Back in the day, presidents were “immortalized” by having life masks created. A life mask is essentially a sculpture of a person’s head made of plaster. The Smithsonian Institution is about to change that tradition by digitally constructing a model with a 3D printer: The trick is that the 3D model is an exact copy […]
It’s not every day that you get a chance to photograph the “marble” from outer space. I would kill for a chance like that (figuratively speaking). Here, astronaut Don Pettit shares his experience with astronaut photography: Pettit is an astronaut, of course, and part of his job description is photography. But photography in space doesn’t […]
National Geographic photographers are amongst the most extreme bunch. And to be honest, most of the photographers I know—myself included—dream of working for the company. Everybody knows that it’s a tough job, but National Geographic’s photographers have a few tricks up their sleeves. And Kenji Yamaguchi is the mastermind behind those tricks: Kenji Yamaguchi is […]
Low key portraiture is all about light and shadow control. You need to understand light to do it. Lindsay Adler provides a useful tutorial: What is Low Key Lighting? Low key portraits utilize dark backgrounds, shadows, and low light. The resulting images tend to be dramatic with high contrast. Inverse Square Law Knowing how light […]
We all know that working with kids is as tough as it gets. They’re energetic, fast, and often don’t pay much attention to what is going on around them. Luckily, Tamara Lackey, an expert at photographing kids and families, offers lots of good advice: 1. Control your depth of field If you have your camera […]
I have to admit it, there haven’t been many occasions where I haven’t been fascinated by high speed photos. No matter the subject, it looks great when it’s perfectly frozen in time. Here we have some excellent photos of ink dropped into water and frozen in time by Alberto Seveso: The process is fairly simple […]
Being able to capture emotion in a portrait is a good part of what makes an image good. This holds true for animals as well as people. While it’s impossible to truly know what an animal is thinking or feeling, the frog in the photograph below sure is doing an incredible job convincing viewers that […]
Hair lights, back lights, and barn doors, oh my! Studio lighting can be overwhelming when you first start getting into it. Some photographers out there have thousands of dollars of accessories associated with their studio setup. The good news is that you don’t have to be rich to enter into the world of studio portraits. […]
We all know that certain photography techniques die out when better and newer technology replaces them. That’s what’s going on with the film at the moment. There are fewer and fewer manufacturers producing film, and even fewer shops developing it. But sometimes we still want that nostalgic feel in our photos: Aaron Nace shows how […]
This is one of those shots where your brain has no idea what’s going on. This can be bad or good, depending on the situation: In the case of this photo of raccoons, the confusion turned out pretty fun; you can see a rock floating in the sky behind the little critters. However, that rock […]
