Focal point is a term that photographers and photography blogs throw around continually. “Create a focal point,” it’s said, “it should be the first and last place the eye goes in your image.” That’s true, of course, but like most important things it’s easier said than done.
In something of a followup to his explosive video "Nobody Cares About Your Photography," the always inspirational Ted Forbes is tackling a question that we've all probably asked: What is "work that matters" and how do you make sure your photography measures up?
The joy of photographing on the street comes from close and engaging photos. Displaying the human nature and emotions in a way that the audience can relive these moments requires the photographer to be close and engaging as well. Unfortunately for a lot of us, it is not easy to stand out from the masses and overcome artificial social boundaries.
After seeing Canon's viral video of 6 photographers shooting portraits of 1 man, photographers Jessica Kobeissi, Irene Rudnyk, and Ruby James decided to do a portrait challenge of their own.
Photographer Kaylyn Messer was browsing Facebook recently when she learned that there was a large ice circle in the river close to her home. She grabbed her camera, jumped into her car, found the circle, and shot a series of beautiful photos.
Night sky photography—the milky way, star trails, that sort of thing—usually means a decent camera and a nice bright lens. But photographer Daniel Stein has managed to make it work using just a Polaroid SX-70 and some Impossible Project IP600 film.
John Schell is a lifestyle, commercial, editorial and advertising photographer currently based in Los Angeles, California. A New York transplant, he started his photography career after nearly fifteen years of teaching special education at both the middle and high school level.
My name is Duy Ho, and I've been photographing weddings since 2011. I established my style by embracing my personal interests and influences: an architecture and design background, my love of cinematography and film, a respect for classic and renaissance art, and a quirky obsession with the chiaroscuro style of painting.
2016 ended in a most fitting fashion for the new way I am trying to earn a living as a freelance photographer. On December 27, I was on Montara Beach photographing a college volleyball player on assignment for Volleyball USA magazine. The big story here? I was shooting the entire assignment with my iPhone 7 Plus.
Unlike the nomadic travel photography couple we featured yesterday, traveling couple Becca and Dan frequently explore the world apart. And when they do, they use their creative photography to "meet in the middle" ... well, digitally at least.
Landscape photographer and travel addict Mike Wong has created a super useful tool for fellow photographers who want some help location scouting. It's called "PhotoSpots," and it's an interactive "heatmap" that reveals photography hotspots around the globe and even pulls sample photos from those locations.
Capturing beautiful stories. That's what wet plate photographer Ian Ruhter set out to do for his 3-year project at Slab City. But some of the most meaningful moments actually transpired within 48 hours, when English actor Gary Oldman paid Ruhter and his crew a surprise visit.
When doing photography in general, and in my case travel photography, the use of a photography template can be very beneficial and help improve the overall performance.
On July 25th, 2017, Nikon will celebrate its centennial anniversary—100 years of Nikon. And in case you didn't know that, they've released an almost comically epic video announcing this fact and tracing some of Nikon's highlights throughout history.
Naomi and Elia Locardi live many a photographer's dream. They are location independent (read: voluntarily homeless). In other words, they travel full-time, leading photo tours and workshops around the globe and living in "the world" instead of any particular city or even country.
The incredibly talented Felix Hernandez is at it again, creating tiny scenes and then photographing them to look larger than life. This time, the toy photography master uses model cars and dust to shoot some scenes straight out of the old TV show The Dukes of Hazzard.
In case you haven't heard, film is making a comeback. It's not just small companies funding new film stocks on Kickstarter, either—Kodak is bringing back Ektachrome and "investigating" what it would take to bring back Kodachrome. There's never been a better time to revisit one of the greatest film cameras ever made.
When I was 20, I was dissatisfied with my photography. I felt like I was being limited by where I lived. I thought if I wanted to become a better street photographer, I needed to live in Europe—to photograph the romantic streets of Paris, the back-alleys of Prague, and the bustling streets of London.
Unlike with most genres of photography, still life requires two levels of composition: composing your frame, and composing your props. The latter is commonly called photo styling, and this short video offers three simple tips for upping your photo styling game.
When Filmakademie student Eugen Merher created his Adidas spec ad "Break Free," he knew he had something special on his hands. Unfortunately, Adidas' communications department never got back to him; now they get to watch his beautifully-crafted ad take off without them.
Last week, 25-year-old Danish automotive photographer Sebastian Pichard grabbed an old photo from his archives, opened up Photoshop CC, hit record, and started editing without any idea what exactly he would end up with. The resulting editing timelapse shows off his mad Photoshop skills... and a bit of image theft.
Storm chasing photographer Mike Olbinski is known for his gorgeous time-lapse films of thunderstorms, tornadoes, and monsoons. His latest project, however, was a bit different from the rest: it's one of the first storm time-lapse films to be entirely black and white.
It's only four days into 2017, and already we have a contender for the most cinematic drone footage of the year. This short clip, shot by FPV drone user Gab707, would be right at home at the beginning of a Lord of the Rings movie. Frankly, it looks more like CGI than drone footage.
Every year I learn more about photography as an art form and a business. I’ve struggled over the past few years with finding a balance between pursuing the photography I love and posting things to social media that get the most likes.
In this blog I would like to show you one of the scariest churches I have ever visited, back in March 2015. The church is located in a small town in the Czech Republic, and it was originally built in the 14th century.
What's the 'recipe' for a great photograph? As we embark on this new 365-day journey called "2017," our friends at COOPH teamed up with photographer Craig Semetko to answer this question; and he believes it all comes down to 4 key elements: Design, Information, Emotion, and Timing.
When photographer Paul Schlemmer started out in photography in his late teens, he spent the first four years studying the subject of light. As he became more proficient, he began sketching lighting diagrams to share how photos were lit and constructed.
These days, more and more of what you think are real photos are actually CGI renderings. But have you seen "CGI renderings" that are actually real photos?
German photographer Christian Schmidt was commissioned last year to shoot a series of photos of the world, from the perspective of Earth itself.
Is a 52-week photo challenge not enough for you this year? Want a 365-day challenge? If so, there's now a calendar you should download and print out.