrals, and sell more prints or albums. The smallest details will help you separate your business from the crowd.

How to Pose Hands for a Better Boudoir Session
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The art in hands placement has been a tough subject for many photographers. Letting the client rest a hand rarely ends in an image filled with emotion or story. Knowing the simple techniques behind how to guide your client in where to place the hand, how to move them during the session, and how to convey emotion through the soft touch of the hand will take your session to a new level.

Would You Fall for These Seven Photography Scams? I Was Caught by One
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You probably use or run photography businesses. Beware! There is a multimillion-dollar industry that runs solely to scam businesses and clients out of their hard-earned cash. Here are a few and how you should avoid them and why one of them caught me out.

Our Long-term Review of the Think Tank Airport Security Trolley
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It has been 11 years since I bought the Think Tank Airport Security V2 trolley as my main bag for weddings. It served its purpose, and I’m still happy with the bag. In this article, I want to review the bag based on my findings from the first moment I bought the Think Tank trolley back in 2011.

Check Out This New Camera Stabilizer That Costs $45,000
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The Steadicam was invented in 1975 as a mechanical way of stabilizing video cameras. In 2013 Freefly introduced the Movi, an electronic gimbal that basically made your average Steadicam obsolete. Since then the price of electronic gimbals has plummeted to a level that the average consumer can actually afford. That hasn't stopped Sachtler from creating a hybrid stabilizer that costs $45,000.

Start to Finish Fashion Editorial Retouching: Part 2
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In Part 1 of the "Start to Finish Fashion Editorial Retouching" tutorial, we looked at how to clean up a white background, how to liquefy clothing to achieve a better fit, and how to clone and heal out distracting elements in our editorial image. In Part 2 we will look at how to go about the more common and essential retouching steps including: skin retouching using dodge and burn, color toning, sharpening, and value adjustments. In this video, I take you through each step and give you insight into the "why" as well as the "how" of editorial retouching.

The Best Backgrounds At Your Hardware Store
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There are certain stores that I can walk into leave with a full shopping cart and wonder, "Where did the last hour and a half go?" This is what happens when I make a trip to my local hardware store. If you are interested in photographing still life, food, or any other table top project, the hardware store is full of inspiration. Let me show an aisle that is filled with amazing ready to go backgrounds.

Can't Buy Them? Just Become Them: Why Instagram Versus Snapchat Should Come as No Surprise
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Virtual war. That's what Instagram declared yesterday when the Facebook-owned social media giant rolled out their latest update sharing an all too familiar user experience touted by rival platform, Snapchat. What are they doing? How could this happen? Why are they doing this? After turning over a few stones, we saw this coming from a mile away. Facebook and Instagram ultimately decided that if you can't buy them, become them.

Tips for Photographing In Snow
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It's different in cold weather. Your clothes are different, your car tires are different, working with subjects is different. You should also handle your gear differently.

Ready to Challenge Yourself? Check Out 'Art of Photography' Photo Assignments
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As photographers, every so often, we will hit the dreaded brick wall of creativity. The tank goes empty, and we feel about as imaginative as a sack of rocks. There are few things more frustrating than being in the middle of an assignment and feeling that wave of doom come over you, taking away what little inspiration you had left as it recedes. In order to combat this malaise, Ted Forbes over at "Art of Photography" has introduced his new Photo Assignments series.

This Is the Worst Photography Advice I’ve Ever Had
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When it comes to photography and the quest to improve, there is no shortage of advice out there. Some of it's great, some of it is rather questionable, and some of it is utter nonsense. Here's some of the worst advice I've received over the years.

Capture One 11 In-Depth Review
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With the latest release of Capture One 11 following a recent Lucie Technical Award at PhotoPlus Expo, the best color correction software just got even better. Many of the features I have been longing for since adding Capture One to my workflow are now included, making it the ultimate post-production software on the market. Here's an in-depth look at the latest features and how they perform in a real-world workflow.

Finding Models to Work With Before Your Portfolio Exists
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Lately, I've seen a surge of photographers complaining that they just don't know where to begin when getting started with portraiture. Taking that first step can be a daunting feeling, especially considering that you need to convince someone to take a leap of faith and model for you, despite your complete lack of a portrait portfolio. Personally, I never had a problem finding eager models; it came quite easily for me, so I figured now is a good time to share that experience and maybe give some soon-to-be amazing portrait photographers a little extra help in jumping out of the nest.

Westcott Flex: First of Its Kind Now Available
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Announced earlier this year, the Westcott Flex is now available in stores. This unique device bridges the gap between a light and a light modifier, as it is a little bit of both. This fully­ bendable mat features a 10” x 10” surface lined with 166 dimmable LED diodes and outlined with a moldable 1⁄4” black frame. Weighing in at just 5 ounces, its compact design allows it to be easily concealed on set and allows for easy travel.

9 Stupid Reasons to Buy a New Camera
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There are a million reasons to buy a new camera. Some are more valid than others. In this article, I take a look at some of the silliest rationales for buying new cameras.

Fstoppers Reviews the HoldFast Roamographer Camera Bag
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HoldFast is known throughout the photography community for their amazing and well-made dual camera straps. What most people don't realize is that they also have a camera bag. The Roamographer bag has the same attention to detail as their straps and is also constructed out of the same great-looking leather. It's designed to look like a vintage doctor's bag and provides both style and function.

Adventures in Large Format Photography: A Beginner's Perspective
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It happened. After years upon years of drooling over large format photographs in books and on the internet, I finally pulled the trigger. I got a 4x5 camera. Many of the masters I've looked up to used large format for their portraits and I've always wanted to try my hand. Here are my first observations of trying to tame the beast. First thing I noticed: this isn't easy.

Shooting in Winter: My Go-To Gear List and Other Suggestions
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Personally, I love shooting in winter, I love the challenge to find and create good compositions while my extremities are slowly going numb, and I love the freedom to go and shoot more beautiful scenery while it is devoid of most tourists and travelers. Over the years, my choice of locations has gotten more aggressive in comparison to my earlier ventures out into the cold. I want to go further, I want to hike deeper, and I simply want more ice and snow in my shots. Chasing after some of these views has resulted in the need for more planning, better timing, and investments in higher quality gear.

Fstoppers Reviews The Elinchrom ELB 500 TTL
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When I first started shooting flash, I would lug my big studio lights and battery packs from location to location. But after a while, this became such a hassle that I stopped doing it. I instead settled for using a hot shoe flash or just shooting with no flash at all. But this may change now that Elinchrom has the new ELB 500 TTL. Not only does this light offer a significant increase in power compared to a traditional hot shoe flash, but it also does it with a much smaller package than standard studio lights while maintaining the benefits of TTL and HSS.

Adobe Makes $9.99 Photography Plan Permanent
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That's right, the highly popular Photography Plan that Adobe seemed to continually threaten was going to be a limited-time deal, is finally a permanent pricing fixture. They are removing Behance Pro Site from the bundle, but it does contain Photoshop, Lightroom (on desktop and mobile) and now integrates the newly announced Photoshop Mix.

Tamron Is Releasing a Ton of Lenses for Sony Cameras Soon
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Tamron has been absolutely killing it with their highly lauded lenses for Sony's full frame cameras, the 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD and 17-28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD. It seems the company is showing no signs of stopping, with an announcement of four brand new lenses on its way in October.

Your Best Asset as a Photographer Isn’t Something Taught at Photo School
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I didn't study photography in any official capacity — not unless you count a quick Google whenever there’s a term I don’t understand. So naturally, I'm biased in the argument about whether studying photography is worth it. But in my opinion, the most valuable asset to a photographer is something that cannot be searched on the internet, nor can it be taught.