Have you ever thought about the comparison of shutter speeds to miles per hour? If so, then you will enjoy this infographic.
In the infographic below you will see the average mp/h of each subject (including a zombie) and the shutter speed necessary to freeze them in a still photograph.
The infographic was created by Photocrati’s Scott Wyden Kivowitz for his project, Lens Sweet Spot.
I’m often asked by potential clients, what I would happen if I was too ill to shoot their wedding. Of course, in that case I know a number of other photographers in the area that could cover for me but my approach to solving this problem is a little more long-term than that. I focus on staying healthy and so far, I’ve not missed any wedding!
Looking back on periods of illness in recent years I could see that in most cases they were entirely predictable. I was extremely busy, not eating well or getting enough sleep and soon enough I’d have a cold, sore throat or other problem. As a wedding photographer I now keep a close eye on these factors and make sure that I get things sorted at the first sign of any problems.
The second factor in my healthy business plan is exercise. I go to the gym up to five times a week to do a mixture of exercise and I love to ride my bike around the Yorkshire hills near home. Together these activities help to keep me strong, with enough energy to get through the typical 14 hour wedding day!
A good nights sleep is often all I need to nip a potential illness in the bud and getting enough shut-eye is, for me, a key component of staying healthy. Double wedding weekends are becoming more common and in this case I take a four-day approach to getting through. It means an early night on the eve of the first wedding. At the end of the wedding it is straight home to back up, shower and recharge the my batteries and those in the equipment! After the second wedding it is time to relax and if at all possible take a day off to recover.
Gear choices are also important. Do you really need to be carrying around all of the equipment? Perhaps even more important is how you carry it around. At an early wedding I pulled my back after throwing a heavy bag over my shoulder. As a result I invested in a rolling camera bag to prevent any similar injuries in the future.
So to summarise:
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Mark Dolby is a professional wedding photographer based in Leeds in the UK.
As a family, acting and modeling photographer, for quite a few years now I have been doing silhouettes of my photo subjects. On one side of my studio is a sliding door that is made of a mesh of steel squares and white Plexiglas. At the end of a session, either a modeling or acting photo session usually, I would place the subject sideways in one of the Plexiglas squares framed within a 2’ by 4’ frame of steel. I would meter with the white globe also facing profile and usually shoot in the f/4 range. I would make sure the subject brushed their hair back off the neck to get a nice clean line in the front of the profile. And then have them try different expressions. I find an exaggerated, even faked, smile looks good once you process the image for a pure silhouette.
After proofing the session…. I select one of the silhouette images and process it in Lightroom. I play with the Exposure, Contrast, Shadows and blacks exaggerating the whites and increasing the blacks until all extraneous detail is removed leaving a simple silhouette. I then use the Photoshop clone tool to clean up all things that may distract from the subject, and select the whites and then the blacks and fine tune them with the curves tool.
I started just doing this with the models and actors that I photograph here in Scottsdale and Phoenix, Arizona … and now do it with my family photography sessions as well. The parents are thrilled with the results and usually order a few prints of the kid’s silhouettes. A word of warning… many adults are not so thrilled with their silhouette. Subjects who are having weight issues or just in general aren’t crazy about having their picture taken shy away from the suggestion of having their silhouette taken or simply don’t like the results. So I usually only suggest it to subjects that I instinctually sense might be pleased with the result.
I have expanded the shooting technique… I now have a 9’ wide roll of white paper that I roll down behind my subjects so I can do full body and even multiple subjects in one shot. In a pinch, I have also used my 2’ by 6’ translucent diffuser outside with the subject on the opposite side of the diffuser and using the sun as a light source.
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Scottsdale, Phoenix, Paradise Valley and Tempe Arizona senior picture, headshot, family, wedding, event, acting and modeling photographer.
http://jonsimpson.com
Editors note: Looking for a wedding photographer in Phoenix, Arizona? Check out this list of Phoenix wedding photographers.
Whether you’re just starting out as a photographer, or you’re a seasoned pro, you’ve probably wondered at times how best to help your clients get ready for a photo shoot. Once you’re on the client’s payroll, you’re under certain expectations for both shot quality and quantity. There’s so much more to a great photo shoot than merely grabbing a camera; here are some tips along with a check list you can go through before each shoot.
There are a lot of things you can do to help yourself and your client get ready for an upcoming photo shoot, but it really all boils down to your level of confidence and your client’s level of trust in your ability. If you go into the shoot fully prepared, and your client goes in knowing what to expect, it will be easier for everyone involved to just relax and have fun.
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This post was written by Crispin Jones on behalf of Beck Photographic – expert Northampton wedding photographers.
My Olympus E-PL2 is my go to camera of choice and I’m unlikely to upgrade any time soon. There are 3 main reasons why I choose to shoot a Micro 4/3 over a full-sized DSLR.
When I pull out this little white camera with its flowery vintage strap no one pays attention, which is exactly how I want to take my street shots. Never mind if I’ve got a beast of a full-size telephoto lens on the front, people just don’t take it seriously. Which allows me to get down to the serious business of taking unobtrusive street shots anywhere I go. It’s an important ingredient in capturing the spontaneity of the city and I don’t think I could do it nearly as well if I had a larger, more ‘official’ looking camera hanging around my neck.
© Andrea Dixon
My go to lens is a Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 lens that helps me create the luminous, soft photos I see in my head. I have piles of manual lenses that I use on my E-PL and they all get me closer to the vision in my head than my digital lenses do. That’s not to say that I never use digital lenses, I do, but nothing compares to using a manual lens on the Micro 4/3.
I have more control over what I’m creating and it’s the perfect blend of old school & new technology. Photos using manual lenses come out looking a lot more like a film shot than a digital shot, but you have all the convenience of the speed of digital. For this reason alone, I’ll probably never switch my kit over from a Micro 4/3. You get the beauty of manual lenses with the instantaneousness of digital. For me, it’s the perfect, long sought after combination.
I haven’t used other Micro 4/3 so I’m not quite sure how they compare, but this was a big selling feature for me when looking at the Olympus E-PL2. The in camera image stabilization (anti-shake) is so good that I can handhold it for up to a 2 second exposure and get a very decent shot in low light. (It also helps that the camera isn’t very heavy.) It will never be quite as sharp as shooting with a tripod, but it’s pretty darn close. Which ups the convenience factor and the utility of the camera for me. I almost never carry a tri-pod and I’m more likely to pull my camera out and use it than if I had to lug additional gear around.
There are a number of other advantages to shooting with a Micro 4/3 like size, weight and my E-PL2 worked like a charm last year at South Pole Station in -60F weather. Reasons enough for me to keep this charming little beauty as the mainstay of my digital photography kit.
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Andrea Dixon is a mixed media artist and photographer based in Denver, Colorado but works in Antarctica for 4 months every year.
With so many photography WordPress themes available, we decided to feature the 4 themes with bonus functionality. Meaning, the WordPress themes that provide something that is can be very valuable to users.
The average WordPress theme will provide the necessary function that most others include, like blogging, color options, and more. So when we say “bonus functionality”, we are referring to things like gallery management like in some of the WordPress portfolio themes available.
Below are the top photography WordPress themes that include that extra something. Please click to each and view their demos to see what you think.
The Photocrati theme provides much more than just a pretty look. In fact, it come packed with its own gallery management system, image protection, multiple gallery styles, eCommerce functionality and over 60 built-in presets. In addition, it has exclusive NextGEN Gallery integration. It is obvious why Photocrati is the leader in photography WordPress themes.
What makes Photography Blog Sites so unique is not their designs. In fact, many other themes have similar designs. The bonus of this theme is the two-way sync with a SmugMug account. With Photography Blog Sites a user can designs their website and with one-click have their SmugMug account redesigned to match the main site.
Gleam is the most beautiful full-screen photography theme on the market currently. It’s packed with all the popular Elegant Themes option, but there is something extra special about this theme. The responsive capability is, in one word, beautiful. With this theme you can offer your clients a full screen experience without worrying what will happen when they’re on different devices and screen sizes.
Wedding Album is not your typical WordPress photo theme. Like Gleam, this is a full-screen theme. However, while it is not responsive, it is definitely something special. The only purposes of this theme is to have the feel of a wedding album. It offers two color schemes, dark and light. This is a great choice for album proofing or virtual album services.
As you can see, each of these WordPress themes for photographers do very different things. It goes to show you how flexible WordPress is and how much is available for photographers.
Thanks for reading
Today we’re going to discuss WordPress Gallery plugins and the different between them and WordPress gallery themes. We’re going to compare and contrast some features that both have. So let’s get started.
A favorite of all WordPress gallery plugins (and with the statistics to back it up), is NextGEN Gallery due to its feature set, third-party support and gallery management system. Not only that, but a lot of theme developers are integrating the plugin into their WordPress portfolio themes. You can see a complete list of NextGEN Gallery extensions on the plugin’s website.
Picking ideal WordPress gallery themes is never an easy task. Fortunately we’ve made it easier for you by creating lists of some of the best available.
Photocrati recently wrote an article on WordPress gallery themes made easy which talks about how the theme make the lives (and business) of photographers easier. You may want to check it out.
Thanks for reading the comparison, and I hope you find the plugin and/or theme you’re hoping for.
Photography website templates can be colorful, dark, fullscreen, one-column or even a grid style. No matter what, they are usually fun to look at. In this article, you will see 8 of the most beautiful photography website templates around. Each have their own special feature and design and each will make you want a new look for your website.
Being that WordPress is the most popular content management system around, each of these templates will be photo WordPress themes.
Perhaps the most diverse of them all. With this theme, you have the option to use a one-column or multi-column on a whim. You’re not fixed to one look. In addition to that, you also get the benefits you see below.
No photography website template is complete without good hosting. If you’re in need of a good web host, check out our article, The Best Website Hosting For Photographers Explained.
One of the best things about WordPress is how flexible it is with theme design. Full screen WordPress photography themes are becoming extremely popular. That is why, in this article, you will see 19 of the top selling full screen themes on the market.
We recommend clicking through and checking out the demos before purchasing.
This list will brief information on each theme and they were compiled based on reviews and feedback.
Click on the graphics to view the demos.
Are you using a full screen WordPress themes for photographers not listed here? Comment below to share yours.
Have you ever considered WordPress eCommerce photography themes as the solution for your website?
Photographers love to share their photographs with website visitors. Make sense, right? Photographers also want to sell their photographs to these visitors. Also makes sense, right?
So why not combine the power of eCommerce with the styling of WordPress themes for photographers?
Below are 12 WordPress themes and plugin combinations to help you make money selling your photographs. Although some of the themes listed here have eCommerce functionality, we think you will notice an interesting trend, which we will mention at the end of this article.
What’s so great about the Photocrati theme, is that is not only the best WordPress theme for photographers, but also includes simple eCommerce functionality so you don’t want to use additional plugins.
eStore is a flashy website that can help photographers to sell photographs or eBooks. If you want to see a photography eBook website using this theme, check out Flatbooks. It’s not officially a WordPress photography theme, but can sure be used as one.
This is an interesting theme as it is built on using Cart66 for its eCommerce functionality, but has a nice business styling.
This theme uses custom post types for its portfolio section, and JigoShop for its eCommerce functionality.
Bright and large are the best two words to describe this theme. FlexShop 2 uses WooCommerce for it’s eCommerce functionality.
Also built for WooCommerce, this theme incorporates custom post types of portfolios.
Fullscreen is one of the most popular, you guessed it, full screen WordPress themes on the market.
Kinetico is a very interesting theme with it’s vibrant and modern design. While it isn’t techniclaly a gallery theme, combine its WooCommerce functions with NextGEN Gallery and you can really have an impressive website.
The Enfinity theme was designed to support both NextGEN Gallery and WooCommerce. The layout is much different than any other eCommerce based theme out there.
This theme is extremely interesting. Like Kinetico, there is no built-in gallery but mixed with NextGEN Gallery – it could work well for so many.
Last but not least, this theme has a beautiful home page slider, and works with multiple eCommerce frameworks. This is another that NextGEN Gallery would be a great addition to.
The majority of eCommerce themes do not rely on their own functionality. In fact, the popular ones are Cart66, WP e-Commerce, JigoShop, Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce. The clear winner of third-party eCommerce support is WooCommerce.
Are you using a WordPress theme with eCommerce built-in? Comment below to share yours.
Thanks for reading
WooCommerce
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