I'm going to make a concerted effort to focus more of my advice toward beginning photographers. As I read through all the photography forums, including the Photographers Cooperative, I see lots of advanced techniques, and that's awesome... but for beginners, it really isn't that useful. So here are three very specific things to try in order to get better portraits, today! It's All About The Eyes! When you take a portrait of someone, the thing that needs to be SUPER sharp in

Ever come across an eye catching photo that appears to have amazingly shallow depth-of-field despite being wider angle? It looks impossible... and impossibly cool! There's a technique to accomplish this look, and while he didn't invent it, one of my favorite wedding photographers, Ryan Brenizer, has coined the term "The Brenizer Effect." Here's how it works. First you choose a locale that allows you to pose your subject so they can be perfectly still. The background shoul

This is my daughter, Violet. I love the pose, the look, and all the little details. As soon as I took this, I thought, "This is my daughter's movie poster for her starring role in an action film." Here's how I got the photo. The Set-Up I took this photo in my kitchen. Every now and then, I'll set up my lights for a few days and just practice, hoping for some good photos of my kids. For this experiment, I used gaffers tape to attach a roll of gray 54-inch gray seamless paper t

Depth-of-field is one the best ways to add creativity, interest, and style to your photography. Good news is that the principles behind your depth-of-field aren't too difficult. Depth-of-field refers to how much of a photograph is in sharp focus from foreground to middle ground to background. A photo with a deep depth-of-field will be sharp and in focus all the way from foreground to background. A photo with a shallow depth-of-field will have a sharp subject and blurred out e

Welcome to our first contest at Photographer's Cooperative! We're super excited to have you here and we have some awesome prizes lined up for future months. Lets consider this a test run, with a shout-out on our social media, a feature on our blog and bragging rights as the prizes. Here's how it works. Follow our brand spankin' new Instagram account, @PhotographersCoop and post up to 3 of your best photos that fit the monthly theme to that month's contest hashtag. Please don'