My name is Tavis Leaf Glover, and I’m an artist just like you, trying to create art that I can be proud of and share with the world. Though, something really hindered me in the beginning... the Rule of Thirds.
I want to shed some light on the Rule of Thirds Myths we’ve all been forcefully spoon fed during our creative infancy, which continues to linger as our compositions mature.
A few months ago, photographer Adam Flor and I embarked on a sweet project. The goal was to shoot items using different colored backgrounds and use focus stacking to get full sharpness while shooting with a shallow depth of field.
The process was kinda nuts, but after seeing how it was done it wasn’t so bad. First, we grabbed small household items that had tiny details to them.
Photographer Isiah Xiong made this 3-minute video tutorial showing how you can quickly, easily, and cheaply build a grid spot for your flash using black straws. Instead of gluing things together, Xiong uses strips of masking tape.
If you have a formal education in photography, there's a good chance you studied the work of Hilla Becher. Together with her late husband Bernd, Hilla founded what's known as the "Becher School" in photography, and the couple's black-and-white industrial photos of Germany -- called "typologies" -- influenced a generation of photographers, including the renowned German photographer Andreas Gursky.
Hilla passed away in Dusseldorf, Germany, this past Saturday at the age of 81.
There are a lot of debates in the world of photography: Nikon Vs. Canon, DSLR Vs. Mirrorless and Full-Frame Vs. Everything Else just to name a few. But one of the battles that doesn't get as much air time probably has more impact on your images than any of the previous three. We're talking about The Rule of Thirds Vs. The Golden Ratio.
When it comes to wanting to sell physical prints of your photographs online, there are but a few platforms. And of the platforms that do exist, many of them seem to fall short when it comes to offering everything you need in one, simple workflow.
Seeing this as a ripe opportunity, an incredibly talented team consisting of the co-founders of DNA 11, CanvasPop and dozens others have created an online marketplace that offers an end-to-end platform for artists to leverage. It’s called Crated, and it has the potential to be a game-changer for photographers who want to sell their work online.
One of the advantages to the Creative Cloud model is that those onboard don’t have to pay any extra when major upgrades come. No more updating to the newest creative suite because Adobe has added a tantalizing feature like Content Aware Move, the update will come your way and all you have to do is continue to make your monthly payment.
Such an update just went live this very moment, featuring a couple of exciting new features: Perspective Warp and Linked Smart Objects.
The key to creating a good photo-based service is to fill a need that isn't being filled by any other app or website -- a task increasingly difficult as more and more players enter the market. Still, once in a while someone stumbles on an idea that is just the right mix of concepts to create a service really worth your while, and Exposure seems to be just that.
A professional photographer since 2005, Spencer Boerup quickly learned that modularity and ease of use aren't very easily found in the world of flash modifiers. Sick of using "bulky, awkward, and cheap" modifiers that use velcro, straps, brackets and bands, Boerup decided to develop a new system that uses the power of magnetism. It's called MagMod, and has already generated quite a bit of buzz in the industry.
Outdoor loving photographers who are often far away from power grids don't have too many options when it comes to charging up their gear. Without a generator you're pretty much left with batteries and solar chargers.
But the guys behind the FlameStower didn't like either of those options, so they came up with a third. Instead of using batteries or the sun, they decided to use fire.
Predominantly using an 8x10 view camera, Greg Miller's photography utilizes street photography, found moments and portraiture to capture human relationships and a sense of suspended reality. In 2008, he received a Fellowship in photography from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. His work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, TIME, People, Fortune and LIFE.
I wanted to create a dramatic portrait series of “arctic explorers” that appeared to be taken outside in a blizzard. The concept for this shoot was something I’ve been mulling over for quite awhile, but never had the proper platform to pull it off.
With the NBA Conference playoffs nearing completion and the Spurs already a lock for the Finals, I got a call from Brad Smith, the Director of Photography at Sports Illustrated, asking if I could quickly get to San Antonio.
Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker rarely if ever pose together, but had reluctantly agreed to pose for an SI cover which would come out a couple of days later, to coincide with the beginning of the finals.
Visual Supply Co has been teasing the release of its new VSCO Cam and Grid apps for a couple of weeks now, and the wait is finally over. Released yesterday as an entirely new (and entirely free) app, VSCO claims that the new iOS camera app yields images more "elegant" and "stunning" than have ever been possible out of a mobile platform before.
Visual Supply Co is trying very hard to get people excited about the new and innovative products it has up its sleeve.
We've already shared the company's recent teaser for the new, completely free VSCO Cam -- a revamped version of the $1 iOS app that promises many improvements -- and now, VSCO is giving fans a closer look at one of those improvements with a new announcement, this one for an app called VSCO Grid that will integrate seamlessly with VSCO Cam.
A recent Washington Post article has drawn attention to a new trend that is arising among young girls on Instagram; a trend that has both parents and child safety advocates worried. The trend is Instagram beauty pageants, in which young girls submit pictures of themselves using hashtags like #beautycontest or #rateme, and subject themselves to the praise and/or ridicule of their many million Instagram peers.
Fujifilm is best known for its camera and film products, but the company is now using its photographic expertise to invade new markets as well. The company is reportedly using its background in silver to create touchscreen displays that are bigger and more affordable than current offerings.
Screen Series is a project by New York City-based photographer Matthew Tischler, featuring portraits of people shot through window screens, netting, and scrims, with the window screens being in sharp focus rather than the subjects.
Alex MacLean is a Massachusetts-based photographer and pilot who uses his dual interests to create epic aerial photographs.
Alex MacLean has flown his plane over much of the United States documenting the landscape. Trained as an architect, he has portrayed the history and evolution of the land from vast agricultural patterns to city grids, recording changes brought about by human intervention and natural processes. His powerful and descriptive images provide clues to understanding the relationship between the natural and constructed environments.
Here’s a strange (and extremely rare) piece of camera gear: the Leica Telephoto …
Photographer duo Joachim Guanzon and Marden Blake (AKA aesonica) created this short behind-the-scenes …