The Lighting Mistakes Hiding in Your Portraits
A photographer critiquing a stranger's early work is common enough, but here the images being torn apart turn out to be his own from 15 years ago. The fixes are the same ones any photographer can apply to their own portraits right now.
Myth: You Need f/2.8 Zoom Lenses to Turn Pro
Somewhere in the path from enthusiast to professional, most photographers absorb a belief they were never quite taught directly: that going pro means owning the holy trinity. A fast wide zoom, a 24-70mm f/2.8, and a 70-200mm f/2.8, all at that magic constant aperture, bought as a set, treated as the cost of admission. The gear becomes a credential. You are not a real professional until the trinity is in the bag.
Photography Marketing: What If Everything You Know Is Wrong?
A few weeks ago, I was preparing a talk about marketing for photographers when I found myself doing some math on my Instagram account. Like most photographers, I have made social media part of my weekly routine. I create content, respond to comments and messages, post recent work, and generally try to keep the account active. When I sat down and estimated how much time I spend on Instagram, I came up with roughly six hours a week. At first, that didn't feel particularly significant.
Top Ten With Brandon Woelfel and How Shooting Every Day Led To a Nikon Ambassadorship
Brandon Woelfel, a New York-based portrait photographer and newly appointed Nikon ambassador, became known through constant experimentation with lo-fi props and effects posted daily on social media. His consistent behind-the-scenes posts amassed two million followers on Instagram and a reputation for dreamy, otherworldly images. Here he dishes on what he wishes he'd done differently, team building, and on letting embarrassment hold you back.
The Case for Shooting Cities With a Telephoto Lens
Most people reach for a wide angle the moment they step into a city center, cramming as much of the skyline into the frame as they can. A long telephoto flips that instinct, letting you pull out single details and stack layers of a city in ways a 24mm never could.
5 Things Photographers Start Noticing After Seriously Studying Modern Painting
Most photographers reach a point where making technically better pictures no longer changes much. The camera works, your technique is solid, and the world starts to look familiar. One way out has little to do with photography. Time spent with modern painting changes what you notice before you press the shutter by exposing decisions the camera normally makes for you without asking.
Blow-Up: The Most Important Film Every Photographer Should Watch
One of the greatest surprises photography has given me has almost never arrived while I was out walking with a camera. It has arrived afterward, sometimes the same evening, sometimes months later, when I have found myself looking at a photograph I believed I already understood and suddenly noticed something that had escaped me completely while I was making it.
Two Fixes That Turn a Good Wildlife Shot Into a Great One
You come home from a shoot with hundreds of frames of a great subject and every one of them feels flat. The fix usually comes down to two things you can control on location, and neither requires new gear.
What Actually Separates a Good Portrait From a Great One
Show the same portrait to two working photographers and you can walk away with two opposite verdicts, one calling it strong and the other pulling it apart. Learning to read those reactions, and figuring out which ones are worth your attention, changes how quickly you grow.
Triple Base ISO and 5K Raw: What the FX5 Brings to Run-and-Gun Work
Sony's new FX5 records 16-bit XOCN raw internally, a codec that until now lived only in the Burano, Venice, and Venice 2. Squeezing that into a compact cinema body reshapes what you can expect from a camera you can hand-hold on a sidewalk.