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Five composition mistakes you should avoid with your photography and how to fix them

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Composition is one of those things that often gets talked about in photography. After all, it’s one of the fundamental aspects of it. If your composition is bad, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got the exposure good or if you’ve even got your subject in focus. We all know about the “rule of thirds” and the “golden ratio”, but there’s so much more to composition than that.

In this video, photographer Joris Hermans talks about the five compositional mistakes he sees being made all the time. Mistakes you should avoid, and how to avoid them.

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Twitter massively improves quality of JPG images posted and adds Live Photo support for iOS

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One of the big problems with posting photos to social media is that the quality often gets destroyed. The phenomenon is most notable on Facebook where every day I see people asking “What’s the best settings to export for posting photos to Facebook?”. Well, Facebook might still destroy them, but Twitter won’t. They’re now going to be preserving the upload quality of images you post.

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Kodak shuts down Kodakit, its Uber-like photography service

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In early 2017, Kodak launched Kodakit, an on-demand photography service often referred to as “the Uber of Photography.” But only three years later, the company is shutting down the service. Starting from early 2020, Kodak will wind down Kodakit and terminate the photographers’ contracts.

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It’s the ladies turn as pixelcrush_ca’s new series targets the “Typical Female Photographers” everybody knows

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You know, it’s funny. When we featured Mike Roshuk’s last series on typical male photographers I was expecting more people to be offended. At least, I was expecting more men to be offended. Funny thing, though, it was women who seemed to be upset that they’d been left out.

Well, by popular demand, Mike has now made a series on typical female photographers that everyone knows. If the groups I’m in on Facebook are anything to go by, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but I definitely recognise every single one of these. I imagine you probably do, too. Or, perhaps, if you’re a female photographer, you can identify with at least one of them.

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Don’t be afraid of shooting in the rain – embrace it and do it often

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Heading out into the wilderness to shoot photos during the rain isn’t something a lot of photographers think about. In fact, many of them do everything they can to keep their precious babies dry – even if many of them are far better weather-sealed than their owners realise. But going out to shoot in the rain can be a great experience.

In this video, woodland photographer Simon Baxter talks about why he loves shooting in the rain, things you might want to consider when shooting in the rain, and why you should probably do it more often.

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Do you recognise any of these types of photographers? If not, it’s probably you

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Every so often, something comes along in the name of parody that really hits home. In my time working with a camera, I’ve come across every single one of these at some point or other. This wonderful series of illustrations were created by Mike Roshuk at pixelcrush_ca and while they do play on stereotypes, we’ve almost certainly all met them at some point.

We’ve featured Mike’s work here on DIYP before, and it’s really excellent. Hopefully, you’re not one of the photographers featured in his latest series. Or, at least strive to not be one of these. But on the off chance that you haven’t met any of these people in your photographic journey, watch out, one of them might just be you.

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Adaptalux expands its macro lighting range with new Xenon Flash Arm units

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Adaptalux was launched through Kickstarter back in 2015, just creeping past its £100,000 goal. It was a new way to light macro easily with flexible magnetic arms and LED lights that you could get in close to your subject from all angles. LEDs aren’t typically all that bright, though, even when very close. So now, Adaptalux has announced new xenon flash lighting arms, compatible with the existing system.

They’ve taken to Kickstarter again to launch the new flash units. They’re backwards compatible with the previous modular “pods”, retain the same flexible functionality as the LED heads, and they can be controlled via a mobile app for Android or iOS.

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Are you a cheating filmmaker or photographer?

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As creatives, particularly photographers or filmmakers, we’re often accused of “cheating” for using certain techniques and processes. Everything from using presets and LUTs to removing elements of a scene in Photoshop or After Effects. If you haven’t been accused of cheating yet, don’t worry, you probably will at some point.

YouTuber YCImaging certainly has, and in this video, he talks about three of the things he’s been accused of cheating for when it comes to his filmmaking process. Have you been accused of these? Do you use these techniques yourself?

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Here are Five product photography tips and tricks to get those creative juices flowing

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Product photography is a lot of fun to experiment with, even if you’re not a product photographer. It can teach us things about composition, light and how different surfaces react to that light which we might not otherwise have discovered. But once you’ve gone past the basics, how do you push yourself to go that bit further?

In this video, the folks at COOPH offer up five great tips for creative product photography that you might not have thought of. Some will challenge your technical abilities while others are just to get those inspirational juices flowing.

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This is what a gaffer does and why you need one on a film set

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Gaffer is one of those titles that unless you actually become part of the photo or film industry, you’re not really sure what it is. It’s just one of those jobs that scrolls up the titles at the end of a movie along with countless others. But they play a vital role on a film set. They’re the guys who make the light look the way the director or DP wants it while still making it look natural.

In this video from Vanity Fair, gaffer Andy Day, who’s worked on movies such as Creed II, The Bourne Legacy and Salt, shows us what happens when you shoot a scene without having a gaffer on set. And while the video is geared specifically towards the movies, the same holds true of photography.

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