Home / Blog / Photography tips & tutorials

Photography tips & tutorials

Creative lighting tutorial – Ghostly Visage

Posted by Ben Heys on February 15, 2012 with 7 Comments

Ok, before I get stuck into the tutorial I’ve got a quick challenge for those of you photographically minded: have a look at the shot, look at the shadows and have a guess yourself at what lighting setup I used, then read on to see if you are right! The reason I thought I’d do a quick lighting tutorial on this particular image here as it’s probably the number one image I get asked about in terms of technique used in the lighting setup. These questions often come with explanations of attempts made or theories as to what the... Read More ››

Lighting Tutorial – Fortune Teller shoot

Creative photography / Lighting / Model photography / Tutorials

Posted by Ben Heys on September 6, 2008 with 6 Comments

This is the first in what will hopefully be a long series of tutorials I’ll be posting on how I’ve achieved the effects I have in some of my creative photography shoots. The subject for today is one of the more creative setups I’ve come up with. It’s the kind of setup that you run over in your mind and are never sure if it’ll work until you give it a go. First up here are a couple of the shots I took with the setup: Now there’s not as much photoshop done to these images as... Read More ››

Managing noise for microstock

Microstock / Photo editing / Photoshop / Stock photography / Tutorials

Posted by Ben Heys on April 3, 2008 with No Comments

Quick links to microstock agencies: Shutterstock Stock Xpert Bigstock Dreamstime 123 RF Fotolia Istock How to kill noise without a ninja Ok so I get occasional emails from other microstock shooters (or those looking to get into it) frustrated about the whole ‘noise’ thing. So I figured I’d put together a bit of a piece on how I personally go about combating it. This piece wont focus on any of the third party plugins, like noise ninja or neat image as I don’t personally use them. All tools here can be found straight in photoshop. Before we enter... Read More ››

So You wanna earn money from your photos? (part III)

Microstock / Photography / Stock photography / Tutorials

Posted by Ben Heys on August 19, 2007 with 15 Comments

Tips to succeed Here we come to the tips and techniques part of the article. Now bear in mind I’ve only been submitting to stock agencies for about 6 months and even that time could be best described as part time. So I’m no expert, in fact I could well be talking through my ass. Nevertheless I have put some time into it and discovered a few things that just may make your life a little easier if you are planning on going down this path: #1 Keyword, title and describe your shots in PS Please don’t tell me... Read More ››

So You wanna earn money from your photos? (part II)

Microstock / Photography / Stock photography / Tutorials

Posted by Ben Heys on August 10, 2007 with 1 Comment

Microstock: The players Shutterstock Now if you’ve taken even a cursory glance at the table on the previous page it should be immediately evident that if there is one stock site you want to be on – this is it. There isn’t too much to complain about with shutterstock, sure they are a little more discerning with their content than the other sites (bar Istock & SXP) but when you have the industry presence they obviously do, you can afford to be. In fact it could well be part of the reason why they do so well –... Read More ››

So You wanna earn money from your photos?

Microstock / Photography / Stock photography / Tutorials

Posted by Ben Heys on August 9, 2007 with 3 Comments

Quick links for photographers: Shutterstock Dreamstime Fotolia 123 RF Bigstock Istock My Introduction to MicroStock Photography A few months back, around the beginning of the year (2007) I decided to do a little experiment and post some shots up on a couple microstock sites. I didn’t expect much out of it as my work was mostly fashion and art nudes, not drops of water, mobile phones or business people shaking hands. Nevertheless my shots started to sell better than I’d expected and so I delved a little deeper into this experiment. To be fair I really haven’t put... Read More ››