Pro Techniques

Want to add a cutting edge look to your portraits of young people, artists or musicians?

Seeing what was about to hit us I quickly grabbed for a table I knew was anchored to the floor, but it was too little, too late. Along with a number of other staff and passengers I was thrown to the floor and found myself rolling from starboard to port, bouncing off chairs and tables along the way. I knew the ship would very quickly start to roll in the opposite direction, so no attempt was made to stand. Instead I waited on the floor, arms wrapped around a table leg, for a moment of relative calm. Good morning, and welcome to the Drake Passage.

When I think about all of the photography equipment I have added to my collection over the years—cameras, lenses, lights—I would have to put my finger on the raw conversion window in Photoshop as probably the most effective tool I currently have for making my images look good. It has even lightened the load in terms of the amount of equipment I use for taking the shot in the first...

Recently, I attended several excellent Photoshop seminars presented by Software-Cinema.com. These were held in a large meeting room of a city hotel with some 200 people in attendance. Photographic images from the presenter's laptop were projected on an enormous screen, with great clarity and color saturation. They must be using a very expensive projector, I assumed. After...

The print completes the creative circle you began inscribing when you first viewed the image and snapped the shutter. The beauty of black and white printmaking is that you can share that vision through interpretive techniques that include expressive use of tonality, artful contrast and exposure control. Yes, digital images can be viewed on a screen and shared through the Internet to a worldwide audience. But nothing quite matches the intimate beauty of a carefully produced print, one that can be hung on a wall in your home or a gallery.

The legal issues of privacy rights and copyrights in photography are usually not covered thoroughly enough in photo schools. Many professionals don't take the time to learn the law. This often leads to confusion and chaos when photographers start selling their work. Whether you are part-time or full-time, amateur or pro, one of the most important legal issues you will...

Erik Almas is truly passionate about his photography and will go to great heights to shoot a picture—literally. He and his camera have gone mountain climbing, skydiving, and flying in microlight aircraft. That said, most of his images are shot on terra firma.

Beyond that, he will spend upward of $10,000 on a personal project to create images he strongly believes in for his portfolio. The project may involve travel with a crew and hired talent and renting gear where needed. He does not believe in limiting himself or his creative vision, and his clients appreciate that.