Please, no more mugs shaped like lenses. No more photography pun t-shirts. Photographers, filmmakers, and content creators; send this article to the gift givers in your life for some handy hints on what gifts you would actually like to receive.
I don't know about the rest of you, but when it comes to comparing my work to others, I'm a sucker for punishment. Try as I might, I can't help but peruse the latest trade magazines when I'm cruising the bookstore, avoiding the editing I should be doing at home. And without fail, something catches my eye that makes my jaw drop. In this day and age when so much of the great work out there is heavily Photoshopped, should we be so quick to compare our own work to it?
Capture One Pro 12 was released at the end of 2018, and since then, it has made my workflow drastically more efficient. Let me share some of my tips to help you supercharge your workflow with this latest version.
If you've been trying to get some portraits of your furry friend but your images aren't quite cutting the mustard, then these seven simple techniques might be just the thing you need.
It sits in your pocket, your closest friend, day-in day-out, doing your every bidding at the slightest touch. The smartphone is a modern marvel and is likely the first camera you'll reach for when out and about, needing to take a snap. But do you really know this camera, this closest of allies. Let me introduce you.
If you are a Lightroom user I'm sure by now you have experimented with most of the newly updated features. One feature, in particular, I was very interested in is the AI-powered Person Mask Option and how it actually performed.
What is the one part of your photography business that you enjoy the least? The one aspect that, while necessary, bores the living daylights out of you. Now, what if instead of trying to avoid that thing, you instead chose to lean in to the activity and make it your own?
Competition is one of the main causes of innovation, but camera innovations have been stalled out for years, and I think Sony could be to blame.
There are many different ways to accomplish the same thing when it comes to editing your photos. I absolutely love learning new and more efficient techniques for my workflow, and I hope this method will do exactly that.
Wedding photography burnout is real. For nine years, weddings consumed my life, documenting every bouquet toss and first kiss. I was burnt out and needed to make a drastic shift.
Do you want powerful black and white images that really create the mood you're looking for, but haven't quite found the best way to get them yet? In this tutorial I'll show you three ways you might not have seen before and the best thing is, they're simple, fast, and effective.
Have you ever seen someone's work and been not only blown away by the technical ability of the photographs, but how it emotionally touches you as well? That is the epitome of the beautiful work of Minnesota-based photographer R. J. Kern. In this article, take a look at his amazing work, and I can assure you you'll walk away inspired too.
New underwater photographers often ask me what my favorite lens is for creating underwater images. And while I have a few different lenses that I shoot with underwater, none get used more than my Tokina AF 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 AT-X 107 AF DX Fisheye Zoom Lens. It is lightweight, great for travel, and has a very short focusing distance, which makes it ideal for close focus wide angle underwater photography.
I don’t think there’s a more polarizing social media platform than Instagram. From photographers who sing its praises to those who loathe the day it was invented, there’s no denying that Instagram evokes strong feelings.
Have the questions your family ask you like “are we there yet?” been replaced with “how much camera stuff do you really need?” And “why do I have to carry this camera lightbulb thing in my suitcase?” Read on and the following tips just might save your family from a horrible vacation.
Being a working photographer today absolutely requires finding ways to get more mileage from your photographs. They're called assets for a reason, and we typically have way more content than we make use of, and just because images are old doesn't necessarily mean they're obsolete. Adding value to images you’ve already created is a fantastic way to work smarter and create new growth opportunities. Below are some workflow tips and specific concepts to help guide you in that process.
Adjustment Layers are probably one of the most useful, and most used tools in Photoshop. It's one of the best ways to keep a non-destructive editing workflow in place and offers additional features such as blending modes to add exciting effects to your images. With all this in mind, why don't we see how we can use it to make our Instagram images stand out more?
Camera manufacturers are keenly aware of how much photographers love their gear and in particular, how much they love extreme gear. As lenses continue to push below f/1 apertures and ISO capabilities skyrocket towards seven-digit figures, is the next major specs war going to be making the first mainstream consumer camera that can shoot gigapixel (1,000 megapixel) photos?
In 1995, Casio launched a revolutionary product: the QV-10. It was the first camera to feature an LCD that showed what you were shooting. Ever since, manufacturers have run terrified at the prospect of having to implement a basic feature that has still not been properly designed, and there's a good chance that this won’t happen in our lifetimes.
Only the rare few of the millions of selfies taken have mass appeal, and an even rarer few get their pose/selfie named after them and their own hashtag. Kendrick Brinson and David Walter Banks are the husband wife photography team behind brinsonbanks.com and, not insignificantly, the main subjects and namesake of a style of pose and photo that has now become known as BrinsonBanksing, equipped with its own Instagram hashtag.
I started my YouTube photography channel a little more than a year ago ,and it's been quite an interesting journey. At first, I just wanted to post some videos as a tool to help me improve my own videography skills, but I quickly realized that I enjoyed creating content and watching the channel grow. Having now created videos including tutorials, gear reviews, and even tongue-in-cheek commentaries for a year, I wanted to give you a glimpse into what it's like and dispel some common misconceptions about what it really means to be a small photography "YouTuber."
Most of the world is in some form of lockdown, but it doesn’t mean that we have no way of making a difference.
The photograph is a two-dimensional expression of a three-dimensional world. As photographers, part of our job is to ensure that the illusion of three-dimensions is given to the viewer where needed. There are myriad ways to do this, and we'll look at a few in this article today.
Whether you’re looking to plan a perfect landscape shot to coincide with an astronomical event or just want to previsualize some potential viewpoints before a trip, there are a number of free or inexpensive apps that can help you create your best images.
With the outlook of the coronavirus finally starting to look a little less ominous, people are beginning to think about life in a post-coronavirus world and reflect on how this time has impacted the world of photography.
One of the most frustrating hurdles we deal with when shooting indoors is the strong color cast that incandescent light emits. I'm going to share with you a quick and easy fix in Lightroom (or Photoshop) to remedy that dreaded "orange glow" when white balance isn't enough.
I used to clean my cameras and lenses before every shoot. Now that washing my groceries has become common place, cleaning my camera gear has taken on new meaning. This isn’t likely to change any time soon – even if the world opens back up. How are you dealing with this?
Sometimes, we love our images a little too much. Overconfidence can hinder you becoming a better photographer. Where does this confidence come from? What do we do about it?
If there’s one thing we can credit drones for, it’s their ability to provide a different and often refreshing perspective on things that we’ve seen dozens of times before. The United States' Independence Day holiday is one that's been photographed for many years and in many different ways. With drone technology advancing and becoming more accessible to the general public, it’s a certainty that the holiday’s traditional pyrotechnics displays are going to be photographed and captured from above, leaving us all with a stunning aerial perspective on the shows we’ve watched from the ground for years. But is it safe to fly an unmanned aircraft through fireworks at night?
I recently teamed up with the crew at Fstoppers to create a video tutorial that focuses on the foundations of creating a standalone product hero shot for advertising. What’s a standalone product hero shot you ask? It’s a standalone image of a product that’s generally well lit, super crisp, super clean, and essentially aids in selling a company's product.
Let's chant it from the rooftops: Film is not dead, whether as a medium in art or as the thing that makes instant photos at parties possible and will let you take pictures in places where digital cameras and phones aren't allowed in.
Beautiful images are crucial to create an attractive video, but the soundtrack is just as important if not more. Put crappy sound over your breathtaking pictures, and people will probably not even watch more than a few seconds before stopping the film. When creating content for YouTube, finding good music or sound effects can be quite a challenge. But there are solutions, here are three of them to help you out and hopefully make your clips even better!
For a while, things looked pretty bleak for the instant-film-loving community. Films that were once mainstays of the film shooter's arsenal (like Fuji FP-3000B) were discontinued and instant camera equipment production slowed to a crawl. Fortunately for us though, like other formats and kinds of film, instant film photography is seeing an unprecedented resurgence (both in niche, hard core film communities and popular culture). This guide is for you, the digital film guy, who's been sitting on the fence and wants to see what all the buzz is about. In this article I teamed up with two of the coolest instant-film-shooting photographers today, Robert Timko and Sandy Phimester.
Being quite young and eager to be a photographer, I received tons of advice from all sorts of people. Everything from "quit right now" to "pretend to be someone who you’re not." Between these extremes, I had some decent, but also some horrible advice. In this article, we will look at the worst things I was advised.
Today I am interviewing my great friend and accomplished macro photographer Andres Moline. With an eye for design and a love of arthropods, Moline's work is truly captivating. He specializes in shooting sharp handheld focus stacks that leave you in awe looking at all of the little details.
With news of Nikon and Canon finally entering the full-frame mirrorless market, there have been endless discussions regarding stats and expectations. Don't let yourself get lost in all the gear talk, and remember that you don't need something new to make incredible photos.
While Typhoon Hagibis was causing destruction across Japan recently, some adrenaline junkies decided to go surfing at one of the country's most mythical big wave locations. I was there to capture these incredible scenes.
What’s wrong with our industry that we are so quick to belittle formal education? Whenever the topic of an art degree arises, there’s an angry mob that amasses, collectively chanting how “useless” a degree is in photography and that the best school to learn from is the University of Hard Knocks. To really understand this issue, we have to first step back and look at the value of art and why photographers are so polarized on the term. Then, we have to recognize that “art school graduates” are not the real problem; it’s the dismissive attitudes toward them that are.
Not just any old space can or should become a photography studio. Make sure you have taken the following 12 things into account before making such an important decision.
Blogging has been an excellent way to boost your SEO and maintain the attention of your clients. It shows off your brand, your images and your writing. However have you thought about how blogging can hurt your business if you lack consistency? If you have been stumped with new ideas on what to write about simply ask your clients to write for you.
Whether you're shooting a high-fashion model, a mom to be, or a high school senior, the clothes always matter. I'm a sucker for over-the-top drama in my own work but am not always able to find a stylist to help me out with these shoots. Even if you don't have a need to do this yourself, give it a go from time to time. It will improve your work from behind the camera too, as photographing people is usually involving fashion in one way or another. In addition to keeping up with the latest trends, you might even start to confidently help your clients out when they ask for your opinion about what they're nervously wearing.
I’ve been posting my work online for almost 8 years. What’s been consistent throughout that time is the pressure to post only my best photos. With the introduction of Instagram Stories, I feel as though I’ve found an outlet that not only relieves some of that pressure, but also allows me to showcase a bit more of myself and my personality too. It’s completely revolutionized the way I use social media.
Wedding and event photographers are among those worst hit by the pandemic. Along with them, of course, are the people who had to put weddings and life on hold.
A few days ago, I decided to challenge myself by attempting to photograph a toy car and make it look real.
A little while back, I wrote an article called, “The Power of Overshooting,” where I explained how it can never hurt to take more photos than you need to. Now this article got plenty of hate from all the people who love film out there, but the article wasn’t written to bash the people who put time and effort into shooting their photos.
"Men Wanted For Hazardous Journey: Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honour and recognition in case of success." Do you think you’d answer this ad if it popped up on Indeed or Monster?
Contrary to delusional beliefs, not everyone is hooked up to a high-speed connection capable of streaming 8k video at magnificent buttery smoothness. Extremely fast connectivity is an amazing thing that is still out of reach for the vast majority of users. You can't assume that the viewers of your website are going to be piloting a computer hard-lined into the latest fiber optic goodness. Instead, we have to optimize for the most common user in order to give them the best experience possible without sacrificing image quality.
When I first started my photography journey, I was full of hope, excitement, and wonder about what adventure the day would bring me. The challenge for me was that it was just a day before I either had to head home again or find a place to stay, so I could spend more time in a certain location.
As a photographer who happens to live in Canada, shooting in the winter for me often means braving the snow. The problem with snow is that it means facing the cold. As the photographer you are more that free to bundle up in order to stay warm. However, the model often is much more limited by wardrobe which is an excellent recipe for hypothermia. Goose bumps are an utter pain to retouch so my best advice for you is to come prepared to keep your model reasonably warm.
The last few years have been tumultuous for the camera industry in terms of plummeting sales and COVID-19, but that hasn't stopped the pace and innovation of camera development. So what are the key developments and what direction are manufacturers headed?
