Recently I got to work with FX makeup artist Nikoleta Tzani on a few projects. So far or collaborations have created neo-noir demons, Zombie hordes, Baba Yaga (a Slavic witch) and Recently this homage to Universal Studios Wolfman. Being that we are both big horror fans, I jumped at the chance when Nikoleta said she had a wolfman project ready to go. When planning how I would shoot the image I knew that even though it is a little cliche, I would need to have the moon featured somewhere....

Last summer I got to create a series of editorial images for Grays Court in York. The hotel is well known for its history and has won many awards. Kings and queens of England have graced that building and you can feel it when you are walking through the rooms.Advertisements The brief was to keep with the English heritage theme but to sprinkle some magic/fantasy in there as the city of York is known for that....

I’m going to break with tradition a bit, for I usually am not one to talk about celebrities that I keep in touch with from photoshoots. Some of this comes out of professional courtesy, and another part of it is that I am a bit of a private person However, a current project and fun day in the studio has made for some new images and behind the scenes video that I think you will all enjoy....

With drone photography, things right now are very fast-paced, both in the development of the tech and the implementation of the rules. There’s a lot I can tell you about drone photography. Overarching all of the creative elements the single, most important piece of advice I can give you is this: Make sure you know the local drone laws, wherever you are and wherever you’re going! As I mentioned, there’s a lot I can teach about drone photography, I’ve written a lot about it and I have a course live on KelbyOne all about it right now....

Storing and backing up efficiently and securely more than ten years of photography is a complicate technical task. At the center of my setup I use a Synology DS1515+ NAS, with 8 disks configured in Raid 6 for a total of 14.54TB of available storage. I wrote about this set up a year ago, but I recently updated it to be more streamlined and secure. The Adobe Ligthroom catalog I use to organize and edit all my images must be stored on a local drive and not on a network drive....

Kodak is certainly one of the most iconic names in the photography industry. At the same time, it’s also one of the companies with the most turbulent history. This brilliant video from Wall Street Journal guides you through 140 years of Kodak’s history in only eight minutes and shows you all ups and downs of the former tech giant. The founder of Kodak, George Eastman, started the photography business in 1880....

If you have looked at wedding photography pricing you are possibly aware by now of how expensive wedding photography can be. In fact, the average price for a wedding photographer in 2019/20 is £1,560 (survey from www.yourperfectweddingphotographer.co.uk). It’s a figure that seems to have stayed almost constant for the last five years. With a wedding photographer being in the top three things to prioritise for a wedding most websites will advise that you should set aside 10-15% of your budget for a wedding photographer....

After returning to live in Tokyo 2012, photographer Philipp Zechner notice a shift in the behaviour and attitudes of the people there. Gone was the optimism that had long ruled the country, replaced by fear and uncertainty for the future, and Philipp decided to document what he saw in a project titled Tokyo Radiant. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the devastating earthquake that shook Japan in 2011, which destroyed many towns in the coastal regions of the north east, eventually leading to the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant....

Tilt shift lenses are used for far more than simply making cities look like they were shot as miniatures. They allow you to correct for perspective distortion. They also let you shift the focal plane to get subjects at different distances in focus and a whole lot more. You don’t get quite the versatility that you would from the movements of a large format camera, but they’re a start. Of course, the miniature effect in recent years (whether shot in camera, done in post, or applied in Instagram) has made tilt shift lenses quite popular....

As you probably know, I am a bit obsessed with colors lately. While I was obsessively looking around and searching and asking people until they didn’t answer my requests anymore, something popped up and I have to share it because it’s simple and brilliant: Color Grading using luminosity masks. Zoë Noble just released a 10-minutes tutorial on Youtube, explaining the process on a very nice beauty-image. In the Video, Zoë explains the basics of luminosity masking....

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....

If you enjoy experimenting with bokeh shapes, I’ve found a perfect tutorial for you. Mathieu Stern is known for his solutions which are so simple that they are ingenious. In under a minute, he’ll teach you how to create spectacular “bokeh explosion” with a simple modification of the lens. Mathieu uses a MIR-1B, a cheap Russian lens you can find online or probably even at flea markets. Here’s what you’ll need for this hack:...

The Hitchcock zoom, Vertigo effect, dolly zoom, it has a bunch of different names depending on who you ask. But it’s all the same thing. Moving the camera away from your subject while zooming in. Or, bringing the camera closer to your subject while zooming out. It’s a very difficult technique to master, but today we have digital options to make life easier and simulate it in post. In this video from Tom’s Tech Time, we see one way to create this effect using footage from just about any drone....

While winter portraits might not be on most of our minds with Summer about to officially kick in for the Northern Hemisphere, it’s certainly been on the mind of photographer Hamza Sleem, who created these amazing winter portraits in his home studio with the help of a cheap can of artificial spray snow. Hamza’s home studio setup is fairly simple, with just a Canon EOS 1200D and 18-55mm kit lens, a single strobe and a backdrop....

Long exposures are a lot of fun to shoot and experiment with. Although they can take some time to create (they are long exposures, after all), you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get until it’s finally over and the shutter closes. But they’re a lot easier to shoot than most people think. In this video, Pierre Lambert breaks down the process into simple steps. One of the great things about long exposure photography is that it forces you to learn about the exposure triangle....

If you want to do astrophotography, a star tracker is a must. Sadly, they’re far from being cheap, which is an obstacle for many of us. Thankfully, there are folks like Nico Carver of Nebula Photos who teach us how to make a DIY star tracker for only $30. In this video, he guides you all the way through making and using a simple barn door tracker: from the parts you need to the finished images you get with it....

If you want to change colors in your photos, you may find color inspiration lying in other images. If you want to copy the exact color from one image to another, Colin Smith from Photoshop Cafe has a tutorial to help you do it pretty quickly and accurately. He uses a Curves adjustment layer and works in Lab mode, and he teaches you how to apply this technique to flawlessly match colors between two images....

Some of us only shoot video with our smartphones. And while many of us prefer to use “real cameras”, we often find ourselves somewhere really cool but our smartphone is all we have with us. That doesn’t mean you have to settle for crappy and jerky handheld footage, though. Oh no! Many of the techniques used to create epic footage with larger cameras can also work with your phone, too....

Sometimes it can be great to flex your skills and show off your lighting prowess, but we can often run into the danger of the image being more about the lighting technique rather than the look of the final image itself. This is something I always try and hammer home when I’m teaching new techniques. Is there anybody here old enough to remember the horrendous HDR portraits of the early 2000s?...

Corporate headshots—they pay so well, and yet for many photographers, they represent the lowest form of photography. The work is repetitive, and yet involves some significant challenges in terms of managing quality and clients. One of those challenges is managing light during office on-sites. You’ll rarely have the opportunity to scout locations beforehand, and yet you’ll have to bring the right equipment to be prepared for practically anything. If you end up in a windowless room, you’re in luck....