Lighting

Creating portraits outdoors can present a number of challenges, particularly on clear, sunny days. Because direct sunlight is one of the most "high contrast" light sources there is, it is often too harsh for natural-looking...

Few people realize that photographic spot meters date back some 2/3 of a century. The very first was built by Arthur Dalladay, editor of The British Journal of Photography, in about 1935; he described it in the BJP Almanac of 1937 on pages 127-138. This meter still exists, in the possession of a...

Spain offers a veritable feast of photographic subject matter, with its wide variety of people, scenic countryside, castles, coastline, and architecture. You can choose...

Recently, I was at a local dance studio taking a headshot for one of their dancers, Crystal. While headshots can be fairly straightforward, it is always good to keep different lighting approaches in mind. Here, I ran through some fairly fundamental...

There are many photographers who absolutely dread the thought of shooting jewelry. After all, jewelry is often highly reflective, very small in size, and can be difficult to work with in creating a composition.

For many fashion and portrait shots, it is necessary to use several different light sources to get good results. It is not uncommon to have a main light, a fill light, a hairlight, and one or two background lights. However, sometimes a great shot can...

"What are you photographing?" I was so lost in the scene in my viewfinder that it took a few moments before I realized she was talking to me.

"All the textures and colors in the...