Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
There is a teacher of photography that few speak of in today’s industry. She is shunned by many and with good reason.
Nobody seems to like her.
She has taught photography and business for as far back as anyone can remember, but bring up her name today and it will be met with the rolling of eyes and a heap of indignation.
If you take your craft seriously, the odds of having heard these words are quite high. Audiences associate good images with great cameras, and for the longest time, this (almost) accusation has bothered photographers who felt their skills were downplayed. The interesting bit is that we’re walking towards making the “great cameras = great photos” equation true! And they fit in your pocket.
Imagine coming to the gate at the airport and the staff forces you to check in your camera bag. There is thousands of dollars’ worth of gear, and checking it in means it can get lost or damaged. We recently covered the story Michelle Frankfurter shared, claiming that American Airlines lost her $13K worth of gear. Inspired by Frankfurter’s story, Matt Granger shares two ways you can avoid checking in your camera bag at the airport.
A plastic bag is one of those things that are always handy to have in your gear bag. In this video, Dave Knop a.k.a. Knoptop shows you eight ways a simple garbage bag can make your life easier. So, here are the “trashy” shooting hacks for shooting photos of videos.
Product videos are a lot of fun to shoot. As is product photography. Coming up with different unique ways to show off a product is an exciting challenge. Doing it on a low budget, even more so. In this video, filmmaker Todd Blankenship creates three product ads with minimal kit and shows the gear, sets and lighting setups used to make them.
The online world seems to have been buzzing about Instagram’s new IGTV since it was officially announced yesterday. The Internet is divided – or at least, my social media timelines are. A huge proportion are in the “WOO! YAY!” camp, although there are plenty of people moaning about vertical video syndrome.
If you’re of the latter opinion, sorry, can’t help. But if you’re one of those who wants to jump on the new vertical video service that lets you upload videos up to an hour in length, read on. In this video, filmmaker Jason Boone goes through the whole process in Premiere Pro of creating and uploading your vertical video content.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that online retailers will have to collect sales taxes from now on. For photographers and videographers, this means you no longer will be able to buy cheaper, tax-free gear from online retailers like B&H or Adorama.
Photographer Felix Hernandez is on a real Star Wars kick at the moment. He’s just released the second in his Forgotten Titans series, and it looks even better than the first. The sight of a crashed X-Wing isn’t something you want to run into when stranded in the deserts of Jakku or Tatooine, but it does happen, and that’s what Felix has recreated here.
If you shoot with artificial lighting, you can go with off camera flash or continuous LED lights. Of course, each approach has its good and bad sides. In this video, Francisco Joel Hernandez discusses pros and cons of using continuous LED lights for portraits. So if you’ve been thinking of getting them for portrait photography, this might help you make the final decision.
I’m a huge fan of very long and in-depth educational videos on YouTube. People keep going on about how “5-7 minutes is the ideal length!”. Well, no, not for me it isn’t. I love watching long videos. And this is a good one. Presented by retoucher Conny Wallstrom, this hour and a quarter long video teaches you everything you would ever need to know about how frequency separation works.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
Find my work on My website or follow me on Facebook or My page
