The holidays are fast approaching, and if you're anything like me, it’s time to scramble for those last-minute gifts. Here are seven gifts that would be great for photographers that you can also simply download online.
1. YouTube Premium
Most photographers and creatives spend a lot of time on YouTube watching tutorials, reviews, vlogs, or simply passing some time with funny cat videos. With a YouTube premium account, they can not only do these things ad free, but they can also download videos for offline use as well as gain access to the new YouTube music streaming service.
2. Adobe Creative Cloud
Almost every photographer needs something from the Adobe Creative Cloud. Since the service is now setup with a subscription model, even if they already have the programs they need, you can always add on extra months or a year of service to what they have.
3. eBooks
Continuing education is something that all photographers should be doing. One of the best ways to do this is from reading books or looking through books filled with inspirational photographs. Below is a quick list of my favorite photography books.
Zack Arias: "Photography Q&A"
Sam Able: "The Life of a Photograph"
Nick Fancher: "Chroma"
Vivian Maier: "Street Photographer"
Alex Webb: "The suffering of Light"
Joey L: "Photographing Shadow and Light"
Joe McNally: "Sketching Light"
4. Community Memberships
A great way for photographers to grow is by submitting images to online awards and being apart of some type of photography community. While I’m sure there are communities for most genres of photography, I really only know about groups that cater to wedding photographers. Below is a list of some groups that would be worth looking into for any wedding photographer.
Fearless Photographers
Junebug Weddings
ISPWP
5. Presets
Presets are used to apply a certain style and look to an image while editing. They also make editing a lot faster and easier when dealing with large amounts of images. While there are a ton of preset companies, my favorite by far are the ones offered by DVLOP. Without going into to much detail, there is a lot of technology built into their presets that you won't find from any other company. While you can find a lot of different styles through DVLOP, the ones I like best for my type of shooting are the packs from Two Mann Studios, Daniel and Davina, and Sam Hurd. If the photographer you are getting a gift for does any type of landscape photography though, you will definitely want to check out the packs from Chris Burkard.
6. Gift Cards for Gear
One thing that all photographers need or want is more gear. Whether they need a camera upgrade, a new lens, light, or some sort of accessory, a gift card can get them one step closer to that new piece of kit they so desperately want.
7. Education
Similar to the reason why eBooks make such a great gift, video tutorials take continuing education to the next level. One of the best options available can actually be found right here on Fstoppers. The offerings vary from weddings, to landscape photography, to architectural photography, and much more.
Since I know a lot of photographers will also be reading this, what are some last-minute gift ideas you would appreciate? Leave them in the comments below.
Once again.
All gear should be bought on the business as it's a cost, and deductible. I'd be annoyed if people bought me working related stuff. (Not ungratefully annoyed, but you get my drift)
Gift voucher for photo book. That's the one and only gift I would want anyone buying me. To encourage me to actually get more work into coffee table books.
Not all photographers are pros and not all gear, bought by pros, is for their business. It would be interesting to learn the breakdown of pros vs amateurs visiting this site.
The majority of all photographers are hobysists. Professionals make up a small percentage of people that are interested 8n photography.
Yikes, so that means the majority of the discussions about cameras being bad, or better than each other is made by hobbyists and not by people actually using them to make a living.
Dude, I think you just broke the internet! ;)
I know a lot of hobbyists that know more about photography then a lot of professionals do. Being a pro doesn't actually mean you know anything and everything about gear, lighting, etc. It just means you make a living off it.
You don’t have to know everything though. Doesn’t mean you have no interest, usually means you don’t bother with this my camera is better than your camera nonsense.
Very true.
I would never buy presets nor that I would want them as a gift.
You don't know what you're missing out on then! ☺
Maybe. A couple of years ago I received exactly that, two expensive sets of presets as a birthday gift. There were from the VSCO. I used them for a little while. I upgraded my system shortly after and I never bothered reinstalling them.
There are practically thousands offered for free and I downloaded and tried many many presets but at the end I just created my own. I find that so many of them are just the same and when a set is offered very few are worth anything, most of them are no more then a slider nudge.
However, if someone finds them helpful, why not!
Dvlop offers much more then simple slider adjustments. The magic is in their dual illumination profiles and custom camera camera profiles. Even if you don't buy any, check them out just because the tech is pretty cool. I wrote a review here on fstoppers that kinda breaks things down as well.
Ah yes, I remember looking at their site a while ago. The thing is, which one? They are not cheap (very expensive in fact) and going quickly through the different ones I find many of them are OK but not more than that.
I will look at them more carefully over the holidays.
Cheers. Happy Holidays!
If you love making your own presets, I know a handful of people that buy a pack just for custom profiles and then they adapt their presets to use the profile.
I feel much the same way, and don't really know what all the hype for them is about? If I want to create a specific look I've always just done it myself! I suppose presets are a short easy way to do it, but I think half of the joy of creation is discovering how to do it yourself! :)
"they can not only do these things ad free" it's 2018, guys, if you don't have an adblocker by now it's time for you to stop going on the internet.
Do add blockers stop the video adds that play before a YouTube video will start?
Yup. It's amazing. I'm told.
They do on your computer. Not on a mobile. Depends on your operating system and browser, but one of the better ones is UBlock. I would also recommend Ghostery for blocking trackers. (Ublock: https://www.ublock.org/ Ghostery: https://www.ghostery.com/). Can never be too safe online :)
A little more complex, but WAY better, you can also install a raspberry pi with a little bit of code on it onto your router, and it will block all advertising code on EVERY device connected to that network. Bit more investment, but you'll never see another advert on any device connected to that network! (Pi-hole: https://pi-hole.net/)
Wow, I just installed ublock - I've never used adblockers because I've never felt it necessary, but I had no idea it could stop video ads. Works great! That's really awesome.
🙄🙄🙄
Whose preset was used for the DVLOP example in your article? That's a nice one, but I couldn't find it on their website. Thanks.
Ah ya that's my image, so won't be on the site. But I used Two Mann mistical position pack for that. Specifically, the Amrone preset ☺
Thanks. Really nice image!