“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Being a photographer is a lot like being a writer; you have good days, and you have bad days. Some of those not-so-great days can bring a whole multitude of different annoyances: the weather, dead batteries, the models don’t turn up. But nothing is more frustrating than the dreaded creative block.
… Continue reading The World’s Greatest Tip for Photographers: The Photographic Project
Food photography is an extremely cunning concept and industry. It essentially uses trickery to make food look so good to your eyes that you end up not being able to control yourself and want to indulge in that food. Naturally, the food-photography industry has aggressively worked to connect eating delicious food with the tactics of aggresive marketing.
While getting food confused with sex is of course psychologically unhealthy—and just weird—it remains that food photography is solely based on making food look irresistible. You can even call it…“sexing up” your food. That succulent piece of meat? Sexed up by a food photographer! That inviting bowl of ice cream? Sexed up by another food photographer!
… Continue reading The Dirtiest Secrets of Food Photography That Still Make Your Mouth Water
Ahh, film photography. The cool kid on the block. The “old” thing that’s suddenly the “new” thing. In recent years, it’s been popular opinion that it was an identifying trademark of hipsters, and only then for an artistic flair that digital photography has failed to capture for them. The reason Instagram has been such an enormous success recently is our love for trendy, analog effects the app has on our photos, and the ability to then share our new creations to the masses.
In reality, film (or analog) photography has been recognized by the professional photography community for its benefits since its heyday, and although it experienced a huge decline in popularity with the advent of digital, it has shown a righteous resurgence in recent years.
… Continue reading Get Started with the Beautiful World of Film Photography in 7 Easy Steps
Anyone who has tried to shoot a photograph of their new car (or their old, well-loved car after it finally drove through the car wash) knows that a car is difficult to capture.
Nevertheless, those of us who have practiced can vouch for this series of tips that I’ve aimed at my neighbor’s Mustang and my own practical Prius.
… Continue reading Taking Shots of Your Car Like the Hot Ride She Is: Amazing Car Photography Tips 101
You have your iPhone on you all the time; it’s like your best friend with whom you go everywhere. In fact, you can say that you’re in a long-term relationship with your iPhone, and that’s completely fine! If you’ve played around with your iPhone for any length of time, you know how you can do so many things with it. One of the most interesting aspects of it is that it works almost better than a real digital camera, thanks to its powerful, built-in camera.
Definitely one of the most powerful gadgets on your iPhone, its camera produces pictures so sharp and high-quality that you’d be forgiven for a second for thinking that they were shot by a real, pricey digital camera. With a super-easy and user-friendly interface that includes pinching the smartphone’s screen for zooming in and out, the iPhone camera can really do a lot. In fact, a whole subgenre of photography’s popped up lately, centered around iPhone photography.
… Continue reading All You Need to Know About iPhone Photography
Fall is indeed a magical time for everyone. With the air becoming clean and crisp, you get to dust off your overcoats and walking boots.
You’ll hear the chopping of the wood that will see everyone though the winter months. But there is nothing more recognizable with the season of autumn than the colors associated with the falling of the leaves or fall photography.
… Continue reading Splendid Fall Photography Tips and Tricks to Make The Most Of This Gorgeous Season
The world’s major fashion magazines are plump with advertising images of the size-zero models, with their flawless complexions and perfect bone structures. Much to the everyday girl’s dread, these images can also be found pretty much everywhere, especially in portrait photography.
However, imagine for a moment if these models weren’t perfect? Would the images have a greater impact? Would people engage more with what they were seeing?
To a photographer, the mood of the sun means everything. Natural light is temperamental — fluxing, fading, and shifting to an invisible rhythm. Working at the mercy of the elements means photographers often find themselves stuck in unsuitable situations, especially when it comes to lighting.
Seasoned photographers Lindsay Adler and Erik Valind have developed a bag of tricks to get around such unlucky traps in their new book, Shooting in Sh*tty Light. According to the pair, learning to purposefully place your highlights is central to conquering the worst lighting situations. As it turns out, placing highlights can be done a few different ways.
… Continue reading The All-Knowing Guide to Purposefully Placing Highlights
Our fascination with the stars has lasted for eons. So it is no surprise that so many photographers rotate their lens into a vertical postion to capture these natural wonders!
But as many of you may have already found out, photographing stars can be a little tricky, as many factors come into play, and certainly the most irritating is that, in order to shoot them, you need a long exposure. To make matters worse, our dear old planet moves, ruining any exposures lasting several minutes, and the stars simply appear as faint lines.
… Continue reading The Zen Guide to Photographing Stars Like the True Master You Are!
There are countless books for photographers available to us, and every photographer should have a library of books which provide them with useful information about different techniques as well as books to inspire them in their work.
Subject matter varies widely between different photographers, but the list below is a general core set of books which cover a range of subjects that different photographers would find useful whether they focus on landscape, wedding or portrait photography.
… Continue reading 10 Books for Photographers That Can Inspire You
