Event and wedding photographer Mik Milman has released a handy buying guide that lists all of the gear a beginner needs if they want to get into this niche. From camera bodies, to glass, to flash guns, he covers all the bases so you don't waste money buying stuff you don't actually need.
Let’s face it — in-office corporate headshots will not be your most exciting project as a photographer. In fact, in many ways, they’re a photographer’s worst nightmare.
If you ever visited some industrial surplus shops, very often you would see some cameras and lenses used in industrial automation. What you probably do not know is that these lenses can have very high optical performance and features we want: high resolving power, large image circle, low distortion, and often very long working distance compared to some of other lenses we use.
Using Lightroom to remove spots caused by sensor dust is a pretty straight forward process: just click "Visualize Spots" and use the Spot Removal tool, right? Well, photographer Anthony Morganti thinks that he's discovered a better way, and in the video above he shows you a "hidden" Lightroom trick that makes it easy to systematically search your images for sensor spots... or anything else for that matter.
Denmark-based landscape photographer Mads Peter Iversen recently put together a tips video for landscape photographers that has nothing to do with technique and everything to do perspective. It's called: 5 Important Reasons to do Local Landscape Photography.
Composition doesn't make a candid, but a good composition can enhance it. It can amplify what you feel about the subject matter or invoke a reaction all on its own. Today I’m going to share with you 5 tips on composition to enhance your candids.
Can an introvert "make it" as a professional photographer? According to self-proclaimed introverts and successful shooters Manny Ortiz and Taylor Jackson, the answer is a resounding "yes," and in this video they explain how they each overcame the challenges of being an introvert in a highly interactive industry.
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the capability of individuals to recognize their own, and other people's, emotions, to discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, and to manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt environments or achieve one's goal(s).
I’d like to share some thoughts here on being a musician before I get to the difference between seeing and looking as a photographer. Please bear with me. This will all make good sense.
Tajreen Hedayet of Tajreen&Co is back with a great holiday portrait tutorial that won't waste your time. In just two minutes (actually less) Hedayet covers four creative Christmas portrait ideas for anyone who wants to create some photos with a "commercial and catalog feel" this holiday season.
If you haven’t heard of personal branding photography, you’re not the only one. It’s a small but growing sub-genre of commercial photography that has been gaining popularity among female entrepreneurs and small-business owners.
You don’t always get perfect locations or circumstances on every shoot, so in this video, we wanted to show you how to achieve 5 creative and unique portraits in a small parking lot.
Portrait photographer Miguel Quiles is back with the third part of his series on various lighting modifiers. Part one covered the beauty dish, part two covered the umbrella, and part three is all about the different ways you can use a softbox to capture distinctive portraits.
Portrait photographer Miguel Quiles' most recent video breaks down his favorite one-light setup for portraits. The tutorial is perfect for beginners who are just getting started with flash photography—not only is it easy to replicate, but having a one-light setup in your back pocket is a must as a portrait photographer.
The latest episode of Adobe's YouTube series "3 2 1 Photoshop" is for anybody who wants to get into stop motion photography, but has no idea how to actually create a simple animation from a series of still photos.
It goes without saying that if you want to get better at something you have to practice. Simple, right? The thing is, that unlike more structured pursuits such as sports or music, the idea of practicing street photography seems a bit hard to wrap one’s head around.
Photographer Jon Crooks of Prime Studios put together a helpful walkthrough that shows you exactly how to use the Nishika N8000 3D film camera, and how to turn the resulting images into cool 3-dimensional GIFs.
Landscape photography is an art. That is for sure. It is a way for us to express our emotions when in a location and capture a scene forever.
Telephoto lenses and landscape photography may seem an odd pairing. Telephotos are more at home in the hands of wildlife, sports, and portrait photographers. They’re used to get close to the subject, help to compress perspective (cue the comments on "lens compression is a myth") and isolate distracting elements.
Our friends over at COOPH have put together a fun video that might just inspire you to break out the umbrella for a fun photo shoot this weekend. The rapid-fire video goes through 5 creative photo "hacks" that you can do with a spare umbrella and a few other odds and ends like fairy lights, aluminum foil, and duct tape.
Ah, the night, what a wonderful time to go out and do some street photography! As a photographer who got his start in the streets of Tokyo, it was inevitable that I would end up photographing mostly at night.
If photography is your chosen career path or even just a hobby, at some point, someone is going to ask you to take some photographs in exchange for a paycheck.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Streets are filled with joyful songs and gorgeous light displays. Some Christmas trees and illuminations are so large that photographing them can be tricky. Next are some tips and composition ideas, with examples, that can help you take better photos this holiday season.
There is a wealth of information on the internet about composition—endless blog posts about visual rules, geometric concepts, and photos with all kinds of lines and shapes drawn over them to the prove the point. But all of this information focuses on the "what" of composition rather than the "why." A photographer must stop and ask themselves: "why even bother following visual rules?"
Adobe has just uploaded a very quick-but-useful tutorial that will help you get more realistic results when using Photoshop's Content Aware Fill tool by altering one lesser-known setting: Color Adaptation.
Photographer Tajreen Hedayet of Tajreen&Co has released a simple, straight-to-the-point tutorial that will show you how to capture soft, colorful, 'dreamy' looking portraits even if you don't have much budget to work with.
When you’re beginning a new endeavor it’s common to receive advice from various different sources, whether it’s directly from someone or indirectly from books, podcasts or tutorial videos. Some of this advice can be highly beneficial and others can be, well not so good.
Landscape photographer Mads Peter Iversen has put together a helpful video where he covers 5 "crucial" mistakes to avoid in landscape photography. Crucial might be an overstatement, but the video points out five of the most common mistakes you'll see from novice landscape shooters in particular.
Recently I hit a milestone in my photographer's career: I've accomplished 250 paid assignments. It took me ten years and half a million frames to get there. I thought it's a decent reason to reflect a little bit on what has been done and what the journey feels like.
Photographer Mik Milman recently put together a helpful "shot list" video that any event photographer (especially beginners) will find valuable. In the video, he lists six shot "types" that you need to keep in mind, no matter what kind of event you're hired to shoot.
In this video, wedding photographer Taylor Jackson takes you behind the scenes on one of the most stressful and challenging wedding photography scenarios you're likely to run into: shooting an entire wedding after dark, using ambient light.
Ryan Breitkreutz over at Signature Edits has created a useful tutorial that dives into one of the most critical aspects of portrait photography: skin tones. In this 30-minute video, he shares some his personal tips and techniques for capturing natural-looking skin tones, first in-camera, and then in Lightroom.
In this article, I'm going to share my basics of shooting from the hip, a fun way to get candid, up-close street photos. We’ll cover camera settings, what to look for, and other techniques along the way. Let’s get into it!
It has recently come to my attention that exactly 10 years ago, almost to the date, I took my very first step into the world of photography. I was fresh out of high school when I got conscripted to the army and later served as a military photographer. Whether it was to my liking or not, this is how I was set on this long path which has, since then, flourished and developed my passion for photography into my current career as a traveling, cultural and documentary photographer.
So you've just finished school and now you have a diploma to certify and declare that you're a bona fide photographer/filmmaker. Or you could be an experienced professional who is just about to wrap your latest gig and now it's time to reach out to your network in search of the next job.
When you’re just starting out, building a fashion photography portfolio can be quite a daunting task. Having to organize and prepare shoots can be difficult, especially if you have no budget. These are my tips for shooting on a shoestring when you’re just starting:
Photographer and YouTuber Michael the Maven has put together a video about one of the worst-kept "secrets" in optics: sample variation. Or: why you should immediately test every lens you buy to make sure you have a good copy.
Portrait photographer Miguel Quiles is back with another useful video for aspiring portrait photographers. This time, he's put together a video outlining the five most common portrait photography mistakes that he's seen over the years, and how he suggests that beginners avoid or fix them.
Photography can be an expensive pursuit, and the cost of things (and the pressure to buy them all, buy them new, and buy them now) can get in the way of putting that money in better places.
In this 12.5-minute video and article, I'll share 7 of the composition tricks that I use in the field all the time. First of all, let me say that composition is difficult. It is, without a doubt, the hardest part of photography. But there are some things that you can be doing in the field that can help.
Most outdoor photography tutorials are focused on getting the shot: what equipment to use, how to set up your camera, and how to edit your shots. But in his latest video, Danish photographer and former special forces soldier Morten Hilmer takes some time to address an even more important topic: how to stay alive.
Creative consultant and talented videographer Daniel DeArco is one of the best there is at creating impressive transitions from shot-to-shot in his videos. In his latest video, he'll take you behind the scenes to show you exactly how he created one of the coolest cuts in his recent empathy video.
Rachel and Daniel of Mango Street—one of the most popular photography channels on YouTube—have put together a great, straight-to-the-point guide to capturing that "moody" style of portrait that's become a popular counter-point to the "dreamy" overexposed look that often dominates lifestyle imagery.
One of the most unintentionally useful influences on my photography has turned out to be the time I’ve spent playing computer games. Some photographers use cinema as a learning tool to observe the way cinematographers and DOP’s use their cameras to capture a scene. This can be a great source of inspiration, but I think it can lead to some photographers heading out and seeking to recreate shots or aesthetic styles (color palette, depth of field, grain, etc) rather than capturing anything unique for them.
Portrait photographer Miguel Quiles has put together an incredibly useful video that reveals the contents of his personal 'Mig'Gyver Kit: a set of 21 items that could save your butt during your next portrait session.
It's Halloween, and I couldn't be happier. As a light-painter, this might be one of my favorite times of year. Does every photographer have a ton of creative ideas around this holiday or is it just me?
The glorious colors of summer are fading away, and the windy weather makes outdoor macro photography difficult. In other words, it’s the perfect time to take photography inside and stage creative photos with things around the house.
Photoshop expert Sid Vasandani of StyleMyPic has put together a fantastic, in-depth look at luminosity masks that could significantly speed up your photo editing workflow. If you don't understand luminosity or you've never used luminosity masks, this tutorial could legitimately change the way you make selections.
Photographer and extremely popular Instagrammer Jordi Koalitic—whose work we shared with you a couple of weeks ago—has released a behind-the-scenes video sharing some of the clever photography tricks that have helped him "go viral" online.
Lightroom is misunderstood and under-utilized by many photographers. Hardly a day goes by without someone asking about how to arrange their catalogs, and great swathes of people replying that you should use a new catalog for *every* *single* *shoot*. A clear indicator that they’re missing out on some incredibly useful tools Lightroom has to offer!