You know those moments when you're chimping and wonder why that amazing shot that you thought was going to be, well, amazing just isn't? Your exposure was right - check; white balance - check; aperture - check; shutter - check. Lens... hmm. Let's see. Lens? Yes, I shot with the right lens. If you are shooting competently and things are still not working out like you would want them to, I have a great piece of advice for you.
Photographer and retoucher Antti Karppinen has started a new series of video tutorials that aims to teach Photoshop techniques by recreating the looks seen in movie posters.
Want a simple introduction to the basics of the Exposure Triangle in photography? PHLEARN has created a trilogy of short video tutorials that explain aperture, ISO, and shutter speed using Star Wars LEGO.
Here's a 9-minute introduction to the three-point lighting setup! If you haven’t seen our video about portrait lighting, we go over five portrait lighting positions and what type of emotion you can get from those positions. So this is a follow up to that lesson and I recommend you watch it before diving into this one!
A holy grail timelapse sequence is a timelapse shot during sunset or sunrise. As the ambient light changes, so should your exposure settings. In this 11.5-minute tutorial, I’ll walk you through how to set up your camera (any type of camera with a Manual mode will do), how to shoot it properly and how to edit your sequence from beginning to end using Adobe Lightroom and LRTimelapse.
While I was working full-time as a wedding photographer, I was shooting around 30 to 40 weddings a year. I would spend my weekends shooting and during the week I would be editing, responding to emails, writing blog posts, and watching cat videos… errm, I mean doing very important other business related stuff like making videos for my YouTube channel.
I’ve always been fascinated by the night sky, and one of my favorite things to look out for is the International Space Station when it passes overhead. It still boggles my mind that there are people up there, 200 miles into space. Perhaps they are looking down too. In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to photograph an ISS transit – in other words, photographing the ISS as it flies in front of the moon!
So, you are about to embark on your first solo wedding shoot of your career. You’ve got butterflies in your stomach, you’re stressed, and the pressure is most certainly setting in. Don’t panic, read this carefully and you will be well prepared for photographing the most important day of someone’s life.
Wedding photographer and Nikon Ambassador Brett Florens recently gave this 9-minute workshop demo on how you can shoot better portraits in harsh sunlight.
People ask me all the time how I get my night shots with the stars, so I made a video on the subject. Here are my 7 tips for crushing night photography.
The three-color method of using colored lens filters when shooting black-and-white photos was one of the earliest techniques for creating color photos. This 11.5-minute video is an exploration of how this process is done.
Astrophotography is generally a race against time to capture as much subtle starlight we can before the stars create trails in our images. The movement of the Earth puts a natural limit on how much sharp, subtle detail we can reveal. We have to use super fast, wide angle lenses and high ISO values to see all the awesome detail. Fortunately, a tool exists to circumvent this barrier to reveal more of the hidden magic we have in our night sky.
Photographer Eric Floberg made this 5-minute video tutorial on the subject of composing portraits.
Yellowstone is one of the most visited parks in the United States, and for good reason. It’s full of unique thermal features and one of the last great destinations for an abundance of wildlife. Even if you come for the geysers and hot springs, you’ll want to stay longer and keep coming back for the wildlife. There’s always a new experience, and you never know what might be waiting around the next corner.
Since I purchased my first Godox product in late 2015, I’ve been extremely vocal about their product line because of their massive price to performance ratio. It’s a weird occurrence for one of the most capable products to also be one of the cheapest.
Have you considered offering destination wedding photography to your clients but questioned the amount of work and risks involved? We will dive deep in this article, covering various topics to help you succeed on your first destination wedding assignment.
When photographing wildlife -- much like hiring a new employee or going on a date with someone you met online -- it's essential to do a background check. What is behind the animal that you're photographing?
I'm photographer David Johnson, and in this tutorial I'll be sharing how I shoot long-exposure photos of defocused fireworks.
Want to learn how to create a "flying food" photo without actually making food travel through the air? Food photographer Skyler Burt of We Eat Together made this 5.5-minute tutorial on one way to freeze time and space.
Here's a handy trick that may be useful for beginning photographers: did you know that you can bend your reflector to change the quality of the light on your subject?
If you are a landscape photographer trying to get your work out there, you have surely heard about that one big imaging platform called Instagram. So you made yourself a profile and started sharing all the gorgeous work that you worked hard for and suddenly you wonder: why is nobody liking my images and why do I have 50 followers while others have thousands and just keep growing?
Mixing ambient light with flash is a tough technique to get around. I can do it no problem, but when someone asks me to explain it I draw a blank. There’s a very good reason why it’s hard to understand: you’re smashing two distinct schools of lighting an image together.
Photographer Niels Kemp recently asked wedding photographer and Nikon ambassador Brett Florens for his best piece of advice for beginning photographers. His answer was the simple portrait posing trick in the 2.5-minute video above.
Here's a 16.5-minute video by OWL BOT in which photographer Omar Kenji demonstrates how you can develop C-41 color film in your own bathroom instead of passing it to a photo lab.
It’s becoming harder to get the entire image sharp with the constantly wider lenses and more extreme foregrounds that are used in today’s photography. Even optimal apertures aren’t enough to get both the foreground and background as sharp as desired. That doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, though. Focus stacking for sharper images has become a go-to technique for photographers of all levels to achieve images that are sharp all the way through.
If you're just starting out in photography, seeing all the technical terms being thrown around can be confusing and daunting. Apalapse created this 12-minute video with quick explanations of 25 of the most common terms you'll run into.
The question “What aperture is best for landscape photography?” is often asked in various online forums. While there isn’t one “correct” aperture, certain scenes benefit from using a specific one. For standard landscape photography (excluding night photography, macro photography and other niches), the optimal aperture for front-to-back sharpness lies within f/7.1 to f/13.
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.
A lot of the times when you’re shooting in direct sun, it’s very harsh on your subject’s face. Many people try not to put themselves in this situation because of it. Sometimes you have no choice, or maybe you like the location a lot so you have to put up with the challenge. Without any equipment, the sun can create harsh shadows and an unflattering look on your talent.
Discussions of many photography topics have the potential to veer deep into complex technical territory that may appeal more to scientists than to artists, and color theory is certainly one of those topics that can become rather arcane quite easily. What follows is a guide for landscape photographers who are more artistically inclined, those who are primarily interested in applying color theory to achieve creative goals.
Wedding photographers are always looking to take creative, novel portraits and a quick, simple trick is often sitting right in their pocket. By using a phone screen as a reflective surface, it is possible to cover up unsightly elements, add intrigue, and make an image that much more interesting.
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.
Here's a 6-minute educational video by Shutterstock in which filmmaker Todd Blankenship discusses the basics of diffusing light and introduces three cheap options for doing so... including a $5 shower curtain.
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.
Here's a fantastic 16-minute tutorial by photographer Dustin Dolby of workphlo (he's like the Bob Ross of product photography) on adding a creative background to a product photo by light painting with a smartphone.
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.
When NASA launched its Insight rocket in the pre-dawn hours of May 5th, 2018, photographer Norman Chan of Tested was on hand with a remote camera setup to shoot his first launch. The 15-minute video above is his record of everything that goes into capturing a NASA rocket launch.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Earlier this month, Adobe released an update that massively revamped its Camera Profiles, renaming the feature Profiles. In addition to 6 new Adobe Raw profiles, there are also creative profiles. And instead of downloading and/or buying third-party creative profiles, you can make your own.
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.
Here's a tutorial on how you can shoot Polaroid i-Type instant film in an old Polaroid 600 instant camera. I think the pictures speak for themselves
Here's a helpful 6-minute tutorial by photographer Dustin Dolby on how you can photograph group product photos using only a single speedlight.
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.
