VSCO, Mastin Lab Presets, Florabella, and Pretty Presets. If you've looked for advice on retouching in the last few years, you've probably been recommended one of these preset and action systems at least once. They're designed to give you beautiful film simulation and color tones to make your images look great using a single click of the mouse - and I hate them all.
I am a professional photographer/videographer and I use Windows computers. I don't LOVE Windows, I just know that Mac OS drives me crazy. I hate all of the "syncing" and hand holding that Macs have. Windows disappears into the background and allows me to use applications in peace. Some days, like today, it's hard to justify this decision.
Gear isn't always about megapixels, dynamic range, or pixel-peeping. This piece of gear has changed nothing about the quality of my photos, but it might be my favorite purchase ever.
Nikon Ambassador Dixie Dixon got the chance to shoot with a pre-production D850 for a few days. She used a few fashion shoots to break in the D850 and shared some of those images with us here, explaining her experience "shooting in beast mode," as she called it in a recent live stream with B&H.
Photoshop is a veritable spell book of amazing and seemingly mystical tools that empower any digital sorcerer with the potential for creating visual magic. Adobe has done a pretty great job over the years at adding in tons of optimization and shortcutting that can make for a more pleasant workflow. Unfortunately, they often treat these workflow enhancements like Easter eggs by not making them obvious at all. In this article we will go through a few hidden spells to help you optimize your Photoshop workflow.
Friends and social media are mourning the loss of locally well-known Hawaii-based photographer and tour guide Sean King. He died early Thursday morning on the lava fields of the Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island. King and I were Facebook friends and our paths crossed once while doing photography on the summit of Mauna Kea. He was the stereotypical New Yorker, tough but with a huge heart.
Xiaomi recently teased a liquid lens for their newly announced Mi Mix smartphones. The liquid lens can change shape to alter the focal length and focus to suit a range of applications. Is this the future of lens technology?
It has only been a week since news of exciting Canon lens patents came out, and here we are again with another set of ridiculous lenses emerging from the company. This time, it is for a set of superzooms that stretch beyond the limits of most such lenses we have seen in the past.
Zoom lenses are wonderful things. With one lens, you have a large number of focal lengths at your disposal. The adjustments are infinitely variable. But in reality, you can often shoot everything with only three different focal lengths. You may even benefit from it.
This exciting shoot came about when photographer Aaron Anderson was tasked to creating content for Elinchrom’s new ELB 500 TTL and Lifted Up Fitness’s web page, making it a multiple clients shoot.
I just got a new camera! Well, sort of.
Over the last couple years, more and more photographers are turning towards a new business model of sharing the digital files with their clients rather than requiring them to place print orders to generate revenue. The traditional business model photographers who rely on sales of prints to make money are furious with the growing popularity of "shoot and share photographers" even going as far as "declaring war" against it. Here's what photographers need to know.
From its pulse pounding opening scene of a photographer seemingly cheating death as a massive wave breaks on the rocks in front of him, Ben Canales and his partner, John Waller at Uncage The Soul Productions, have created a film that beautifully shows the unique and rugged Oregon Coast like you have never seen it before.
While sharing drinks with a friend, he started inquiring as to how I’m able to supplement my income with video editing projects. The more we talked, the more I realized that a lot of people have the ability and skill to do it, but they don’t understand the small things that can make or break being successful at it. In this post, I’ll share what I’ve learned about being a freelance editor.
It’s a simple question with a (not so) simple answer: can Adobe Lightroom on the iPad give you everything you need to edit your photos?
Alexandr Kravtsov has put together what may be on my top 3 list for best timelapses. This kind of video work isn't exactly uncommon either so that placement is saying quite a bit. What's even more impressive is what Alexandr went through to make this piece. In his words it took "a broken camera, lost flash drive, near 100 subway rides, 24 000 photos, endless hours of post production and rendering and
One photographer has learned about royalty-free licensing the hard way. After failing to read the terms and conditions when uploading to Shutterstock, he found his image was used on over 500,000 units of merchandise being sold at Walmart stores. He received $1.88.
How would you feel if you were taking photos of some train tracks and suddenly found your name on a list formed by the government of people acting suspiciously? What about photos of planes taking off and landing, sea ports or industrial buildings? NPR reported today that such a list exists and I'll post some shots of it below. If your name shows up on this list be ready to have the FBI knock on your door or give you a call as one photographer in LA experienced.
It's been nine months since I started to live a nomadic life and do full-time travel and photography. To stay productive on the road, I had to exchange my old and trusty desktop PC for a portable solution. I'm a Windows user and decided to go with the Dell XPS 9510. In this article, I explain why and share how it held up over the past months.
Here we go again! Another photographer named Joel Goodman has called out Taylor Swift over stipulations in the contract that is handed out to photographers shooting her most recent tour: 1989 World Tour. This time, however, the contract states that the entertainment group known as Firefly Entertainment reserves the right to "destroy the technology" that houses the photographs. This is one step beyond what the previous contract stated.
In an instant, one can feel as though they are in another world. As a landscape photographer you have the power to transport someone in the blink of an eye and send them on a journey into your photography to see the incredible world we live in. Creating amazing landscapes goes far beyond just snapping photos using the HDR setting on an iPhone. Landscape photography can seem daunting, but after reading these secrets to landscape photography, there will be no excuse to why you can’t take mesmerizing landscapes yourself!
Last week I tried my hand at emulating Martin Schoeller's portrait lighting with a single bare-bulb speedlite. Though the experiment was technically a failure, it still produced a nice portrait. Since then, I have tried two more lighting scenarios before finally nailing it on the fourth (please excuse my OCD tendancies) and final attempt.
In the last 10 years, manufacturers have introduced a new level of control to cameras: auto ISO plus the option to set a minimum shutter speed. If you’ve never tried using your camera with this setup, you may want to give it a go, as it could completely change how you shoot.
Mastering natural light can take a lifetime of practice, but there is one type of natural light that will produce amazing results in almost any situation: I call it "cave lighting."
The Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN Contemporary Lens is the new addition to the Sigma range for Fuji X Mount to accompany their three existing contemporary f/1.4 prime lenses. So how does this lens fair when it comes to image quality, value for money, and useability? We test it to find out.
Canon has released more information on the upcoming EOS R3 camera, with a variety of specs now available that give us more information on what to expect, as well as a gallery of new images of the upcoming camera.
It's probably happened to you: you're shooting away and someone, usually the venue owner, approaches you. You get that sinking feeling hearing those dreaded five words: "Can I get a copy?"
Welcome to "Photographing The World 4" Behind the Scenes episode 2. In this episode, we visit one of the most crowded photography locations in the world, Antelope Canyon.
Daniel Dean knew the total solar eclipse would be an incredible opportunity for him to capture something amazing. A few months prior to the eclipse, the idea of being able to photograph the celestial event became a blip on his radar after seeing in the news that the first solar eclipse crossing the U.S. since 1979 would be happening again in August. Here is the story of how this awesome time-lapse solar eclipse video came about and how it was made.
