Tips

I Made a ‘Mind Map’ of the Insanely Complex Sony Menu System

It all started as a seemingly simple task. To make it easier to master the menu system of the Sony a7 Mark III, I decided to create a mind map. But this project quickly evolved into a major, and rather fascinating, undertaking.

Capturing Newborn Portraits with a Smartphone: Tips for New Parents

Recently we’ve had to close our doors to portraits because of COVID-19, and it’s been heartbreaking. The most heartbreaking thing is having to say no to clients who want newborn portraits. Babies change so quickly, so I wanted to put together some tips on how to capture your newborn portraits with your iPhone (or Android phone) so you don’t miss out on those photos.

How to Use a Waveform Monitor for Better, Faster Photo Editing

Thanks to everyone who read my previous article on my process as a TV show set photographer, and all of you who got in touch with questions and comments. People had a range of questions, especially about how I use a waveform monitor, so I'll make this a fairly wide-ranging post to try and answer everything.

Beginner’s Guide to the ‘Best’ Camera Settings for Landscape Photography

The two most commonly asked questions in photography are probably: "what gear do you use?" and "what settings do you use?" In this video, landscape photographer Mads Peter Iversen answers that second question by diving into his typical workflow and explaining when and why to use certain settings when shooting landscapes.

How to Pose Regular Couples for Engagement Photos

As a wedding and engagement photographer, you have an opportunity to work with a diverse range of people, but most of them will not be professional models. In fact, most of your clients probably feel downright uncomfortable in front of the camera, and that awkwardness can show in your photos. It’s up to you to direct your clients into poses that make them look at ease and in the moment.

Old Fashioned Marketing Still Works in Wedding Photography

The Internet has been brilliant for building a platform, but it is only one pillar... Did you know that ninety percent of small businesses fail within the first two years? With very few exceptions, having one way of marketing is the quickest way to join the 90%.

How to Take Better Photos of Your Kids

If you are a parent with a passion for taking good photos of your kids, this guide will walk you through it and help to improve your skills.

Catchlights: The Small Detail that Can Make or Break Your Portraits

Photographer Joe Edelman has put together a helpful beginner's guide that explains one of the most important (and easy to overlook) details in portrait photography: catchlights. These specular highlights can make or break your photo, and in this video, Edelman covers all of the basic "dos" and "donts" of catchlights in portraiture.

Testing Canon cRAW: Smaller Files, No Downside

"Compression" is a dirty word in the world of photography, but not all compressed files are created equal. That's exactly what photographer Alex Barrera discovered when he switched to using Canon's compressed RAW (cRAW) format exclusively—it's saved him a ton of space, with virtually no downsides.

How to Use Studio Strobes with Fuji Instax Instant Film

Fuji's Instax film is typically thought of as a "snapshot" product, not something you'd use in a studio, but Brooklyn-based photographer Anthony Tripoli hasn't let that stop him. He's figured out a way to shoot studio portraits on Instax film, strobes and all.

How to Shoot Beautiful Family Photography at Home

You don’t have to be out and about to capture beautiful photographs of your children. The homes we live in may not strike you as being particularly photogenic, but think about how many of your childhood memories revolve around the house you grew up in. It's the ideal backdrop.

How to Make Photoshop’s ‘Object Selection’ Tool More Precise

One of the most useful AI-powered tools in Photoshop is the relatively new Object Selection tool. But if you're finding that the tool isn't quite as precise as you would like, Unmesh Dinda from PIXimperfect has a few tips that will help you dial the feature in just right.

8 Film Photography Tips for Beginners

Film photographer and YouTuber Willem Verbeek has released a helpful video for beginners that covers his 8 favorite film photography hacks and tips. Some are useful, some are obvious, and some are just good sense.

How to Capture a ‘Dramatic’ Food Photo Using Cheap Gear

Food photographer Joanie Simon of The Bite Shot has put together a helpful tutorial that shows you how to capture "dramatic food photography" using an extremely cheap DSLR. Specifically, she picked up a used Canon Rebel T2i with a kit lens for just $200.

How to Shoot Epic Landscape ‘Selfies’

One of the most impactful types of outdoor portraiture is what you might call the 'epic' selfie: a self-portrait where the landscape photographer becomes a tiny fraction of his or her own composition, giving a sense of scale and awe to an already epic vista.

How the Magic of Street Photography Can Inform Our Wedding Photos

Street photography has always been the cool kid of the photographic industry, and wedding photography has ever been the oldfangled unfashionable square. Even landscape photographers in their fishing vests and hiking boots seem to get more street cred than wedding snappers.

SEO for Photographers: 3 Ways to Improve Your Website

When most of us began pursuing a career as photographers, we pictured idyllic days spent behind our beloved cameras photographing all the things. We quickly learned that our time behind a camera would be precious, as most of us would spend way more time sitting at a computer editing, communicating with our clients, managing marketing and social media campaigns, and well, just running the business.

Photographers, Here’s a Quick and Free Way to Improve Your SEO

Backlinks are a pillar of SEO. As photographers, we have a unique niche in to getting backlinks. Websites need images for their pages, we have images, and some of these websites might be using your images and mentioning your business, but not linking to your website. These are called unlinked mentions, and they are some of the simplest backlinks you can get.

Advice on Handling Contract Cancellations for Photographers

On March 12, 2020, the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) held a webinar with General Counsel Thomas Maddrey entitled “Potential Business Ramifications of Coronavirus (COVID-19).” Maddrey covered a variety of topics, including cancellation clauses in photographer contracts.

You Can Use Any Lamp in Your House as a Tripod

Photographer and YouTuber Peter McKinnon has just shared a brilliant little camera hack that's blowing people's minds. In his most recent 2-minute tips video, he shows how any bedside lamp can be used as an impromptu tripod (monopod, actually).

21 Portrait Photography Lessons from 21 Great Photographers

My portrait photography education didn’t happen in a classroom, library, or workshop. Most of what I learned came from studying my heroes’ work, trying to figure out why I loved their pictures, and then putting my own twist on them.

Photo Assignments Postponed: Take These 6 Steps Now To Protect Yourself

As you know, things are getting crazy out there and our photo assignments are being postponed or canceled due to the coronavirus. Are you prepared to answer the question “what will it cost to cancel?”? Let’s talk about our terms and conditions (T&C).