As a woman, I naturally celebrate a little when I look back in the history of photography and see other women who have made significant contributions to my craft. In a field that perceptually (e...
Art for art’s sake. That’s what this is all about. I grew up a creative kid and was always in love with art class. I took up drawing and painting at an early age. My parents always enrolled ...
As a wedding photographer, I find it’s all too easy to slip into a groove of doing the same thing over and over. Sure it’s a different set of clients each week, and there’s a different ven...
https://photofocus.com/photography/nourish-your-photography-soul-without-touching-a-camera/
Whatever your discipline of photography, there’s one skill that is crucial to catapulting your success: culling. That boring, obnoxious task of sifting through all the good, the bad, and the d...
https://photofocus.com/photography/culling-photos-five-tips-to-choose-your-best-images/
A lot of photographers I know cringe at the thought of doing an engagement session with their clients. They say it’s a pain, it’s not worth the ROI, and it’s just one more thing to add to ...
https://photofocus.com/photography/why-you-should-photograph-engagement-sessions/
One of the biggest “rules” out there in photography is to shoot level, shoot above, but never shoot someone from a low perspective. It’s unflattering, distorting, and people will hate the ...
Assisting another wedding photographer wasn't exactly what I aspired to do.
There are many ways that we, as photographers, bring focus to the subjects of our photos. We use light and shadow, composition and focal points. One of my favorite ways of bringing focus to my s...
https://photofocus.com/photography/focus-on-your-subject-by-using-layers/
The Stieglitz Group was an essential number of photographers who pioneered then promoted the pictorial style of photography. (Check out my article on pictorialism here!) Through the efforts of t...
https://photofocus.com/photography/history-of-photography-the-stieglitz-group/
Recently, my friend and fellow Photofocus author, Levi Sim, called me up and asked me about how I print my photos for my clients. We discussed the options I have and where I like to have them pr...
https://photofocus.com/reviews/a-new-kind-of-acrylic-trulife/
Camera Work In 1902 Stieglitz, along with Joseph T. Kelley launched Camera Work, a quarterly publication that supported the ideals of the Photo-Secession movement with the purpose of to “loose...
https://photofocus.com/photography/history-of-photography-the-photo-secession-movement/
In the late 1800’s photography was still basically like a baby giraffe learning how to get up and walk for the first time. Photography didn’t really know what it was, processes were still be...
https://photofocus.com/photography/history-of-photography-what-is-pictorialism/
Alfred Stieglitz is a name many photographers may recognize as “a big deal” but also a name that they might not be well acquainted with. While Stieglitz sets a lot of things in motion for ph...
https://photofocus.com/photography/history-of-photography-an-introduction-to-alfred-stieglitz/
Since the beginning, everyone wanted color photographs. Images being black and white only was a chief complaint about photography. Initially, there were a few “successes”; Sir John Herschel ...
https://photofocus.com/photography/history-of-photography-early-stages-of-color/
Photography moves from wet plates to dry There’s no denying that the wet plate process was not easy. It took considerable time, planning, effort, money, supplies, and proper logistics to execu...
Macphun (Skylum Software) just dropped their latest version of their editing tool, Luminar 2018 and I decided to check it out. I’m not typically one to edit my work with tons of filters and ac...
https://photofocus.com/software/luminar-2018-my-first-impressions/
The introduction of the Kodak camera and it’s ensuing popularity started an entirely new school of thought in photography; the snapshot. Previously, “snapshot” was used by hunters as a ter...
https://photofocus.com/inspiration/history-of-photography-the-snapshot/
In the early life of photography, cameras (and all the gear that came with them) were large, heavy, and cumbersome. The wet plate processes, the only one available, required the photographer (or...
https://photofocus.com/inspiration/history/history-of-photography-introduction-of-kodak/
In the late 1800’s the world was beginning to take shape into something more of what it looks like today. Industrialization was coming to cities and taking them, literally, to the next level. ...
https://photofocus.com/inspiration/history-of-photography-industrialization/
As long as photography remained chained to any sort of wet plate process, photographers found themselves encumbered by massive hardships in order to “take the show on the road”. However, as ...
https://photofocus.com/inspiration/history-of-photography-mobile-studios/
Last time, we talked about how Rejlander pushed the envelope with the conventional view of photography as art (thus far). There was another, slightly younger, contemporary of Rejlander’s named...
https://photofocus.com/photography/history-of-photography-henry-peach-robinson/
The battle for photography’s place in the fine art world is a road that is long and seemingly never ending at times, even today. In the 1800’s especially, photography struggled for a place a...
https://photofocus.com/photography/history-of-photography-oscar-rejlander/
Is photography art? This seemingly simple question is anything but. Since the earliest days of photography, critics and photographers themselves have questioned if it’s purely a mechanical, co...
https://photofocus.com/inspiration/history-of-photography-is-photography-art/
It’s odd to think of war as a way for photographers to hone their skills. In the Spring of 1861 when the American Civil War broke out, it presented photographers with just such an opportunity....
https://photofocus.com/inspiration/history/history-of-photography-brady-gardner-and-the-civil-war/
As photography evolved, one theme remained fairly constant in the public’s opinion: seeing is believing. People generally regarded photographic prints as evidence of truth and reality. Steadil...
https://photofocus.com/photography/history-of-photography-photos-as-propaganda/
Between the 1850’s and 1880’s two men, Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey both were using photography to further the study of locomotion (or movement) of humans and animals. However,...
https://photofocus.com/inspiration/history-of-photography-muybridge-and-marey/
Stereostopic photography is yet another blip in the history of photography where the photograph was still working to find its’ true identity. It’s based on binocular vision, which is the act...
https://photofocus.com/photography/history-of-photography-stereoscopic-photography/
In today’s world, it’s hard to wrap our heads around a time when retouching and enlarging photos wasn’t not only accepted, but expected! However, as photography was in its infancy, and was...
https://photofocus.com/inspiration/history/history-of-photography-retouching-enlarging-makes-waves/
The collodion process in general was fairly inexpensive, which in and of itself helped propel photography forward. It also encouraged the expansion of photo studios. In 1851 there were less than...
The carte-de-visite reigned supreme in the public’s taste until around 1866. Cartes were great, but rather tiny. Soon, demand for a larger format became more loud. People also wanted more deta...
https://photofocus.com/photography/history-of-photography-the-cabinet-photo/