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Here’s how to figure out what size and shape of softbox you should buy

Very early on in the journey of a photographer’s transition to flash, particularly studio strobes, the first question we find ourselves asking is “what modifiers should I use?” Actually, the first question is probably “what’s a modifier?” which is then followed by the other one. You start to do a little Googling and searching around retailers, and you discover softboxes. There are so many different shapes and sizes out there, though. Which is the right one?

Well, the fact is that there is no objectively right or wrong softbox. They all exist because they’re all useful. They’re just all useful in different ways and each present a different appearance of light only our subject, depending on how you use them. In this video, David Bergman (and Dean Edwards) take an almost 20-minute tour around every size and shape of softbox you can imagine illustrating what they do.

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Six years after release, Nikon releases new firmware for the D850 DSLR to improve skin tones

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Nikon has released a new v1.3.0 firmware update for the Nikon D850 DSLR, six years after its initial release in 2017. Widely regarded as one of the best DSLRs ever made, it’s largely been usurped by the Nikon Z7 II, but there are still plenty of Nikon D850 bodies out there, and they’re still available to buy new. So, Nikon continues to support them.

The new firmware update introduces the Portrait Impression Balance feature, which was introduced with the Nikon Z6 II and Z7 II mirrorless cameras. This feature allows photographers to correct skin colours in-camera using hue and brightness adjustments. And while this won’t be a big deal to those who shoot raw, it will be for those who shoot jpg (or raw+jpg) or video (certain conditions apply).

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Czech photographer’s “Beautiful Accidents” wins first prize at International Photography Awards

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Czech photographer Martin Stranka has been awarded the first prize at the International Photography Awards 2022 with his series titled “Beautiful Accidents“. The series is certainly beautiful, however, it is no accident that Martin won the award. Make no mistake, this is the culmination of years of hard work.

DIYP was lucky enough to chat with Martin and find out more about his work and how he feels about being the first Czech photographer to be recognized by this prestigious award.

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How would a dancer tackle household chores? This photographer shows us in his amusing portrait project

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I don’t know about you, but whenever I’m at home doing the dishes, I just feel so clumsy and uncoordinated. Surely a dancer would make these household chores look beautiful and effortless! If you’re like me and wonder how a ballet dancer might tackle the ironing or vacuuming, then look no further.

Photographer Eric Raeber has spent the best part of three years photographing dancers doing mundane tasks like washing the dishes or mowing the er living room in an amusing new photo book series called “Dancers at Home“. DIYP caught up with Eric to find out more about the project.

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These five quick tips will help you get striking black and white portraits

Converting your portraits to black and white allows the viewer to focus more on the light, composition, texture, and emotion in the photos. However, there are some things to have in mind while shooting if you want your portrait series to be black and white. In this video, Ian Hippolyte reminds you to be intentional and shares five simple tips to make your portraits more striking.

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Is your life boring? No problem, fake it with AI like this guy did

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I love it when people go to extreme lengths. That’s exactly what writer and director Kyle Vorbach did recently when he decided to fake his own life using just AI-generated images. Many of us have played around with the Lensa app or other image generators like Midjourney or Dall-E, but perhaps we aren’t seeing the huge potential for making ourselves into the influencers we’d all like to be.

Kyle started with a boring stay with his parents. So inevitably, he started experimenting with what he could produce with AI to give his life a little more zest. Strictly for fun, of course. But things began to unravel when he kept going and ended up faking his life for an entire month.

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Do we even need Photoshop anymore? This is how powerful the new masks are in Lightroom

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Adobe Lightroom seems to get more and more useful every year. The most recent updates have made this a formidable piece of software. It used to be that I did a few small global adjustments in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw and then headed straight for Photoshop to do the majority of the retouching work.

These days, I feel that there is less demand for perfection in terms of skin and more demand for a realistic look. At least in the work that I’m doing here in Europe anyway. Less is definitely more. Of course, I will absolutely go in and dodge and burn to my heart’s content if the image needs it. However, as this excellent video by Anthony Morganti shows, the masks are now so powerful in Lightroom that you can do much of your editing without ever having to open up Photoshop. Let’s take a closer look.

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This photographer used AI to help create these exquisite Joan of Arc images

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been hitting the headlines a lot lately. According to popular opinion, it will likely destroy art, photography, and the creative industries as we know them. But is that the whole story? Perhaps we are missing something here. Surely there is a reverse side to all the doom-mongering?

Well, photographer and digital artist Chris Koeppen may actually have found that silver lining. Chris, who goes under the creative alias of An Ethereal Fire, has been using AI for good instead of, you know, evil. He has been using text prompt AI imaging to enhance his creative output and has recently created this series of extraordinary composite images based upon the legendary Joan of Arc. Chris took the time to chat to DIYP about how he made them and about where he sees the future of photography and AI.

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How to get beautiful golden sunlight for perfect portraits even on cloudy days

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The city I live in boasts 300 days of sunshine a year. Except on days when I have a photoshoot booked and need sunshine, it seems! So what to do when you’ve got a client and you want beautiful golden hour light, but the weather just won’t cooperate? You fake it of course!

That’s the beautiful thing about learning to shoot with any kind of light. You aren’t beholden to the whims of metrology. In this video, Lindsay Adler walks us through her setup to create a very natural-looking golden light for her portrait shot.

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Stop using these five terrible poses when taking headshots

We’re all guilty of posing our subjects poorly, especially early on in our careers. However, some of us are still not quite comfortable with photographing people, especially if we need to take professional-looking headshots (yep, I’m that person).

In this tongue-in-cheek video, photographer Pete Coco mentions five of the worst headshot poses in a hilarious way. So, I’m sure his video will help you learn something and make you laugh.

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