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India requires license for photographers so they don’t “pester” visitors in protected monuments

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Have you already been to India and photographed Taj Mahal and other famous monuments? If you haven’t, from now on you may need a license to do it. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is changing their photography policy, and they will soon require photographers to be licensed if they want to operate commercially in India’s protected monuments.

Unlike the Swiss village that banned photography, this isn’t a PR trick. The reason for this move by ASI is to prevent freelance photographers from “pestering” the visitors who want to take photos.

How to photograph a high end cosmetics product shot with inexpensive equipment

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Even if you don’t photograph products regularly, they’re great test subjects to learn lighting. You get to play around, experiment, and explore how light interacts with different surfaces. And you get to do it in a very controlled way. But high end cosmetics typically have a certain look to them that can be difficult to achieve with modest equipment at home.

Canadian photographer, and pretty good keyboard player, Dustin Dolby is here to help. In this video he shows us his workflow to photograph cosmetic products. And he does it with very inexpensive equipment, too. Just a piece of plexiglass, some foamcore, a speedlights or two, and a couple of cheap softboxes is all you need.

Target’s new swimsuit ad campaign goes “Photoshop-free” (or at least, liquify-free)

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Photoshop has received a bit of a backlash over the last few years about its use in advertising.But, it’s not really Adobe’s fault. Photoshop is just a tool. It’s like blaming Ford because you took a wrong turn down a one way street. But, the criticism has made a lot of companies sit up and think. Their average customer doesn’t really look much like the people used in their advertising campaigns. In fact, even the people used in their advertising campaigns don’t look like themselves in the final result a lot of the time.

More and more organisations have started to go “Photoshop free” for their advertising. And Target have now jumped on the trend, to great effect. To promote their new spring swimwear line, the campaign features women of all shapes and sizes, completely unretouched.

Watch how one photographer shoots flying food with a couple of strip softboxes

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This probably isn’t something you’ll want to try at your local coffee shop to get a quick photo for Instagram. But, if you’re a budding food photographer, or want to try something a little different, this is certainly an eye catching technique.

Seattle based commercial food photographer Steve Hansen has more than a few food lighting tricks up his sleeve. In this video we see how Steve side lights flying food with a pair of Westcott 12″ x 50″ Stripbanks. But he’s not using them quite the way you might expect.

5 thoughts and tips to consider with professional product photography

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As the digital marketplace grows, the demand for good content and eye-catching media increases with it. More and more brands and entrepreneurs are taking the photography in-house to keep up with demand, while keeping production costs down.  So, as a product photographer recognizing the need for assistance, I wanted to take the time to share 5 key thoughts and tips that could be useful.

Retouching interiors in Lightroom & Photoshop

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Here’s a typical quick interior shoot for a Swiss brand called VIU Eyewear. They contacted me to create three images for their website/social networks. The only rule was to stay in the same style than their other images on their “Stores” page (something very simple, white and luminous with an emphasis on the store interior design). Here’s how I shot it and edited it.

Are we entering photography’s “Golden Age”?

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[This article is for commercial photographers and not intended for consumer shooters]

Shoot, I don’t know. Seemed like a good headline made to interest someone enough to engage. A headline that asks a question, a provocative question seems to be the way to get clicks and saves and ‘likes’… all that really important stuff.

And there is a bit of controversy as well. There is a large group of people for whom the word photography means visual connection and a group for whom it means “my business” – although the second group is far smaller than the first.

There will be some photographers who will come to this column ready to fight that statement of “golden age” filled with wonderful stories of how it used to be. Legendary poems will be offered to film and darkroom trays and exclusive access to the joy of making an image. They immediately seque into how the current climate sucks for photographers. The whining may indeed be epic.

And some will come wondering just what a “golden age’ looks like. What will that mean for them?

They melted an espresso machine with 60,000 Watts of light for this photo & video shoot

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Shooting liquids for commercial clients is no easy task. There’s a lot of experimentation and learning involved to build the skills to get it right. And when mastered, it becomes an art form all of its own.

In this behind the scenes documentary by Praemi we see photographer Bill Cahill shooting an ad campaign for Peet’s Coffees 50th anniversary. Bill makes both stills as well as video as part of the campaign. At one point, he requires 60,000 watts of Mole-Richardson lighting for a slow motion sequence, which results in a melted espresso machine.

Creating conceptual photography for a transport company

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An Advertising Agency approach me for making the Key-visuals for a transportation Industry Company. They had the idea of forming different Mode of Transportation like Car, Boat, Moto and Truck with the Body of their Worker.

To get the best out of the idea. I had to modify the idea, and work with professional Dancers instead of the workers from the Company.

The candid honest moments of a commercial videographer captured 2 seconds at a time

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Whenever you work with an action camera, there’s a process. The general sequence of events goes something like this. You pick up your camera, power it up, point it towards yourself to see the lights flashing and start recording. You point it at what you want it to see and record away. Then when you’re done, you turn it back to you and turn it off.

Eventually, you notice an interesting phenomenon. The beginning and end of much of your footage will feature you. It only lasts a second or two, but it’s candid, honest footage. You’re not putting on a show for the camera, because you know you’re cutting it out in the edit. It’s something I’ve certainly noticed since finally picking up some action cameras a couple of months ago. Commercial videographer Tyce Hoskins turned his GoPro moments into this short film.

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