Marketing and branding are two words often confused with one another but they’re important words all photographers or anyone in business should understand. It’s more than just building your brand in photography. So, to start your guide to marketing and branding...
Recently I viewed a magazine and was shocked how photographers ignore the rules of cropping when it comes to people photography. While it’s often heard, “learn to break the rules” when it comes to photography, it’s better said, “Learn the rules first, then learn to...
When you say “available light photography” to two photographers, you might get two different responses as that term can mean different things to many photographers. One former major magazine staff photographer told me once that available light photography meant to use...
A common mistake for photographers happens when they arrive to a location and look at the big picture when instead, they should focus on the “picture in the picture,” or the small things around them. When publication photo editors see this in an image, your image gets...
If you Google “conceptual photography” you’ll find many views on the genre itself. It’s like no one agrees on specifics, though you’ll find some common points, like, “It all starts with imagination” or, “It’s a type of fine art photography.”Ultimately, I define it as...
Lighting Basics First In the days of cellulose film-oriented photography books, most authors recommended the photography lighting basics of three and four light setups. These lighting setups usually included a main or key, fill, back and background light for studio...
Sometimes we look at a photograph and wonder, “How was that done?” and other times, “Oh, I could do that.” But in reality, it might look easy, but often it takes work, rarely are great shots stumbled upon and if they are, it happens more to photojournalists than...
Most agency-signed fashion models are at least five-foot-eight in height though the majority are even taller, and many glamour models are usually much shorter. It’s not that a glamour model couldn’t pull off fashion, it’s just that the major fashion model agencies...
The Smaller the Harder, the Larger the Softer When it comes to size in photography, one often thinks of lenses, and while proper lens selection makes sense, it’s often dictated by a photographer’s shooting style, not necessarily hard rules. When it comes to...
Like blood to our bodies, light is the lifeblood of an image and like blood, without light, as photographers we have nothing. Photographers rely on light to give us the ability to reproduce life in our subjects and images through the addition or subtraction of...
Light modifiers for photography come in all shapes, sizes and forms to serve a unique purpose, and while I have my favorites, there are others, like an umbrella, that just don’t cut it for me as a professional photographer. My philosophy is simple, umbrellas work...
In the photography reflector tips section of this website, we discuss subtractive lighting, specifically when it comes to the SUNBOUNCE PRO, MINI, MICRO and the Sun-Cage. But recently, I had a new experience, the Sun-Mover Black Hole. I knew of the Zebra-White,...
Recently at my Maui Photography Adventure I took the time to meet up with one of my models, Laura, that I’ve worked with for almost two decades and lives on the island. And as I did two years ago for my Photography Reflectors Keep It Simple photography tip, I promised...
One basic creative concept taught in the first level of art classes in most colleges is chiaroscuro. Chiaroscuro in photography and art simply means the intermixing of lights and darks that forms contrasts between the two to help create the illusion of depth and...
Outdoor natural lighting comes in many forms, but the two most common problems that face photographers are harsh sunlight found on bright sunny days, or boring, low-contrast light found on cloudy or overcast days. Rarely do photographers find “perfect” lighting when...
