planning

PhotoPills: A Photographer’s Guide

PhotoPills is a planning tool to help you create images of the Sun, Moon, stars, meteors, and more. It can help you decide the best place to focus for maximum depth of field and calculate the correct exposure when using a neutral density filter to blur water, clouds, and other subjects. What's more, you can use it from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection to plan a photo shoot anywhere else in the world.

Contracts Are Not the End, or the Beginning, of a Photo Project

Successful professionals -- that is, people who make most of their living as photographers -- have a kind of global view of their career. They behave as though marketing and contract negotiations and digital workflow are all just as important as composition and lighting.

Planning and Managing a Photography Trip to India

I traveled to India for a month in January 2020 to extend my global The People street-studio series to south Asia. India is one of the great, image-rich travel photography destinations, and it appears to be on many photographers' travel photography wishlist. So, I thought I’d share how I planned and managed the trip.

How to Plan Out Milky Way Photos

Plan your work and work your plan. That’s what... someone important once told me? Anyhow, in my opinion, planning out your Milky Way shots is absolutely one of the best ways to increase the likelihood you will be shooting bangers.

From a Thought to a Photograph: A Visual Guide

The first thing I always say to the participants of my photography workshops is to always spend enough time in preparation. I strongly believe that in order to make a good photo, no matter the genre, you have to be prepared as best as you can.

Use This Astro Calendar to Plan Your Milky Way Shots This Year

Planning is key to capturing the best Milky Way images. Unlike other types of photography, shooting our galaxy requires you to consider many astronomical factors, like the sunset, the moon phase, and the Milky Way’s location in the sky.

Five Techniques for Communication and Effortless Photoshoots

This video is for all of you professional and aspiring professional photographers who want to communicate more effectively with your clients as well as feel like you’re having more effortless photo shoots.

Stretching as a Photographer with My First Mass Headshot Photo Shoot

One of the great things about our jobs as photographers is that we get asked to do so many diverse things. To me, new and different assignments keep me fresh. Sometimes we get asked to do things that push our limits or are even beyond the bounds of anything we have done before. This is the story about how I approached a recent project that pushed me to the limit, and how I was able to tackle it and win.

How I Wait Years to Get My Photos

Landscape photography takes a lot of patience. When we share shots on the Internet, people often don't realize how much effort can go into creating some of them. I'm often told, "you’re always at the right place at the right time." And yes, I am sometimes at the right place at the right time, but it took me lots of effort and sometimes a bit of luck!

How I Plan My Landscape Photos for the Highest Chances of Success

My name is Albert Dros, and I am a professional landscape photographer from the Netherlands. People often tell me that I am "in the right place at the right time." But I obviously don’t post "failed" shoots. And not only that, I also spend a great deal of time planning my shots in order to make my chances of success as high as possible.

How I Planned and Shot a Photo of a Lake in the Swiss Alps

Sometimes, when you show an image to somebody, you hear, "Oh man!… How lucky you were to catch that light there!." And yes, there is always a bit of "luck," but there are also a lot of small details that help you to be better prepared for a photo.

How to Plan and Capture a Perfectly Aligned Moonrise Photo

Photographing the moon can be spectacular—a rising full moon looks very big and is often red. And combining a spectacular moonrise shot with landscapes or objects in close-up can give really great results.

How to Plan, Pack, and Prepare for a Major Landscape Photography Trip

Thomas Heaton is quickly becoming an industry-favorite landscape photographer thanks, in large part, to the informative videos he's been creating, and his latest video is no exception. In it, he shows you how he's planning, packing, and otherwise preparing for a major landscape photography trip to the Alps.

Planning Ahead Helps Me Capture Better Candid Travel Photos

In the beginning of 2014 I was invited by a non-profit religious group to travel more than 150 miles from Belém (the capital of the state of Pará in northern Brazil) to a small city in Marajó Island, Bagre. I knew about as much about Pará and its culture going in as I know about brain surgery: nothing.

A Primer on Planning a Lunar Eclipse Photograph

This article is about how this time slice shot of a lunar eclipse was made. Its focus is mainly on the planning that went into it, even before the first shutter click. Hopefully by sharing what I did, I can prepare you for creating your own lunar eclipse photo.