While tilt-shift lenses are most commonly associated with architectural and landscape work, they offer some seriously underrated creative potential in wedding photography, especially when it comes to portraits and environmental storytelling.
Most photographers are taught early on that soft light is the go-to for portraits, and hard light should be avoided whenever possible. But the truth is, the “best” lighting for a photo always depends on what the photographer wants to create.
Under the umbrella of wedding photography stands an approach to documenting weddings known as wedding photojournalism. While part of the wedding genre, wedding photojournalism leans more into its photojournalism roots, offering a more "hands-off" approach to capturing the moments of the wedding day.
Modifiers like softboxes and umbrellas serve as powerful tools for photographers to shape and control light. Whether they want to emulate natural window light with a touch of soft, diffused light or create an epic environmental portrait with darker exposures and higher flash powers, these tools provide portable and powerful means for photographers to bring their vision to life. In this article, we've gathered practical tips and techniques to help you effectively use softboxes and umbrellas to elevate the quality and mood of your wedding portraits.
Foreground elements in photography do more than just fill space. When used with intent, they can introduce context, enhance storytelling, provide frames that guide the viewer's attention, create balance, and elevate the visual appeal of the images. Whether you're a hobbyist or a professional, understanding how to effectively use foregrounds can enhance your photography. In this guide to foreground photography, we'll explain the effect of foregrounds and provide you with tips and inspiration for using them effectively in your portrait photography.
Parent dances, such as the mother-son dance and father-daughter dance, are critical events during most wedding receptions. They are opportunities to capture beautiful, emotional moments that showcase key relationships in your client’s lives. They also give photographers plenty of opportunities to showcase their creativity with interesting compositions, impactful lighting, and more. To help you take better parent dance photos, here are six essential tips.
In the competitive world of photography, closing a high percentage of your sales meetings is crucial for success. However, many photographers make common mistakes that hinder their chances of sealing the deal. To help you improve your sales approach and increase your conversion rate, here are five key rules to follow. By implementing these strategies, you'll be equipped to establish strong connections with clients, effectively communicate value, and ultimately close every sale.
Golden hour is a magical time of the day for photography, characterized by warm and soft light that can turn even the most mundane scenes into stunning works of art. This period occurs twice a day, during the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset, and is highly sought after by photographers for its dreamy and ethereal qualities.
Rain in the forecast can be a disappointment for photographers and their clients, especially if they planned an outdoor photoshoot. Rain can ruin the vision for perfect, directional lighting that was originally planned, making it difficult to capture the desired mood or atmosphere. However, instead of rescheduling or moving the shoot entirely indoors, photographers have an opportunity to capture interesting and creative photos with an outdoor rain photoshoot. In this article, we’ll provide you with some rain photoshoot tips to prepare and inspire your creativity.
In photography, the term leading lines is a compositional technique used to draw a viewer's eye to the subject of the photo. These lines can be created by any object in the scene like a road or path, a fence or railing, a distant object like a mountain, and any other structure that creates a real or imaginary line in your image.
Most photographers focus their business growth strategies on booking more clients. However, the most financially savvy photographers understand the full revenue equation, i.e. revenues equals the number of clients multiplied by the average revenue per client. So, for example, if you want to double your revenue next year, you can either double the amount of bookings or you can double the revenue you make for each booking. In this article, we’ll teach you photography pricing tips to help you charge more for each client that you book.
Photographers understand that marketing is essential to attracting new clients and growing their business. However, marketing strategies are constantly evolving, so what worked in the past isn’t always going to work in the present or future. In this article, we will share three photography marketing tricks and hacks that actually work based on our 12-plus years of experience operating a successful multi-shooter studio!
Some of my favorite creative photography techniques to use are those that allow us to capture moments in ways we could never see using just our eyes. One technique, in particular, that I turn to for capturing unique portraits involves using long exposure, aka shutter drag. Long exposure portraits open up a number of creative possibilities and often result in “wow” moments with my clients. Putting the technique to use does require some skill and preparation, but it’s easy enough to master once you know the basics.
In-camera special effects are a great and fun way to emphasize a story in photography. Many of these special effects that seem high production are actually quite easy to accomplish using the tools we already have or are easy to get. Today, I'll be showing you how to create one of my signature portraits, the Day vs. Night.
All it takes is this simple composition tip to take your portraits to a new level. In this video and article, I'll be demonstrating this tip and how you can use it in post-production to completely transform your photographs.
Photographing a couple from up close can drastically change the way your image feels. Getting up close with a wide angle lens creates a sense of action and aliveness that draws the viewer in.
There's a good chance you've heard of the "Ring of Fire," a technique popularized by wedding and portrait photographer Sam Hurd. The Ring of Fire is a special effects technique that uses a piece of copper tube to reflect light and create a highlight flare in the shape of a ring. This technique has been widely adopted, and to create this effect for yourself is pretty easy. Today, I'll be walking through the steps to transform your portraits using the famous Ring of Fire technique.
As photographers, we come across many different scenarios, and it might not be possible to get the perfect shot with the perfect lighting 100% of the time. It could've been that we didn't have the right gear with us or that we were in a rush. Either way, that shouldn't be a reason to shy away from trying to get the best possible shot and bringing it to life in post-production. In this video and article, I'll be showing you how to fix a portrait with bad lighting in post using Adobe Lightroom.
For the longest time, my favorite lens on any camera system was a 35mm wide-aperture prime. The focal length forced me to get "in the action" for impactful portraits, yet it was wide enough to capture wide angle scenes. But a new lens has recently won my heart and assumed the top spot in my kit. In this video and article, I'll be walking through a photoshoot while demonstrating why the Canon RF 28-70mm f/2 lens is my favorite lens of all time.
Adding props is a simple and effective way of adding production value to your photographs. Not only do they add additional points of interest, they also can add to the story you're trying to tell. In this video and article, I'll be walking through the creative process of how an image evolves to the final version. To do this, I'll begin with a basic "walk-up" shot. From there, I'll be walking through the step-by-step changes to the shot until we get to the final image using various props.
