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It’s our birthday, and we want to celebrate with you! Check out our 21st birthday contest and win a free photo toolbox just by entering. We’ll have prizes every month, plus a grand prize which includes a new camera! This month, we’re giving away a studio lighting kit from B&H. Learn more and enter to win >
Levi Sim is passionate about making photographs and helping others make their pictures better, too. He’s a full-time photographer making business portraits and marketing and branding pictures for a living. He spends the rest of his time practicing all other kinds of photography and studying to be a better hunter. Read more of his articles here. And you can see more of Levi’s portfolio here.
Levi is honored to be an ambassador for Vanguard tripods and bags and Spider Holster carry systems.
Photography is fun. Toys are fun. Putting them together just makes sense (and it justifies your juvenile obsessions). If you try using the following ideas to maximize your own macro
Eyes are simply the most important thing in a portrait. We know this. We do all kinds of things to emphasize the eyes. Catchlights, reflectors and post-processing all work to
Gamers understand that there’s nothing less enjoyable than using the keyboard instead of a controller. They can appreciate the value of a controller that does specific things in games. The
I hate to break it to you, but making pictures of one person is easy. It’s level one, beginner, easy-cheese. When you add another person, it becomes a lot harder
I just finished the most important job interview I’ve ever had. It was for my dream job in photography. Man, they asked some grilling questions. They didn’t just ask me
Fuji cameras have always intrigued me. A long time ago, one of my first students had a Fuji Finepix S3, which was housed in a Nikon body. There was always
If you’ve ever photographed a bunch of brothers all at once, you know they can be a handful. But the thing I’ve learned over the last ten years is that
I recently said that if I were allowed only one light for the rest of my life I’d choose a huge white umbrella. But if you’re just getting started with
I’ve done lots of close-up and macro photography in my career, and I’ve tried many methods to get better results. We know that focusing close to a subject is one
Have you ever met someone who only works out their arms? Sure, they’ve got big handsome arm muscles, but they can’t jog down the block because they don’t exercise that
I had the privilege to attend a talk by Coach Carter the other day. You remember the movie with Samuel L. Jackson? Yeah, that Coach Carter. He gave an inspirational
You know how to become a photographer, right? Step one: Buy a camera. Step Two: Launch a Facebook business page. We joke about it, but it’s true that a Facebook
I answered the phone, and it was my buddy, Gary. He said, “Hey, Levi. I’ve got a great idea.” Now, you should know that I’m always up for an adventure,
It’s the new year, and you probably need to buy a new lens, right? I mean, it’s clearly your gear that’s holding you back. The only thing you need to
Making portraits for clients is like competing in the decathlon. You have to be able to shoot movement and groups and individuals and kids and products and available light and
Do you ever look back at pictures you’ve made and say to yourself, “What was I thinking?” Surely you’ve got some weird pictures in your catalog. Surely there are some
When people play in the snow they always have fun. It often ends in tears, but there’s always a lot of fun along the way, which means it’s a great
In this ThinkTAPLearn video, instructor Levi Sim talks about how to create soft light for your portrait photographs. He discusses multiple ways to diffuse and reflect light, as well as
When you make a picture with a digital camera, even if the camera is set to black and white, it records the picture in color and then converts it to
“1200 pictures??? How is that even possible …?” You’ve said that to yourself after a shoot, right? There’s a certain sense of dread associated with it. “She’s a newborn; she
Murphy’s Law has a special addendum just for photographers: “Anything interesting that can happen will happen — as soon as you put your camera down.” It’s the fear of this
