Quentin Decaillet

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to shoot in -18°F? Action Photographer David Robinson brought a free runner, Jason Paul, along with him to China to experience it, and now shares his story with us. At first, you may wonder what a free runner and such cold weather have in common, and you would be entirely right to do so.

Most of the new portable flash units released in the past few years have been 200-600Ws strobes. Not many manufacturers decided to bet on powerful packs. They seem to focus heavily on HS, HSS, TTL, or simply lighter units instead. However, there are photographers who require power and Elinchrom listened to them.

If photography is an art, so is retouching. While there are school teaching photography classes, fewer offer retouching programs. Many photographers starting out seem to be looking at the same tutorials over and over again, without ever actually getting anything out of it. Frequency separation, dodging and burning, or curves will only get you so far before you hit a wall.

TTL, HS, and HSS have pretty much become a standard across the flash industry today. Every manufacturer is releasing new units on a regular basis with more features than any photographer could ask for or even need in. Following the trend, Nissin just announced a new TTL transmitter, the Air10s. 

Grids are probably amongst the best pieces of equipment a photographer using flash can own. Alas, they are often either underrated or misunderstood. On one of my recent shoots, I decided to create a lighting setup with grids on every single strobe.

So many photographers dream of shooting the Pirelli Calendar, but so few make it. German Photographer Peter Lindbergh shot the 2017 edition, and he’s probably someone we can all learn from. There must be a reason as to why he is working with all the big names in the cinema and modeling industry.

I’m sure many of you have wished at times that you could decrease your presets' opacity in Lightroom. There isn’t any real option existing, or so I thought until I stumbled upon The Fader by Capture Monkey. It's a simple plugin which allows you to increase or reduce your presets' strength. 

Pixellu released SmartAlbums about two years ago, and it was a game changer for wedding photographers. Creating albums was made easy and affordable, even for those who don’t know a thing about design. They are back with a new product this year and aim to change the game again. This time, they bring a slideshow solution called SmartSlides.

Just earlier this week, I was writing about going over x-sync speed with your flashes. This ability is a true game changer for any photographer who relies on artificial lighting. Between February 1st and April 30th, Profoto is running a sale that can make that step up a bit lighter on your wallet. 

In the past few years, flash manufacturers have put a lot of efforts to let cameras’ x-sync fade into obsolescence. However, the current solutions are not perfect and aren’t always intuitive to use for non-tech-savvy photographers. In 2016, I made a comparison between Hi-Sync and HSS.

Competitions are fantastic to push yourself and create the best work you’ve ever produced. It’s also a great way to compare your imagery to others and see how you could improve your craft. Broncolor announced their NextGen contest for photographers under 30 a few days ago, and now it’s Hasselblad’s turn to open their traditional Masters Awards 2018. 

Karl Taylor is a name you’ve probably heard of if you look for photography videos on YouTube. He’s been working with big brands such as Hasselblad and Broncolor to create comprehensive content helping beginners as well as advanced photographers. In his latest video, he shows us how he created a beautiful lighting setup yielding photoshopped-like results. 

It’s become a tradition: every year, Broncolor offers select young and talented photographers a chance to access some of the best strobes and light modifiers for free for two years. The lucky ones are chosen through a competition called "Gen Next," which is now open for 2017. 

When we think about removing something in post-production, more often than not the clone stamp tool and the healing brush come to mind. We have been used to seeing these tools as the ultimate ways to erase an object from images. However, it's not always the best, or even the fastest way to do it.

Apple MacBook Pro is without a doubt the laptop of choice for most photographers on the go. However, I've heard of many encountering heat issues when working on it for a prolonged period of time. After recently experiencing this problem myself and having my computer shutting down on its own, I started looking for a solution. It turns out that it's not complicated to control the heat.

Changing a single particular color is easily done in Capture One, but it can prove to be a little bit more complicated in Photoshop. None of the tools found in Adobe's image editing software target colors such as orange, violet, azure, or other tertiary colors. However, there is a very simple trick to make it happen.

It’s become a tradition for Phase One to announce a major new version of Capture One during the last quarter of the year. 2016 is no exception, and the tenth edition of the professional image editing software was just released today. The already fast and very complete application is now even better thanks to a couple of new tools and enhancements. 

Canon has always been known for its fabulous portraits lenses: the 85mm f/1.2 and the 135mm f/2. I used to own and love both of them, with a preference for the first. When I bought into the Nikon system, I was afraid I would miss these two optics. But truth be told, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 is at least as good as its Canon equivalent if not better!

Only two months after it was released, the Elinchrom Skyport HS for Olympus is getting an update and now supports Panasonic cameras. It still does not support Fujifilm, but it seems like the Swiss flash manufacturer is heading in the right direction by adding more devices to its supported cameras list. 

Drones have grown into a standard item to own not only for videographers, but also for many photographers. Most have used them to capture images from the sky or places hardly accessible otherwise.

Color management is probably amongst the hardest things there is to understand and learn when it comes to retouching and photography. So many elements are to be taken into account to create the perfect final print that it can be extremely complicated and time-consuming. Part of that process is to have a raw converter software able to match your vision and your needs.

Affinity Photo was released over a year ago on Mac OS X. Its success on the App Store definitely shows how great the software truly is. It is also proof that people are looking at different options than the traditional Adobe workflow. Until now, one thing refrained many: Affinity Photo was available only on the Apple platform.

Publishing high definition pictures on the web always seemed to be an issue. Both in terms of speed and quality. Full-resolution files could never really be enjoyed through the Internet without having to compromise either on the quality or the experience for the viewer. But that is about to be a thing of the past!

Capture One doesn’t need to be introduced anymore. It’s Phase One's professional raw converter, and it has grown into a very compelling Lightroom alternative over the past few years. The software is meant to develop raw files, but it can do much more. Its usage doesn’t have to stop at simple exposure and contrast tweaks.

Photoshop is an amazing tool for photographers and retouchers alike, but with its numerous features and options, it can quickly become confusing. Everyone knows confusing software is far from being a fast workflow element, but Aaron Nace from Phlearn is always there to help out, and this time, he gives us six tips to improve our productivity. 

Phase One introduces its third feature update for the XF camera system. The freshly released firmware adds a couple of new features, including the world’s first complete electronic shutter in medium format photography.

While camera manufacturers seem to focus on resolution, high ISO, and dynamic range, in the strobe industry the past few months have been all about fast shutter speeds synchronization. However, Broncolor still didn’t have any in-house solution to offer to their client until Photokina and the new RFS 2.2 transceiver. 

As Photokina is kicking off, almost every brand is releasing new products. The Danish medium format manufacturer is no exception and is introducing a new digital back, the IQ1 100MP, along with two new Blue Ring lenses and Capture One 9.3.

Yesterday, Profoto announced their Air Remote TTL-S and mentioned an unknown Pro-10 in their press release. It was not long before it was made official as the press release came in today. It’s a 2,400 Ws studio pack, and it’s fast — extremely fast! Not only that, but it’s the first of its kind, as it offers TTL and HSS capabilities. 

Three months ago, Elinchrom released the Skyport HS for Sony. Back then, many seemed to complain there was no version for smaller bodies. It’s not the case anymore with the introduction of a new Skyport HS specifically designed for Olympus cameras, making it the fourth version of this pioneering flash trigger. 

With the new trend of including features such as TTL, HSS, or Hi-Sync, it’s now become common to see flash manufacturers release multiple versions of a remote. Each of the release being specifically optimized for a different camera brand. Well, today Profoto introduces a Sony version of their TTL trigger, the Air Remote TTL-S. 

Mario Testino is without a doubt one of the most famous fashion and portrait photographers currently alive. He has worked for the biggest magazines and brands in the world, including Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Calvin Klein, and Burberry. Over his 35 years of experience in the industry, he more than certainly shot some of the sexiest, most important, and most famous people on earth.

Franck Boutonnet is a France-based photographer and has been producing stunning images for his clients for over 15 years. His knowledge, skills, and work are amazing! There is a lot to learn from his pictures, but also from him. In a short video ShotKit created, Boutonnet gives us six tips to help us improve our craft.  

Photoshop is a fantastic tool, but it is not always the fastest software on earth. Large files such as PSD, TIFF, and PSB that contain numerous layers can require a few seconds, if not minutes, to load. When all you want to do is quickly check that all the files in a folder are the final versions, it can be tedious!

This year has been rich in new exciting product releases. While most wedding photographers were probably awaiting the Canon 5D4 announcement, the action and sport photographers were looking forward to the new pro bodies, such as the Nikon D5 and Canon 1DX II. However, Nikon surprised us with the D500, their new APS-C flagship camera.

Documenting a wedding in itself is very demanding. It often requires 12 or more hours of coverage during which you must be creative almost every second. But wedding photography doesn’t stop when the big day ends. Then come the culling and editing. It’s probably the part where event photographers spend most of their time and also the task they like the least.

Capturing emotion is not an easy task. It requires being in the center of the action and perfect timing to press the shutter. But that is not it. Creating moving images are more demanding than just placement and synchronization.

For most beginners, distinguishing hues, or noticing over saturated areas, can be an issue. Even some most advanced retouchers still have problems color correcting their images. Reaching the point where our eyes see colors properly takes time and a lot of practice. Fortunately enough, visual help layers in Photoshop can aid us separate luminosity, hue, and saturation.

Dodge and burn is a well-known technique amongst the retouching community. Most retouchers will use it to smooth out transitions and micro-contrast on portrait, fashion, or beauty images. However, it can be utilized for any genre of photography and broader uses than just skin cleaning.

Last week I showed you how you can use just a DSLR and a few accessories to digitize your negatives. However, that article wouldn’t have been complete without explaining how to convert the scanned analog picture to a positive image. The process is quite easy and only a few steps are required to achieve a great result. Let’s dive in!