Though he enjoyed photography growing up, other interests took Stephane away from it for many years. But a trip to South Africa rekindled his passion, and in 2022 he was named one of Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers.
WIRED recently asked Karl for his thoughts on the importance of lighting in photography and filmmaking.
Who won the big prizes in our latest members’ photography contest? Find out here.
How does the BenQ SW321C monitor stack up against the legendary EIZO CG318? Here’s my honest, no-holds-barred review.
How do the new iFootage Anglerfish LED lights stack up against their broncolor and Aputure rivals?
For many years, photography was just a hobby for Sam Jamison. Today, he’s a professional product photographer with a roster of clients, plus prints on sale in multiple galleries.
Here are all the images we received in response to Working to a Brief 9: The Cutting Saw.
For our tenth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment, Karl would like you to produce two shots of dew-jewelled grass. Find all the details and submit your images here.
Check out these four Karl Taylor Education subscribers. They’re trying CGI for the first time – and achieving some pretty incredible results!
Do you consider photography and filmmaking to be unrelated? Are you a photographer who regards the rise of video as a threat to your livelihood? If so, it may be time for a change in perspective.
Aidan has always enjoyed the creative arts, but it was only a couple of years ago that he began to get serious about photography. Thanks to his commitment to acquiring new skills, he’s already taking commissions from commercial clients impressed by his growing portfolio.
Is product photography doomed? Will 3D CGI wipe it off the face of the earth? Never one to shy away from a heated debate, Karl tackles the question all photographers should be asking.
For years, Faten Smith assumed that studio-flash photography was strictly for professionals only. But since joining Karl Taylor Education, Faten’s confidence and expertise has blossomed. “I love the excitement of learning new techniques,” she says.
For our ninth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment, Karl would like you to produce a shot of a saw cutting through wood. Find all the details and submit your shot here.
Check out the sweet honey-jar composite images submitted by our amazing members for Working to a Brief 8.
Discover who won the big prizes in our latest members’ photography contest.
Andrew has loved photography for 50 years. But lately he’s taken his hobby to new heights, winning the Guild of Photographers 2021 Photographer of the Year Award. “If you stop learning, you lose interest,” he says.
Get to know Blender, the free software of choice for photographers ready to try CGI.
This is the third year in a row that we’ve received this prestigious prize.
I decided to throw everything I had – including all of my splash photography skills, plus dozens of china teapots and cups – at my own artistic interpretation of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
Our seventh Working to a Brief assignment inspired some magnificent milk-splash shots. Thank you ‘dairy’ much to all who submitted!
Meet Ethan Davis, guest instructor for our 3D CGI classes.
Want to shoot bottles like a pro?
For our eighth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment, Karl would like you to produce a composite honey-jar shot.
If you’ve ever struggled to position a light correctly, or found your shots ruined by glaring reflections, you need to get to grip with angles – especially if you want to specialize in portrait or product photography.
Find out who won an amazing Broncolor Siros Lighting Kit in our latest members’ photography contest.
We all love to see a beautiful model get slapped in the face with jelly. But why? And why did I decide to do an epic photoshoot to prove it?
2021 pitched plenty of curveballs and kept us on our toes. But it was another great year here at KTE. Let’s look back at what went on!
What is an NFT? What does the sudden popularity of this new technology mean for photography and photographers? Let’s find out.
Juxtaposition. It sounds clever – and complicated. But what is it? And how can you use juxtaposition to make memorable photographs?
Which modifier best suits your photography needs? How can you compare them quickly and easily without spending a fortune? Simple: use our Lighting Comparison Visualiser tool.
We received an amazing response to our sixth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment. Thanks to everyone who sent in their shots!
For our seventh ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment, Karl wants you to produce a milk-splash image.
Here they are: the best of the best, the cream of the crop – our most popular photography classes. Have you watched them all yet?
I’ve taken plenty of photos in my time, but very few have inspired as much excitement and curiosity as this one. So how did I do it?
Announcing the ‘Patterns’ winners, plus three honourable mentions. Once again, we were blown away by the high standard of entries. Take a look for yourself.
When you’re deciding which digital camera to buy, you have a choice to make: full-frame or crop sensor? But what’s the difference? Let’s look at the pros and cons of each.
Let’s take a closer look at boudoir photography – exactly what it is (and is not), and how to get it right.
They’re not perfect, but speedlights (AKA off-camera flash units) can be extremely useful when you’re shooting products.
Like all pro photographers, I’m obsessed with light. But I also love to harness the power of darkness and shadow – especially when I want to create dramatic portraits.
If you’re interested in becoming an architectural or interiors photographer, or you want to take your architectural photography business to the next level, read on.
I photographed these vivid paint splash images for the launch campaign of the Hasselblad H6D, using bright orange paint to match the distinctive orange shutter button on the camera. People always want to know how I did it.
For our sixth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment, Karl is tasking you with creating a food-and-lifestyle flat-lay shot of fruit-pie ingredients.
Two professional fashion photographers share their stories of getting started in the industry, and offer advice to anyone keen to follow in their footsteps.
From products to portraits and landscapes to reportage, we recieved a huge variety of entries for our ‘Yellow’ themed competition! Here is a look at the winning images…
Setting up your own photography studio is an exciting step, but there’s often a lot of questions and considerations. How big does the space have to be? What colours should the walls be? What equipment do you need and where do you keep said equipment? You’ll find the answers to all of the most common questions here, along with some of the best advice and tips from our members to help you successfully set up your first home studio.
In a recent live webinar I chatted to Hasselblad about my life, my work as a commercial photographer and educator, and also how my knowledge and that of other top professionals is presented to members of our education platform.
Posing is something that can look incredibly simple, but it isn’t always as easy as it looks, so having some poses in mind before you start shooting can really help ensure a smooth shoot. Here are 20 ideas for female poses to give you some inspiration for your next portrait photoshoot.
For our fifth ‘Working to a Brief’ assignment members have been tasked with creating a product image of the well-known soft drink Coca-Cola.
I’ve put together a list of six ideas that you can try next time you’re shooting product photographs. The best part? Most of these ideas don’t require much space and only need some basic equipment. They’re also a great way to practise and refine some important product photography skills while getting creative.
We’ve been busy creating a series of exciting new beauty and fashion images. It was a whirlwind week, as we managed to shoot a total of 14 different setups, including both beauty and fashion images. Here’s a behind the scenes look at what went on…
Photoshop recently added their Super Resolution feature to Adobe Camera Raw, which allows you to enlarge images by a factor of four. Having tried to enlarge images myself previously, I decided to test this new feature to see the results first-hand.
From product shots to landscape photographs, we received a great variety of images for our first competition of 2021. Here are the winning images…
Recently I did a live show where I photographed a pair of earphones. The main purpose of the show was to demonstrate how to photograph earphones based on our fourth photography brief assignment, but there was another lesson I wanted members to take from the shoot: that it’s not about the brand or type of lights you use, but more about your knowledge and understanding of light.
There’s an almost endless list of camera lenses to choose from when it comes to DSLR and mirrorless cameras, so trying to determine what lens is the best for your photography can get a little overwhelming. To help you make an informed decision, I’ve put together a list of recommended lenses for different types of photography to help you decide what’s best for you.
Not having enough lights can make product photography challenging, to say the least, but the good news is that there are a few ways you can overcome this problem. I recently shot an antique-style image of a saddle where I showed two other ways you can light creatively even if you only have a couple of lights.
I’ve tested, rented and owned a lot of different modifiers over the course of my career, but what would be my choice of modifier for beauty, fashion and portrait work if I only had £50 or £100 to spend? Recently I tested a large number of modifiers for a new tool we’re creating, including an independent brand modifier that cost less than £50 ($70). Surprisingly, this modifier gave great results that were comparable to the Octabox 150 and it’s even easier to transport!
If you’re looking to create eye-catching images of mascara or elegant photos of perfumes, keep reading for my top tips for photographing cosmetics and makeup product photography.
When it comes to using studio flash, one of the things that often causes confusion is flash duration. Flash duration refers to the length of time of the burst of light that comes out of a studio flash. Quite simply, it is the duration for which a studio flash or speedlite emits light for a single burst. This can vary across brands and also types of studio lights, but is always shown as one of two measurements: t0.5 or t0.1.
As it’s becoming easier and easier to be a ‘photographer’, it’s getting harder and harder to make your work stand out. To help you overcome this challenge, I’ve answered some of the most common questions relating to photography portfolios and shared some useful tips to help you decide what to include and what not to include so that you can create an online portfolio that you can be proud of.
From cars to motorcycles, lighting considerations, angles, polarisation, space requirements, assistants and more, I’m going to share my top 10 tips for automotive photography to help you get the best results.
Whether you’re a keen enthusiast or aspiring pro, you’ve probably shot a few landscape images in your time. Chances are you’ve also made one or two simple mistakes that you’ve regretted later. These 8 tips will help you avoid these common difficulties and improve your landscape photography.
As photographers, we get inspiration for our photography from all around us. Music, art, experiences… even work by other photographers. There are many great photographers out there and I’m sure I’ve missed several, but here are some of my favourite photographers whose work might inspire you too.
Learn how to improve your business portraits, corporate headshots, and environmental portraits with this live critique show, where Karl will be reviewing professional portrait images submitted by members.
Many people are familiar with standard modifiers such as softboxes or grids, but I often get a lot of questions about the specialist studio lighting equipment I use in my studio and what lights I use to create certain emotions and effects.
How can you tell if your pictures are any good? The difficulty in finding the answer to this is that you’re often reliant on other people’s feedback, so I found the best way is to work it out for yourself using three very specific criteria and benchmark comparisons.
If you have an understanding of photographic fundamentals such as shutter speed, aperture and how to expose an image, you’ve already got most of what you need to start shooting long exposures. This technique can also be used for much more than just landscape or night photography though, so if you’d like to learn how to master long exposure and take more creative images, keep reading.
Parabolic reflectors are one of my favourite modifiers, but due to the price of them many photographers often try to find more economic solutions compared to some of the top brands. But how do the more budget options actually perform compared to the top brands? I did a direct comparison between two different brands of parabolic modifiers and also tried a hack to try and make a cheap parabolic softbox modifier work more effectively.
There’s a lot you can do with just two studio lights — trust me, I’ve shot everything from bottle product photography to fashion photography using just two lights. I’ve put together two different examples of two-light setups for portrait photography, product photography, and fashion photography and I’m also going to explain how you could use similar setups to these for your own photography.
If you’re looking to practice your product photography, bottles are something you can easily get your hands on if you want to try something new or refine your skills. These reflective subjects can be a challenge to photograph, with their glass surface and reflections, but there are a few key do’s and don’ts that will help you understand how to get professional results
