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People are praising this photographer for not forcing little girls to smile

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“Just give me a tiny smile, and then we’re done.” I cringed as I heard myself saying this last week to a particularly unhappy and stressed-out little girl. Of course, this wasn’t a random occasion, this was this child’s first communion, and I’d been hired by her parents to take portraits of her and the family so they could remember this special day.

Most of us as portrait and wedding photographers have found ourselves in such a position from time to time, but perhaps it doesn’t need to be this way. One portrait photographer has broken the mould and has received a lot of praise for her portraits of young girls that allow them to be in whatever mood they wish.

Viewbug Gigs lets you get paid for your photos of strangers

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Photo community and a contest platform Viewbug has launched a new service that helps you make money by photographing strangers. It’s called Viewbug Gigs, and it lets you upload your photos of people you take in the street, at events, at the beach, or any other place. The concept requires you to share your Viewbug profile with these people and have them buy photos of themselves that you took. The concept sounds cool, but it does have certain drawbacks, and we’ll go through them in this article.

A real-world test of the new Canon Speedlite EL-1 professional flash

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The Canon Speedlite EL-1 flash was announced late last year, and like many of you, I saw the price tag and thought that I would save some money and keep using my old Canon 600EX-RT flashes. Let’s face it, at $1099 each, these things are not cheap. But about a month ago, I decided to pull the trigger and purchase two of these flashes. Even though I typically use 6 flashes when shooting events, I had a very specific use for these two new flash heads. But that would be getting ahead of myself, so let me tell you a little about these newer flashes.

The first thing I noticed when unpacking the Speedlite EL-1 is that it is noticeably larger than the previous Canon flash heads. I believe that a big part of this is the fan which is integrated inside the Speedlite EL-1. Yes, there is a fan in these to help keep them cool, even when being used heavily.

This is the one simple thing you need to know about working with bounce flash

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Sometimes, as much as we might hate it, we’re forced to stick a flash on the hotshoe. Perhaps it’s something not too important and we just want a bit more light on things. But maybe it’s something very important and you really need to not screw it up. Whatever the reason, getting great light out of an on-camera flash isn’t that difficult. There’s just one thing you need to think about.

In this video, photographer Neil van Niekerk explains that one important thing and how it affects your photos in very simple and easy to understand terms. Yes, I’m going to spoil it now, but that one thing is the inverse square law. But don’t worry, there’s no maths or charts here. Just a simple practical demonstration that’ll make it easy for you to get decent shots when using on-camera flash.

Mitsubishi reported to be leaving the photography market

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I’ll bet most of you didn’t realise Mitsubishi was even in the photography market and just made Shoguns, Galants and various other 4-wheeled whatnots, right? Well, no, that’s Mitsubishi Motors. This is Mitsubishi Electric (confusing, I know) and they’ve been making dye-sub photo printers since the 80s. They’re also one of the most popular brands of on-site printer out there for event photographers.

Well, PhotoBite in the UK is reporting that Mitsubishi Electric is getting out of not only the photography printing market but also the medical printing sector, too. They say that the news has been confirmed to them by Mitsubishi Electric’s Regional Manager for the UK, Middle East and Africa, Paul Jones.

Sony’s new “Visual Story” app for iOS creates AI-curated galleries for wedding and event photographers

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Sony has launched a new Visual Story app for iOS aimed squarely at wedding and event photographers. Or at least, ones that shoot Sony cameras. It allows for easy editing, gallery creation, cloud storage and web delivery solutions to get your images to your clients as quickly as possible.

Visual Story is a free app for Sony & iOS users. It utilises automated image transfer from compatible Sony mirrorless cameras to the cloud, after which users can instantly edit and deliver digital albums to their clients. And to help you with camera metadata and image selection, it uses AI to help pick your best images.

This is why location scouting is so important for destination and event photographers

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I’m lucky with my photography. It’s almost all on location, but I mostly get to choose the location myself. They’re places I’m familiar with, that I’ve scouted regularly for several years. So I know what to expect when I show up, where the light’s going to fall at different times of day or year. For a lot of photographers shooting on location, though, you’re often in locations you’re only just seeing for the first time.

Photographer and YouTuber, Rob Hall, recently shot a wedding at a venue in another state he’d never been to before. But the first thing he did when he arrived at the location was to go and location scout the area. In the 8-minute video, Rob talks about how to do that and why it’s so important.

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