My name is Nick Fancher and I’m a portrait and commercial photographer who specializes in lighting, specifically with the use of small flash in unconventional locations. I’ve written a few books on the subject, the latest of which is Studio Anywhere 2.
My main goal when shooting is to be quick and efficient. I typically […]. petapixel.com
This article is a little guide on how I have had luck shooting photos at concerts. This is by no means the only way to do it, nor can I say that it will be the best way to do it for everyone. petapixel.com »
2024-04-01 22:04
Shooting the busiest scenes we encounter while traveling in Asia can be very challenging. After 15 years of running photography tours and teaching in the area, I know that busy markets and streets can either be a photography heaven or a nightmare. [Read More] petapixel.com »
2024-01-14 19:00
Milky Way season is the best time to learn how to plan and shoot an astrophotography timelapse, capturing the majestic galactic core in motion! [Read More] petapixel.com »
2023-04-10 20:02
We all know that headshot photography is all about capturing the essence of our subjects - their personality, character, and unique qualities that make them stand out. petapixel.com »
2023-02-22 20:03
Mother’s Day is about a few things: flowers, lunch or dinner together, and of course, family photo time, a good opportunity to update the archive with images of us all together again. [Read More] petapixel.com »
2022-05-07 19:28
Capturing a video portrait is delicate work. The scene needs to be shot smoothly, feature unique and interesting locations, have clean audio, and display the subject's personality. petapixel.com »
2022-04-29 23:08
In a world of increasing automation, at least photography still offers the opportunity to stay alert, active, and in command. While intimidating at first, shooting in full manual mode provides creative control, proper metering in tricky light, and deeper integration into the entire process of making photos. petapixel.com »
2022-04-26 21:35
One of my favorite techniques in photography is shooting panoramas with a telephoto lens. I got asked a lot about this technique, so I decided to create a full video and article in which I’ll go through the entire process. [Read More] petapixel.com »
2022-03-30 19:55
Great portraiture will always be in vogue, whether you’re working on an assignment or challenging yourself to shoot for your commercial Licensing portfolio. The post How to shoot creative portraiture that sells appeared first on 500px. iso.500px.com »
2022-02-22 15:30
During long periods of cloudy weather, it can be really frustrating as an astrophotographer to wait for the sky to clear up. Over the years, I’ve learned how to handle these long downtimes. [Read More] petapixel.com »
2022-01-24 20:35
Special effects are a fantastic and fun way to tell compelling stories through images. While they may seem complicated, the truth is, many special effects are easily done in-camera using tools you likely already have. petapixel.com »
2021-11-01 17:58
In this tutorial, we share our lighting setup for a piece of glass stemware using minimal gear. To mimic this shot, you will need a black background, stripboxes, and speedlights. We start by using two strip boxes (8-inch by 36-inch) to modify our speedlights. petapixel.com »
2021-10-29 18:27
r refusing to conform. I think that’s why I love fashion photography so much. It’s all about finding your own voice, embracing the unconventional, and reaching for the stars. Combining beautiful clothing with the capabilities of the Leica SL2s makes breaking the rules all the more fun. thephoblographer.com »
2021-10-12 13:00
Shooting in natural light can be quite difficult. In fact, many photographers gravitate towards studio photography to avoid natural light completely. However, natural light can be manipulated in a way that will produce great work. petapixel.com »
2021-05-19 18:55
Fashion photography is expensive. Even a small test shoot has some costs associated with it. What is more expensive is good fashion photography. Cameras, lights, modifiers, crew, retouching, locations all add up to some ghastly sums. petapixel.com »
2021-05-10 20:41
Aloha, and welcome back to my astrophotography tutorial write-ups. I wrote an article last month on the basics of photographing the Milky Way core season. Today I am going to continue this series and tell you about a game-changing technique that you have probably may have already heard about: image stacking. The idea is to […] petapixel.com »
2021-04-17 20:01
If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to shoot product photos like those seen in Apple advertisements, here’s a short 4-minute tutorial by photographer Karl Taylor that you can do at home with just a couple of speedlights and homemade modifiers. petapixel.com »
2021-03-31 21:03
There are certain subjects in the macro world, which are so fascinating and absorbing that almost every macro photographer will point a camera at them at some point. No matter how many photos you take or see of these subjects, their charm does not seem to wear off. Just think of snowflakes, the compound eyes […] petapixel.com »
2020-10-20 18:22
Capturing creative photos of miniature worlds is definitely not a new idea, but you don’t need to be a small-world master like Tatsuya Tanaka to give this kind of photography a shot. As this COOPH tutorial shows you, all you need is some creativity, a few mini figures, and a smartphone. The short tutorial runs […] petapixel.com »
2020-10-02 19:35
The temperatures have been soaring lately. Depending on where you live, you might’ve even seen record heat over the last couple of weeks. Normally, such weather makes staying indoors (so long as you have air conditioning) sound ideal. petapixel.com »
2020-09-22 18:53
Over my past 7 years as a professional photographer, I have received many questions from startups and amateurs who are worried about the considerable investment they thought they had to make on cutting-edge equipment. petapixel.com »
2020-08-27 18:55
Abstract photography continues to fascinate, perplex, and surprise us, whether we’re visiting a museum or browsing 500px. The post How to shoot beautiful abstract photography appeared first on 500px. iso.500px.com »
2020-07-22 14:30
Earlier this week, I brought my Sony 70-200mm lens and drove only about 15 minutes away into Bortle Class 4 skies. What’s really exciting is that I was shooting towards Salt Lake City and the sunset, and still the image turned out remarkably well among all the light pollution and sunset in that direction! Let’s […] petapixel.com »
2020-07-18 19:34
Insects and other animals have fascinated me since I was a small child. I remember well how I used to pick them up and simply stare at them in wonder for hours. The concept of photographing insects indoors had been on my mind for years, even when photography and playing with light was a hobby, […] petapixel.com »
2020-06-10 20:15
Here’s a 12-minute tutorial by AdoramaTV in which photographer Gavin Hoey shows how you can capture a perfect rim light shot without using multiple stripboxes and flashes — all you need is just one light. petapixel.com »
2020-05-23 18:48
Solargraphies (pinhole images on photographic paper that capture months of the sun arching across the horizon) were a thing starting sometime in the 2000s. When this caught on broadly in the early 2010s, it got a lot of people excited for film again. petapixel.com »
2020-05-05 19:36
Photographer Marvin Herrera gives us his tips on how to take great photos of technology at home while maximizing your earning potential with 500px Licensing. The post How to shoot tech at home appeared first on 500px. iso.500px.com »
2020-04-22 16:00
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. petapixel.com »
2020-04-09 19:54
Isaac Alvarez and the UNPLUG Production crew are back with another low-budget, high-quality photography tutorial. This time, they’re showing you how easy it is to capture some epic “action scenes” from the comfort of self-isolation by using some action figures, sugar, and creative lighting. petapixel.com »
2020-04-07 20:07
If anything good has come out of the current lockdown, it’s the many wonderful ways people have been finding to stay creative. When the coronavirus began to take hold and necessary government instructions rendered my wedding and portrait photography business inoperable, I had to deal with the shock and financial implications of it like any […] petapixel.com »
2020-04-06 21:12
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. petapixel.com »
2020-03-31 21:23
I love shooting foregrounds in my big vista landscapes but it has taken quite a while to find out the things that work well and what doesn’t. I still don’t think I have mastered it but really enjoy the challenge of going out and finding a powerful foreground. In this article, I wanted to share […] petapixel.com »
2020-03-17 17:44
I think that one of the hardest elements to incorporate in a street photograph is humor. Unlike other themes in street photography, I think that naturally occurring “funny” scenes are harder to stumble across, as they often involve a lot of interpretation and may involve playing with elements in the composition rather than being able […] petapixel.com »
2020-03-04 19:14
Incorporating technology into your photoshoots is a great way to make them stand out to a commercial audience, but there are a few things to keep in mind. The post How to shoot technology for commercial photography appeared first on 500px. iso.500px.com »
2020-02-18 15:30
If you’re wondering about how to shoot photos in the rain, you’d be amazed at how simple it is. Lots of folks are scared, but if you’re wondering how to shoot photos in the rain, it’s more simple than you may think. thephoblographer.com »
2020-01-27 14:00
Photographers Ian Norman and Diana Southern of Lonely Speck made this helpful video that will teach you the things you need to know to shoot the Milky Way in less than 5 minutes. The topics blazed through in the tutorial include gear, planning, camera settings, and focusing. While the video won’t instantly make you an […] petapixel.com »
2019-12-28 20:47
Ah, the night, what a wonderful time to go out and do some street photography! As a photographer who got his start in the streets of Tokyo, it was inevitable that I would end up photographing mostly at night. petapixel.com »
2019-12-05 23:47
Photographer Tajreen Hedayet of Tajreen&Co has released a simple, straight-to-the-point tutorial that will show you how to capture soft, colorful, ‘dreamy’ looking portraits even if you don’t have much budget to work with. petapixel.com »
2019-11-25 21:10
Toy photography is a really fun way to create really epic-looking images on a tiny scale. It really hones your skills as a photographer, as lighting and action are what makes this look so dynamic and amazing. petapixel.com »
2019-10-10 19:42
Handheld focus stacking is a brilliant solution for many scenarios. It saves you all the troubles of using a focusing rail in the field and provides a maximum of flexibility. Whenever you need more depth of field than you can get with trading off image quality, this is the way to work around it. Have […] petapixel.com »
2019-10-07 22:32
It’s more and more difficult these days to photograph places without crowds or cars. One of the strategies that can help achieve that is to wake up early and be there at sunrise, but in very popular places, there will be other photographers with the same idea as you. So, how can we take a […] petapixel.com »
2019-09-18 17:23
Refraction photography is an exciting subject that has been enjoying increasing popularity amongst photographers. You’ve probably seen refraction photos before: where an out-of-focus background appears sharply defined inside a crystal ball or a dew drop for example. petapixel.com »
2019-09-04 00:06
I will start with a warning: Digital Infrared Photography is not easy, and this will get technical fast. Backstory It all started when I saw some awesome Instagram photos in infrared and I ordered an IR filter (an 88mm ice 760nm from B&H to be more precise) not knowing much about infrared. Filters usually range […] petapixel.com »
2019-08-22 21:27
Here’s a creative technique to add to your bag of tricks. In this 9. 5-minute video, we’ll show you from start to finish how we took an ordinary scene and turned it into to go from day to night in one single exposure, in-camera. petapixel.com »
2019-08-15 21:07
Photographer Steve Kazemir made this 4-minute video showing how he shoots beautiful photos of paint splashes frozen in time using an old speaker in his garage. A photo of Kazemir’s garage setup. petapixel.com »
2019-06-21 21:31
I am writing this concert photography guide in response to several ‘How to’ guides I have seen online that don’t quite hit the mark on how to take great live concert photographs. Most of the articles focus too much on the obvious, like concerts are dark and avoid things in your way (like mic stands […] petapixel.com »
2019-06-19 22:36
Shooting professional-quality portraits with artificial lighting doesn’t have to weigh heavily on your bank account. Here’s a 22-minute video in which photographer Sean Tucker shares how to shoot great portraits using a single speedlight and a cheap modifier. petapixel.com »
2019-05-23 18:31
That title is a mouthful, but I didn’t know how to better describe the style. Over the years, I’ve been refining and perfecting my newborn photo technique to get the specific light and airy high-key look I want. petapixel.com »
2019-05-17 16:42
Want to shoot a “bullet time” shot but don’t have an ultra-expensive camera array or high-speed camera? Here’s a 27-second video showing a brilliantly cheap and easy way you can create the same effect with any video camera. petapixel.com »
2019-01-25 21:11
I’ve been photographing weddings for 10 years now, so I’ve seen and dealt with nearly every lighting scenario possible, from a dark church with no windows, to a wedding ceremony at high noon with not a cloud in sight. petapixel.com »
2018-12-31 21:14
Film is not making a comeback, it has come back. Photography students I teach are always so excited to start their journey in shooting, developing, and enlarging film, until they start. [Read More]
As a product photographer, I use paper in various different ways as a background for still-life photos to keep costs down for creative shooting. In this article, I'll show you how I do it and how you can do it too. [Read More]
Light shaping tools are very expensive. What if you could take any object and turn it into a modifier? That would save you a lot of money as well as give some unique results.
If you’re a photographer who often turns to Dollar Tree for cheap photo props or do-it-yourself materials, get ready to pay (a bit) more. After 35 years of selling most products for exactly $1, the retail chain announced today that it is hiking its price to $1.25. Founded in 1986 with the name Only $1.00, […]
Fashion photography is expensive. Even a small test shoot has some costs associated with it. What is more expensive is good fashion photography. Cameras, lights, modifiers, crew, retouching, locations all add up to some ghastly sums.
Over my past 7 years as a professional photographer, I have received many questions from startups and amateurs who are worried about the considerable investment they thought they had to make on cutting-edge equipment.
Camera and lenses aren’t the only photographic essentials that cost money. A decent machine with plenty of RAM and fast storage (preferably SSD) and rather expensive serious photography software are must-haves, too.