I was always told: if you have to do something, do it with your own style! So here is my Italian style UV box to expose the papers coated with antique photographic processes. At the origin of photography, many technologies of printing required exposure to UV light. In those times, the sun was the perfect source and the exposure was usually made outdoor. But the quantity of UV light from the sun can vary a lot in different seasons or with different weather....

Creating a fake sun is easy, once you know the light qualities of the sun, and really, there are only two of those. It’s (1) small, and (2) orange. Actually, the sun is not really that small, it’s huge, but it is so far away that it small in relation to our field of view. The sun is actually not orange either, it’s white, But the light that gets here to earth becomes orange after it goes through the atmosphere....

Anyone who has ever posted their work online has faced criticism. Sadly, most of us more often deal with trolling and negativity than we do with constructive criticism. Dealing with online trolls and useless negative comments can be incredibly discouraging and stressful. It can even make you stop sharing your work. But before you get discouraged, watch this amazing video by Sean Tucker. It will help you distinguish between constructive and “armchair” criticism, and teach you how to successfully deal with trolls....

When it comes to processing our images, there are all kinds of weird and crazy techniques out there. This is an interesting Lightroom one from Pye Jirsa over at SLR Lounge, which he calls “Dark Mode”. It allows you to quickly and easily draw a distinction between the lit areas you want to highlight, and the shadowy areas, without sending them to pure black. It’s an approach I’d not seen before....

Using multiple cameras is common practice for some photographers. For example, wedding and event photographers often use more than one camera at a time. In some cases, there will be more than one photographer using multiple cameras. To complicate things, these photographers might be using cameras or lenses from different manufacturers. No matter how many cameras are used on a shoot, color harmony is important to help tell a cohesive visual story....

This is one of those exercises that, while a little boring to do, can make those valuable lens investments worth so much more. Fortunately, it’s something that only takes about 10 or 15 minutes to do, and when it’s done, you’re all set. That exercise is finding the “sweet spot” of your lens. Essentially, figuring out at what aperture it performs best and gives the sharpest, cleanest results. This video from photographer Mark Denney walks us through the process....

As a professional photographer, you probably have different packages and pricing options you offer to clients. But if there’s a specifying pricing plan you’d like them to choose, how are you going to make people choose it? In this video, Nick Kolenda teaches you some psychological tricks that will help you guide your clients towards the pricing plan you want to sell the most. Nick uses pricing plans on a website as an example....

Photographers are found in abundance. Exceptional ones, though are extremely rare. Even in the most respected organizations, few can captivate the viewer by evoking wonder, curiosity, and inspiration. Only a handful of highly evolved photographers can capture imagery with the potency and emotion that wins Pulitzers. I’m constantly tuning my receptivity to human emotion. My excitement for photography is deeply rooted in desire to be emotionally captivated. Many photographers employ plenty of hacks and are able to cobble together striking imagery....

Advertisements Start with your base: Creating the displacement map:First things first, “CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E” on your top layer to stamp everything visible. Now go to “Image>Duplicate” and duplicate your image (make sure it’s .psd). If it’s a huge file at this stage (.psb) you’ll need to duplicate the .psb, delete everything and then re-save it as a .pdf). Now on your new file delete every layer except your most recent stamp layer....

When shooting in a studio, you can use V-flats in a variety of ways. In this video, Lindsay Adler shows you three simple setups you can create for beauty photography using V-flats. Each of them requires subtle changes in the setup, yet they’ll all give you drastically different results.Advertisements Setup #1: warm skin tones This setup is all about emphasizing warm skin tones. Lindsay uses a beige seamless background and a large, diffused light pointed flat onto the subject....

I’m no stranger to the iPad. In fact, it once caused me not to get a job at an Apple store shortly after college. I was asked in an interview, “What do you think of the new iPad,” and I answered honestly (mistake number one in a job interview I would learn): “I’m not sure how I feel about it, it doesn’t really do what I would want it to do....

I had the pleasure of shooting with Amy Wilder again! It is always such a joy to shoot with someone who is so on top of their shit. This girl knows how to work it. Normally when I do a shoot I’m trying to get as much “right” in one frame as possible. Aka the face, pose, hair, dress, whatever other magical elements that I’m capturing in camera, all to my liking in one shot....

The dollar store is a place with the most unfortunate collection of landfill, a last-ditch effort to make sales in a consumer world driven to the cheapest possible option.I’m always surprised the kinds of weirdly failed inventions that while sometimes useful, are just slightly off the mark. Admittedly, there’s a lot of things to find in such places that make a creative’s DIY life much easier and opens the doors to possibility....

A few months ago a girl came in to apply for a social media position at my last job. I was one of three photographers at the company and we had an opening for another photographer position. She mentioned to the HR recruiter that she also does photography. The HR guy comes and grabs me to tell me this and was wondering if I wanted to interview her for the open photographer position as well....

Although I’m not obsessed with photo gear, I can’t withhold from buying knick-knacks I can use for photography somehow. In my rich collection of toys and other crap, there are some items I’m not even sure what they’re for. However, it turns out that all of them can be useful for photography, in a few different ways. In this article, I’ll present you with some of these things, and some ideas how you can use them as a photographer....

Traveling to Iceland is a dream come true for many landscape photographers. Sadly, it can be quite costly to travel and stay in this beautiful country. But hey, if you can’t afford it, you can win it – and all you need are your photography skills. Hotel Rangá in Iceland is looking for its first official midnight sun catcher. The hotel offers you a ten-day stay (plus the flight fees), and you “pay” by photographing Iceland’s Midnight Sun....

There aren’t many photographers I know who like drinking from lens mugs. I myself have turned them into stationery holders. But what about some hand-crafted drinking glasses inspired by lenses and made by a talented artist? Canon has teamed up with Yuri Yamada, a Japanese artist working at glass studio Saihou. She has created these gorgeous glasses inspired not only by the look of lenses but also by a shutter sound and the feel of the focusing ring....

Shooting in a studio has its advantages. But although being warm, dry and convenient are greatly appreciated, shooting between the same four walls can get a little boring if you’re constantly using them as backgrounds for your shots. Sure you could get some coloured paper setup, you could even buy a fancy canvas sheet with paint splashes on it, and for the really adventurous, you could even use some coloured lights behind your subject....

Lately, Instagram has been making an effort to combat comment trolls on their platform. They are focusing on making Instagram a “safe and positive place,” and they have just unrolled new features to help you manage comments on your profile. If your profile is public, from now on you’ll be able to control who can comment on your post. It could be everyone, or just groups of people, such as your followers or the people you follow....

Over the next few weeks, Instagram will kill Direct, its Snapchat-clone standalone app for direct messages. Instead, all conversations will be transferred to the direct messaging feature within the main Instagram app. Twitter user Matt Navarra shared the news on Twitter, and at first, it was just a speculation. But in a later tweet he posted a confirmation from Instagram which reads: “In the coming month, we’ll no longer be supporting the Direct app....