100 Most Useful Resources for Photographers

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A selection of sites from Lifehacker will help the photographer at all stages: from finding a subject and choosing a good angle to publishing the finished picture.

1. Get inspired

The best photos for inspiration

Many popular sites have special sections where photos of professionals are published. Here are some resources to help you find inspiration:

1. National Geographic Photography. Known for his stunning wildlife photography.
2. BBC News In Pictures. Perhaps a little conservative, but very high quality.
3. Great Photojournalism. Community of professional photojournalists.
4. World Press Photo. Archive of photographs of the participants of the annual competition held since 1955.
5. File Magazine. A magazine for extraordinary, challenging photographs and illustrations.
6. MagnumPhotos. Works by professional photographers from the Magnum agency.
7. Royal Photography Society. Gallery of the British photographers community.
8. Phase. A magazine with interesting projects of photographers from different countries.
9. FlakPhoto. Collection of individual photographs and photo projects.
10. Unsplash. Gallery of high quality photos.
11. 500px. A popular resource for photographers.
12. Pinterest. Quite a chaotic resource, but with a well-formulated request, it can be useful.
13. Inspirationgrid. A huge collection of high-quality images.
14. PlanetPics. Photos of the most beautiful places on Earth.
15. Weatherscapes. Site of amazing photos of weather phenomena.

Teaching materials

As in any field, anyone who is willing to learn can become a professional in photography. You should also not be afraid of English-language resources: the meanings of most of the terms in this area are intuitive.

1. Fototips.ru. Advice on the choice of equipment, shooting, processing.
2. "Simple tricks". Daily articles on a wide variety of topics for photographers.
3. Photo-Monster. Photography tips from professionals.
4. "Cultural enlightenment". Section on Photograher.ru with articles on theory and practice and inspiring interviews.
5. Russian Photo. Photography lessons divided into categories.
6. "Photoindustry". Lessons in photography, processing, retouching.
7. Photomotion.ru. Inspirational Tips.
8. Prophotos. Large collection of lessons and instructions.
9. Digital Camera World. Useful tips for photographers.
10. MorgueFile Classroom. Ten photography tutorials from freelance photographer Jodie Koston.
11. Photonet learning. A section with lessons from one of the largest photo resources in English.
12. Photomanual. Just about the tricky things in photography.
13. Photography for Beginners. Photography Fundamentals for Beginners in a Complete Course on Coursera.
14. Fujifilmru. An educational project from which you will learn common myths about composition. Also, learn how to choose the right lens.
15. Photo-monster. Video tutorials in different areas of photography: from portraits to landscapes.

Photo Editing Tutorials in Photoshop

1. Lessons from Adobe.
2. Demiart.
3. "World of Photoshop".

Producers' clubs

1. Nikon Club.
2. Canon Club.
3. Pentax Club.
4. Olympus Club.
5. Sony Club.

2. We remove and process

Processing pictures on a smartphone

In fact, there are many alternative applications to the popular Instagram that allow you to process photos using built-in filters:

1. VSCO Camera (Android, iOS).
2. EyeEm (Android, iOS).
3. Pixlr (Android, iOS).
4. PicsArt (Android, iOS, WP8).
5. Adobe Photoshop Express (Android, iOS, WP8).
6. Photo Editor by Aviary.
7. Repix.
8. Snapseed (Android, iOS).
9. Afterlight (Android, WP) - 35 rubles (Android), 0.99 dollars (iOS, Windows Phone).
10. Mextures (iOS) - $ 1.99.

Software for photo processing on PC

Even perfect photos need a little touch-up. For this purpose, there are a variety of paid and free programs:

1. Photoshop. Needs no introduction.
2. Lightroom. Another product from Adobe for photo processing. Less bulky than Photoshop.
3. GIMP. Free Photoshop alternative available for all popular operating systems.
4. … A fairly primitive editor for Windows, but quite suitable for basic operations.
5. PixelMator. Powerful photo editor for macOS.

Online processing

You can carry out many basic photo processing operations right in your browser for free and without installing additional software. The resources differ only in the set of offered tools.

1. "In contact with".
2. IPiccy.
3. PicMonkey.
4. Fotor.
5. PhotoCat.
6. BeFunky.
7. Deepart.
8. PiZap.
9. Photomania.

3. Publish

Post to your blog

Paid resources often allow you to create a real portfolio and attract viewers quickly and easily. But you shouldn't neglect free ones either.

1. Facebook. Why not just create an album. There are no restrictions on the number of shots, the privacy settings are very flexible.
2. "In contact with". Likewise.
3. LiveJournal. A well-known resource suitable for photoblogging.
4. DeviantArt. A huge multidisciplinary community, within which photography has a large section with many subcategories.
5. SmugMug. Here you can not only collect a portfolio of copyright photographs, but also earn income from the use of photographs. Two weeks free trial is offered.
6. Esposure. A great resource for creating photo stories.
7. Photoshelter. One of the most popular platforms for online portfolio building.
8. Carbonmade. A very cute resource for posting your portfolio with a limited number of free photos.
9. Flickr. You can upload photos in high resolution and join groups of interests.
10. Google Photos. Reliable storage for your pictures, there is the ability to create albums and stories to share with friends.
11. Adobe Spark. Another service that allows you to create web pages with your photo stories.
12. Behance. Designers have chosen this service, but here you can also talk about the creative process and share your best work.
13. Tumblr. A blog platform where you can conveniently collect your portfolio.
14. Photobucket. Upload and store pictures, share them with your friends.

Publication within contests

Anyone, professional or amateur, can submit photos. After selection, the best pictures will be published on the official websites:

1. PhotoContestInsider. Review of current photo contests.
2. Your Photo on BBC. Every week, BBC experts suggest themes for photographs, the best of which are published on Thursdays.
3. ViewBug. Weekly photography contests led by internationally renowned photographers and brands.
4. Worldphoto. A large-scale photography competition in which Sony selects the best photographs by professionals and amateurs from around the world.
5. Allphotocontests. News about the major photo contests taking place.

Image storage

In order not to regret the lost pictures, it is better to regularly backup your photo collection. Here is a list of the most popular and reliable cloud storage services:

1. Dropbox. Free 2GB or $ 9.99 per month for 1TB.
2. OneDrive. A basic account with 5 GB is free, for 72 rubles a month you get 50 GB, and for 269 rubles a month - 1 TB.
3. iCloud. Free 5 GB, 149 rubles per month for 200 GB and 749 rubles per month for 1 TB.
4. Google Drive. 15GB free, $ 1.99 / month for 100GB, and $ 9.99 / month for 1TB.
5. Yandex. 10 GB for free, 80 rubles per month for 100 GB and 200 rubles per month for 1 TB.

4. Sell

It is difficult to recoup expensive photographic equipment, but it is possible, for example, by selling photographs on photo stocks.

1. Stock PhotoClub. The largest forum for working with photo stocks in Runet.
2. iStockphoto. Big and glamorous, it ranks first in terms of profitability.
3. Shutterstock. Fast and convenient for large volumes.
4. Depositphotos. Convenient and understandable, includes a simple exam.
5. BigStockPhoto. Not very large, but quite comfortable, no exam.
6. Dreamstime. Registration without exam.
7. Fotolia. Good for beginners, no exam.
8. Marketplace 500px. Here you can not only look for inspiration, but also sell your best works.
9. Canstockphoto. Medium-sized photo bank. This means that in order to make a good living, you will have to upload a lot of photos.
10. 123rf. A promising stock of budget materials, including photographs.