Advanced Photography Techniques

May 17, 2017

Telling A Story With Environmental Portraiture
On assignment with Jim Cornfield, as he uses a subject’s history to tell the story of an honored vet and the airplane that saved his life
Text & Photography By Jim Cornfield
portrait photography
For a recent photo assignment, Jim Cornfield chose to create an environmental portrait of Air Force Capt. Kenneth Curry, telling a story in images by connecting the pilot to his former military experience. The environmental portrait is one of photography’s simpler ideas: An image of a subject that includes his or her external life—some place or... Read more
May 10, 2017

Adjustments With A Restrained Hand
Faithfully and creatively reproducing your images with careful post-production techniques can yield huge dividends
Text & Photography By Brian Matiash
restrained adjustment post-production techniques
The left half of this frame shows the original photo, as taken by my camera. I had a 6-stop ND filter applied, which not only allowed me to get this long exposure, it also applied a visible blue tint. The right half is the exact same photo except I applied a custom white balance that targeted the gray part of the rushing water. The improvement is quite... Read more
April 5, 2017

The Power Of Portable Light
Using speedlights to tell a more compelling visual story
Text & Photography By Tom Bol
portable light
Moai Statue At Sunset. Nikon D3, 24-70mm ƒ/2.8 lens, shot at 1/50 sec. at ƒ/8, Nikon SB-800 used off-camera to light the statue. I have traveled 4,625 miles to get this image. I’m stumbling through the volcanic landscape in the murky predawn darkness trying to find the Moai statues. The salty breeze and crashing surf remind me of early-morning shoots... Read more
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January 23, 2017

The Mixed Studio
Blending modern LED lights with strobes for unique lighting options
Text & Photography By Tom Bol
Mixed Studio
This image uses two LED lights and one strobe. An 18” circular flapjack is the main light on the left, with a ring flash as an accent light on right. An Elinchrom ELB 400 strobe using a 30-degree grid lights the blue background. I love my strobes. Watching them pop away during a shoot energizes the set and amplifies my creativity. My obsession with... Read more
November 16, 2016

In Your Face: Photography In The Age Of Virtual Reality
Photography In The Age of Virtual Reality
By David Schloss
Just as this issue was going to press, Pokémon GO swept the country. Overnight it seemed like everyone was looking face-down at their phones, flicking pretend balls at pretend creatures. Thanks to the intelligent use of a smartphone’s camera, developer Niantic is able to superimpose the various wild Pokémon in a video stream of the real world, a... Read more
September 21, 2016

Why You Should Own A Light Meter But Probably Don’t
A light meter is one of the most important tools in a photographers' arsenal, and you probably don't own one.
David Schloss
Photography is about capturing light, which is why it’s confusing that many photographers don’t own a light meter. After all, if we’re trying to capture light accurately and/or creatively, then we need to know how much light there is and where it’s coming from. In this conversation at the Seikonic booth at the 2016 Photokina... Read more
September 8, 2016

DxO OpticsPro 11
The latest iteration of DxO’s RAW Raw converter and image processing software, OpticsPro 11, offers a couple of new features that really piqued our interest.
Theano Nikitas
DxO OpticsPro 11 - Herbie After
DxO is best known for DxOMark.com, a website that publishes a vast database of quantitative measurements for thousands of lenses and cameras. That information is not gathered for consumer information but to power its image-editing software. The DxO suite of tools uses the analysis of the imaging characteristics of camera equipment to correct any inherent... Read more
July 26, 2016

Stepping Up To Medium Format
A bigger platform opens up a world of possibilities
By Michael Clark
Stepping Up To Medium Format
Aaron Miller climbing on the Crystal Clear Arete (5.12c) in Diablo Canyon near Santa Fe, New Mexico. This image was shot with an 1,100 Watt seconds strobe mounted high on an adjacent cliff above my shooting position. Shooting Info: Hasselblad H5D 50c WiFi, HCD 24mm lens, F/7.1 at 1/80th second at ISO 800. © Michael Clark Michael Clark is an internationally... Read more
July 21, 2016

The Future Of Wireless Flash
Improvements in wireless flash give photographers an astounding amount of creative freedom
Tom Bol
Tom Bol Wireless Flash header
The year 2003 rocked my world as a photographer. It wasn’t the year I purchased my first digital camera. This was the year Nikon introduced the SB-800, which was the first flash I could trigger off-camera using my D70’s popup flash. Using Nikon’s i-TTL technology, flash exposure was calculated using TTL (through-the-lens) metering just like a... Read more
June 29, 2016

Strobe And Sun
How to bring studio-style lighting to the outdoors
Text & Photography By William Sawalich
Strobe And Sun
A strobe-illuminated subject really pops off of an underexposed ambient background. In this case, a cloudy day and tall tree coverage helped bring the ambient down naturally, making it easier to overpower the daylight with a portable strobe. Just because you’re working outdoors doesn’t mean you can’t take studio-style lighting control with you.... Read more