Australia is a photographer’s playground. Within a single country you’ll find blood-red deserts, glacier-carved alpine ridges, neon coral reefs, ancient rainforests, and beaches with sand so white it looks photoshopped. Whether you shoot landscape, wildlife, astrophotography, drone, or street, Australia gives you scenes you simply can’t get anywhere else on earth.

This guide rounds up 12 iconic locations every photographer should aim to shoot at least once — when to go, what gear to pack, and the angles that consistently win the frame. We’ve also pulled in detailed destination guides from our friends at Touring Guide for each location, so you can plan the trip end-to-end.

1. Uluru — the Red Centre at golden hour

Nothing else looks like Uluru. The monolith rises 348 metres out of the Northern Territory desert and shifts colour through the day — slate-grey at dawn, fire-orange at sunset, deep purple under storm light. Shoot from the dedicated sunset viewing area to the west, then return for sunrise from the eastern lookout. Pack a long lens (70-200mm) for compressed shots that isolate the rock against the sky, plus a wide angle for foreground spinifex grass.

When: May–September (dry season, cooler nights, no flies). Pro tip: the cultural site rules prohibit photography in certain areas — check signage before composing.

2. The Twelve Apostles — coastal sea stacks at sunrise

Victoria’s Twelve Apostles are the most-photographed coastline in Australia for good reason — limestone stacks rising out of the Southern Ocean, hammered by spray, glowing amber at first light. Most photographers shoot from the main viewing platform, but the lower-level Gibson Steps gives you a beach-level perspective that almost no Instagram photo captures. A circular polariser cuts through the sea spray; a 10-stop ND filter turns the surf into silk.

3. The Whitsundays — aerial heaven

The Whitsunday Islands off the Queensland coast are where drone photography earns its keep. Hill Inlet at low tide produces the swirling turquoise-and-cream patterns that dominate Australian tourism marketing, and Whitehaven Beach holds 98% pure silica sand. If you’re new to flying high above water, our drone photography tips cover the gear, settings, and legal considerations you’ll want sorted before you take off.

4. Cradle Mountain — Tasmania’s alpine cathedral

Dove Lake, mirror-still at dawn, with Cradle Mountain reflecting back — this is one of the most reliable landscape compositions in the country. The boardwalk loop is six kilometres of constantly-changing perspectives. Tasmania’s weather flips fast, so pack rain protection and a microfibre cloth for the front element. Sturdy boots beat aesthetics — the boardwalk is wet, slippery, and unforgiving.

5. Wineglass Bay — the perfect curve

The classic shot of Wineglass Bay is from the lookout above — a half-hour climb up granite steps in Freycinet National Park. Mid-morning gives the cleanest water colour; late afternoon the cliffs turn pink. If you’re shooting the bay itself, drop down to the beach (another 45 minutes) and shoot the curved shoreline from the southern end with a wide lens. Our landscape photography tips walk through the composition principles that make this kind of shot work.

6. Kakadu — wildlife, waterfalls, and Aboriginal rock art

Kakadu National Park is twice the size of Yellowstone and four times more visually diverse. Jim Jim Falls in the wet season, Yellow Water Billabong at sunrise (saltwater crocs, jabirus, magpie geese), Ubirr’s 20,000-year-old rock paintings at sunset — all from the same base camp. A 100-400mm lens earns its keep here. Wet season (Nov–Apr) for waterfalls, dry season (May–Oct) for wildlife and access.

7. Blue Mountains — eucalyptus haze and sandstone cliffs

Two hours west of Sydney, the Blue Mountains get their name from the haze of eucalyptus oil that gives the air a literal blue tint. Shoot the Three Sisters from Echo Point at dawn before the tour buses arrive; for something less photographed, hike to Pulpit Rock for a 270° view of the Grose Valley. Long exposures of the misty valleys at first light are a signature shot.

8. Kangaroo Island — wildlife on tap

Off the South Australian coast, Kangaroo Island is what mainland Australia looked like 200 years ago. Sea lions on Seal Bay (yes, you can shoot from metres away with a guide), wild kangaroos at golden hour in Flinders Chase, and Remarkable Rocks — wind-sculpted granite that catches the late sun like sandpaper through a backlit window. Bring a fast prime (50mm or 85mm f/1.8) for low-light wildlife.

9. Cape Byron — Australia’s easternmost lighthouse

The Cape Byron Lighthouse is the easternmost point of mainland Australia — first light hits here before anywhere else in the country. Shoot from the headland car park for the lighthouse against an empty Pacific; from the beach below, you’ll see migrating humpback whales between June and November. Drone shots of the curved coastline at sunrise are dramatic. Lifestyle shooters: the surf town below is a goldmine for editorial work.

10. Ningaloo Reef — underwater colour without the crowds

The Great Barrier Reef gets the headlines, but Western Australia’s Ningaloo Reef is more accessible (you can wade off the beach), less bleached, and far less crowded. Whale sharks aggregate March–August. Underwater housings start at $300 for a phone, $1,500+ for mirrorless — and unlike most reefs, here you genuinely don’t need a boat to get publishable shots.

11. Daintree Rainforest — green on green on green

The Daintree is the oldest continuously-surviving rainforest on the planet — 180 million years and counting. The challenge is exposure: dim, high-contrast, with shafts of light through the canopy. Shoot in RAW, bracket aggressively, and bring a sturdy tripod (a slow shutter is the only way to handle the low light without pushing ISO into noise territory). Cape Tribulation at low tide gives you that iconic “where the rainforest meets the reef” composition.

12. Kings Canyon — Watarrka’s red walls

Often skipped on Red Centre itineraries, Watarrka (Kings Canyon) is arguably more dramatic than Uluru. The Rim Walk gets you 100m above the canyon floor with views into the Garden of Eden — a permanent waterhole surrounded by cycads that have been there since the dinosaurs. Start the walk at first light: the canyon walls glow before the sun hits the floor, and you’ll be back at the car park before the heat ruins everything.

Gear and planning checklist

• Body: any modern mirrorless with weather sealing. Australia is dusty, salty, and humid in roughly equal measure.
• Lenses: 16-35mm wide, 70-200mm telephoto, plus one fast prime for low light.
• Filters: circular polariser (cuts glare on water), 10-stop ND (silky water, dreamy clouds).
• Tripod: non-negotiable for landscape and astro.
• Drone: register with CASA before flying — Australia takes drone regs seriously.
• Storage: double your usual card capacity. You will shoot more than you think.
• Backup: a portable SSD and a cloud sync workflow for every night on the road.

Protect your shots

You’re going to bring back a hard drive of images that took weeks to plan, thousands of dollars to capture, and unrepeatable moments to compose. Before you post a single one online, watermark them. Image theft is a real and growing problem, especially for travel and landscape photographers whose work is highly shareable on social media. Watermarking your photos takes seconds and protects months of work.

For more advanced techniques and creative approaches to capturing Australia and beyond, our travel photography tips dig into composition, light, and storytelling for the road.

Planning the trip? Touring Guide has destination-by-destination breakdowns of every location above — campsites, tracks, attractions, and seasonal access info — at touringuide.com.

Companion piece: Why Should You Shoot RAW Format Photos? 5 Facts.

Modest photography describes a photography movement that revolves around reducing photography to its bare basics in hopes of improving and solidifying these basic skills.                                                                            This is because one of the easiest ways to improve photography is by taking simple photos of interesting subjects – the M.O. of modest photography.

How To Do Modest Photography?

Find an Interesting Subject to Photograph

Interesting subjects are the key to creating high quality modest photography.

Luckily for budding modest photographers, interesting subjects can be found in your everyday life, from a stormy landscape, to a simple street scene, to a flower in your garden or local event place.

Just take a walk around your local neighborhood with your equipment, and you’re sure to find something interesting to photograph.

Look For Good Quality Light

Something that has a big effect on how your photograph looks is the quality of light that is hitting your subject. There are two aspects of lighting that you need to pay attention to – the color of the light and how harsh the light is.

Colored light can create unnatural effects on skin tone and other natural colours that can throw off modest photography.

 

Harsh light is also something to look out for as it creates clean but unappealing shadows, that would look much more aesthetically pleasing if cast by a soft or diffused light source.

Stick To The Rule of Thirds

Across all types of photography, from landscape to business photography, composition refers to how the elements in the photograph are arranged.

The key to good composition is the ‘rule of thirds’. The rule of thirds works by splitting an image into thirds both horizontally and vertically, so you end up with 9 sections.

 

In many good landscape photographs, you will see the photographer places the horizon in the top third of the photo, while the landscape takes up the bottom two thirds of the photo.

As well as placing elements along the thirds lines, you can also try and put your main point of focus so that it falls on the intersection of two of the thirds lines.

 

Use Correct Shutter Speeds

Blurry photos can be a problem, with the key to reducing blur caused by camera shake is being to use a fast shutter speed.

To ensure a fast shutter speed, put your camera in the shutter priority shooting mode.

As a general rule, the shutter speed should be 1 over the 35mm equivalent focal length.

 

For example, a full frame camera with a 50mm lens would need 1/50s shutter speed for a sharp handheld photo and a 50mm lens on a camera with an APS-C sized sensor has a 35mm equivalent focal length of 75mm, and so would need 1/75s shutter speed for a sharp handheld photo.

The actual shutter speed you need will depend on your handholding ability.

To try and give the camera more support when shooting handheld, hold the camera up against your eye, use both hands to grip the camera, and push your elbows in against your chest.

If using a fast shutter speed makes your photos too dark, try increasing your camera’s ISO setting, or using a wider aperture. This will allow more light to reach the camera’s sensor without having to reduce the shutter speed.

If you are photographing a person or nearby object you can also use flash to provide enough light for a fast shutter speed.

How To Protect Your Modest Photography

Once you’re happy with your modest photography, the next step in any photographers’ process would be to protect their work before they publish it.

In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat, allowing you to safeguard your work from any potential content thieves and protect your copyright on all work you publish online.

Watermarking is also highly regarded as one of the best ways to establish an easily identifiable brand online.

Much like how a painter adds their signature to a painting, watermarking with a custom watermark can help potential clients identify your work, helping your photography stand out in the sea of content on the internet.

The only downside to the process is that watermarking can be difficult without professional photo editing knowledge.

Luckily, WaterMarquee is here to help!

While there are a few tools online that allow watermarking, no tool can match the free bulk watermarking offered by WaterMarquee.

With this service you can watermark up to five images at a time, entirely free of charge! So what are you waiting for, protect your modest photography and build your brand with WaterMarquee today!

For a curated list of the country’s best shooting locations, see Photography in Australia: 12 Iconic Locations Every Photographer Should Shoot.

While it is a simple process, an E commerce Photoshoot can be the make or break of your business, with product photography being one of the most important factors that contribute to the success of online stores. After all, while we scroll past hundreds of words we tend to ignore, what instead catches our eyes are high quality images that show off a product on an Ecommerce store and make them look irresistible.

As such, more often than not Ecommerce product photography is the first stepping stone for consumers on their way to buy a product.

The Importance of Ecommerce Photography

According to a study made by Etsy, about 90% of surveyed shoppers believe the quality of eCommerce images was very important when deciding whether or not to make a purchase, and it makes sense as while a product description is important, what really sways our decisions to purchase are images of what we’re getting.

While it might sound superficial, but a good product image reflects the quality of an item. If an item up for sale has no image, how are we supposed to know what we’re spending our money on? When it comes to online sales, the image usually reflects the quality of the item–if your online product does feature an image but this image is of poor quality, what does that say about the product itself? On the other hand, a well-made photograph says a lot about your product–what it looks like, how it works, how well made it is.

It’s also worth noting that the quality of your product image doesn’t just reflect your product, but your company itself.

If you can’t take a good photograph of what you have on offer, what does that say about how you run your company?

Luckily, taking a professional quality ecommerce photos can be done easily and without too much expense once you understand the shooting process and what you will need in order to help your ecommerce website stand out from the major ecommerce platforms.
 

How To Set Up an E Commerce Photoshoot

Sort Out Equipment

The first place to start with a E Commerce photoshoot is the studio. If you’re going to be taking a lot of product shots, then it helps to have a dedicated area for photography.

A well-organized studio and a streamlined workflow can go a long way in helping you take a lot of professional product photos for your ecommerce business in a short period of time.

Of course, you’ll need to buy the basics first starting with a camera. You don’t have to buy a fancy DSLR camera with a range of lenses to take good product images.

Don’t be afraid to take product photos with your iPhone as contemporary smartphones have fairly advanced cameras.

This is great because it means and the quality of your photos will depend more on your shot setup, lighting, and post-processing than on the camera you use, all of which are elements you can control easily.

Investing in some lighting equipment is the next step to building your e commerce photoshoot setup. Good lighting is essential to good photography but luckily, nature might already have some to provide you with.

Window light gives you a good amount of light with a soft shadow which is a good option to start with. We will delve into more detail about lighting strategies below, but in the set-up stage, it’s important to know that natural window light is best, so set up next to a large window. Related to lighting, it is important to try and find something that can be used as a reflector.

A reflector is anything white or metallic that bounces light onto the far side of your scene to brighten it and soften shadows.

Now that you’ve got everything behind the frame sorted, the next set of things to grab all involve the actual shot. To start with, you’ll need a stable shooting surface to place your product, so a table or desk will work for most small products. For larger products, it’s easiest to use the floor as your set up surface, just keep in mind that you’ll want to pick a spot that gets a lot of window light and is relatively clean.

Once you have found a suitable place to stage your product, the final element of your e commerce photoshoot to sort out is a backdrop. Most professionals invest in a white sweep, which is a backdrop that curves down into the floor, but if you are on a budget, you can buy some craft paper or poster board and mount it over a table to achieve the same white background effect, elevating your e commerce photoshoot to a professional standard.

“About 90% of surveyed shoppers believe the quality of eCommerce images was very important.”

Sort Out Your Set-Up

Now that you have everything you need to start shooting, it’s time to think about the set-up of your product photography.

To begin with, you’ll want your setup to be lit from the side as side lighting helps highlight the shape and textures of the object being photographed.

To do this, start by placing your table next to your window, with your background behind it set up in an L-shape to create a table/wall effect.

Next, try mounting your reflector on the side opposite the window to bounce light back on to your subject.

If you don’t have a reflector, a piece of white poster board or a trifold poster board work just as well. With this studio setup, you’ll be able to swap products in and out to take multiple product photos in a short period of time. You can also experiment with different placements of your tripod and camera, depending on which angles work best with your subject.

Experiment With Different Styles

While full-white backgrounds are great for your e commerce photoshoot, experimenting with different props, angles, and styling will help breathe life into your photos and give your audience a better sense of the physicality of your products. There are a lot of composition styles that you can try, but when it comes to ecommerce photography, two of the more common compositional styles are the diagonal and the “C.”

A diagonal setup is great for eye-level shots where your camera lens is positioned at the same level as your product. The idea here is to place objects in a diagonal line from back to front, with the tallest objects in the back and the shortest in the front.

To get a better idea of how to employ this technique, start by placing one or two tall props in the back right or left corner, directly in front of your vertical surface.

Place your main subject near the centre of your horizontal surface, at least six inches in front of the vertical backdrop. Keeping it at least six inches from your vertical surface will keep it blurred when you shoot with a shallow depth of field.

Then place a short prop in the opposite front corner so that you’ve created a diagonal line when you look down on it.

This diagonal composition might look strange when viewed from above, but shot from the front with a shallow depth of field, you start to see why this style of composition is so common in ecommerce photography.

When choosing background and foreground props, consider objects a customer may use with your subject. For example, a bath poof and towel make sense with a skin care product. Alternatively, you might choose attractive objects that fit with your color scheme, even if they don’t relate to your product. For background objects, try glass bottles, vases, plants, or a bowl of fruit. For foreground objects, try a sprig of greenery, citrus slices, flowers, or a sprinkle of something textured, like coarse salt, oats, or loose tea.

However, if your product is flat like artwork or paper goods, a flat lay may be a better angle for you. This is where the ‘C’ composition comes in handy, allowing you to display a flat lay product easily and in an aesthetically appealing manner. The trick to the ‘C’ composition is to arrange your subject and props in a crescent shape, leaving the middle area bare. This draws the viewers eye and leaves you with an e commerce photoshoot that looks classy and professional, without detracting from your product.

“When choosing background and foreground props, consider objects a customer may use with your subject.”

Adjust Your Lighting

Now that you have organised your set up, it’s time to perfect the shot’s lighting, an essential part of really defining your images and elevating you e commerce photoshoot to the next level.

Using natural light, is always best as it will provide you a good amount of light with a soft shadow. If the shadow is too sharp, you can place a screen, paper, or cloth on the inside to soften it.

The only downfall with this is the ever changing nature of natural light. If you want to really maximize your time and get some beautiful shots, it would be best to shoot in the afternoon, during a time known as ‘golden hour’.

Typically, photographers refer to the last hour before sunset and the first hour after sunrise as the “golden hours,” because these times provide the perfect amount of light for shooting.

It’s also best to shoot on an overcast day, to avoid direct sunlight. Just like strong back-light, direct sunlight can be too harsh and can create unsightly dark shadows. If you have to use artificial lights, two identical soft-box setups can usually do the job, using one as your key light and the other as fill to soften any shadows. Sadly, no matter what you photograph or what type of light you use , you’re going to get shadows. The goal for an e commerce photoshoot is to assess and modify your shadows to achieve a look you and your customers will love.

“It would be best to shoot in the afternoon, during a time known as ‘golden hour’.”

Consider Focus, Stabilization and Consistency

When shooting for an e commerce photoshoot, do not underestimate the importance of a tripod to minimize blur and keep the angle consistent across multiple products.

For those of you with a more advanced camera and tripod set up, you could even try setting the lens to a small aperture and a slow shutter speed.

This will give you a wide depth of field that brings your entire product into focus to give it a crisp look, as long as you ensure your camera is well-fixed on your tripod to avoid getting blurry images.

 

If you use a phone camera, you can get a similar effect by using portrait mode. Rather than changing the size of the aperture like DSLRs do, phone cameras use machine learning to blur the background and create a similar effect. Once you’ve taken a few shots, try mixing and matching different backdrops to experiment with different effects. For example, mixing and matching different vertical and horizontal backdrops will give you a ton of content for your e commerce photoshoot without any extra styling effort.

You can also choose backdrops of different colors and intensities that compliment your brand aesthetic and look great together. That way you can create light/light, dark/dark, and mixed dark/light combinations that lend variety to your listings and catch attention on Instagram. With just one e commerce photoshoot, you’ll be able to change your product page photos to suit the season and you’ll have an abundance of content for social media.

“If you’ve taken great shots, you’ll only need to do some light editing.”

Edit Your Photos

After you’ve taken your shots during your e commerce photoshoot, you’ll want to move on to retouching them. Expensive photo editing software isn’t necessary for this step, as there are countless free image editing tools available for post production on your e commerce photoshoot. If you’ve taken great shots, you’ll only need to do some light editing to make the images from you e commerce photoshoot really pop.

The first thing to think about when it comes to editing is the base image’s sharpness. With good lighting and a stable tripod setup during your initial e commerce photoshoot, you should already have fairly sharp images. The goal with post production sharpening is only to slightly sharpen your images, giving them a more defined look if required. The next step is to adjust the white balance of your image.

White balance is the level of blue and red tints on the white areas of your photograph. Adjusting the white balance of your image can make it look more “cool” or “warm,” depending on your intention. Generally, commercial photography should look warmer, with the intention of creating a sense of warmth that invites potential customers in and draws them to your product.

Similar to white balance, the next thing to edit is the brightness and contrast in your images. Brightness can be used to give more highlight to certain areas of your image, but be careful not to turn the brightness up too much. A high level of brightness can give an image a “washed out” quality. Contrast describes the separation of light and dark areas of your photograph. Slightly higher contrast can give the textures of your photo more depth, but again, don’t overdo it. Excessively high contrast can stifle the range of colors in your photo and make the image appear flat and lifeless.

“In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat.”

 

How To Prepare Your Ecommerce Product Photography For the Internet

Once you have completed your e commerce photoshoot, edited the photos you produced and are happy with your overall product, the next step is to watermark your work. In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat, allowing you to safeguard your work from any potential content thieves and protect your copyright on any photos you publish online, meaning other companies or competitors cant steal them.

Watermarking is also highly regarded as one of the best ways to establish an easily identifiable brand online. Much like how a painter adds their signature to a painting, watermarking with a custom watermark can help potential clients identify your work, helping your photography stand out in the sea of content on the internet. This means that when you publish the photos from your ecommerce photoshoot online and onto any external distribution sites like Pinterest or Instagram, your work will be easily identifiable, leading to more people looking at your work and more potential clients!

The only downside to the process is that watermarking can be difficult without professional photo editing knowledge. Luckily, WaterMarquee is here to help! While there are a few tools online that allow watermarking, no tool can match the free bulk watermarking offered by WaterMarquee. With this service you can watermark up to five images at a time, entirely free of charge! So what are you waiting for, protect your e commerce photoshoot and build your brand with WaterMarquee today!

Makeup product photoshoots are some of the highest paying and most in demand niche’s in the professional photography market, and luckily for aspiring photographers, it is also one of the easiest to break into.

Unlike lifestyle photos, modelling portraits or traditional makeup photography, the barrier for entry into makeup product photography is quite low, with no need for studio lighting, colour temperatures for a model‘s skin tone or extravagant backdrops.

In fact really all you need for a makeup product photoshoot is natural lighting (or possibly a ring light), a few tricks of the trade and a good eye for detail.

So, if that sounds like something you’d be interested in, then lets dive in and look at the top tips for having your own makeup product photoshoot.

Top Tips For a Makeup Product Photoshoot

Polish the Product

One of the first and most often overlooked steps of a makeup product photoshoot, dusting off the product is an essential part of the process for beauty product photos.

Once you get up close to any product, you’ll be amazed to see how much dust, dirt and fingerprints there are.

To save yourself time and frustration later, make sure to clean the product really well before you start shooting. Wipe the product down with a damp cloth, possibly even a little methylated spirits, before giving it a blow with an air can, or similar, to remove any residual dust or dirt.

If you need to move or adjust the product during the shoot, wearing gloves made of a soft fabric, similar to those you’d find at a jewelry store, will help to avoid getting any new fingerprints or dust on the item.

Setup a Background

The background plays an important part in product photography and yet, choosing the right background is something that often is much easier said than done.

When it comes to backgrounds, ideally you want to find something that complements, but does not distract from, the product.

Often if you’re shooting for a bigger client this will probably be pre-determined by the art director of the shoot, but for budding photographers shooting for themselves, it’s important to consider things like the colour of the background, the texture and the overall look that it gives off.

A good place to start when choosing backgrounds is with MDF boards, acrylic sheets, or even a simple wall, all of which are great options thanks to their smooth, even backgrounds that don’t take attention away from the subject of the makeup product photoshoot.

If you are looking for other backgrounds that are more accessible, or if you don’t have a wall available, it is possible to use paper rolls, canvas and even wooden boards, to achieve a similar result.

No matter what you choose, the key to selecting a background is to make sure that you use a colour that helps the subject of the makeup product photoshoot pop.

Experiment With Your Composition

The rule of thirds is a well-known composition technique for taking basic photos, but it isn’t the only compositional technique, or even the best of the bunch.

Leading lines, juxtaposing colours, and framing with multiple angles of the same product are other well-known techniques.

There are also other, lesser-known techniques that you can try, which involve colour for different skin tones and contrast between skincare products, that can also be used to hold the viewer’s attention and guide their eye.

The key when it comes t composition is to think about how your eye travels through the image and consider whether there are any items that might take your eye out of the frame, distracting highlights, or any other elements that confuse or detract from the message.

A common technique used in product photography is to shoot from slightly below the product to make it look more heroic and imposing. This can be done by simply lowering the position of your camera, or even by placing the cosmetic product on blocks or other items.

Use Diffused Lighting

Whether you’re using studio flash or natural light, gradient lighting will make all the difference when photographing cosmetics and makeup, particularly if the subject has gloss or reflective surfaces.

When taking photos of glossy surfaces, direct sunlight can create glares on the product that obscure brand labelling and look generally unappealing aesthetically.

To fix this, instead of using a soft box, which is what results in those harsh, unsightly reflections you often see, you can instead a piece of diffusion material or scrim in front of your light source.

This will soften and diffuse the reflections, eliminate harsh shadows and immediately result in a more luxurious feel.

Utilize Depth Of Field

Although a shallow depth of field can give very creative results, when it comes to product photography it’s generally preferable to be able to see the entire product in focus.

As such shooting at a high f-stop, of around f16 is advisable for shooting products, as this allows you to reach a maximum depth of field without the risk of diffraction, which would obscure the subject of your makeup product photoshoot.

However, when shooting small items up close, as is often the case with cosmetics and makeup products, it can be difficult to get the whole subject sharp, even if you’re using the largest aperture.

In these cases, it may be necessary to use a technique called focus stacking, which allows you to shoot a series of images at different focus points and merge them together in our final step, post-production.

Polish in Post

When it comes to any kind of photography, once you’ve got your final image, there will always be some degree of post-production and retouching required.

From removing dust and scratches to making contrast or colour adjustments, this is an important part of the photographic process and you may be surprised at how even the smallest tweaks can make a difference.

For product photography, it is best to use software solutions such as Lightroom or Photoshop to edit your images.

This software are the best in the business when it comes to photographic post processing, used by professionals all throughout the industry thanks to their broad array of heavy duty effects and alterations.

The only downside to using these products is the expensive membership fees and the relatively steep learning curve which can put off some users.

If you’re looking for a free, easier to use alternative, then it might be a good idea to take a look at the photo editing software pre-installed on your device, which might just be enough to cover your makeup product photoshoot.

The Most Important Step For Makeup Product Photography

The final and most important step for your makeup product photoshoot comes after the shoot and even after post production.

Once you have gone ahead and completed your makeup product photoshoot, the next step in any professional photographers process would be to protect their work before publishing it online.

As a digital content creator who publishes any form of work online, you should know the importance of watermarking your work.

In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat, allowing you to safeguard your work from any potential content thieves and protect your copyright on all work you publish online.

Watermarking is also highly regarded as one of the best ways to establish an easily identifiable brand online.

Much like how a painter adds their signature to a painting, watermarking with a custom watermark can help potential clients identify your work, helping your photography stand out in the sea of content on the internet.

This means that when you or your clients publish your makeup product photoshoot online, onto sites like Pinterest or Instagram, your work will be easily identifiable, leading to more people looking at your portfolio and more potential clients!

The only downside to the process is that watermarking can be difficult without professional photo editing knowledge. Luckily, WaterMarquee is here to help!

While there are a few tools online that allow watermarking, no tool can match the free bulk watermarking offered by WaterMarquee.

With this service you can watermark up to five images at a time, entirely free of charge! So what are you waiting for, protect your makeup product photoshoot and build your brand with WaterMarquee today!

Excitement, beautiful views and the best way to show off an intimate wedding ceremony, waterfall engagement photos are quickly becoming one of the most popular adventure engagement sessions for an elopement photographer to shoot. So, take part in this new adventure engagement session trend and take some beautiful photos, then this is the guide for you!

How To Shoot Waterfall Engagement Photos and Adventure Engagement Photos

Buy a Camera That Can Shoot in Manual

The first thing you need do is get yourself a camera that gives you complete control over all the camera settings, which means any camera that has a manual mode should do.

Luckily, most new digital cameras fall under this category, allowing you to fully control things like shutter speed, aperture and ISO.

While it’s true that professional expensive cameras have higher quality, there’s no need for you to go out and buy the most expensive camera on the market.

Once you have the camera, you’re ready to go out and shoot waterfalls!

Use a Slow Shutter Speed

In order to make the waterfall look silky smooth like they do in the most popular waterfall engagement photos, you’ll need to use slower shutter speeds to show the movement of the waterfall.

When you use a slow shutter speed, of around 1-2 seconds, all of the water that moves during that period will blur itself onto the sensor, creating a silky look.

So what is the perfect shutter speed for waterfalls to use?

This is entirely up to you, the size of the waterfall and your creative style! A speed around 1/8 to 0.5 second will still show tendrils and lines in the water, while 30 seconds will often make the waterfall look like a milkshake.

Try and experiment with different speed settings in manual mode until you find something you like.

Don’t Forget The Basics!

Don’t get too caught up in the intricacies for waterfall photography. While there are lots of technical settings that can influence your waterfall engagement photos, the most important thing is to make sure you get the basics right.

When you’re setting your camera up for photographing waterfalls, pay careful attention to the way the entire shot looks.

Don’t just focus on the waterfall, also look for the way water flows through the scene, the surrounding environment and the edges of your frame.

 

At the end of the day if you’re trying to master the art of how to take waterfall engagement photos but don’t get the basics right, your shot will never look any good.

How To Protect Photos From Your Waterfall Engagement Session

Once you have taken your waterfall engagement photos, the next step in any professional photographer’s process will be to protect their waterfall engagement photos. In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat, allowing you to safeguard your work from any potential content thieves and protect your copyright on all work you publish online.

Watermarking is also highly regarded as one of the best ways to establish an easily identifiable brand online. Much like how a painter adds their signature to a painting, watermarking with a custom watermark can help potential clients identify your work, helping your photography stand out in the sea of content on the internet.

This means that when you or your clients publish your waterfall engagement photos online onto sites like Pinterest or Instagram, your work will be easily identifiable, leading to more people looking at your portfolio and more potential clients!

The only downside to the process is that watermarking can be difficult without professional photo editing knowledge. Luckily, WaterMarquee is here to help! While there are a few tools online that allow watermarking, no tool can match the free bulk watermarking offered by WaterMarquee.

With this service you can watermark up to five images at a time, entirely free of charge! So what are you waiting for, protect your waterfall engagement photos and build your brand with WaterMarquee today!

A printed or digital photography portfolio is a key part of a photographer’s craft, as it allows you to quickly share your work with potential clients, but what is portfolio photography? Well to put it simply, a professional photography portfolio can take many forms, from a photography portfolio website, to a printed photography portfolio hand out. While a stunning photography portfolio will bring you plenty of work, a bad one can make work hard to find. So what constitutes a good portfolio, and how do you recognise a bad one, even when reviewing your own work? While portfolios are just as varied as individual photographer’s personalities, there are a few tricks to determine if your portfolio is ready to go, or if it needs a bit more work. Whether your photo portfolio is part of your branding handout kit at the end of shoots of whether it’s the key to your photography website, learning the dos and don’ts are essential to understanding what is portfolio photography, so lets dive in.

What Should Be Included In Photography Portfolios?

When you make a photography portfolio, the common approach is to just throw in the best photos you have, without too much thought to the flow of the entire portfolio, how many photos are included, or even if one image matches the next. This is a mistake as a portfolio for photography is more than just a collection of images that are professional and show off technique. Of course, this probably leaves you asking, what is portfolio photography? Well, a portfolio instead should be a body of work that tells a story and shows off both your talent, your style, and the vision that you have for the images that you’re creating.

How Do I Make a Portfolio For My Growing Photography Business?

A common problem for the kind of photographers who have to ask ‘what is portfolio photography’, is that their lack of clients means a lack of body of work, which in turn stops them from getting new clients. However, with a little bit of hard work you can escape this catch 22 and get onto clients that won’t ask ‘what is portfolio photography?’ when you ask if you can put their shots into your portfolio. Instead of only focusing on paid work, ask for volunteers in your personal life and start creating shots that are going to make their way into your portfolio while again making sure you’ve got variety, scope, etc. As you get clients, you can start adding those in to replace or accompany the volunteer photos from earlier in your career when you had to ask, ‘what is portfolio photography?’.

How Many Pictures Should Be In A Photography Portfolio?

Just like the question of ‘what is portfolio photography’ there’s no simple answer to this question, with numerous photographers telling you numerous different answers. Some feel as though you should try to stuff 60+ photos in a portfolio to show how talented you are, while others feel that anything more than 5 images is overkill. However, professionalism is in a curated and trimmed portfolio as much as it is in the content itself! For the best professional look and feel, you’re going to want to look for 10-15, or fewer, as to simply answer the question of ‘what is portfolio photography’ for your potential clients. These prints should all make an impact and show that you are the real deal. If you think you can cut one or two without interrupting the flow, feel free, less is best!

How Do I Make My Portfolio Stand Out From The Crowd?

There’s no one single answer as to how to make sure that clients remember your portfolio as being totally unique. However, you can certainly make sure that your portfolio as the best and strongest it can be by keeping it fresh and creative wherever possible. While highlighting that you are experienced with many technical aspects, design is equally an important element to keep at the top of your mind if you want to help your portfolio stand out from others asking ‘what is portfolio photography’. One of the most overlooked elements of a portfolio that can really help you stand out however, is progression. As a photographer you should always keep learning, trying and experimenting, so make sure that this continual education shows up in your portfolio. It will clients see that you have lots of ideas to offer, that this is your passion and that you take it seriously. That, if anything, will help you to stand out amongst the competition!

Should I Have A Printed Or An Online Portfolio?

There are some who feel that printed portfolios are the only true option when it comes to showing your photography off because it is has always been the classic practice throughout the years. However, with the rise in popularity of the internet and social media especially, online portfolios now also give you a certain authenticity that is hard to find elsewhere. As such, the best advice for a buddy photographer is that you should start with an online photography portfolio, even if it’s just on Instagram. Simple to set-up and effective when you need to show your prints off quickly, they’re user-friendly and designed for the modern photographer. Once you’ve got your portfolio solid and steady enough that you always go with the same prints to show clients, you can also look at creating a print portfolio with those prints to really up your game and increase your professionalism. After all, there’s no rule saying that you can’t have both a print and an online portfolio presence! In fact, having both even helps make sure that you don’t lose a client because they prefer one over the other! Just make sure that you stay consistent between print and digital.

Things To Remember For Portfolio Photography

Ensure Variety

As your portfolio is a collection of all your best work, including two similar images could make potential clients think you’re a lazy photographer that just takes multiple photos of the same thing and doesn’t understand what is portfolio photography. It’s okay to include photos from the same shoot, especially if you’re just starting out, but make sure those photos are different in more ways than one. If you’re building a portrait portfolio, for example, it’s best to not include a second shot that just involved readjusting the subject’s hands, but you could include a photo from a completely different set-up from the same session.

Cut Out Any Fluff

As mentioned earlier, quality is always better than quantity – a portfolio with hundreds of images quickly becomes overwhelming and will make your audience question what is portfolio photography. As such, your portfolio should include your best work and only your best work. If you can identify even one small flaw in your image, it is best not to include as you’re trying to showcase your best images, not all your images. If you find yourself wanting to include more than you should, consider creating a blog or spam account to display images from all your shoots, and a portfolio with just the best ones from your when you had to ask what is portfolio photography, all the way to the when you’re an expert.

Find Your Style

A portfolio doesn’t just show a potential client that you’re a competent photographer, it helps them determine if your styles will mesh well with what they want from their photo session. If you have an image with perfect composition and exposure, but it’s not your typical style, don’t include it. Your portfolio should state more than just the fact that you know the technical aspects of photography – it should display your artistic style more prominently, and convince your audience that don’t have to ask ‘what is portfolio photography’.

Consider Your Audience

While they might look amazing, a bride-to-be doesn’t want to sift through your photos of corporate events when she is looking for a wedding photographer. Specialising in a certain area of photography is a good idea for starting a photography business, but if you’re shoot in multiple subcategories, it’s imperative you have a separate portfolio for niche you shoot. If you shoot both maternity photos and new-born portraits, keep separate albums or use different pages on your website. When designing these separate albums, its important to ask yourself who is looking at your portfolio? For example a bride-to-be isn’t looking for the same thing that a business is looking for, and so different design elements will appeal to her. When choosing the elements of the portfolio, like what cover to use or what template to choose for your website, consider who your audience is and what will speak to them the most.

The Most Important Step For Portfolio Photography

Now that you understand what is portfolio photography, and once you have gone ahead and put together your photography portfolio, the next step in any professional photographers’ process would be to protect their work before publishing it, online or in print. As a content creator who publishes any form of work online or distributes it in person, you should know the importance of watermarking your work. In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat, allowing you to safeguard your work from any potential content thieves and protect your copyright on all work you publish online. The only downside to the process is that watermarking can be difficult without professional photo editing knowledge. Luckily, WaterMarquee is here to help! While there are a few tools online that allow watermarking, no tool can match the free bulk watermarking offered by WaterMarquee. With this service you can watermark up to five images at a time, entirely free of charge! So what are you waiting for, photography portfolio and build your brand with WaterMarquee today!

For a deeper dive: Wedding Photography Portfolio: 5 Tips for Choosing Your Best Photos.

Related: See our complete watermarking workflow for photographers — brand kit, batch gallery export, and the multi-size pipeline for wedding, portrait, and real-estate work.

When it comes to your brand, a photo isn’t worth a thousand words – it’s worth way, way more. A few photos from a brand photoshoot, taken by a professional brand photographer can do wonders for your business in numerous ways.

Brand photoshoots weave elements of your visual brand identity into imagery that’s emotive and effective, helping tell a visual story of who you are and what you do.

Brand photography also help break up larger sections of text so your copy and design work together to tell your brand story.

The vast majority of entrepreneurs and business owners incorporate photos into their website design, but not all invest in quality brand photography, and the difference in returns is always evident because a brand photo is always more effective than a run on the mill stock photo. Why you ask? Well, lets dive in.

Why a Brand Photoshoot Is Important

When someone lands on your website for the first time, what elements do they notice first? If you guessed visuals, you’d be right, with human’s processing visuals 60,000 times faster than text, our visuals actually do the talking for us. So what is your imagery saying? If you aren’t visually communicating the right message through your photography, you might unknowingly confuse your audience.

Some marketers recommend for you to include photos of anything that creates an overall “vibe” for your brand, but here’s where that can get tricky.

You may love photos of succulent gardens and steaming cups of coffee, but what do those images actually say about what you offer? This is where brand photography comes in.

Brand Photography Helps You Stand Out

Personal branding photography is a strategic approach to visually telling your story through a series of high-quality images that are only for your brand. While some companies use free stock photos on websites like Unsplash and Pixabay to populate their website, personal brand photography is inherently a better choice due to its unique nature.

While stock photos are readily available for anyone who wants to download or purchase them, a relatively positive feature, this means that they can be used by anyone, including your competitors. When it comes to building a brand this is definitely not ideal, as you don’t want to be mistaken for one of your competitors simply because you use the same imagery on your website.

This brings us to another hang-up with stock photos – you have no say in what goes into them. When you choose to use pre-made stock photos in your branding, you don’t have control over the colors, props, outfits, or any other element in the stock photos.

You don’t even have control over the editing style of the photo, meaning that if you love everything about a stock except that the photo is dark and moody when your visual aesthetic is light and bright, you’re back to square one. With stock photos you can only build your visual identity around what other’s have already created, making your brand derivative at best.

That’s not even to mention how long it can take to find a stock photo you actually like. You can spend countless hours scrolling through stock photo libraries, only to come up short. Even if you do find a stock photo you like, it may not always work with the look and feel of your website template.

Quality brand photography on the other hand will give you full creative freedom and control over how the images are created, and you’ll be able to show your face in some of them.

“When it comes to building a brand, you don’t want to be mistaken for one of your competitors.”

 

How To Prepare For a Brand Photoshoot

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you’re always looking for ways to improve your visibility. You’re already an expert at your craft, but you want imagery that helps you look like one.

Brand photos can give you the confidence to increase your prices over time and assert your value as an expert in your field.

The best way to do this with professional photos, taken brand photoshoots.

After all, think about when you make investments in your own business, you want to work with professionals who present themselves as experts. So, if another business owner shared a few selfies they captured with their iPhone even if it was with great lighting, it wouldn’t come across as professional.

As such, if you’re committed to investing in a professionally designed website for your business, it goes without saying that having professional brand photography is going to be an essential step as well. So how do you go about beginning brand photoshoots?

Define Your Style and Your Brand Story

The first thing to remember is that all things drill down to your brand strategy. Whether you are working with a brand designer/strategist on your brand photoshoots, or are planning this for yourself, it’s important that everyone involved with the photo shoot is clear of what your business does, who it does it for, your mission, vision and visual identity. 

With all of this information, it’s time to create your mood board, which should act as a type of visual presentation or ‘collage’ consisting of images, text, and samples of objects in a composition that specifically visualizes the right style of photography for your brand.

For example, if your brand is soft, feminine, positive and bright, then your mood board might consist of photography styles that are brighter, lighter, and airier. Creating a mood board will help you drill down a photography style that suits your brand best.

“Creating a mood board will help you drill down a photography style that suits your brand best.”

Create a Shot List

Now that you have figured out your brand’s style, its time to figure out an actual shot list. To begin with, its important to make a list of what you actually need your photos for, in terms of whether you’re using them for your website, Instagram posts or Insta-stories, blog posts or GIFs.

Each of these requires different types and formats of photography and your photographer needs to know all this before your shoot day.

From here you then should compile your shot list, incorporating brand colors and brand identity as you go. If you need brand photoshoot inspiration look to other websites and consider the occasions where you plan to use these brand photoshoots’ images, from things like celebrating a product launch, all the way to holiday greeting cards.

This is where you can let your creativity run wild, try out a bunch of fun poses and really decide on your personal brand photoshoot’s approach.

Raid Your Wardrobe

One often overlooked part of personal brand photoshoots is costume. Keeping your brand aesthetic in mind and picking a variety of outfits that showcase your personality accordingly are very important to the overall success of branded photography.

For example, choosing an outfit for each of these scenarios would be a great way to cover all your bases – A badass boss, a casual day out, your professional work-from-home outfit, and maybe even something a bit classier.

It is important to remember that if you book a photography studio, you’ll most likely pay by the hour, so it’s important to maximize your time by having all of your outfits planned out in advance.

It can also get quite chaotic on shoot day if you’re hoping to get multiple outfits in, so choose them all in advance and list them out so you know exactly which outfits will go first to last. A good rule of thumb is to change outfits every 30-45 minutes but keep in mind that photoshoots tend to take longer than expected, so prepare accordingly.

“A good rule of thumb is to change outfits every 30-45 minutes.”

 

The Final Step For Your Brand Photos

Once you have gone ahead and completed your brand photoshoots the next step to really put the finishing touches on your images and polish your overall personal brand is to consider watermarking. Watermarking is highly regarded as one of the best ways to establish an easily identifiable brand online, thanks to it’s unique nature, and versatility to adapt to anyone’s individual visual identity.

Much like how a painter adds their signature to a painting, watermarking can help brand your images as uniquely your own, with a custom watermark even helping potential clients identify your work in the sea of content on the internet.

That’s not the only benefit however, as, while stock photos are readily available for anyone who wants to download or purchase them, they can be used by anyone, including your competitors – a downside that watermarked brand photos do not share!

In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat, allowing you to safeguard your work from any potential content thieves and protect your copyright on all work you publish online, meaning no one can re-use or reproduce any of the content created in your brand photoshoots.

The only downside to the watermarking process is that watermarking can be difficult without professional photo editing knowledge. Luckily, WaterMarquee is here to help! While there are a few tools online that allow watermarking, no tool can match the free bulk watermarking capabilities offered by WaterMarquee.

With our website you can watermark up to five images at a time, entirely free of charge, meaning that any photos you choose from your brand photoshoots can be enhanced and made much more effective with the click of a button! So what are you waiting for, protect your brand photoshoots, and build your personal brand with WaterMarquee today!

The highlight of every girl’s teenage life, a sweet sixteen is a milestone event to remember! Whether they’re extravagant or intimate, at home, or out-and-about, a sweet sixteen is the perfect birthday party to host a sweet sixteen photoshoot for. Even though you might not think about it yet, in ten or more years you will absolutely love looking through your sweet sixteen pics!

So, once you have gathered a few friends, set out a budget, and decided on a photo studio package, it’s time to start brainstorming Sweet Sixteen photoshoot ideas and decide what you want your sweet sixteen photos to look like. Festive looking or intimate and fun? The options are endless, but collated below are some the best sweet sixteen photoshoot ideas.

Sweet Sixteen Photoshoot Birthday Ideas

Classic Balloon Party

It wouldn’t be a sweet sixteenth birthday party without balloons, so why not embrace them and theme a whole party around them.

Classic, a little bit classy and a little bit fun, a balloon-filled, sweet sixteenth party is guaranteed to create some amazing memories that you’re going to want to capture.

While you might think focusing a whole party around balloons seems a bit simple, you’d be mistaken, as once you let your creativity run wild, you’ll see that there are so many ways that you can play around with balloons and wind up with an amazing photographic masterpiece.

For example, you could try attaching the balloons to different surfaces in the photo studio/photo shoot space, or you could have them flying around, tied to the floor, tied around you, or attached to any object that appears in the picture.

Different sizes and shapes of balloons, as well as ones with the number one and six are guaranteed to spice your photos up even more and make the moment that much more memorable, so feel free to go crazy and get all the balloons your heart desires.

Beautiful Flowers For a Beautiful Occasion

Flowers bring out the softness and the beauty in any photo so if you wish to try out a soft and classic look, bringing some flower arrangements into the photos will be the way to go. Flowers also offer a great opportunity for experimentation and creativity as well.

For example, you could create a flowery backdrop by sticking fake or real flowers to a big piece of cardboard and arrange them into a nice pattern that you can pose in front of, letting the photographer do their magic.

Or, if you’re keen to break out of the photography studio and get out and about, then why not try taking pictures in a flowery field. Spring is the best time for this type of photoshoot, but keep your eyes peeled all year round and you’ll be guaranteed to have an amazing sweet sixteenth, and have a few great pictures to boot!

Pink and Pretty

For some teenage girls, you cant go past a classic, pink, and pretty sweet sixteenth where they get to dress up with all their friends and have the party that they always dreamed of.

Pink clothes, pink tablecloths, pink everything, nothing looks better than the John Hughes-edsque teenage girl party, and nothing makes for better photos than a bunch of happy friends getting together and embracing their style, making for a memorable sweet sixteen photoshoot.

If you’re shooting at a photo studio, then a pink and pretty party can be made even more impressive, with the use of pink backdrops and pink props brought in by the photographer, so make sure to brief them on the style you would like so they can prepare.

If you’re bringing in a photographer to shoot at your own party don’t fret, you can dress to impress with cheap props and table settings bought from costumes shops and other such places.

Feel free to get creative and work with your family to really make the pink and pretty party of your dreams!

“No tool can match the free, bulk, watermarking offered by WaterMarquee for your sweet sixteen photoshoot!”

 

How To Protect Your Milestone Event Photography

Once the big day has passed and you have gone ahead and completed your sweet sixteen photography session, the next step is to post your photos!

However, there should be one more stage in your process before you publish any sort of photo online – protecting your photos.

In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat, allowing you to safeguard your photos from any potential content thieves and protect your copyright on anything you publish online.

The only downside to the process is that watermarking can be difficult without professional photo editing knowledge. Luckily, WaterMarquee is here to help!

While there are a few tools online that allow watermarking, no tool can match the free bulk watermarking offered by WaterMarquee. With this service you can watermark up to five images at a time, entirely free of charge!

So what are you waiting for, protect the hard work that went into creating a sweet sixteen photoshoot and the amazing photos and build your brand with WaterMarquee today!

Do you need to organise a Real Estate Agent Photoshoot?

If you’re a real estate agent, you know how important it is to stand out from competition. In this digital marketing world it’s vital for relators to stay consistently on top of their sphere of influence, and the best way to do this is by personal branding. A key part of personal branding for the real estate business are real estate headshots. These real estate agent portraits are professional images of you that display your brand and personality, which you can use in your marketing materials to help your business and credibility grow.

How To Get The Best Real Estate Agent Photoshoot and Agent Headshots Using A Professional Photographer

Review Other Professional Realtor Headshots for Ideas

Real estate agent photos should be treated as a key aspect of your business’ marketing efforts, and as such you should only ever hire a professional photographer and a professional makeup artist to work together and take them. Luckily, finding a good photographer who can take an excellent, professional, realtor headshot is simple, with all you need to is go through a photographer’s real estate headshot portfolio. Going through a portfolio is additionally helpful if you aren’t excited about your photo shoot, don’t have any ideas, or don’t feel comfortable in front of the camera. Luckily, looking through headshots can help, so don’t hesitate to gain inspiration from other real estate agents. Although headshots are meant to be relatively simple and keep the focus on you, looking through others’ headshots can help you think about your background, posing, hairstyle, and even your expressions.

Dress for Success

If you want to get the part then you’ve got to look the part, especially when it comes to real estate photography. When you think about getting dressed for your realtor headshot, think of what you might wear to the first meeting with your dream client. While commercial real estate agents might wear a suit and tie, some residential agents could be more casual with jeans and a button-down shirt. It’s important to choose clothing that makes you feel confident and represents your target audience. For instance, a headshot that feels formal could be because of the combination of a suit jacket, a casual pose, and even a simple, calm, location, all of which would likely appeal to a more formal, yet not especially corporate audience. This type of headshot would be effective for agents who want to put out a more casual vibe and attract clients in a more suburban neighborhood.

Try Out Some Power Poses

Even if your biggest deal of the year fell through the morning of your shoot, you can still trick your brain into feeling confident with power poses. According to psychological studies emotions can be attributed to physiology, and therefore, your bodily expressions contribute directly to your emotions. It may feel silly, but raising your arms above your head like Superman for a few minutes has been shown to increase feelings of power and confidence. Spending even a minute or two before your shoot in a power pose can increase your confidence and result in a better picture. In addition, consider choosing a few poses before your photo shoot. Even if your photographer helps you pose, you likely won’t feel as confident if you’re in an unfamiliar position. Try out a few poses in the mirror and decide on one or two that feel the most natural.

Consider Professional Hair & Makeup

Your realtor headshot will be used on social media, in your marketing materials like flyers and business cards, and at events or sponsorships, so to present the best version of yourself, consider getting your hair and makeup professionally done before your photo shoot. Getting you hair and make up done by a professional makeup artists is another way to help you feel confident, get more professional opportunities, and generate more real estate leads in the long run.

Don’t Pose With Accessories

It’s relatively common to see real estate agents with photos of them working on their phones or computers, often happening when they want to have a shot of them working in their natural element. However, technology generally doesn’t make a good impression in photos – it’s a distraction from what the headshot should focus on, you! It may even communicate that you spend too much time looking at screens instead of building relationships. Your headshot also shouldn’t be a group photo. Even if part of your real estate brand is showing your family, lifestyle, or pets, your headshot isn’t the place for it. Instead, holiday cards are great for family pictures, and you can share the animal you bring to showings on social media. The only exception to this rule is when you are part of a real estate team. In this case, you should have an individual headshot as well as a professionally photographed photo of the group together.

Choose the Right Background

The most important thing to keep in mind when choosing a background is to make sure it doesn’t distract from the image’s focal point which is you in the case of a real estate agent photoshoot. As such, one of the best headshot backgrounds is pure white, which is especially powerful when it comes to tiny profile pictures that appear online. However, your background can also be relevant to the real estate you work with. If you work in the city, an artfully blurred street scene or brick wall can be an integral piece of your real estate marketing. On the other hand, agents in a more rural or suburban area may respond more to something like a blurred forest or pastoral scene, exemplified by the headshot on the right.

Avoid Over-editing Your Realtor Headshot

Light editing or retouching is an important part of the headshot process, as it acts as a way to help agents present the most confident versions of themselves. However, if you aren’t a professional photographer, it can be very easy to take a retouching or editing tool too far. Over-edited photos can easily look unnatural, awkward, or washed out. Instead, a professional photographer should have this built-in to the cost, so ensure that this service is included in the product when you purchase a real estate agent photoshoot.

What If I Want To Break Into Real Estate Photography?

If you’re a realtor who has had their fair share of headshots and is looking to expand their skills then breaking into real estate photography might be a good option for you. Real estate photography can cover anything, from professional headshots to professional property photography. Now, you might be asking why you, as a real estate agent, would want to start a photography endeavor? Well the truth is, there’s a lot of demand for real estate photographers given the current housing market in many parts of the world. This specialized genre may seem simple, but it does require certain skills to take effective and compelling photos of homes for sale, all of which can be easily done by those most familiar with property- real estate agents. As such, the industry has recently seen an influx of real estate agents developing their photography skills and putting on their own real estate agent photoshoots as a side project.

Is Real Estate Photography Profitable?

The key to why real estate agents are dipping their toes into producing their own photographic content is simple – money. Not only is a real estate agent photoshoot expensive for those hiring professional photographers, but it is also profitable for those being hired. As it’s such a niche discipline, a developing photographer will have better chances of firstly saving money on their own shoots, but also securing paying clients who want them to shoot for their properties. After all, as there are plenty of real estate agents, we know there won’t be a shortage of houses to photograph, as even if some estate agents will keep old photos, the majority are more likely to commission new photographs when selling a house. In terms of actual dollar values, in real estate photography, the location and the size of the house play a important role in determining the price. So, if you’re a budding photographer or a sales agent looking to put on a real estate agent photoshoot, where do you start?

Before the Real Estate Shoot

Have a Shot List for Each Property

While no two homes are identical, there are typical shots that every professional real estate photographer will take. Knowing what to cover is an essential tip in learning how to shoot professional real estate photography. For a real estate agent photoshoot you will want to have a wide range of coverage, with two wide-angle shots of each bedroom that you’re happy with, the kitchen, and the living room. Generally, you’ll only need one good photo of the bathroom, unless it’s incredibly beautiful or spacious and one to three photos of the backyard, unless it has some unique features. Of course, while these are just guidelines, it’s essential to get as much good coverage of each part of the house as possible, so at the very least aim for a good photo of every room and multiple of the house’s exterior.

Prepare Your Gear

Just like the real estate business, preparation is crucial when it comes to a real estate agent photoshoot. There’s nothing worse than being at a shoot and finding that you forgot something. While you may be knowledgeable enough to work around it, having a few key pieces of photography kit missing means that youll need to work on your feet a little more. If you do nothing else in terms of preparation, at least always take your charger – a dead battery is a dead shoot. On this, if you have a secondary camera, take it, as having a safety net for any unforeseen technical issues is always a good idea.

On the Property

Declutter

Decluttering is one of the most important real estate photography elements, as while we get used to bits of clutter building up over time in our own homes, all those small items that we don’t notice will stand out in a photo and make a house thoroughly unappealing. As such, it is important to ensure that homeowners keep the surfaces as clean as possible—countertops, coffee tables, desks, etc. Sometimes you’ll arrive, and there’s still clutter that you know will not look appealing in the photos. There’s nothing wrong with suggesting hiding a few things. A professional real estate photographer will spend up to an hour constructing the scene for one perfect shot.

Walk Through the Home

Each home is different so getting a feel for space before picking up the camera will really benefit you when you come to shooting. Make sure to mentally note the best angles and what small items you may need to move. Remember, real estate photography is about making the building look good, not making the current interior look good!

During the Shoot

Use a Flash To Stay Mobile

Being able to get in and out quickly is essential for a real estate agent photoshoot so using a flash on your camera is always advised as it lets you cut down on set up time per room. The issue with a flash it that if we point the camera flash directly into the room, we get an unappealing bright area in the center of frame.   This is known as vignetting, but it’s undesirable for real estate photography. To fix this turn the flash so that it bounces off a wall behind you, the ceiling above, or even one of the side walls. This way you allow that light to diffuse into the space and give a more even look. Of course, these positions aren’t possible with a pop-up flash on your camera so it’s advisable to use a flashgun that features a multi-angle flash head.

Use a Drone for a Bird’s Eye Perspective

Modern real estate photography has reached new heights, quite literally, using drones. Drones can reach a unique perspective that would have been impossible or amazingly expensive only a few years ago. Drone real estate photography is often used when a unique selling point of the house is the location and surroundings. These real estate photos allow you to show off the amazing views while having the property in the shot. You will increasingly see that real estate agents now use video as well as real estate photos to advertise their properties. Adding a drone option to your bag of tricks is a great way to make your real estate photography business stand out, and it can help increase your real estate agent photoshoot pricing as well!

What’s Next?

Now that you have started your real estate agent photoshoot journey, the next step is to secure your work. As a digital content creator who publishes any form of work online, you should know the importance of watermarking your work. In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat, allowing you to safeguard your work from any potential content thieves and protect your copyright on all work you publish online. Watermarking is also highly regarded as one of the best ways to establish an easily identifiable brand online. Much like how a painter adds their signature to a painting, watermarking with a custom watermark can help potential clients identify your work, helping your photography stand out in the sea of content on the internet. The only downside to the process is that watermarking can be difficult without professional photo editing knowledge. Luckily, WaterMarquee is here to help! While there are a few tools online that allow watermarking, no tool can match the free bulk watermarking offered by WaterMarquee. With this service you can watermark up to five images at a time, entirely free of charge!

Companion piece: Real Estate Agent Secret Tip: 2 Ways Watermarking Can Help Your Career.

Companion piece: Why Should You Shoot RAW Format Photos? 5 Facts.

Companion piece: Best Tips to Make Your Home Photos Stand Out Against Competitors.

Related: See our complete watermarking workflow for photographers — brand kit, batch gallery export, and the multi-size pipeline for wedding, portrait, and real-estate work.

You’ve probably seen some absolutely stunning boho engagement photos taking the internet by storm on sites like Pinterest and Instagram, and for good reason. Bohemian engagement pictures are the new photography trend when it comes to the engagement session, with your average elopement photographer being asked more and more every day to channel a boho style for their clients. So what exactly are Boho engagement photos and how can you start creating them for you photography clients?

What Is ‘Boho’?

Bohemian style, known simply as ‘boho‘ is largely defined as a fashion trend that has extended to architecture, interior design and other forms of personal and artistic expression. Bohemian style comes with a long history, with its aesthetic originating in the late 60s and 70s. Also called ‘boho chic’ or ‘boho’, the style features a variety of natural materials, earthy shades and hippie-inspired patterns.

As a fashion style boho is strongly related to hippie fashion, in which natural fabrics, retro patterns, neutrals and warm shades merge with 70s style accents and a flair for statement accessories.

Over the years Bohemian style has evolved to be even more than just a fashion trend, becoming an actual culture in its own right, one that comes with a very specific ideology and complicated history.

While it’s closely associated with the hippie fashions of the 60s and 70s, these days, bohemian fashion has moved on from its routes and become part of the mainstream culture.

This is interesting as, boho fashion actually started out as a counterculture back in the 19th century. The origin of bohemian style is strongly correlated with the bohemians, a counterculture that appeared in France after the French Revolution. The era saw many artists plunge into poverty, as a result of being deprived of the former system of patronage.

Today, the wide variety of boho clothing and accessories make the style an established phenomenon, one that follows the lines of effortless, relaxed fashion, with its loose-fitted clothing items, casual accessories and overall artistic, creative mishmash of elements.

The fashions labelled as bohemian represent the lifestyle ideology that comes with it – an alternative to the traditional way of dressing, paired up with an equally alternative, more liberated lifestyle and a social stance against everything from materialism to society’s constraints.

“Boho fashion actually started out as a counterculture back in the 19th century.”

How To Shoot A Boho Engagement Session

The key to shooting boho engagement photos is to really get the best out of your details. This means that you and your client should meet beforehand to go through their closet and investigate what outfits to wear, what details of the couple’s love they want featured and how to bring the fun of their engagement to the day of the shoot.

Focusing on the detail in this way is guaranteed to give you the best chance to capture the happy couple’s love and really make their special day one that can be remembered and cherished as an experience and as a chance to post beautiful photos together online that they can look back on as their love blooms and flowers.

What To Do After Your Shoot

Once you have gone ahead and completed your bohemian photography session for your clients, the next step in any professional photographers process would be to protect their boho engagement photos.

As a digital content creator who publishes any form of work online, you should know the importance of watermarking your work.

In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat, allowing you to safeguard your work from any potential content thieves and protect your copyright on all work you publish online.

Watermarking is also highly regarded as one of the best ways to establish an easily identifiable brand online. Much like how a painter adds their signature to a painting, watermarking with a custom watermark can help potential clients identify your work, helping your photography stand out in the sea of content on the internet. This means that when you or your clients publish your boho engagement photos online onto sites like Pinterest or Instagram, your work will be easily identifiable, leading to more people looking at your portfolio and more potential clients!

The only downside to the process is that watermarking can be difficult without professional photo editing knowledge. Luckily, WaterMarquee is here to help! While there are a few tools online that allow watermarking, no tool can match the free bulk watermarking offered by WaterMarquee. With this service you can watermark up to five images at a time, entirely free of charge!

So what are you waiting for, protect your boho engagement photos and build your brand with WaterMarquee today!

A new style of photography session, the goddess themed photoshoot has started to grow in popularity, giving women a chance to feel confident and add a touch of magic to their online images. So, what exactly is a Goddess themed photoshoot, and why is it becoming so popular online?

A goddess themed photoshoot is intended to harness the idea of the goddess’ spiritual energy within us all, making for a photography session that leaves the subject feeling strong and confident. A Goddess themed photoshoot therefore is a creative portrait session meant to draw out your inner Goddess; your wildness, strength, sensuality, or whatever it is that makes you feel powerful and confident like a Goddess. The first step for a goddess session is to do some research and find a goddess that you feel a strong enough bond with to channel during the photoshoot.

Familiarise Yourself With Goddesses

Top Goddesses For a Goddess Themed Photoshoot

Kali

Often appearing as a dark or angry goddess with blue skin, a garland of skulls and a knife, Kali’s tongue is red with the blood of those she devours. In all of her origin stories, she emerges through anger to destroy evil forces.

She is most known for an old tale where she fights an ancient demon, Raktabija. Each drop of his blood gives birth to a clone when it touches the ground.

During the battle, Kali cuts Raktabija and drinks his blood, even eating his clones as they appear. The aggressive effect of his blood turns the goddess into a destroyer. Yet despite her terrifying reputation, Kali is the ultimate protector against evil with some even believing that she will continue to exist after the end of the universe.

To channel this goddess in a goddess-themed photoshoot, you would come to feel like a strong woman who can protect herself and all those who need her.

Sekhmet

If you want ever more power, then they don’t get more powerful than the Egyptian deity, Sekhmet, whose name even translates to the ‘Powerful One.’ Strangely, for such a destructive figure, her priests were skilled doctors and healers worshipped her as their patroness. The lioness-headed goddess could still be fearsome regardless of this however.

In one legend, Sekhmet was sent by the god Ra to punish humanity for its laziness. Her rampage decimated mankind until Ra decided things had gone far enough.

However, she wouldn’t listen, so consumed by blood lust, that she couldn’t think straight. To fix the situation Ra mixed beer with pomegranate juice and then poured the ‘blood’ in front of her.

Sekhmet proceeded to get so drunk she promptly fell asleep, her blood lust disappearing when she woke up 3 days later. So, if you feel like a vengeful goddess who enjoys her liquor then Sekhmet might be the choice for you.

Izanami-no-Mikoto

The Japanese goddess of both death and creation bore many children with her husband, Izanagi-no-Mikoto, but died in childbirth and descended into the underworld. Her husband entered the shadowy lands of the dead but he couldn’t persuade her to return with him, as Izanami ate the food of the underworld, so she couldn’t return to the world of the living.

This tale of lost love rings to a similar tune as another goddess, Persephone, a legend of Greek mythology. Both these goddess are figures of beauty and nature that have been separated from the person they love due to unlucky circumstances.

As such, if you’re aiming to find some clarity on lost love, or wish to channel the beauty of these well loved ancient goddesses then these might be the ones for you. However, you don’t need to travel to the underworld to get these photos!

While photographer, camera equipment, costuming and theming are all essential parts of a goddess themed photoshoot, nothing is more important than picking the right location.

 

“Try and look for a location which has some sort of shelter nearby, such as a bridge, bandstand, or café.”

 

Picking The Right Location For Your Goddess Images

One of the most important aspects of portrait photography is picking a suitable location. Your choice will drive all other decisions about the shoot, including what lighting and props to take, which dress the goddess should wear, and the most suitable poses for them to try out.

Shooting in a studio with a plain background is a popular choice due to its versatility, but hiring a studio can be expensive, and these types of shoots have been done a million times. You can usually get much more interesting, engaging pictures by using your imagination and choosing a more unusual portrait location for your goddess themed photoshoot.

Choose a Meaningful Place

It’s easy to choose a portrait location based on convenience, for example, if you live near a leafy park, it’s tempting to use that as your default shooting location. But while this may look attractive, it’s not always the best option.

Remember that every subject is a unique individual, with their own personality and this should be highlighted in their goddess themed photoshoot.

What makes them so interesting a as a person is something you should try to capture in every portrait you take. As such choosing a suitable location is an important part of this, so  try and take the time to get to know your subject.

Find out about their hobbies and favourite places and incorporate them into your photography. If they’re an avid horse rider, shoot them at their stables; if they love to surf, go to their local beach. By using a location that means something to your subject, you’ll get much more personal, meaningful photos. As an added bonus, they’re likely to feel more relaxed, helping you have a more comfortable and rewarding goddess themed photoshoot.

 

“By using a location that means something to your subject, you’ll get much more personal, meaningful photos.”

 

Use Natural Lighting

Most professional portrait photographers swear by natural lighting, and some refuse to shoot in anything else. Therefore, if possible, choose a brightly lit location which offers plenty of diffused, natural light to get the best out of your goddess themed photoshoot.
When shooting outdoors it’s important to avoid the direct midday sun as this produces very harsh shadows. Look for some light shade such as an overhanging tree or covered seating area, where the sunlight is softer and more flattering. Alternatively, shoot in the morning or early evening when the sun isn’t as strong.
If you’re shooting indoors, try to position your subject near a large window so that you can make the most of any available natural light. Depending on your budget and the equipment you have available you can compliment this with some artificial lighting if necessary.

Set Up Near Shelter

If you choose an outdoor portrait location, there’s always a chance that the weather will spoil the goddess themed photoshoot.

Sometimes you’ll just have to take a chance and hope it stays dry, but try to have a backup in case the weather turns bad so the goddess costume and decorations don’t get ruined.

As such, try and look for a location which has some sort of shelter nearby, such as a bridge, bandstand, or café.

These can be life-savers during a quick shower, helping you keep yourself, your equipment, and your subject dry, which is particularly important if they’re paying and still want to feel like a pampered goddess!

Choose Somewhere Quiet

Crowded places, like cities or busy public parks, are among the worst locations for a portrait shoot, and are even worse for a heavily costumed shoot, such as what a goddess themed photoshoot. You’ll be constantly waiting for people to move out of frame and dealing with questions from passers-by, plus your subject will probably feel very self-conscious and struggle to relax.
Luckily, finding a quiet, secluded location is not as difficult as it might seem. If you must shoot in a city, try to get off the beaten track! By moving just a few hundred yards away you can usually find a spot where you and your subject can set up undisturbed.
Better still, avoid cities altogether and head for remote beaches, grassy fields, and woodland. These all provide great backdrops to a portrait photo, and are often completely deserted, giving you free-reign to move around and experiment with different poses and angles.
 

“Watermarking with a custom watermark can help potential clients identify your work.”

 

Watermark Your Goddess Photoshoot

Once you have completed your goddess themed photoshoot, you’ll probably be pretty keen to get your photos out there into the world and up onto social media.

However, before you publish them online, it might be best to think about branding and copyright.

As a person who publishes any form of work online, you should know the importance of watermarking your work.

In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat, allowing you to safeguard your work from any potential content thieves and protect your copyright on all work you publish online.

 

Watermarking is also highly regarded as one of the best ways to establish an easily identifiable brand online.

Much like how a painter adds their signature to a painting, watermarking with a custom watermark can help potential clients identify your work, helping your photography stand out in the sea of content on the internet.

The only downside to the process is that watermarking can be difficult without professional photo editing knowledge. Luckily, WaterMarquee is here to help! Users looking for the best free watermark service however, should look no further than WaterMarquee, as our website allows anyone to watermark any pieces from their goddess themed photoshoot, entirely for free. So what are you waiting for? Try out WaterMarquee today!