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Why Meditation Will Increase Your Photography Performance

Wouldn’t you like to stay focused and calm even when multitasking and shooting in a very demanding situation? How about being able to notice everything without being distracted by anything? Meditation can help and that's why many photographers are getting into it. Intrigued? Read on…

Different Types of Film Cameras You Should Know

Even though we are firmly ensconced in the digital age when it comes to photography, analog photography has picked up steam in popularity and doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

How to Smile for Pictures: 8 Tips for Perfect Portraits

It’s a beautiful, sunny day. You’re celebrating a special event with a photo session, getting your poses ready. You’ve posed countless times with family and friends, at parties, and for selfies. This should be a piece of cake, right? You say ‘cheese’ in your head and bring out the pearly whites. Then you check the camera to see the result.

Portrait and Headshot Retouching with Luminar Neo

Portrait retouching can get overwhelming sometimes with the steps you need to take to make your shots look absolutely perfect. Maybe these steps aren't that hard, but they can definitely be very time-consuming, so finding any way to speed this process up to make better and more efficient use of your time is a high priority for every photographer. Using Luminar Neo to tackle these steps can make retouching a breeze using just a few tools and leveraging some of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) built into the application.

Holiday Deal: Xencelabs is Bringing in the New Year with some X-tra Special X-mas Deals!

Let’s start with the technical news, Xencelabs, a Portland, Oregon-based company in the field of digital drawing solutions for creative professionals has had some astounding growth this year. This is not some light news, the company has in fact seen the EMEA market double since 2021. They are basing this on online and offline sales, retail and channel expansion. This is a huge development especially in such a low market, this level of success is really something to be congratulated.

Balenciaga’s Controversial New Campaign and the Long History of ‘Shockvertising’

Kim Kardashian is refining her personal brand. Right-wing news outlet Fox TV is gaining viewers through attention-grabbing headlines. Photographer Gabriele Galimberti is gaining notoriety. All this is due to a recent advertising campaign from leading global fashion brand Balenciaga that has caused widespread controversy.

Finding Your Voice in the Non-Verbal Medium of Photography

Language is an underlying reality in our everyday world, present in our thoughts, our words, and even our haptic gestures. When interacting with someone else we are incorporating language to translate abstract thoughts into communication, communication into meaning, and meaning into understanding.

Winner of the Believe in What You’re Building Photo Trip Giveaway Announced

Oscar Jordan has been named winner of the Believe in What You’re Building Photo Trip Giveaway sponsored by Identity Digital, the folks who promote the adoption of the .photography TLD (Top Level Domain) name dedicated to photographers who believe in the brand they’re building.

How Fear Holds Your Photography Back

As a photographer, there are many things that we feel may be holding us back. For some, it’s gear. For many, it might be limited free time. For others, there might be a lack of interesting locations to shoot.

5 Things Every Budding Street Photographer Should Know Before Stepping on the Street

Steam vents, suited businesspeople, the neon glow of the night, umbrellas on windy days, stray glances through bus windows, beachgoers in a boardwalk scene, or silhouetted figures dancing in the sunlight: as photographers, we want to capture things that give life and vivacity to the subjects of the streets. We capture their spirit and do it in a visually interesting way.

Picflow: Professional Client Gallery And Proofing Workflow Simplified

The recently launched client gallery and photo proofing service, Picflow, was developed with the purpose of making it easier for photographers to communicate and deliver to their clients. While the service may look rather straightforward and simplistic, there are a lot of useful and powerful advanced tools hiding behind the scenes that are sure to improve the workflow for any working photographer.

Flying with Film: How to Handle X-ray Checkpoints as a Photographer

My wife and kids have standardized joking about how long it takes dad to get through airport and other security checks when traveling and visiting museums. No, I'm not a supervillain with an evil laugh, I'm just a film photographer!

Why You Should Invest in Unique Props to Shoot Portraits That Stand Out

We live in a world where everyone has access to a camera in some form or another, and the content we create is often viewed through a phone screen. So it's no surprise that so many people have learned how to take and edit cool photos that will get them likes on Instagram.

How I Documented the Making of a Wedding Dress

Having been a wedding photographer for the past fifteen years, I’ve seen my fair share of white wedding dresses, but before focusing on weddings, I was fortunate enough to gain a little experience in the fashion industry, shooting for magazines, working backstage at fashion shows, and covering both London and Paris Fashion Weeks.

5 Steps To Make A Living From Photographing Elopements

Ten years ago, if you heard the word elopement, your thoughts might first go to images of a shotgun wedding in Las Vegas (or Gretna Green if you’re from the UK). These elopements would be typically short and sweet, no fuss, and over within an hour.

What is a Low-Pass Filter and How Does it Work?

Most digital cameras from the 2000s and 2010s are equipped with an optical element called an optical low-pass filter (OLPF), also known as an anti-aliasing (AA) or blur filter. As the name "filter" suggests, this optical element filters out some information coming from the imaged scene.

Topaz Labs’ Biggest Sale of the Year Ends Dec 2

There’s still time to save big on all photo and video enhancement apps during Topaz Labs Black Friday / Cyber Monday Sale, but you have to act fast. Save 25% across the board on all individual apps and SAVE UP TO 60% when you buy a bundle. Act now! These money-saving offers end on December 2.

10 Rules for Beginner Photographers: An Easier Path to Great Photos

I think photography educators teach and talk about photography to beginners in an overly complicated way. It’s all concepts, jargon, theories, and numbers. It should be focused on composition and how to take ‘better’ photographs as this is what most beginners join courses to learn.

4 Reasons Photographers Should Limit Their Social Media Use

In the process of chasing that magical number one on social media, artists are unfortunately losing the ability to do their craft and no longer focusing on the only thing that will actually shape the next generation of artists.

All Topaz Labs Image Enhancement Apps on SALE: Save at 25%+ Until 12/2

Video processing workflow will never be the same. With Topaz Video AI you can easily upscale up to 4K or 8K, enhance, sharpen, eliminate noise, stabilize, and adjust frame rate. And that’s just one of the many image-enhancing apps from Topaz Labs that are on sale NOW.

Luminar-Neo-Background-Removal-AI-Feature

How to Remove a Background Using Luminar Neo’s Background Removal AI Extension

Want to easily remove the background from a photo using the power of artificial intelligence? There's a powerful new tool that can help you do just that. It's a new extension of Skylum's Luminar Neo called Background Removal AI, and in this article we will show you both what it is and how you can use it.

8 Great Gifts for Photographers in the 2022 Holiday Season

Maybe snow hasn’t drifted down to your window sill yet but no doubt the tingly sensation of the holidays is quickly creeping up on us. Adding a little eggnog to your coffee in the morning might give you the right amount of fuel for wrapping presents and cooking hams. As we rev up for this warming and giving season, we are here to make the shopping part of this as easy as possible for you.

A Complete Guide to Camera Lens Filters

Back in the days of film photography, things weren’t quite as advanced as they are in our modern digital era. Photographers struggled to manipulate available light or had to work a lot harder to capture simple in-camera effects. That was the reason for the invention of photographic lens filters.

Deal Alert: Save Big and Up to 30% Off Peak Design Bags and Camera Gear

Peak Design bags are award-winning. The Travel Tripod is groundbreaking. When it comes to camera accessories, one of their products is usually a top choice. And now with the introduction of the Mobile ecosystem of products for your phone they have that camera in your pocket covered too.

Amber X Review: A Personal Cloud for On-The-Go Photographers

Over the last two years, I’ve been working to improve my habits of backing up my photos. I started first by creating a RAID backup on my computer, then adding a large external HDD for a local backup, and eventually getting a subscription cloud backup from Backblaze.

Topaz Labs’ Biggest Sale of the Year is on NOW

Now is the time to save big on all photo and video enhancement apps from Topaz Labs. Save 25% across the board on all individual apps and SAVE EVEN MORE when you buy a bundle. Don’t wait because these money-saving offers end on December 2.

How to Get a Press Pass as a Photographer

Shooting from a photo pit or area is an important part of photography niches such as concert and sports photography, but how do you get access in the first place? This is not an easy task but with a little work and dedication, you can position yourself to be allowed in this coveted area.

Deal Alert: Save $100 on the Tokina atx-m 11-18mm f/2.8 for Sony E

Looking to expand your lens collection for your crop-sensor Sony mirrorless camera or a perfect holiday gift for a Sony shooter in your life? The Japanese lens manufacturer Tokina has an instant savings deal just for you. For a limited time, get $100 off the new Tokina atx-m 11-18mm f/2.8.

The Female Ukrainian Soldier Behind Iconic Invasion Photos

Iryna Rybakova's photographs have been published throughout the world's media, yet using her camera is only one part of her job as a junior lieutenant and press officer in the Ukrainian military.

The Thai Nursery Massacre and the Ethics of Reporting on Tragedies

“First do no harm…” Sometimes I think that there should be a Hippocratic oath for journalists due to the extremely sensitive stories that we sometimes encounter, and if there were such a text, it should start with those preceding four words.

Want to See Some Bad Street Photos?

Want to see some bad street photographs? I’ll share them and tell you why I think they’re not good. These photographs were all made during a five-day visit to New York City between October 31 and November 4, 2022.

The Best Photos from GuruShots’ ‘Striking Still Life’ Challenge

GuruShots, the "World's Greatest Photo Game," has announced the winners of its "Striking Still Life" challenge, which received thousands of entries and over 38.3 million votes. The "Top Photographer" winner of the contest is Stephane Gonzo Rabbit of France (whose photo is seen above).

How to Watch and Photograph the Total Lunar Eclipse on November 8

Aloha and welcome. You must be here because like most people, you waited until the last minute to do something. Or maybe you are just genuinely curious and had no idea there is a total lunar eclipse coming up. Whatever it is, welcome, and thanks for being here.

Red Castle: A Photographer’s View of the Iconic Alhambra in Spain

Transcendental. Whether seen on its perch on Granada's Sabika hill against a backdrop of the Sierra Nevada or from the inside, where 13th- and 14th-century Muslim artisans, using the most advanced techniques of their time, fashioned an interior so surreal, it leaves the mind disoriented.

What Is Luminar NEO?

Luminar Neo is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered photo editing software from Skylum that sets out to fix some of the issues its users faced with previous AI tools in an effort to streamline the photo editing process, making it easier and faster for creatives to move on to new projects rather than being stuck behind the computer editing all day.

A Song for the Arctic

A Song for the Arctic: The Overwhelming Beauty of Greenland

The beauty of the Arctic is overwhelming. The biting cold and the pristine silence is punctuated by occasional extraordinary sounds, as the glacier ice creaks and falls. At the centre of this beauty are the enormous structures of freshwater ice calved from the glaciers, the great icebergs.

Digital Cameras Were Stuck on Small Screens for Far Too Long

Since the 90s, the digital camera has entered our lives as a unique, practical product that no one had experienced before. Despite the 640x480 image size and very simple design of the first cameras, their innovative capabilities were admirable.

Concert Photography Etiquette: Photo Pit Tips for Music Photographers

Live music photography (also known as concert photography) is one of the most exciting and gratifying genres of photography. Granted, it’s not for everyone and it requires a lot of work in not-so-ideal conditions. However, if you're up for a challenge, you could find it rewarding and capture some rather unique and interesting shots. But behind every shot from the pit, there are some basic standards and sometimes unwritten codes of conduct that every photographer should adhere to.

The Power of Print: How to Land More Clients and Increase Your Sales

Even though technology is advancing at an incredibly fast pace, multiple studies show that regardless of the time we spend on our screens, more than 81% of people (at least in the USA) prefer to read or view images on print rather than on a digital screen.