Photocritic photography blog

This week, I received a rather good question from one of my old friends, Cindy. She was wondering “how come that whenever I’m taking digital images, I have to sharpen them afterwards?” Good question, and of course, it’s already one step ahead of the curve, in that the question presupposes that yes, you DO have to sharpen your images. Which is correct… But why?

Back in the days of film, things were simple: If you wanted your photos, you got prints made. These prints were predictable: They’ll be on paper, have a certain dynamic range, etc. Then digital photography came along and turned everything on its head, because suddenly there are so many more things you can do with your photos… Read the rest of the article »

Recently, Wired.com has started doing a series of very cool photography contests, and I’ve been meaning to recommend them to people for a while.

Participating in photography contests is generally a good idea, actually: It keeps you on your toes, and it very much helps to keep thinking about what you are doing with your photographic work. This week’s contest is particularly interesting, though… Read the rest of the article »

If you’re reading Photocritic regularly, you could be forgiven for thinking there’s nothing in the world of D-SLR cameras beyond Canon and Nikon.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth: Competition is stronger than ever, and there’s a lot of other manufacturers bidding for your entry-level-cash…

So we’ve had a look at the top entry-level dSLR cameras, and what professional reviewers think of them - who knows, it might just come in handy when you’re ready to buy your next camera! Read the rest of the article »

Update: This was an April’s fools’ joke in collaboration with DPReview. Sorry, guys ;)

Just a quick one - I had a day off before starting my new job, so I was out go-karting with my dad yesterday (I won, hah), and we went for a bit of a touristic travel around London afterwards. Near London Bridge, I saw someone who was taking some photos. Nothing unusual there, I hear you say, but what caught my attention was the camera he was using - what IS that thing? Read the rest of the article »

The other day, I received an e-mail Stephan D, one of my readers, with a load of questions about me and my photography career. I occasionally get questions about who I am and why I run Photocritic, so I figured that I might just do a post about the man behind the blog, as it were.

What photographer(s) inspires you to create images?

There are a lot of photographers out there who really do it for me. I’m particularly fond of Philip of Lithium Picnic fame, and Ilyssa (isky on dA) also has a beautiful portfolio of photos.

To be honest, I take inspiration from lots of different photographers. The ‘best of’ or ‘most popular’ images on Flickr and DeviantArt are always a good place to star the flow of creative juices. Of course, Earthshots is also a great starting point… Read the rest of the article »

We do an experiment with microstock, and discover that while I sold three times more photos, I earned 40 times less money from the micro stock sales than from a full-on agency - with the exact same photos on sale…

The lesson? If you’re a decent photographer, stay the hell away from micro-stock: The bigger agencies treat you better, pay you more, and actually make an effort to sell your photos on a bigger scale. Read the rest of the article »

You’ve probably heard of RSS - also known as Really Simple Syndication. You haven’t? Oh my golly, you really should!

RSS allows you to keep track of your favourite websites, when it suits YOU. You don’t spend hours and hours checking your bookmarks and seeing if they have updated their site recently, just subscribe to the RSS feeds. Use Google Reader, or any of the others of dozens of RSS readers, both on-line and off-line, out there.

You don’t get full functionality, but at least you know when something has changed, and is worth having a peek at!

So… Take the RSS feed from /feed, and add it to your reader or client.

Or, if you use LiveJournal, why not add the LiveJournal-friendly syndication feed to your friends list?

Rock on.

Portraiture is one of the most exhilarating forms of photography. It’s rewarding, exciting, challenging, and a lot of fun. But people have a way of hiding from the camera: Clothes. Nude photography is essentially portraiture sans clothing, which is what makes it such a fun topic to explore and develop as a photographer. Personally, I’m completely convinced that a photographer who starts developing their nudes also becomes a better portrait photographer.

One of the things people frequently e-mail me about is how to get started in nude photography - some of you want to make a living out of it, many just want to have a go and experiment, but don’t know how to begin.

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Of course, Photocritic already has a series of articles on the topic already, including an introduction, and an interview with acclaimed nude photographer photographer Renoux.

Well, today you’re all in for a phenomenal treat, as my good friend Tammy guest-writes an article on taking the first steps into nude photography, by inviting your girlfriend to model for you.

Needless to say, depending on what you do for a living, this article may not be ’safe for work’. Read the rest of the article »

The modeling industry is very competitive. Every photo-shoot is a chance for a model to show herself at her best, and any model is only as good as their last shoot - so there’s a strong incentive to make each photo-shoot count towards

This article highlights some recommendations that a model may want to review in order to prepare him or herself for a photo-shoot. While digital photo processing software such as Photoshop can work miracles, neither a model nor a photographer will take as much pride in highly photoshopped pictures. If you take the time to prepare well in advance of your photo-shoot, you will feel more confident and as a result, look better. Read the rest of the article »

Most of us have been unpleasantly surprised (OK, startled) when we’ve looked at photos of ourselves. Everyone says the camera doesn’t lie, but where did that extra chin come from? Why do my arms look so fat? Is my nose really that long? And when did my knees become so… substantial?

It’s enough to make a person terminally camera-shy-which is pretty tricky when another camera may be as near as the closest cell phone, but don’t worry, it’s actually pretty easy to look good on camera - and when you know how to look good, it becomes a lot easier to photograph others so they look good! Read the rest of the article »