In our State of the Blog Address, we asked you what you want to see more of on PetaPixel, and one of the suggestions that came up most often was Tutorials, Behind the Scenes videos and other helpful educational content like that.
Well, we were listening. And so, we invite you to spend 15 minutes this lovely Friday watching professional photographer Karl Taylor at work in his studio.
Product photography is often considered one of the most complicated and challenging genres. Besides having the right lenses and props to decorate the shot, you'll need a variety of light shaping options to create the best looking photos. This is where the $399 Halumin H18 Soft Light brings something interesting to the table.
V-Flat World has launched a new series of 360-degree diffusion Light Cones for product photography in partnership with Karl Taylor. This new set of lighting modifiers may look like a dog cone of shame, but demonstrations show they work remarkably well to eliminate reflections.
Rotolight has announced a set of new parabolic softbox umbrellas for the AEOS, NEO, or any other similarly sized LED with the promise of its ability to produce high-quality soft light.
With every year that goes past, photography becomes more and more accessible to the average person. Compared to even a decade ago, even the most basic cameras – including those on your smartphone – produce excellent images. Moreover, you can find plenty of free resources and classes that give you all the information you need to succeed.
Photographer Karl Taylor and artist Ethan Davis both created the same still-life scene of an Apple Watch. Taylor used traditional photography techniques while Davis created one using only computer graphics. Which is which?
Of all the various factors and variables involved in photography, light is by far the most important one. Photographer Karl Taylor argues that control over light will actually supersede the quality of a camera.
If you've ever wanted to learn how to shoot product photos like those seen in Apple advertisements, here's a short 4-minute tutorial by photographer Karl Taylor that you can do at home with just a couple of speedlights and homemade modifiers.
Photographer and educator Karl Taylor believes that parabolic softboxes are nothing more than marketing and that any conventional softbox can achieve the same results. In this 10.5-minute video, he proves it.
Karl Taylor, a photography educator, has published this 10-minute video that explains why hiring an assistant is one of the best investments of capital any photographer who is serious about growing a business can make.
Commercial photographer and educator Karl Taylor is a working pro with an impressive portfolio to his name and major brands on his CV. So it came as a surprise when he declared recently that he hasn't used a light meter in 15 years... and explained why you shouldn't be using one either.
Professional photographer Karl Taylor has put together a short-but-very-useful tutorial that will show you how you can calibrate your lens autofocus without buying a special calibration chart or tool. All you need are a few household items, your camera, and your tripod.
Photographer Karl Taylor recently put together a quick tutorial video that shows you how to use ND filters to "burn" a long-exposure in-camera while you're taking the shot. It's a neat trick, and a good solution for those times when a graduated filter won't work.
In digital photography, larger sensors generally equate to better image quality across a variety of measurables. If you're curious about the advantages medium format cameras have over 35mm ones, Hasselblad has a new set of videos just for you.
Episode 282 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
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Featured: Photographer and educator, Karl Taylor
The 1948 photo 'Dali Atomicus' by American portrait photographer Philippe Halsman is regarded as one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century. It's a surreal image showing surrealist artist Salvador Dalí in midair with three cats, a bucket of thrown water, and a chair. Photographer Karl Taylor recently decided to try his hand at recreating the photo.
Commercial and advertising photographer Karl Taylor made this 20-minute tutorial on creating a cosmetics product photo with an emphasis on lighting rather than digital editing.
A few months ago, photographer Karl Taylor got a tour of the LEE filters factory where he got to see how these high quality filters are cast, tested, and dyed (by hand!)—he even got to dye one for himself. Fortunately, he took a camera man (and now us) along for the ride.
Photographer Karl Taylor made this 7-minute walkthrough video after people asked about his lighting setup for a commercial studio portrait he shot and posted to Facebook.
Using the moon as your main light source for late-night photography can be beautiful, surreal... and challenging. But photographer Karl Taylor has a neat trick up his sleeve that can save you hours worth of test shooting in this situation—the trick is called "math."
For its 75th anniversary, Hasselblad is returning to its roots. They're saying goodbye to the smaller, rebranded models, and taking aim at the high end medium format market once again. And the company's first giant leap in that direction comes today, in the form of the all new H6D system.
If you're looking for videos to watch to quench your thirst for photography, YouTube has a great selection. If you've never really poked around before, we've put together a list of 13 channels you should follow.
Photographer Karl Taylor just released this humorous …
Here’s a short 4-minute video in which photography instructor Karl Taylor offers …
Karl Taylor has shared a new video highlighting just how important and impactful proper lighting can be no matter what camera you choose to use. In the anecdotal video, shown above, he pits a Canon 5D Mark III against an Olympus OM-D E-M10 in the studio to show you just how similar the results are when the lighting, not the camera, is the focus of the image.
A few weeks ago we shared with you the first part of a series Karl Taylor created, explaining the inverse square law of light. That is, the intensity of light given off from a source is inversely proportional to the square distance from the source. In the video he shares a number of examples, using a model and his own setup as a demonstration. Now, he’s back with part two.
In the above video, Karl Taylor walks you through a four-step process that shows the before-and-after results of three variables when it comes to portraiture: studio lighting, make-up, and Photoshop.
Given my interest in lifelong learning and skill-development, I often ask people which new skills they’re looking to learn. The most common response? “I want to be a better photographer”.
And for good reason! Few things evoke the instant emotional response a great photo does. It’s what made Instagram worth a billion dollars to Facebook.
For those of you who, like me, are looking to kick their photography skills up a notch, I’m curating a list of the best free online courses and resources I’ve found. So whether you’re a budding photojournalist looking toward a career behind the lens, or just a hobbyist looking to take better shots on your next trip, I’m hoping you’ll find something useful here!
If the term "inverse square law of light" immediately sets you to hyperventilating as flashbacks of college physics begin playing in your mind's eye, take a few breaths into that paper bag, calm down, and click play on the video above.
In 6 minutes, Karl Taylor will explain this law and how it affects you specifically as a photographer without overwhelming you in the process.
One of the advantages a beginner in any field has over an intermediate or professional who is trying to improve their craft, is that the beginner has nothing to unlearn. So while the idea of holding your camera correctly for better low-light shots might seem painfully basic, this is one of those fundamentals you'd rather learn right the first time.
When it comes to buying glass, deciding what you want and how much you're willing to spend can be difficult even in the best of conditions. So, naturally, when buying second-hand glass, an added layer of caution is needed to make sure you're getting what you're looking and paying for.
When you're first starting to experiment with using strobes, it's easy to get confused by all the talk of flash durations, flash sync speeds, and the other technical aspects of lighting up a scene. Heck, it wasn’t until two years into my photography career that I understood how it all worked.
A few weeks ago, we shared a video by photographer Karl Taylor that gave you a behind the scenes look at what a day-long fashion shoot in his studio was like. And even though a few of our readers poked fun at the video's obvious product placement, a lot of people learned a thing or two and came back with followup questions regarding the light modifiers that Taylor was using throughout the day.
Fortunately for us, Taylor was listening, and has produced this very informative follow-up video in which he discusses the differences between his go-to modifiers, complete with side-by-side comparisons.
Here’s a 10 minute photography lesson by Karl Taylor on the four main …
Every Sunday, we bring together a collection of easy-reading articles from analytical to how-to to photo-features in no particular order that did not make our regular daily coverage. Enjoy!
The 2019 Oscars are just a day away now. If you'd like a dose of visual inspiration, check out this 10-minute video by Burger Fiction. It steps through every single film that won the "Best Cinematography" Oscar over the past 90 years, from 1929 to 2018 (and 2019 nominees as well).