Make your subjects look their best with our professional portrait photography tips, covering lighting setups, location scouting and tips for working with models.
Softboxes are great for portraits and other types of photography where you need soft lighting. But there is something else that you could use with a softbox to accentuate the results: grids. They come in all shapes and sizes, and you are likely to find one that matches your softbox. Grids do something that is […]
Lighting is one of the factors that can transform an image and greatly improve it, if applied correctly. In fact, most bland pictures can be transformed into stunning shots by changing nothing but the lighting. Choosing the right settings can come from a combination of trial and error and learning established techniques from others. In […]
In Japan, Purikura photo booths are everywhere. Purikura translates to photo club and the booth resembles the photo booths you see in the mall in the US, except these ones can add decorative borders and designs to your photos. Many people use them to take snapshots with their friends and the photos are printed on […]
In our obsession of gear and accessories, we often forget that photography is all about light. Understand it, shape it, and capture it and your photos will be amazing more often than not. In this video tutorial, photographer Brian Wilson demonstrates how you can make amazing portraits using a single light by following these basic […]
If you think you need a ton of expensive equipment to take high quality senior portraits, you may want to reconsider. As Michael Sasser demonstrates in the video below, all you really need is a camera and reflector. Using this basic setup, Sasser was able to take some gorgeous shots of the soon-to-be high school […]
Using a snoot can give your photos just the right quality of light if you’re going for a high-contrast final image. In this video, Jay P. Morgan discusses what a snoot is, its area of coverage, the quality of light a snoot provides, and how to use it. He also show you how to create your […]
When you combine strobes with ambient light on a sunny day, you’re likely to run into problems with achieving a shallow depth of field. In the following video, Zach Gray explains how to solve this problem using a neutral density filter: “Problem: Using high-powered strobes can force you to use an undesirable f-stop, inhibiting your […]
Getting great studio lighting in your portraiture doesn’t have to mean an intricate setup. And most times simplicity works best. All you need is a strobe or two and a plain, dark background. Gavin Hoey gives us a few simple tips to create appealing portrait lighting while keeping your model from blending into the background: […]
Welcome to the future. For the first time in history, scientists at NASA have captured an image of a very important star. And not just any star, the star that makes life on earth possible: the sun. What a glorious thing—in beauty and in what it means for the future of astronomical science: The sun’s […]
Most photographers start shooting with the sun behind them. After all, it’s what many beginning photography books suggest. But, that’s really missing out on a great part of portraiture—backlight. In this video, Mike Browne offers pointers for getting beautiful backlit portraits: When the sun is behind your subject it casts a rim light over them, […]
