portraiture

The World Photography Organization has revealed the finalists and shortlisted photographers in the Professional competition for the Sony World Photography Awards 2022. This year, the Professional competition received over 156,000 images -- the highest number of entries in the history of the awards.

Some of the most enticing shots in portrait photography depict darker emotions, adding in elements of storytelling that include our shadow sides, and show the subject as a complex human. Portrait, documentary, and news photographers rely on emotions to draw viewers in.

When is the best time of day to shoot portrait photos outdoors? Should we shoot only during the golden hours and avoid midday altogether, or is it better to use the brightest daylight hours to take our portraits with a few simple light modifiers? In this guide, we explore the best times of day for outdoor portraits.

There is nothing more devastating for a portrait photographer than when a client doesn’t like your photos. You train for years, buy the best equipment possible, and come to your session with 100% dedication to providing the best possible experience... and then you get that feedback.

Photographer Steven Shultz has been experimenting with the Brenizer Method on digital cameras for years, but as he has shot more film throughout 2021, decided to see if there was a way to mix that method with his Mamiya 645AFD.

Light shaping tools are very expensive. What if you could take any object and turn it into a modifier? That would save you a lot of money as well as give some unique results. In this article, I will share some everyday objects that you can turn into light modifiers to get different looks.

Photography as an art isn't easy, but running a successful photography business is even more challenging. Despite this, Noyel Gallimore managed to build a business focused around the oft-forgotten art of large format and tintype photography.

Photographer Jeffrey A. Wolin’s Faces of Homelessness is a photo/text series that focuses on people who are homeless or have been homeless in the past.

What kind of lighting do you use as a portrait photographer? Softboxes are great and popular, but that also makes them potentially overused and boring. If you want to spice up your portrait lighting, you can look into expanding your toolbox beyond the softbox and into other kinds of lighting.

The International Wedding Photographer of the Year has announced the winners of its 2021 competition. In its fifth year, the competition aims to become the benchmark for wedding photography awards globally.

Photographer James Quantz Jr. was commissioned by the United States Naval Academy to photograph its 2021 football team uniform on an active aircraft carrier ahead of the annual Army-Navy game.

Hasselblad has announced the winners of the 2021 Masters photography competition across 12 categories. The winning photographers gain the title of "Hasselblad Master" and receive a medium format mirrorless Hasselblad camera.

Creating a do-it-yourself lighting setup for dappled natural light backgrounds isn’t as tricky or as involved to achieve as some setups and techniques, but it is a nice little idea to play with if the occasion arises.

Photographer Justin Bettman recently finished a portrait series that focuses on the Hasidic Jews in New York, an ultra-orthodox sect of Judaism that generally keeps to itself socially and is rarely photographed by those outside of its community.

One of the hardest things I experienced as a beginner was not knowing how to create a simple lighting setup. I’d always imagined elaborate lighting setups of three to six lights or more, and it’s why I began to shy away from working in a studio.

Special effects are a fantastic and fun way to tell compelling stories through images. While they may seem complicated, the truth is, many special effects are easily done in-camera using tools you likely already have. In this video, I’ll be walking through how to create one of our signature portraits, the “Day vs. Night” effect.

Parabolic light has become increasingly popular among fashion and portrait photographers. With so many options to choose from, a photographer may get lost or not understand the modifiers at all.

With careful composition and editing techniques, you can take your portrait game to the next level. In this video, I'll show how you can level up your portraits with this one simple tip.

When it comes to headshots, there is perhaps no better source of information and guidance than the man who has made an empire out of the practice. In this five minute video on the, Peter Hurley quickly breaks down his favorite tips to light the perfect headshot.

One of the most frustrating things I see is photographers limiting their knowledge of light to one modifier. So much so, that there are people who can build whole portfolios with just one single type of light. While this is not wrong, it must get boring for the viewer after some time. That is why I went searching for some of the most unusual light shaping tools.

Diffused and soft light are often used interchangeably among photographers. Indeed, to an untrained eye, the two can sometimes appear to be the same. Furthermore, modifiers such as softboxes that give both soft and diffused light make it hard to spot the difference. Nonetheless, diffused light is not necessarily soft, and soft light is not necessarily diffused.

How does renowned portrait photographer Albert Watson light his photos? With a foolproof three-light setup that makes his photos look amazing, of course! Except... he doesn't. In fact, setups are very far from what professional photographers do when they light their work. Here is what mindset photographers have when they light.

Chances are, if you’ve ever tried to document your travels with a camera, you’ve taken some cliché, if not really cheesy travel photos. I certainly have, and I’m embarrassed to show those photos to friends and family after my trips.

You don’t often see photographers using gels outdoors in natural light, but why? I think one of the core reasons you don't see too many natural light gel shots, is that you need a lot of power and control from your lights to make color gels visible in daylight.

You’ve likely already heard of the “Ring of Fire” photography technique. This is a visual trick popularized by famous wedding and portrait photographer, Sam Hurd. The Ring of Fire is created by using a piece of copper tubing to reflect light coming into the camera.

Don’t toss a photo just because the lighting isn’t the best. You may be able to bring it back alive in post-production. As photographers, we face countless different scenarios and it's nearly impossible to get the perfect shot 100% of the time.

There are literally hundreds of different flashes on the market. With brands competing for attention and offering some very unique features, it is often hard to decide which flash to pick. What is more, buying a flash is sometimes like buying a whole lighting system. If someone buys Profoto they are likely to stick with it for a long time because it’s part of a lighting system, not just one flash.

Hi, this is photographer Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens. In this article and video, we’re going to take a look at how to set up a simple corporate portrait in a tight space.

Photographer Maren Klemp's new series "Hidden Light" is a fine art project that melds infrared, landscape, and portraiture to create scenes that appear as windows to a different world.

An easy and effective way to increase production value to your images is by adding simple props. Not only do they add additional visual interest, but they can also add story to the scene. Today, I’ll be starting with a basic “walk-up” shot and working step by step to make changes until we get to our final portraits using props.

One of the bigger personal projects I’ve been working on recently is my Cinematic Studio Lighting course. During the process of writing the accompanying notes and shooting promotional images for the event, I’ve done a ton of research on how cinematographers and directors of photography work, think, and plan their shots.

Well-known portrait photographer and YouTuber Manny Ortiz made this 5.5-minute video in which he shares his go-to beauty lighting setup that guarantees stunning and flattering studio portraits time and time again.

Racial bias is well documented in photography—consider, for example, photographers’ inability to capture and expose darker skin tones with film. Within the emulsion of film, the chemicals that recapitulate light, is inherent social bias. There’s a distinct prejudice within the algorithms of our digital imaging technologies.

Bryan Adams -- a musician perhaps best known for his hit "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" -- has been tapped to photograph the 2022 Pirelli calendar. The singer-turned-photographer is currently shooting the likes of Iggy Pop, Jennifer Hudson, and Grimes.

When starting out in photography, you are bombarded with terms, definitions, and a whole new universe of things you must know as a photographer. Sometimes the definitions are confusing at best, seemingly conflicting at worst. When it comes to lighting, there's a big list of terms and jargon that you need to know. Here are some of the common ones with simple definitions and explanations.

This series is taken from my time with people from the Baduy, Mentawai, and Sasak tribes on the islands of Java, Siberut, and Lombok in Indonesia. I lived with them for a week each and managed to gain a small insight into their ways of life.

Picking the right light modifier is often crucial to the success of the image. With hundreds of different modifiers to choose from, there is really nothing you can’t do. However, a wide choice often ends up confusing or possibly scaring photographers.