A little while ago I was teaching one of my lighting workshops and one of the attendees was looking to implement some of the set-ups I was sharing into his workflow. Seems simple enough right? Well, it turns out this photographer was a Formula 1 trackside shooter that needed to get portraits of drivers and […]
Photographing portraits using natural light as the sole light source have become such a rage lately that some photographers have branded themselves as "Natural Light Only Photographers." While you can certainly create some stunning images with the proper use of only natural light, understanding how light behaves and being able to harness light in all of its forms, natural or otherwise, will help shape you into a better, more complete photographer.
For the uninitiated, Golden Hour describes the short, fleeting period of time just after the sun had risen or immediately before it is about to set. During this momentary window, the sun appears very close to the horizon and produces a quality of available light that tends to be beautifully diffused and typically embodies a warmer tone than usual.
I like to be very aware of my influencers and the effect they have on my work. When I find that I particularly like an image from another photographer, I will give it a lot of thought before I try and apply any of my analysis to my own images. Photographing people is one of […]
With the number of portrait photographers proclaiming that they only shoot in natural light perplexingly on the rise, one begs to question why someone wouldn't want to have full control over how they lit their portrait subjects.
With the number of portrait photographers proclaiming that they only shoot in natural light perplexingly on the rise, one begs to question why someone wouldn't want to have full control over how they lit their portrait subjects.
For most kids, deciding what to wear for Halloween is an exciting time to make a yearly memory. This is no different for my own daughter. However, this year, she received her costume from a neighbor as a hand-me-down.
Want to shoot powerful portraits? One of the keys to doing so is focusing on your subject’s eyes. This 2. 5-minute video by Light Club is an inspiring look into this critical facet of portraiture.
While the fashion world has been found guilty of promoting unreasonable beauty standards, fashion photographers like Elena Iv-skaya bring back our faith in the industry. In her latest set Double Beauty, Iv-skaya skillfully uses contrasts in skin color as a canvas to showcase beauty in diversity.
One of the best places to shoot natural light portraits is, well, outdoors! Find out how you can use the natural light available outdoors in these quick tutorials. Previously, we’ve shared an Adorama TV tutorial by Mark Wallace showing how to shoot natural light portraits indoors. But of course, that’s not the only way to
We're very well aware of the fact that 35mm full frame lenses have improved significantly over the years. In fact, 35mm lenses can be used pretty commonly for portraits at this point. If you think about this, then medium format must have become proportionally better, right?
Portrait photography is often a reason for many people to initially get into photography. Be that for taking portraits of their children or family, or simply just having an interest in capturing images of people.
Portrait photography is often a reason for many people to initially get into photography. Be that for taking portraits of their children or family, or simply just having an interest in capturing images of people.
In October 2017, I visited a good friend in Seattle, Washington, who runs an international animal rescue organization. Animals can have a positive impact on people’s lives. Unfortunately, I also saw and learned how much animals suffer abuse around the world.
This post may genuinely sound like an ad, but it really isn't as I've followed FTC laws since the first days of this blog. Instead, it's just genuine praise for pretty much everything about the system with the exception of folding the damn backdrop back down into a portable configuration.
For budding photographers who are just starting out with portraiture, finding models to practice with can be a challenge. Not all of us are blessed with good-looking friends or big funds to hire models from agencies.
In an interview last year, we had a peek at one of the compelling portrait projects of Liam Warton and found out his beginnings in photography through film. He also mentioned how shooting analog was for him one of the best ways to read light and learn the basics.
Looking into improving your portrait photography? In a recent Adorama video, Sony Artisan Miguel Quiles gives a quick rundown of the three mistakes photographers typically make when shooting portraits, and how you can avoid or correct them.
The cinematic aesthetic is one of the big trends photographers from various genres are currently jumping into, for a good reason. It creates beautiful results that effectively evoke emotions and sentiments to the viewer.
One of the 50mm focal lengths most popular uses though is portraiture; and if you are new to the 50mm focal length you may be wondering how you can get the best results when you are using one for portraits.
Photographer Eric Pare recently went out into the desert and shot a set of photos showing a model sitting next to the moon. And the size of the moon in the photos wasn’t faked. Pare managed to capture a gigantic moon by using a 1120mm lens and having his model sit very far away. Pare […]
Photographer Jeff Rojas is trying to break the stereotype that men aren't as easy to work with as women are when it comes to shooting portraits. He's already put out a full book on Photographing Men, and he's also got some tutorials on how to photograph the "Average Joe.
One of the qualities that make childhood memories powerful subjects for any creative work is their universality. While we differ in experiences, the nostalgia of our younger years is something that we all feel once in a while.
Today, the distinct look of film photography is sought after not only by ardent film shooters and professional photographers looking for alternate mediums, but apparently, by brands as well. It's not even limited to independent brands anymore, as George Muncey of Negative Feedback proves with a recent large format portrait shoot for Dickies.
IRIS is a new photo booth that’s designed to shoot “professional” portraits of professionals for only $20. Instead of looking like typical photo book snapshots, the portraits are supposed to look like they were shot by a headshot photographer with studio lighting.
It's been a tried and tested way to document a place by photographing its people, which is why it remains a popular creative venture for photographers. The collaborative duo of Neil Kremer and Cory Johnson gives us a glimpse of Los Angeles by photographing random people making their way around the city for a set called Angelenos.
One of the most amazing things about photography is how it has the power to give us a glimpse of everyday life in places we've never been to. It's the main element that drives photojournalists and documentary photographers to search for compelling stories to translate into visual narratives.
Running out of ideas for shooting portraits? Sometimes, all you need is a prop that you can use as a major part of your portrait's story. If you've been working in the studio for a while, you might want to bring your session outdoors to give your photos a scenic or even moody look.
Photographer Jay Marroquin is a fashion photographer with offices and representation in a number of cities. His latest project is called ENCOUNTERS and gives off an appeal that is bound to resonate with a lot of photographers.
I work a colorist and online editor in the film industry at night, leaving my days free to work as a portrait photographer. Being a part-time worker as a photographer allows me to really pick and choose commissions as I don't need to worry about putting food on the table.
This digital contact sheet is what you get when you’re doing a high school portrait photography project, but your only friend is a cat. “This was a high school photography class I took in 2011,” the photo enthusiast, Cherie, tells PetaPixel.
Continuing our series featuring and highlighting photographers who shoot analog and have fantastic work, photographer Pete Rezac is amongst the bunches who submitted to our analog photography zine and that have incredible photos.
Photographer Jade Lyon submitted to be featured in our upcoming analog zine. Her work: absolutely fantastic portraiture and sort of surreal concepts all shot on film. She attributes her love of film partially to the fact that everyone is a photographer these days and yet she loves the older methods.
Arguably, Fujifilm's camera system is the one that delivers images and an experience closest to old school film--which means that it's more than adequate for shooting portraits. In fact, it's one of the most popular subject matters to shoot amongst the Fujifilm X series community of photographers.
Photographer Ingrid Alice Irsigler has had work that has always amazed me. Some of it is fairy tale inspired with great use of color; but either way Ingrid has overcome obstacles and earned a place on our 30 Women Photographers to follow list.
When you're starting out as a portrait photographer, everyone teaches you all about the eyes. "Get them in focus!" "Make it the most in focus and strongest part of the image!" That's what they say; and after years and years of shooting portraits that's what every photographer will continue to tell everyone else.
Portrait photographers usually focus on the faces of subjects, but photographer Omar Reda wanted to tell the story of people’s lives in a different way: he created detailed photos of the palms of their hands.
"I got into photography by originally (shooting) landscapes wherever I traveled, but never did anything serious with them because I felt as though it wasn't my niche. " explains photographer Laine Ellison in an email to the Phoblographer.
"I started photography about 7 years ago when my partner gifted me a camera for Christmas. " photographer Ali Choudhry tells us in an email. "I had recently lost my possessions in a house flood and this was his way of getting me back into art as I often mentioned some of the things I'd lost.
When it comes to conceptual portrait in a fashion shoot, breaking the norm and daring to do something radically different can often result in an unexpected yet unique images. In Mathew Guido's latest photo series titled "Eye Candy", instead of shooting in a controlled studio environment with professional lights, he decided to shoot his model wearing sunglasses in dark environments, lit only by the neon and street lights.
Photographer Alessandro Michelazzi recently attended the 91st “Pitti Immagine Uomo” male fashion fair in his city, Florence, Italy. While there, he shot a creative portrait project in which he asked attendees to pose for and hold up Instax instant photos of themselves.
French criminologist (and high school dropout) Alphonse Bertillon was a pioneer in the field of anthropometry – the use of human measurements – to identify criminals. As a part of this practice, Bertillon standardized the modern mugshot in 1888 with the now familiar frontal and profile portrait, the latter of which was selected because Bertillon […]
Los Angeles-based photographer Laura Izumikawa Choi is winning hearts across the Web with her portraits of her 4-month-old daughter Joey Marie Choi. While Joey naps, Laura carries out cosplay photo shoots using creative costumes and props.
So you have just picked up your first light or you have had one light for a while now, and you are wondering what more you can create with just that one light. Well, you can create loads. I see many post/comments from photographers saying they can’t do this or that as they only have […]
I picked up a camera in 2008, and I laid my mother to rest in 2010. Guess what I never got around to? That’s right: I never created a real portrait of her before we said goodbye. Back then, I knew I wanted to be a portrait photographer. I was starved for subjects. And after […]
Salt Lake City-based photographer Dewey Keithly recently came up with an unusual way to edit the look of portraits: he creatively burned them by igniting gunpowder across the surface of the giant prints.
In this article, I am going to highlight 5 key things that I see portrait photographers doing that I consider to be “in need of improvement.” And although there are no hard-and-fast rules to photography, try to think of it as being similar to an instrument being slightly out of tune or a meal that’s […]
I’ve been doing professional portrait and fashion photography for over 3 years now, but from the very beginning I have always considered myself an “aspiring photographer,” because you never stop improving and looking for new challenges.
In this creative 2-minute tutorial, Ukranian photographer Anya Anti demonstrates how to make an interesting bokeh effect using shapes cut out of a paper backdrop. To create the effect, you will need: Paper backdrop A marker Something sharp (preferably scissors) Flash heads or other light source to place behind the backdrop The idea is quite simple: […]
ELEMENTS is a new project by Slovakia-based photographer Maria Svarbova. Each of the portraits in the series features some physical, real-world element that has been introduced to add a layer of 3D complexity to the underlying 2D image.
Thursday, September 29, 2016. It’s 10:00 am and I have a meeting at Boulogne in the office of the White Dog agency. Everything starts with a good coffee and an announcement: “We are going to realize the new McPlace internal communication campaign for McDonald’s.
For his latest project, titled “Reflection of Me,” photographer Isaac Alvarez shot portraits of dogs and their owners, and then combined the dog heads with the owner bodies. “I wanted to do this series to create awareness for rescue dogs and to bring light that all breeds are not bad, just how it is raised,” […]
Ukranian photographer Alex Kolodyazhni is creating stunning beauty, lingerie and fashion portraiture all over the world. Kolodyazhni's work, or much of it, at any rate, has this very well processed and cinematic look with an intimate lifestyle feeling to it.
In honor of Asian Heritage Month, we spoke to five photographers about their creative journeys, why they chose photography, how they’ve honed their craft, and more.
If you don’t have access to a full cyclorama wall or large studio, you’re in luck. In this 2-minute video, I’ll teach you how to create a pure white background and light the subject using a single light source.
It’s not often I get to shoot very simple, clean white light shots, but in a recent shoot the model asked if she could get some updated ‘Polaroids’. For those of you not familiar with the term when used in reference to a model shoot, it’s actually not the now-obsolete and ludicrously expensive single-shot film, […]
We're thrilled to unveil the second instalment of our favorite photos of the year, showcasing the talent, creativity, and passion of 500px photographers.
One way to stretch yourself as a photographer is to shoot outside your comfort zone, and the Opposite Photography Challenge is one way to do so. In this 7-minute video, photographer Irene Rudnyk shows how she carried out the challenge with a recent portrait shoot.
She came in for her senior session. Her hair was a mess of tangled waves, unruly and uncooperative. Her face was covered with freckles and dotted with acne. She wasn’t model proportions and the clothing she wore required careful adjustment to keep it from bunching up in places. She was sweet and shy, a girl […]
Last year, I had the privilege of photographing Heather and Brett Pocorobba for their engagement and wedding. I am not a traditional wedding photographer, but they wanted a real street vibe to their collection, so it was a good fit.
I recently came back from a trip to India. I left the UK with the intent of photographing a culture entirely different from mine. Searching for a new challenge, I looked at India in the eyes, and I faced myself.
Arizona Border Recon is a volunteer group of armed civilians that patrols the border between the United States and Mexico, keeping watch for traffickers, terrorists, and illegal immigrants and bringing those caught to the attention of the US government’s Border Patrol.