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Stuck in a rut with your portrait compositions? Here’s how to break out of it

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Sometimes if I’ve been doing a lot of shoots of the same type of thing in quick succession, I can find myself in the unfortunate position of falling back on the exact same ideas, compositions and even poses. This becomes particularly apparent if I’m working with the same subject.

Obviously, we want our photographs to all zing with individuality and something I always try to do is to create something unique for not just my clients, but for myself as well. But how do you break out of that photography composition rut when you find yourself slipping into it? In this video, portrait photographer Julia Trotti has a few great ideas to fall back on, to help you get your ideas fresh and flowing again during your next shoot.

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How to take classical musician portraits that rock

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If you shoot portraits at all I can almost guarantee that you’ll get asked at some point by a musician to have some images taken. Whether you’re a professional or an amateur it doesn’t seem to matter. Musicians are generally hungry for photographs and need a constant carousel of images for their publicity and social media.

However, it’s not always that straightforward to take a great shot of a musician. And generally, they don’t just need action shots of them playing, they need a mixture of headshots, shots with the instrument, full-body shots, atmospheric shots, and often shots that would work on an album cover, even in today’s age of digital music downloads.

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Cinematic workflow tips to save you time on set

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You know how you get to the end of the day and it feels like you’ve only done half of your shot list? We’re gonna fix this. Today’s episode is all about knives. Knives, and making your workflow extremely efficient.

If your video company is a one-man-band, or even a small crew, running a tight ship on set, will have a dramatic effect on your ability to deliver. And a few tricks can go a long way in terms of doing more with less. My old boss used to say that “anyone can do a lot with a ton of resources, the magic comes when you can do a lot with little“.  So today, we will look at a few things that I found over the year to really improve my workflow when I go on location.

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Here are four ways to find perfect location for your next shoot

Location scouting is one of the important parts of a photo shoot. There are a few ways to do it and in this video, Walid Azami suggests for of them. They’re all very efficient, but don’t come without some drawbacks. Walid reflects on both the good and the bad sides and gives you a whole lot of tips to make your location scouting just perfect.

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The Hollyland Mars 300 is an affordable HDMI transmitter with decent performance

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I’ll be honest. I’d never heard of Hollyland when they reached out to me and asked if I could have a look at their Mars 300 wireless video transmitter (Amazon | B&H). Will I be keeping my eye out for more stuff from them after having tried read? Read on to find out. 

The Mars 300 is a new entry-level wireless video transmitter. So why would you need or use one of these?

Well, there are a few different use cases for wireless video transmitters.

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Making it work on real life budgets and why Content is King

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“Content is king” is what people say. Well, recently I delivered a video clip that was part of a series of clips I produced for a client. I wasn’t 100% proud of it on a technical level.  So why did I still deliver it to the client? This was, after all, only one part of a series of clips. I could have delivered all the rest and explained to the client that this one wasn’t quite perfect and so would rather not release it.

I still sent it to the client because I knew that the content in the clip, the story if you would, was very engaging. And if you have a great story and decent audio, I believe you can get away with it if some of the shots aren’t perfect.

First, let me explain why the shots weren’t perfect. This was a corporate shoot and, very often in corporate shoots, you don’t have full control of what and how you’re going to shoot.

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PIXEO uses crowdsourcing to show you the best photo spots around the world

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PIXEO is a new crowdsourcing app designed to help you find the perfect locations. Whether on vacation or planning a trip specifically for photography, PIXEO wants to be your one-stop shop for finding where to take your camera.

At the moment, it’s limited to iPhone users, and it has quite a small community. At the moment, the website says it has 480+ users. But those users have uploaded more than 13,000 photos of over 10,780 locations around the world. And it’s only been live for a couple of weeks. So, there’s plenty of time for it to grow.

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DIY Options for Charging Drone Batteries Off-Grid

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If you have a drone, sooner or later you’re going to want to charge your drone battery off-grid.

The problem is that drones use big batteries, so to charge a big battery you need an even bigger battery – a simple solar panel USB charger might be good enough to charge your phone, but it isn’t going to provide enough current to charge a drone battery.

There are a few commercial options available that can charge your drone batteries without an AC outlet, but I decided to build my own…(spoiler – don’t bother!)

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How to approach challenging locations and get the best out of them

A challenging location is not just one you’d call “ugly,” It may just not suitable for the project you’re working on. Your client will have their expectations from you, and the location can make it difficult to meet them. Marcin Lewandowski from Adorama discusses this problem and gives you some great tips for overcoming the challenges and getting the best out of your location.

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3 tips to take great photos even in bad locations

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As photographers, you’ll often have to deal with the unknown. You won’t always be able to scout locations before the shoot, and sometimes you’ll just have to work with what you have. Photographer Manny Ortiz shares three tips that will help you shoot even in really bad locations. You need to take the most of what you have, and these tips will show you how to do it.

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