A few months back some friends and I did a test shoot, recreating a vintage Hollywood portrait. While mentioning some specifics from the shoot I’d also like to share a few general thoughts about approaching a test shot like this. Every photographer has their own way of doing things but here are a few things that have worked well …

Try as we might, it’s not always possible to capture what’s needed in a single photograph. Though I prefer to do as much as possible in the camera, digital tools now allow us to create most anything. The trick is pulling the elements together to make a quality photo and not a “Frankenshot”. Luckily, my business partner (Bob) is an …

When I first began in photography the square format was intriguing. My Nikon FE used 35mm film (a 3:2 ratio) but many of the admired professionals were shooting with Hasselblads and Rolleiflexes, capturing square images (1:1 ratio) on 120 film. Eventually I worked up to a Yashicamat 124G, a twin lens Japanese cousin of the Rolleiflex. The big negatives would …

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Here’s something a little different for prophotolife, an eight minute video on basic photo montage technique. As you may know, I like to do most of my work during exposure and usually don’t spend a whole lot of time in post-production. Just a …

President Lyndon B. Johnson
Votes for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election are being tallied as I write this. The past year feels like it’s been one long, non-stop political conversation and many of us are relieved to see it finally coming to a close. Though prophotolife isn’t a forum for politics, it seemed a natural to tie photography into the big …

Today’s post is about an easily overlooked subject, the leaves at our feet, and one of my often overlooked tools, the flatbed scanner.
Every fall I seem to take a few photographs of trees as the leaves change color. Most often I judge the merit of a particular fall display by how colorful a stand of trees off in the distance …

Today, I’d like to share a few tips for taking better portraits (as mentioned last Friday, the Monday videos are on hold for a bit). Looking back at the many entries on prophotolife, I was surprised to see that the psychology of making portraits hasn’t received it’s own post. This is a huge topic (a personal favorite) and one of …

Another week, another installment of the location photography gear saga. This week we’ll look inside our kit of portable strobe units. This kit of 2 strobes and accessories doesn’t get used a ton but it’s invaluable when we need it. It’s rare that we use these as main lights since we rely more on studio strobes (primarily the Travelite 125 …

Last week I introduced our standard location photography gear setup. We’ll be looking at different bags week by week and today it’s the heart of the business, the camera bag.
You won’t find the latest, trendiest equipment necessarily. This is what we’ve amassed over years in the business and what has produced a good return on investment for our commercial studio. …

“How do I shoot tethered to my computer with a digital SLR?” That is possibly the most oft-asked question here at prophotolife.com. In most every instructional video I’m watching a computer monitor to view the images as they’re shot so it only makes sense that we give the process a look.
If your photography allows it this is a great way …