I mess up most of my street photography shots: too far away, background cluttered, subjects not well aligned, subject matter not interesting enough, or simply technically flawed. The Murphy’s Law of street photography: “If you can mess up a street shot, chances are you will.”
Lighting two people can be difficult to do, so I’m going to use 5 portrait lighting positions to breakdown how to best light a couple.
So you have just picked up your first light or you have had one light for a while now, and you are wondering what more you can create with just that one light. Well, you can create loads.
Photographer, videographer, and YouTube star Peter McKinnon brainstormed with his photographer and filmmaker friends and came up with 6 common bad habits in photography that photographers should try to avoid having.
My name is Brian Carey, and I'm a photographer in St John's Newfoundland Canada. I'm like a lot of photographers in that I like to complement my professional work with something personal, something I can connect with.
There are a number of oft-repeated photography tips out there that have guided new photographers over the years. Here's a 10-minute video in which Kai Wong examines 10 of the most popular tips and discusses whether they should be kept or killed.
Street photography is one of the best ways to exercise and train your eye for application to photojournalism projects. I've written before about the way I apply the techniques and style from my street photography to my set stills and BTS as well as my long term fashion BTS project and I think that practicing some form of street photography every single day is an incredible way to keep your eye active and your mind constantly searching for new possibilities.
Before a presentation we did during a bad-weather day on a photography workshop I co-guided in Northern Norway, I was asked to give my best advice for landscape photographers. I wanted to talk about some slightly different topics rather than repeating standard tips such as "straighten the horizon," "use f/11," and "photograph during golden hour."
I’ll own up to this and say that I’m guilty of being stuck in my ways. But age is no excuse for not being as adaptive as I should be to the changing times. But let me explain.
Making selections is one of the most basic things that you do in Photoshop, but there are many handy features and tricks that can help you work with selections. Here's a 2-minute video by Adobe with 7 helpful tricks, some of which you may not have known before.
Photographer Anita Sadowska made this helpful 14-minute video in which she shares tips and tricks for photographing women who don't have any experience modeling and posing for the camera.
Having a photography studio is fun, but it is even more fun when you start applying simple and cheap solutions plus common sense to make your shooting experience (and your clients’ experience) smoother.
Over the past couple of years, smoke bombs have become a popular photography accessory that adds a colorful new twist to portraits. They are being used for street portraiture, gender reveals, engagement shoots, and so much more. We found the best smoke bomb for photography usage and in this 6.5-minute video and article, we are going to give you 5 tips on how to use them safely and creatively.
Your actor headshots, combined with your actor showreel, are the foundations of your actor profile. They are without a doubt a key marketing tool for your acting career. It’s important to prepare yourself in order to get the most out of your session.
The state of photography is chaotic and rapidly changing. The definition of photographer is evolving, the barrier of entry is at its lowest yet, and imposter syndrome is taking hold. Let’s review the mental gear needed to shoot in this new landscape.
I am an experienced corporate/commercial photographer, and I've written this article to help guide my clients into how to prepare for a headshot or portrait session. Most people don't like having their photograph taken, they find it awkward or can't stop thinking about one of their perceived weaknesses.
Photographer Miguel Quiles made this 7-minute video tutorial on a trick you can use to shoot eye-catching portraits. It's all about paying attention to and manipulating the catchlights in your subject's eyes.
Want to up your portrait game? Here's a video by B&H in which Naew York City-based portrait photographer Peter Hurley shares 5 headshot tips in about 3 minutes.
It would be safe to say that the gap between the number of interesting project ideas I've had compared to the number of photo projects I've produced is a wide one. In order to hold myself accountable in executing some of my project ideas, I've created a blueprint that helps me get past ideation and into producing new content.
When I look back at my journey as a wildlife photographer especially as I scroll through my images on my editing screen a few things become apparent. Firstly, most of my pictures were either action or close up portrait, and secondly, the editing was awful.
Is your Photoshop running a bit sluggish at times? There might be a way to speed things up. Here's a helpful 10.5-minute video by photoshopCAFE that goes over 10 tips that will help you squeeze the fastest possible performance from the program.
What is style? This is a question to which I've given a lot of thought. The best answer I've come up with is that your style is the sum of all your choices.
How do I find my style? It’s a question that inevitably comes up for almost every photographer actively trying to improve their images. It’s a tough question, at first. Because at first, you don’t really know what that means. Many photographers think that “style” is just equal to how someone might edit their images.
If you're always looking for ways to optimize and streamline your photography post-processing workflow, here's an 11-minute video for you. Jesús Ramirez of Photoshop Training Channel shares 15 helpful Photoshop keyboard shortcuts (AKA hotkeys) that aren't as commonly known.
There’s something unique about being a wedding photographer. It's a job that filled with joyful moments and happiness. A wedding photographer plays a significant part in the best day of someone's life. Plus, you can make a fair amount of cash capturing those joyful moments. Could this be a career for you? Well, it’s certainly an excellent idea, but there are certain things you need to know before you take the plunge.
It seems like having dual cameras on your phone has become almost the norm nowadays, but many people don’t even know that they are there, let alone why. However, I believe that Portrait Mode is an incredible tool for the modern photographer to promote themselves -- particularly on Instagram.
A year ago, I wrote an article over at 35mmc in which I discussed some of the jobs I had worked on using 35mm film and the way I handle a film workflow for assigned work. Since writing that piece I have taken on many more commissions for film-based work, and I thought it would be useful to take a more detailed look at some of the implications of shooting film as part of these projects.
Making mistakes when starting something new is a common part of the learning process, and the sooner you can identify and fix them, the faster you’ll progress within your new endeavor. When I first started in landscape photography I certainly made my fair share of errors, but I didn’t realize it at the time, so I ended up repeating them over and over again.
The biggest and most common mistake I see in photographers in all genres is that they aren’t honest with themselves. They love the idea of being a photographer -- the romantic side of it all. Sounds cool, right? But they hate the work part, the hustle, the grind, the guts of what it takes to run any successful small business.
I’ve been working as a model for over four years now, which I love, but there’s plenty of room for improvement in the way that models are treated in the industry and I feel like this is a good place to start. I love collaborating with photographers on creative shoots and editorials, and mostly I find the people that I work with respectful and kind, but there’s always the one or two who aren't!
When I first began dabbling in the world of landscape photography, I was enticed by the instant gratification of purchasing Lightroom presets. I was originally drawn in by the fact that I could instantly download these presets and I could instantly import them into Lightroom and instantly “improve” my own photos.
900 dpi prints?! That’s kinda crazy, right? You just need to print at 300 or 240 or 200 because somebody on the Internet told me no one can tell the difference.
Briefing a photographer can be challenging, especially if you haven’t hired one in the past. A good brief provides all the key information about your project that a photographer will need to make logistical, technical and creative decisions.
This morning I woke up early to photograph the descending supermoon on top of the famous St. Nicholas church in Amsterdam. But the supermoon was "just 96%" visible this morning as it is not completely full until tomorrow. Nevertheless, I love the slight shadow in the edge of the moon so I picked today as the day to shoot.
For a while now I have been working on establishing myself as a street photography educator by leading lessons and workshops throughout London, focusing on documenting human behavior and emotion rather than more new-wave techniques involving light-architecture and intricate technical compositions.
I see a lot of articles across the Internet claiming to know the "rules to follow" or the "things to avoid" in street photography, easily one of the most hotly debated genres. What they tend to misunderstand is just how little the genre cares for photographic rules, and what the defining elements of street photography really are that go beyond any of the purely photographic elements.
Seeing spots in your photos? Your camera's sensor might need a cleaning. If you'd like to go a do-it-yourself route and beyond a simple bulb blower, Michael The Maven made this 13-minute video walkthrough on how you can go about cleaning a mirrorless camera sensor.
In recent years I’ve been privileged to be on the jury for a whole range of photography competitions. These include single image competitions such as WPS International Excellence Awards, Masters of Wedding Photography, and the Irish wedding photography awards (In association with Learning to Fly).
I'm a photographer in St John's, Newfoundland, Canada, and I've been shooting the St John's International Busker Festival for the last 6 years. It's not a paid gig -- I do it for the fun and the challenge and to support the event.
I made the uncommon decision to post my rates for on-location corporate headshots on my website. Some fear it will scare away clients before the photographer gets to explain the value in their work. Valid concern. Some want to gouge bigger clients who can pay more. That’s not the way I want to run my business.
A few years ago, I read an article online about an artist who was aiming to receive 100 rejections in a year. I understand his philosophy behind the article. Based on the number of rejections, there will be a number of accepted as well. So the higher the rejection number, the higher the accepted will be too.
Ever since I began traveling for work, I’ve looked for ways to capture the beauty of planet Earth from above. As early as the 1990s, I began experimenting with every alternative imaginable: ultralights, helicopters, seaplanes, hot air balloons and hang gliders. For me, the drone was simply a dream that materialized in front of me – the beginning of a new era that opened all the doors I desired and freeing me in my search for new photographic elements, perspectives, and composition.
In this video and article, we will teach you 5 inexpensive lens hacks in under 5 minutes using the Canon EOS R and a Canon 50mm f/1.8 II.
Photographer Jamie Windsor made this helpful 13-minute video in which he shares 6 things you should at least consider doing when editing your photos in Lightroom and Photoshop.
It began with an email one morning. The link in it led to the work of one hundred fifty photographers. I had 1,500 images to judge for Focus Photo, a s**t ton of looking to get it right. It wasn’t going to be easy to hold it all in my mind, to remember why I was making the decisions I was making.
One of the more difficult aspects of post-processing is identifying when you’re starting to over edit a photo. It’s common knowledge what many of the characteristics of an over-edited image are, but determining when you’ve gone too far, that’s the challenging part. In this 14-minute video, I break down five tips that have helped me to understand and identify when I’m beginning to over process an image.
I like to be very aware of my influencers and the effect they have on my work. When I find that I particularly like an image from another photographer, I will give it a lot of thought before I try and apply any of my analysis to my own images.
Street photography is hard to do well. Really hard. Even if you are great, most of your shots will not be.
Photographs are as much about what is not included as the subjects in the frame. Being aware of the things I avoid is as helpful to me as the things I gravitate towards when it comes to composing an image.
After many years of doing photography as an amateur, I came to a few simple and rather trivial realizations.