Five Classic Lighting Recipes

Five tried-and-true lighting styles for effective portraits

Text & Photography By Tom Bol

As much as I like to experiment when it comes to lighting, there are times I need a sure thing, and that’s when I reach into my bag of tricks and pull out one of the five lighting techniques that always work and that create a variety of looks? These techniques are ones that a beginner can master in a short time with minimal gear, and should be part... Read more

10 Tips For Better Travel Photos

Pro techniques to help you take unique and personal images for your photographic journal

Text & Photography By Nevada Wier

If you want to return home with a great travel portfolio, you need to break out of the tourist mentality and move beyond typical snapshots of postcard locations, you want to master the fine art of travel photography. Award-winning travel photographer Nevada Wier shares her top techniques to create photographs that are not only visually engaging, but... Read more

Indoor Light Portraits

Capturing everyday life with beautiful light in the home

Text & Photography By Me Ra Koh

VERONICA BERNAL, a CONFIDENCE workshop graduate, captured a gorgeous moment between her grandpa and daughter. Window light creates a soft diffused look that adds to the story of gentleness and love. Do you ever have a sinking feeling that all of your photos are starting to look the same? You’ve taken your clients to the same park two dozen times.... Read more

10 Lessons For Your Best Landscape Photographs

Follow these tips and techniques for more creative compositions of the natural world

Text & Photography By Rick Sammon

“Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer—and often the supreme disappointment.” —ANSEL ADAMS Landscape photography can be great fun, but when we get back home and look at our images on our computers, we sometimes ask ourselves, “What was I thinking?” or, “How did I make that mistake?” It’s difficult to capture... Read more

Night Light

Create stunning landscape astrophotography images

Text & Photography By Adam Woodworth

The Tablelands Sky Exposure: Star-stacked blend of 10 exposures, each at 14mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/2.8, 10 seconds Foreground Exposure: Foreground Exposure: Blend of two exposures, each at ƒ/2.8, ISO 1600, 8 minutes. Nikon D810A, Nikkor 14-24mm ƒ/2.8 Get ready to stay up all night taking in the wonder of the stars. Astrophotography, which is technique of... Read more

Seven Tips For Awesome Road-Trip Pictures

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.

Text & Photography By Rick Sammon

Comedian Steven Wright once said, “Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.” Substitute the word “driving” for “walking” and you’ll see why road trips are a great way to see, experience, enjoy—and of course—photograph roadside America (or whatever country in which you are driving). Road trips offer photographers... Read more

High-Speed Portraits

Using fast shutter speeds with flash for creative images

Text & Photography By Tom Bol

The use of a large diffuser and fast shutter speed allows for balanced light in what otherwise would have been a very harsh, backlit image. ƒ/1.4, 1/1600 sec., ISO 125 © Tom Bol You never stop learning in this business. As photographers, we spend years mastering our craft, and just when we think we get it, new technology is introduced, and we’re... Read more

How To Be A Second Shooter

Mastering wedding photography usually starts by apprenticing as a second shooter, a position that can sometimes make or break a wedding shoot

By David Schloss, Photos by Sarah Phillips

Capturing a wedding is one of the most important photographic assignments, because it is impossible to re-create a wedding and the images are cherished not only by the bride and groom, but by their families and offspring, often for generations to come. While most people book a photographer for their portfolio, skills and personality, they don’t realize... Read more

Telling A Story With Portraits

An editorial approach to portrait work can yield amazing results

Text & Photography By Thomas Boyd

The most meaningful portraits tell a story; they not only memorialize a person at a specific time and place, they give us insight into that person as well. Really great portraits tell us as much about the photographer as the person they photographed. The significance of the portrait you take today may not reveal itself for years and the portraits we... Read more

Keep It Simple

Not interested in taking traditional wedding photos? Consider one of these beautiful alternatives.

Text & Photography By Danielle Cohen

The array of incredible wedding photographic styles and wedding photographers to choose from today is staggering. Whether it’s highly conceptual composite images you love or simple, natural film pictures that’s your thing, the time is just right for wedding photography as a true expressive art. Most of today’s couples have sophisticated tastes,... Read more

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