How to Make the Most of a 50mm Lens for Portrait Photography

If you’re the type to often shoot at 35mm or wider, then a 50mm lens could be ideal for portraiture.

Photographers who often reach for 35mm or 28mm lenses can make a great case for using the 50mm lens for portrait photography. At times, an 85mm lens can feel too long, but modern 50mm lenses like a Canon RF 50mm f1.2 L USM can render a look like much of what’s on the market today. As one of its biggest advantages, it lets you frame your scene in tighter locations and also keeps you within a closer physical working distance to the subject. Best of all, due to the f1.2 aperture, the lens lets you seriously isolate your portrait subject in a way that only most 85mm lenses can.

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These Mother’s Day Sales on Cameras, Lenses and More are Still On!

This Mothers Day photography gift guide has loads of sales that are still on! And some made even better!

We hope that you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day. And for those of you interested in still snagging some gear on sale, we’ve gone through our Reviews Index and selected a few items at varying price points for the photographer/mom in your life. Best of all–everything we’ve found is being offered at fantastic prices right now.

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Every Photographer Needs Canvas Prints of Their Most Beloved Photos

Canvas prints are some of the best options for photographers to realistically sell to any client.

I think that once any photographers experiences that magical moment when their images become manifest on a surface, they change immediately. But the best thing that any photographer can print on besides a really high end paper type is canvas. Canvas, in my opinion, should be the standard by what all other print types should be measured by due to the fact that so many photos are sold to clients for them to put them in their homes. Canvases provide versatility that isn’t really offered by all print jobs–at least when it comes to adapting to the environment around it.

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Here’s the Latest Way That Photographers are Getting Hired

Think of it as Instagram’s significantly more network creation focused competition: it’s Shapr.

I’m not sure that a single photographer could say with complete honesty that if they could find a way to make their dream gig easier to happen, then they would. For many of us, Instagram made that possible–but a new option is popping onto the scene to make it easier for collaborations and hirings to become a reality without an algorithm trying to beat you down in every way possible. It’s called Shapr, and to understand it a bit more we decided that we wouldn’t talk to photographers.

Instead, we figured that we’d link up with the people actively hiring photographers.

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These High Quality Photo Prints are Made in the Darkroom: Similar to Chrome Film!

“Yes they are!” is what Ken, Printing Department Head over at Duggal, said about the Duggal HD-C prints!

Duggal renamed their chromogenic prints to their HD-C prints a number of years ago. Why? Maybe just to get with it in the digital world and for better marketing. But if you’re understanding of how fantastic prints from darkroom processes can be, then you’ll understand the affordable yet super high quality that they’re delivering to customers via ShopDuggal. These images are made using a very special machine that was previously in use for Spy work. Printing at 600DPI, Duggal’s HD-C Prints are made at a super high resolution that can only be experiencing when using a loupe put right up onto the photos.

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The Best Gift a Photographer Can Give is a Print; And Here’s How You Can Do it Correctly.

The absolute best thing that any photographer can do to their images is bring it into the real world via a print.

As the Editor in Chief of the Phoblographer, we get a bunch of submissions from photographers for us to feature their work–and unfortunately I think that one of the problems for many photographers is the fact that we’re not all using the same screens. To that end, all of our images look different depending on a number of factors that are almost completely out of control. Some of those factors include the lighting around the screen that your photos are being viewed on, the screen that it’s being viewed on, etc. But with prints, there’s a pretty different story.

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The Phoblographer’s 2018 Guide to Making Prints for Your Loved Ones

Every photographer should give the gift of their work to their dearest, and what better way to do that than with a printed piece of art?

The holidays are coming up soon, and if you’re in the spirit, consider the gift of your own artwork to clients, loved ones, friends, etc. What you create is special: you put effort into it, you spend hours in post-production or with subjects, and you refine your craft and creative vision until you feel like it’s just right. Your art should be on someone’s wall, on their coffee table, in their cubicle, etc. Want to get started? Let’s take a look at some of our favorite options for 2018.

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The Native’s Guide to Using the Canon EOS R in New York City

FOLKS, WE FINALLY HAVE THE CANON EOS R SYSTEM!!

I’ve been using the Canon EOS R system for a number of months now here in NYC. For the photographer with lots of Canon glass or the photographer still trying to make the leap to mirrorless, the Canon EOS R system has proven to me that it is highly capable of meeting and exceeding the needs most travel photographers have. As a busy Editor in Chief, my job often takes me around the world, but I think any fellow native New Yorker can agree with me: you can always feel like a tourist in your own city. New York’s neighborhoods tend to go through changes about every six months in some way or another, and what better way to scrapbook your travels than with some of the best lenses available to a mirrorless camera system? The Canon EOS R system was designed first and foremost around the lenses (arguably the most important part of any camera system).

So if you plan on making it into our beautiful city during your travels, please do take this guide to heart and consider the words of a native who can say he’s explored every part of this city with the curiosity of a child.

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The Secret Weapon for Night Photography Is This Filter

Photography at night can bring mystery, viewer curiosity, and (when done right) rich color to your work.

It’s common knowledge that at night you should have a tripod and cable release at a minimum, but there’s one tool that’s considered a secret weapon among successful night photographers and that’s an intensifier filter. An intensifier filter (AKA red intensifier, light pollution killer and the technical name “didymium”) is a tool every photographer needs to have in their kit. Basically, the intensifier works by targeting the light emitted by common street lamps and dramatically reduces the muddy yellow glow as the light passes through the filter. What you end up with is a clean RAW file with rich color, and increased contrast and sharpness.

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The Neutral Density Filter That You Probably Don’t Know About, But Should

Photography is an art and craft revolving around controlling light.

The more we know about controlling light the better off we are as creators. But in addition to that, we need the proper tools to control light. Without the right tools, we limit our potential to create work based on our vision, which is a frustrating thing. It’s also important to have quality tools that are reliable and produce predictable results. One of the most straightforward ways to control light is with a neutral density filter but there are some very important things to look out for when finding the right filter.

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How Photographer Steven Magner Uses a Lens Filter to Get a Special Effect in the Night Sky

Steven Magner gets his nightscape photos with a little help from the Hoya intensifier filter

Photographer Steven Magner’s interest in photography started at a young age when his grandmother bought him a Fujifilm MX-1200 for Christmas in 1999. He’s always been a landscape and wildlife photographer in Connecticut until he moved to Los Angeles to work as a graphic designer. It was there that he got into architectural photography and the effects of the photo bug’s bite grew infectious. Today, his wife refers to his camera as “his mistress.” Upon looking at his work, we were in awe of some of the stuff he made at night. His secret – a little filter from Hoya.

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Three Photographers Give You Tips on How to Sell Prints

Lots of photographers know nothing about selling their prints. So we asked for some tips.

How do you convince someone to buy a print from you? For most photographers, it can be pretty tough to figure this one out. But with an industry as visual as ours, you’re often best trying to convince someone by showing them the image and not just talking to them about it. I mean, who wouldn’t want a really nice big print of one of your best images in their living room or their office? A part of it is psychology and finding a way to appeal to certain segments. But another part is about putting your best foot forward.

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Unraveling the FUJIFILM GFX: Creating with a Purpose

Medium format has always been a Creator’s tool; so too is the FUJIFILM GFX 50S.

While medium format can surely be used well for capturing a scene, it’s often best used in a more traditional fashion. The FUJFILM GFX is a larger than full frame option that lends itself and its qualities best to the idea of creating vs capturing. The idea of capturing a photo means there is very little or no outside interference by you at all. You’re essentially capturing life as it goes on and you have little to no influence on how events unfold–and that’s why you’re often called a “fly on the wall.” But creating means that you’re creating a universe or a scene when you shoot photos. Images like this are either carefully put together by adjusting element after element in the scene or with things like photo manipulation in post-production.

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Unraveling the FUJIFILM GFX: Bigger Sensors and Editing

The FUJIFILM GFX 50S, with its larger than full frame sensor, provides photographers with a whole lot of editing power

We know what a medium format imaging sensor can do for depth of field, but photographers who are considering moving up to the FUJIFILM GFX system should know about the power of RAW files. Every photographer could always use more versatility from their digital negatives, and medium format sensors can provide that due to their larger pixels and overall larger imaging area. When you combine this with the GFX lens system, Fujifilm’s film simulations, and a solid editing program, you’re going to get images that stand out from the rest.

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Unraveling the FUJIFILM GFX: How a Medium Format Sensor Affects Depth of Field

Photographers who love bokeh in their photos will love to understand its relationship with depth of field

If you listen to the ramblings of so many photographers out there, they’ll tell you about how and why full frame is the way to go; and they’ll rarely talk about depth of field. but we all know that somewhere deep down inside, they’re thinking about it. Indeed, when you go from an APS-C sensor to a full frame 35mm sensor, your depth of field at a given aperture or focal length changes. The general consensus is that bigger is always better. If you’re a street photographer, photojournalist, or a portrait photographer then you probably really care about some sort of shallow depth of field in your images. This doesn’t only have to do with how the sensor on the camera you’re using works, but also deals with your lenses.

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How I Went About Making a Zine With a Collective

All images of the zine creation process by James Moreton. 

Back in May I responded to an interview with Chris at the Phoblographer about making zines, why photographers should make them, the drive behind creating zines and some of my experiences of the creative process. The premise of the article was centred on a zine I created last year (Figments), but I hinted at what was coming from the Collective I am a member of – that project is now complete; AllFormat Issue 2. For this issue we wanted to create more of a collaborative photo book, so we thought what better way to do that than to take the reader on a journey through our collective psyche.

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Tutorial Video: How Photographers Can Calibrate Their Computer Display

Photographers need to be able to not only shoot great photos, but also export great images. And there are lots of tutorials on how to edit your photos to look a given way but not a whole lot on how to do something fundamental to the process: screen calibration. Let’s think about this: my office setup and the lighting there is most likely far different from what you have in your office, where you’re probably reading this from, or on your mobile device. So it isn’t the same viewing experience. If you’ve ever used photographic reflectors, your viewing experience of a screen is very much like using different sides of a reflector–soft gold does one thing, white does another, etc. Photographers need to be able to give their viewers the same viewing experience they have.

In order to do that, please check out this video below on just how you calibrate your display from our recent Facebook Live session.

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Shooting and Editing A Portrait Photo That Simply Pops

Creating a portrait photo that pops surely starts within the camera, but with some of the tools available in ACDSee Ultimate 10, you can create a photo that has even more pizazz. For a number of years, photographers have been looking for something a bit more powerful than Adobe Lightroom but not quite as complicated as Photoshop: and one of the options on the market is ACDSee Ultimate 10. The PC based software is designed for the photographers who want a bit more power and versatility but don’t need the entire Adobe Creative Suite. With one piece of software you get features of Lightroom, Bridge and Photoshop all in one place.

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to make a portrait pop in ACDSee Ultimate 10.

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What Photographers Need to Make The Website Building Process Amazingly Simple

“Just images, right?” No! You see, one of the reasons why so many people don’t want to make a website for their photography is because they don’t want to get all the necessary information together to do it. Crazy, right? Despite the fact that making a website is incredibly simple these days some photographers just haven’t taken that next step.

If you’re still looking to take that next step though, here are the things that every photographer should have ready and in place before they create a proper, dedicated home base for their portfolio.

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What a Photo Editor Looks For in a Photographer’s Website

Lead image is the website of Samm Blake.

Social media is easy–and perhaps this is one of the biggest reasons why so many photographers don’t to go ahead and make the jump into creating a website of their own, despite how simple it is with services like Squarespace. In fact, for the photographer who wants to take the next step with displaying their work, they sometimes don’t understand how incredibly simple it can be with tremendous payoffs when it comes to getting your name out there. In fact, when pitching yourself and a project you’ve done to a publication, it’s one of the most important things any photo editor will ask for.

Believe me: considering the volume of pitches this website receives each day, I see great websites every day and I see websites I believe should never have been built. So here’s what Photo Editors want to see in your website.

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Inside the Mind of a Working Headshot Photographer

Blog post by Vanessa Joy.

When you look at headshots, you’ll know that everyone is very aware of the various looks that so many photographers market. But creating your own and putting a stamp of genuine unique creative vision on it is also important to making people see your photos and know that you took them. That’s what Moshe Zusman and Vanessa Joy are trying to teach the next generation of photographers. To do this, Vanessa shared a number of her tips to every headshot photographer to be aware of.

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