Another installment of 5 cool and inspiring photos I saw today on Flickr!
I’ve done this a couple times before and had lots of fun with it. If you’re a new reader, you can view my previous Flickr posts here and here. [click to continue…]
[Editor's Note: As senior contributor Dan Bailey noted recently, there are all kinds of photographers out there, each at different stages of development. The following post is intended for beginners.]
Portrait photography is one of the more difficult kinds of photography to master. In addition to the difference between creating art and creating a commissioned family portrait – the goals of artist and client are not always the same – eliminating unwanted shadows can be very difficult.
Control over light and shadows makes the difference between a good portrait and a great one. To ensure a great portrait, here are some basic ideas you should keep at the front of your brain. [click to continue…]
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Chroma key, or Green Screen technology, can be useful for wedding photographers.
Green screen technology, also known as Chroma key, has been an integral part of moving images for many years.
The process itself is simple: photograph your subject against a green background, then use Chroma key software to isolate the background and replace it with any still or moving image you like.
While its association with movie special effects has stopped many photographers from considering it for their work, a growing number of professionals are making Chroma key part of their photographic set-up. [click to continue…]
If we are to define iconic travel shots as the broad, symbolic images that establish the mood of a place, then cultural shots are the images that fill in the details and tell the rest of the story. They bring the viewer into the location and offer them an intimate perspective of life itself, as it exists everyday for the people who live there. In that sense, they are the journalistic approach to travel photography.
Cultural shots are images of people doing anything: working, walking, eating, exercising, interacting, participating in festivals and events, etc…. They can also show the non-human elements that surround and illustrate daily human existence. They are often shot from the viewpoint of an observer rather than from the viewpoint of someone who is actively engaged with the scene. Cultural shots portray a way of life, and while there are not hard and fast rules about what makes a good cultural shot, they generally communicate the traditions and lifestyle of a place in a way that reflects your own ideas and excitement about that area. [click to continue…]
The other day I shot a job for free. Yes, I know the deal, we photographers shouldn’t give our services away, we need to charge fair market value and not undercut other photographers.
However, this post isn’t about pricing, it’s about people. It’s about shooting something that means a great deal to me as an individual. It’s about friends.
The job wasn’t even an adventure shoot, in fact it wasn’t even outside. It was a simple family portrait of my two good friends who are about to have their first baby. As you can imagine, they’re super busy getting ready for impending parenthood, and there was no way that they were going to make it to Sears to have pregnancy portraits done.
So I offered to take some photos of them for free. We arranged a time and last Sunday, I lugged all my lighting equipment over to their house and spent a couple of hours shooting photos and drinking tea with them. It turned out to be one of the most satisfying photography jobs that I can remember having in months.
I know that many of you have seen my work; I’m an outside guy. Inside studio portraits are certainly not my specialty, by any means. That said, I thought I did a pretty good job. However, my satisfaction came not only from the fact that they really liked my images, but because I knew that I had created a lasting gift that will mean something to people that I know and care about.
Create and share studio lighting diagrams at Sylights.com
If you’re a studio or portrait photographer, you know that a large portion of your craft and creativity is spent coming up with effective and stylistic ways to light your subjects. Whether you use a simple pair of off-camera flashes or a full kit that includes studio strobes, softboxes, umbrellas, diffuser and reflectors, knowing how and where to position them is the key towards making compelling photographs.
Many photographers will probably attest that achieving the perfect lighting is like chasing the Holy Grail, it’s a lifetime pursuit that requires years of practice and the aid of learning from others.
Enter Sylights.com, the interactive website where you can create sample lighting diagrams, download them for your own reference, share them and learn from other photographers. [click to continue…]
Brooklyn born and raised, Kevin Mazur started shooting live concerts in his teens. He later progressed to staff photographer at Rolling Stone magazine shooting everyone from Bob Dylan to Nirvana. In the 1990s, he became the official concert photographer for an elite group of superstars including Sting, U2 and The Rolling Stones. In 2001, he co-founded WireImage.com, a digital photographic press agency focusing on celebrities, music and the entertainment industry. WireImange as well as Mazur’s Countour Photo, which specializes in high-end celebrity portraiture, were acquired by Getty Images in 2007 for an alleged $200m.
Reuel Golden: You started out primarily as a live music photographer, what are your early memories of those days? At what point, or at what concert did you realize that you had really nailed it?
Kevin Mazur: The early years were some of the best times of my life. It was exciting. I was scalping tickets so I could get front row seats at the concerts. Then I started sneaking my camera in to the shows to get photos of my favorite artists. I nailed it on my first show, which was Fleetwood Mac. I had a huge crush on Stevie Nicks and got amazing photos of her.
RG: What are the most common mistakes people make when they shoot live concerts? What advice would you give to people who want to go into this type of photography?
We’ve all seen photography subjects or techniques get recycled, repurposed and endlessly reappear like an uninvited houseguest. We asked some of the photo industry’s greatest, a collection of famous shooters, photo editors and creative directors, what photography clichés, subjects, styles and techniques, they really don’t want to see anymore.
This is what they said in no particular order and very anonymously:
1. Faux Polaroid looking images. Bring back the real Polaroids!
2. Photographing little [uninteresting] towns that nobody’s ever heard of. [click to continue…]
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