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So, you’re thinking of becoming a professional wedding photographer? Turning your passion into your career is equally an exciting and difficult decision, and like most things in life, it has both good and bad sides.
In this video from Adorama, you’ll hear more about it from an established wedding photographer. Pye Jirsa takes you through five pros and five cons of being a wedding photographer, and hopefully, it will help you make the decision whether this is a path for you or not.
If you enjoy taking casual photo walks without carrying lots of gear, you may sometimes find it challenging to find good light for street portraits. In this video from Adorama, Pye Jirsa of SLR Lounge takes you for a walk and lets you find good light and compositions with him. He shares some useful tips for finding light anywhere, anytime, and they will help you raise your street portraits to a new level.
It’s easy to get a little stuck in a rut when it comes to studio lighting, particularly with portraits. The human face can only be lit in a flattering way in so many ways. Or can it?
Who says a key light must always be placed in front of the subject? Could it possibly be used to backlight your subject instead? Why yes, of course. Pye Jirsa shows you exactly how to achieve this unconventional yet beautiful lighting setup in this excellent video.
When we hear the term “ring light” in photography, one thing immediately springs to mind and it offers a very distinctive look. But there is also another type, which isn’t meant to wrap around your lens to create that “shadowless” (which isn’t really) beam of fill light coming directly from your camera, and that’s what Pye Jirsa shows us how to make in this video.
It’s an interesting idea, basically wrapping a string of lights around a ring to create a unique look. And sure, while you could potentially try to use it like a traditional ring light, it won’t do much good, as those little LEDs aren’t going to light a subject very well from any kind of distance. But for light painting? Well, that’s where it really shines.
Some photos obviously work better in black and white than they do in color. However, sometimes it’s difficult to decide whether to keep the color version or convert your photos to black and white. I know it’s happened to me many, many times.
If this sounds familiar, this video from Adorama is for you. In the video, Pye Jirsa discusses five scenarios when transferring a photo to black & white could be the best editing option. It will not only help you improve your images, but help you make the decision when you’re having second thoughts.
There are numerous setups you can create with just one light and take stunning portrait photos. Well, unless you’re in this unilluminable room. But if you add a sheet of Plexiglas and some water to the equation, the possibilities for creative portraits largely expand.
In this video from Adorama, Pye Jirsa shares a simple setup that will get you tons of creative studio portraits. With just one strobe, some Plexi, and a spray bottle, he builds up the set to show you how to take interesting foreground bokeh portraits.
When it comes to lenses that present a unique look none really stand out more than the tilt-shift lens. Largely the domain of architectural or product photographers, tilt-shift lenses shift the plane of focus and the centre point of the lens to be able to correct things like perspective and focus shifts and produce looks that are otherwise virtually impossible to achieve unless you’re shooting large format.
But tilt-shift lenses have another quirky use, too, and that’s making things look miniature. It’s a look often imitated in post but usually, the effect is a little too strong and unrealistic. In this video, Pye Jirsa from SLR Lounge walks us through the process of creating tilt-shift images in photoshop that actually look like they were shot by a real tilt-shift lens for very subtle but effective results.
Golden hour is the type of lighting most photographers swear by. And indeed, it’s hard to go wrong when you shoot around this hour of the day. But you know how it is: sometimes the weather or the timing just don’t work for you. Still, there are ways to “cheat” and create your own golden hour.
In this video from Adorama, Pye Jirsa guides you through five simple steps you can take to mimic the golden hour lighting in outdoor portraits. It’s pretty easy and doesn’t even require a complicated setup. All you need is one flash, a color gel, and some photo editing skills.
At some point or another, most people who shoot portraits get the idea into their heads that it’d be quite nice to be able to shoot them from home. But how? Well, if you’ve got a garage, it’s relatively straightforward, as portrait photographer Pye Jirsa from SLR Lounge illustrates in this video where he does exactly that by turning his garage into a home studio that gives professional results.
The good news is that you can do it fairly inexpensively and it’s not a permanent irreversible change. If you need to use your garage as an actual garage for your vehicle, you can still do that. But when you want to shoot portraits, you can empty it out and easily set it up as a studio space for shooting portraits using just natural daylight.
Whether it’s a mistake or a consequence of circumstances, it happens that we end up with blown-out highlights in photos. But if you shoot RAW, it’s possible to fix them. In fact, there are several ways to do it, and in this video from Adorama TV, Pye Jirsa will show you three of them to use in Lightroom and make your photos perfect.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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