I recently took my Sony A7 III and a rented $2,500 Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS lens to the 2018 Montreal GP. A friend of mine had recommended that I use a polarizer. I remembered that I had a pack of 77mm Vivitar Series 1 filters that came with my 24-105mm, so I threw that onto the 100-400mm and started shooting, completely zoomed at 400mm.
There is something all-newcomer photographers tend to do: they either dream of camera gear or buy a lot of it. When I started in photography I went through the same thing. I thought that I needed all the lenses that my idols used. I believed I needed the highest megapixel camera, with all the video features just in case a potential client wanted video. But over time, with age came wisdom.
The sky was still dark when we left our lodgings in northeast England. My husband, photographer Luke Collins, carefully drove the narrow hedge-lined roads. I closed my eyes for a few more precious moments of sleep. “Why am I doing this?” I wondered.
Picture this: you come home after a great day out photographing and you’re excited to look through all the beautiful images you’ve captured. However, after importing them you realize that they’re all garbage because they’re blurry.
Looking back at my early photography, I shake my head in embarrassment. I know I should be proud of the fact that I’ve come a long way since then, but it’s hard not to notice just how poorly processed those images are. I’m sure I’m not alone.
My name is Andy Hudson, and I'm the co-founder of Photographers Keeping it Real. We recently asked our Facebook group for one golden rule of business they believed hugely important.
Attending a photography tour is a great way to develop your photography by learning from a professional photographer in a destination you’ve dreamed of visiting. Not only that, it’s also a great opportunity to connect with other like-minded people and perhaps even make friends for life.
Instagram experience major user backlash after it abandoned its reverse chronological feed back in 2016, and many users these days are still wishing for its return. If you're one of them, here's an interesting factoid that may change your mind: the chronological feed was making users miss 50% of their friends' posts.
Lightroom's Auto Mask feature lets you intelligently target edit towards specific portions of photos. While the standard tool is useful, there are more advanced ways of using the tool that can take your editing to the next level. Here's a great 13-minute tutorial on the subject by Signature Edits.
If you're interested in branching out your photo business to include corporate headshots, here's a helpful 24-minute tutorial that can help you get started. In it, photographer Sean Tucker shares his system of effectively photographing a large number of people in a short amount of time.
I have only 1 tip that will hopefully inspire you and help you to improve your landscape photography: use a wide angle (preferably 16mm or wider, full frame equivalent) and get extremely close to objects.
Modern quick-release camera clips are designed to hold your camera firmly when it's not needed while allowing it to detach easily when it is. But if there's any equipment or user failure in the system, that failure could be catastrophic for your gear... and that's what one photographer just found out the hard way.
For my recent trip to China, as I’ve done before, I planned and I planned… and I planned. I made detailed maps, took notes on locations and hints as to the best vantage points. I scoured everything to ensure that my time there was incredibly well-invested in capturing the best images I could manage within the time I had. And frankly, I feel that this was a great practice, for me.
When I first started on my journey of learning my way around Photoshop I was a full-on Apple product fanboy, it just seemed like every creative was using an Apple machine and that I should do the same. Once I went full-time, I realized that I could build myself a PC that would be much more powerful for the price.
If you ever need to shoot a product photo of a beverage bottle, the concept might not seem too complicated, but seasoned product photographers actually have a number of tricks they use to take their images to the next level. Here's a helpful video in which photographer Max Bridge of Square Mountain shares 5 pro tips in 5 minutes.
Wedding photographer Taylor Jackson made this inspiring 23-minute video showing how he shot a wedding day from start to finish, as seen from his point of view.
Small details can make or break the effectiveness of a pose when photographing couples. Here's a 6-minute video in which wedding photographers Sara Byrne and Phil Chester share 5 simple spot corrections that take poses from plain to pro.
We've got a fun article today in which we post-process photojournalistic-style photos and polish them in an artistic way. Much like Steve McCurry did to his photos, but without the heaping pile of backlash.
If you've ever asked your friends to pose for a photo shoot before, you may have found that it can be difficult achieving high-quality poses when your subject doesn't have modeling experience. In this 5-minute video, photographer Sheldon Evans shares solid tips for how to overcome this hurdle.
In order to make your snapshots stand out above the rest by making them look professional, incorporating several creative elements can do just that. I am often asked by pet owners how to get the best shots of their furry companions with a basic camera.
Kai Wong recently got together with street photographers Joshua K Jackson and Craig Whitehead (a.k.a. SixStreetUnder) to make this helpful 10.5-minute tips video containing 10 nuggets of wisdom for upping your street photography game.
Late last year, photographer Irene Rudnyk reached out to a model and makeup artist for a photo concept she had in mind that featured a woman illuminated by a lantern at blue hour. Rudnyk shares in the 7-minute video above how, after putting in considerable time and effort into putting the shoot together, she failed at the actual shoot.
When you take your camera to some of the coldest places on Earth, you'll face a unique set of challenges that most photographers never have to worry about. Here's an interesting 9-minute video in which filmmaker and photographer Anthony Powell shares some of his top tips for shooting in the extreme cold.
In addition to being wedding photographers, my wife Anna and I are also keen divers (at least as long as the water is warm and clear!), so quite naturally, we’ve been eager to experiment with underwater photos for quite some time.
Art has no rules. Right? Wrong! Call me cranky, but I don’t like the latest photography trends. I love simple, classic portraiture, and I admire legendary photographers like Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Albert Watson. That’s why I put together my 10 Commandments of Portrait Photography.
Here's a helpful 9.5-minute video by CreativeLive in which photographer Blake Rudis shares 5 "hidden" gems in Adobe Photoshop you can add to your mental toolkit to improve your workflow.
Growth. Real, personal, soul-fulfilling, butterflies in the belly-inducing growth. That’s the key to my happiness; my personal metric for success. It doesn’t matter what I achieve or how much of it I attained. I define myself as successful simply in the process of progress.
Photographer Toma Bonciu (AKA Photo Tom) made this 10-minute video with 9 composition tips and rules you can use to shoot more effective landscape photos.
Jedi mind tricks are not just for Jedi. They’re for photographers too. Us portrait photographers face a difficult mission. We must form instant connections with our subjects. Have you ever photographed someone with whom you just can’t click? I have, and it sucks.
Defining your style is one of the, if not the, most difficult and time-consuming aspects of photography. It takes many people years or even decades of shooting before they really start to narrow down their photographic style.
At the WPPI wedding and portrait photography conference and expo this year, photographer Trevor Dayley taught this 1-hour class titled "17 Fast, Easy, Awesome Lighting Recipes." Dayley shares 17 lighting ideas you can keep in mind on any portrait shoot using a memorization story.
Lightroom Classic has long had an "Auto" feature in the Develop module that will automatically set basic sliders for you based on the image at hand. But did you know that you can now "Auto" set individual sliders?
I’d love to have access to a massive studio space with all of the latest amenities. Who wouldn’t? But in many cases, a living room is all you need to get the dynamic shot you’re looking for. Nearly all of my favorite studio shots were done with my Oliphant backdrops in a 10x15-foot room.
Sometimes we can use software for years without taking the time to dive deeper and unlock its full potential. Here's a great 12-minute tutorial by photographer Jamie Windsor with 10 hidden Lightroom features that can help your editing and speed up your workflow.
Did you know that the worse you are at photography, the more likely it is that you think you're great at it? It's a cognitive bias in psychology called the Dunning–Kruger effect. Here's an inspiring 9-minute video by photographer Jamie Windsor on how you can avoid falling into this common mental trap and actually become a better photographer.
Wildlife photographer Chad Barry has captured many gorgeous, award-winning photos of various animals over the course of his career, but there's one thing viewers probably never realize when looking at his work: a lot of the wildlife images were captured from inside a car. Barry made this 23-minute video sharing how you can do the same.
By doing a quick calculation, my photos make up 0.002% of the still images available on GettyImages.com. Which means I have 1,600 photos for sale out of about 80,000,000.
If you're ever buying a Nikon camera or lens and the seller tells you they purchased it brand new, there's a very easy way to see at a glance whether it was actually factory refurbished. Simply glance at the serial number and look for a "secret code."
My name is Albert Dros, and I'm a professional landscape photographer from the Netherlands. This article is both for beginners and advanced landscape photographers. I figured I’d list some tips to hopefully give you some inspiration and give you some new options to try out in your landscape photography.
If you're not sure how to photograph a landscape, one primary factor you should consider is the current position of the sun in the sky. Here's a fantastic 3.5-minute video by CreativeLive in which National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting shares tips on harnessing different kinds of sunlight.
Lighting equipment can be expensive, but sometimes you can get great results using makeshift products that won't put a dent in your wallet. Here's a 15-minute video from Dustin Dolby of workphlo that looks at how you can shoot high-quality product photos using something as basic as an IKEA MELODI lampshade.
Here's a strange photography hack that may sound stupid and unbelievable... but it can actually work: if you have a filter that's hopelessly stuck to the front of your camera lens, try lightly tapping it with your finger. The Koldunov Brothers show how it's done in the 1-minute video above.
Here's an 11-minute video from photographer Sean Tucker that looks at how you can identify "good light" in street photography.
Figuring out how much to charge clients is a struggle shared by many photographers, particularly if you're trying live off the fruits of your craft. In this 30-minute episode of their Picture This Podcast, photographers Tony and Chelsea Northrup spend half an hour discussing this topic and sharing advice.
Professional landscape photographer Dave Morrow had thriving social media accounts with over 1.5 million followers. Last year, he decided to delete those accounts and give up his huge followings there. The decision changed his life and photography.
I had the great privilege of tagging along with photographer Eric Kim for Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai back in 2014 and 2016. GPP is an annual event: the region’s biggest and only photography festival, bringing the world’s best photographers and instructors to Dubai to share their knowledge and experience with the professional and amateur photography community in the Middle East and Africa.
Japan goes into a frenzy each spring as millions of locals and tourists gather to catch a glimpse of the elusive cherry blossom. Simply known as sakura, the petals come and go like the wind, representing the ethereal beauty of life.
Photographer Steve Perry's most popular video ever was his "7 Useful Camera Tricks for Nikon Shooters." Now he's back again with 7 more camera tricks that can help improve your shooting style and workflow.
Landscape photographer Nigel Danson made this helpful 20-minute video in which he shares 7 simple composition tips that you can use to instantly improve your landscape photos.
Here's a 6-minute video from Andrew Mikhaylov that looks at how you can easily shoot beer can photos using 4 light sources for that signatory reflection on the can.