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How to Deal With Harsh, Midday Lighting

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How to deal with harsh lighting

As photographers, light is something we are constantly concerned about. We need some sort of light source coming in, but from where and how much is always the question. A soft sun glow during the early hours of the morning or right before sunset is ideal, but often times wedding ceremonies or a client’s schedule does not allow for those prime shooting times. Light can take a normally plain image and transform it into a powerful and exciting picture, but what happens when you are dealing with harsh midday, overhead lighting? Luckily, there are a couple ways of dealing with this problem while still achieving beautiful pictures that both you and your clients will be happy with.

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Introduction to Image Cropping

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Creative Cropping (22)

If you took workshops and coursework on photography, chances are you’ve heard every mentor talk about understanding composition and learning to crop within the camera. Doing so will yield greatly composed photos and will limit your time in post production. But from time to time, you will come back with badly cropped photos which might have distracting elements in the background and the composition may not look spot on. If you are photographing portraits, even the slightest distraction may draw the viewer’s attention to something else than what you originally intended the viewer to concentrate on. At times like these, instead of deleting the photo, I want to give it another chance. Memories are precious and I do not mind cropping the photo to preserve what is important. Cropping images in post production will give you another chance to re-frame your shots and there are a number of different ways you can do this to achieve desirable results.

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How to Photograph Family Portraits

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Portrait Photography (2)

Of all things photography I love photographing family portraits. For me, family portraiture is generally more flexible than any other type of photography, and it gives me lots of opportunities to express my creativity. If you are thinking about getting into family portraiture or perhaps someone asked you to photograph their family, you might not know where to start and how to plan it all out. In this article, I will talk about photographing family portraits and provide some tips on simple things you can do to come back with photos that the family will treasure for years to come.

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Time Saving Tips for Wedding Photographers

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1 Laura Murray Wedding Photography Tips

Summertime for wedding photographers in the northern hemisphere can be quite hectic! Since the beginning of May I have been shooting 3-5 portraits sessions and 1-2 weddings per week – that means before I have little time to process, edit, and complete a session/wedding before I am already onto the next one. It goes without saying that good time management is crucial for not falling behind. In this article, I will share a few time savings tips for busy photographers like me.

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Hiring a Second Shooter for Wedding Photography

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Hiring a second shooter (7)

Many photographers prefer to have second shooters to help them out during events, especially big weddings. Hiring or becoming a second photographer to work along with you on a job might be very complicated, tricky and sometimes downright nightmarish. You hire a photographer to come and help you out during one of the biggest weddings of your season, and the photographer shows up late, completely unprepared, with empty batteries, no flash and a completely different camera system. If you wish to avoid such situations, read this post up and make yourself thoroughly prepared. It sure is a hard job to let someone else represent your business. But when you are ready, you can make the experience both pleasant and even memorable for all parties involved.

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How to Photograph High School Seniors by Mario Masitti

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Mario Masitti Seniors 1

We are continuing our education series from some of the best photographers in Colorado and this time we are proud to feature Mario Masitti, who is without a doubt, one of the most successful high school senior photographers in the nation, not just Colorado. In this article, Mario will shed some light on high school senior photography and share his technique, style, gear and provide some sound advice for aspiring photographers. We hope you enjoy reading this article and learning from him.

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Wildlife Photography Tips: Take a Kid Shooting

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Take a kid shooting

Ok, I know you may be thinking, “How is take a kid shooting a wildlife photography tip?” Maybe it isn’t in the traditional sense. Regardless, I was thinking about an ad campaign here in the United States that promoted fishing whose slogan was “Take a kid fishing” and it got me to thinking about photography and a similar slogan that could be “Take a Kid Shooting”. I have a grandson that has taken a liking to photography having been influenced by his father and grandfather’s love of taking photos. His interest has given me the pleasure to take him out and have him shoot with me from time to time.

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How to Use a Reflector

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Reflectors

In the world of photography, nothing happens without light. In most cases, there are two types of light that photographers work with: natural light and artificial light. Although I often find myself using artificial light sources, I prefer using natural light whenever possible and consider myself to be a natural light photographer. One of the tools that has made the biggest difference to my natural light photography (and, for that matter, studio photography) is a reflector. In this guide, I will show you how to use a reflector effectively to enhance your photographs by simply bouncing natural light.

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Defining Success

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Photography Life Logo

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to your attention a masterpiece video from Fstoppers interviewing creme de la creme of current photographic community. Zack Arias, John Keatley, Joe Mcnally, Peter Hurley, Scott Hargis, David Burnett, Greg Heisler, David Hobby – each share their struggles, experience and goals they’ve had throughout their career, which ultimately shaped them into what they are today. I hope Patrick and Lee will not get offended if I say that this is by far the best video they have produced throughout their original series. Although the original title says “Success in Photography”, after watching this video what appealed to me most was how these successful people integrated photography to their lives and how photography changed their outlook on the world.

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Food Photography Tips: Introduction

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Food Photography

My personal food photography journey started slightly earlier than my love for wedding and portrait photography. Since I cook a lot, one day Nasim suggested that I document it and possibly turn my recipes into a blog. It started with one single shot of the final look of the dish before we devoured it, and ended up developing into step-by-step recipes that started gaining popularity. Although I took a break from food photography, I still kept on getting questions regarding the craft of food photography. So, I decided to start writing articles dedicated to food photography tips and techniques and how to work with food in various situations.

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