by Reed Hoffmann | Aug 11, 2012 | Action, Beginner, Camera Gear, Exposure, Intermediate, Lenses, People
A few months ago I wrote about how much I enjoyed using a 50mm f/1.8 lens on a trip to Peru. It was fun to work with extremely shallow depth of field, and using a fixed lens, instead of a zoom as I usually do, made me shoot differently. But there are other reasons to...
by Reed Hoffmann | Aug 3, 2012 | Beginner, Composition, Exposure, Intermediate, Light, People
Any kid will tell you that play is important. We’ve all heard, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” though we don’t always remember that. And it’s been proven that play is healthy. So we know that play is fun and can be good for us, but how do we “play” once...
by Reed Hoffmann | Apr 17, 2012 | Advanced, Exposure, Flash, Light, People
Most of what I do these days is teach photography. Which means I often find myself in front of a bunch of people, doing a demo where I hope everything goes right. Occasionally, though, things go wrong, and that’s when life gets interesting. A few weeks ago I was doing...
by Reed Hoffmann | Mar 30, 2012 | Advanced, Exposure, Intermediate, Lenses, Light, People
Last week I shot some high school senior portraits for a friend’s daughter. As always, the three words “Subject, Light, Background” ruled what I did during the shoot. I already had my subject, so I needed to find good backgrounds and think about how I would use the...
by Reed Hoffmann | Feb 14, 2012 | Beginner, Composition, Exposure, Intermediate, Lenses, People
Every workshop I teach, I preach “Subject, Light, Background.” Remembering those three simple words – thinking about them – will almost always improve your pictures. And they often help each other, so working on one can usually improve the others. Recently I was...
by Reed Hoffmann | Jan 15, 2012 | Beginner, Exposure, Flash, Intermediate, People
I was on the road teaching a workshop last week, and part of it involved giving a little how-to on the basics of off-camera flash. The group was amazed at how easy it is. That’s true now, but it wasn’t always that way. Back in the old days (pre-2004), getting...
