Ben Novoselsky, Author at Phowd

How editing your stock photography can lead to more sales

Before you can start selling your images on microstock websites you ought to know a few things about why a majority of the submissions get rejected. Every image submitted on a microstock website will have to go through a rigid scrutiny. This is done by experienced photo editors. They would check for compliance of a number of aspects. These tend to vary from one microstock website to another, but by and larger there are some that are in common. Read more...

Phowd December Update – Retoucher Pricing and Availability

Retoucher availability and pricing. We've added new features to Phowd to improve private order experience for both photographers and retouchers. Read more...

Photographing groups can be extremely difficult. Usually, the need for large groups occurs at important events such as weddings, awards ceremonies, and work functions, making the job of the photographer incredibly important and oftentimes stressful. Whether there are three subjects or thirty, group photography requires us to break away from what might be our normal rules of operation and think outside the box -- sometimes at the spur of the moment. Though far from exhaustive, this article offers nine tips to help you keep control of your group subjects so that you can focus on taking some great shots. Read more...

Portrait photography, especially when we talk about studio portrait photography, as a genre, is heavily dependent on lighting. Though there are two different aspects to shooting portraits, first lighting and then posing, they evidently both strive to make the subject look at his/her best. In this tutorial we shall be looking at the basic setups for a studio portrait session using artificial lights. Read more...

7 Silly Mistakes I Made as an Amateur Photographer

1. Leaving the lens cap on

Amateurs are guilty of making some of the most cardinal of mistakes. Although, we do tend to blame amateurs but professional are also guilty of the same mistakes from time to time. Call it oversight or just plain callousness, but leaving the lens cap on and then wondering why the viewfinder is so dark is something that we are all guilty of at one point of time or other. To overcome this issue, I have personally made it a point to look at the front of the lens before beginning every new photo session. This is just to ensure that I am not guilty of having left the lens cap on. It saves me from the blushes and the missed photo opportunities.

I am thrilled to share a couple of new features we've added to Phowd in September. Read more...

Using Circular Polarizing Filter (a C-PL Filter)

Photographers shooting landscapes in broad daylight or shooting objects with shiny metallic surfaces or may be shooting at places with a lot of reflective material around, have something common to counter for – glare. Glares from window glass, shop displays, automobiles lined up in a car show etc. are all potential nightmares to shoot. If you have your blinkies (highlight indicators) turned on, you are likely to be warned that you are passed the red line with your highlights. While there are some photographers, who don’t quite appreciate the concept of cutting down glares and reflections, for most these are quite offending. For the latter group of photographers, circular polarizers are the only way to cut down glare. Read more...

The Basic Rules of Photography and Common Mistakes

Everyone, even professionals, makes mistakes, although their mistakes are rare and usually caused by lack of concentration. Many mistakes can be easily avoided by just remembering them, understanding their causes and following the basic rules of photography. Read more...

Congratulations on buying your first DSLR! Now you are well and truly on the road to photographic nirvana! Your DSLR is a very powerful tool for making images. With it you can control the amount of light reaching the sensor, thus, allowing you to balance an exposure, pursue creative ways to express yourself through your images and in essence capturing more than just light inside the small box. For all practical reasons a DSLR is the only camera you will ever need.

But there are more to good compositions than just the camera. A good composition involves not only a good subject matter or a moment but also good light and of course clever use of all the elements to put together an image. Literally, you don’t take an image, you make it.

Good light is unfortunately something which is not within the control of a photographer. However, if you are really good with a camera and have an astute sense of lighting, you will be able to make better use of the available light than most. But even the most experienced photographer, at times, require additional lighting tools to fine tune a composition. In this article we shall be looking at one such tool - speedlight or an external flash.