Ali Choudhry
fstoppers.com
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Contact Ali
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Past articles by Ali:
We Interview Rhy Dyball: Understanding the Human Condition Through the Uncanny
Rhy Dyball is a photographer and artist working with themes uncanny and eerie images. An Introduction to Tableau Rhy is based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. His passion for the constructed image started when he was introduced to Gregory Crewdson’s work. When Rhy was still in high school, he stumbled upon his brother watching a documentary about Crewdson. Seeing the images on → Read More
How to Organize a Paste-up Show
Exhibition opportunities are often few and far between for artists. Sure, galleries might do open calls; similarly, there might be open calls for festivals. Alternatively, you might approach a publisher or self-publish a photo book. The biggest hurdle with many of these is managing expectations between the various stakeholders. What Is a Paste-up Show? And How Do You Put on → Read More
Hone Complex Studio Lighting Through This Simple Exercise
Photography is quite literally painting with light. As such, it’s important for a photographer to be able to see and shape light. If you consider the photographic image, an image is a flat two-dimensional rendering of a three-dimensional object. With this consideration, it’s a valuable skill to have to photograph a three-dimensional thing, show it in a two-dimensional image, → Read More
Why Lens Compression Is Important for On-location Portraits
Choosing a lens which will give you desired results for a particular portrait assignment is an integral part of being a photographer. There are many factors to consider when making this choice. Do you prefer zoom lenses that allow you to quickly change between focal lengths, or do you lean towards prime lenses, which usually offer wider apertures at a single focal length? Are → Read More
How to Make a Photography Zine
Making a photo zine can be a great way to present a body of work or, alternatively, re-contextualize a series of images which may exist elsewhere, such as on your website. For "30 Days in Mexico," Canadian photographer Kam Vachon’s images capture the vibrant sights and sounds of Mexico. As a self-assigned project, Vachon chose to work exclusively with film cameras. Vachon → Read More
The Joy of Discovering a Vintage Film Camera! Who Did It Belong To?
There are some aspects of film photographs that can’t be replicated with digital. To paraphrase Becki and Chris, you might have shot a roll or more of film and then drop them off at a photo lab. And then, by the time you picked it up a few weeks later, you’d get rolls of film back that were usually awful images. To make matters worse, you often didn’t remember or write down → Read More
10 Easy Drone Moves to Make Your Footage Look Incredible
Videography, unsurprisingly, has the added element of needing to not only frame a shot but consider how a camera might move within the space for the duration of the video. When taking video from a drone, there is the further added element of three-dimensional space. This isn’t to say that videos don’t generally work in three dimensions, but rather that with a drone, you have → Read More
Consider Soft Features for Your Next Camera
I consider myself a Canon shooter through and through. This article isn’t about one camera manufacturer being objectively better or worse than another. The basics of photography are the same on any camera: aperture, shutter speed, ISO. Different brands and models offer a variety of features, such as greater image resolution or lighter weight, but what is more difficult to → Read More
Learn Complex Studio Lighting with One Simple Excercise
A fundamental lesson in photography is the exposure triangle. Learning about ISO, shutter speed, and aperture is something all photographers should do. What Are Zones? In this article, I will not be teaching the exposure triangle. Instead, I’d like to consider that because these choices are made, either by a photographer or a complex computing program within a digital camera, → Read More
Learn Complex Studio Lighting with One Simple Exercise
A fundamental lesson in photography is the exposure triangle. Learning about ISO, shutter speed, and aperture is something all photographers should do. What Are Zones? In this article, I will not be teaching the exposure triangle. Instead, I’d like to consider that because these choices are made, either by a photographer or a complex computing program within a digital camera, → Read More
5 Photography Books for the Discerning Reader
Reading is what? FUN-damental! Ok, my bad dad joke aside, books are a great way to gain a deeper perspective on a topic from those making great strides within a field. Don’t get me wrong, like any good millennial, I believe the internet is a great resource and repository of information. But the flip side is anyone can publish anything online; whereas there is still (usually), → Read More
Artist Zanele Muholi Interrogates Race, Gender, and Politics Through Stylized Self-Portraits
Photo festivals are a great way to show work outside of where you live. Many of them, such as Arles or Photo 2022, have open calls to pitch work. Since these festivals often show early career artists with established names, they offer deeper insight into current ways within photography. → Read More
Why Digital Is Better Than Film
Painting is an art form. So are music, prose, and dance. No one argues otherwise. But photography, since its very inception, has had to justify itself as a legitimate art form. Aura One argument against photography was the case that it had no aura. Here, aura was defined as a "unique position in time and space." You only have one of a painting or one of a carved sculpture. → Read More
On the Increasing Number of Photography Subscriptions
Around 2010, I upgraded computers and was very disappointed that I’d lost my CD of Photoshop. I was even more disappointed when I went to the store and remembered how expensive it was. Begrudgingly, I did re-purchase Photoshop. If I could somehow transfer files from my old computer to my new computer, that would’ve been amazing. Which, if you think about it now, is really one → Read More
Why the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D Is Terrible for Portraits
Certain tools, including lenses, are often intended to be used in specific ways. However, by working in an unintended manner, you can create something unique and unexpected. Working as Intended For example, there are certain lenses which just innately work well for certain things. From my own kit of lenses, I usually lean on my 85mm for portraits. → Read More
Creative Thinking With the Extreme Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro Lens
The past few years, Venus Optics has been making great strides in affordable, niche lenses. In this video, photographer Markus Hofstätter shares his experience with the Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro lens. This lens, which offers up to five times magnification, is exceptionally powerful at what it does. However, the trade-off is that it only does what it does, and even → Read More
What Surveillance Photography Alone Cannot Show Us
As a medium, photography is all about sight. If you can’t see it, you can’t really take a photograph of it. The alternative is, of course, things like art, music, or prose where you don’t need to see something to make something about it. In addition to this 'seeing," the medium itself is tied to advances in technology. In this video, Irish photographer Richard Mosse uses → Read More
What Does It Take to Shoot a Magazine Editorial?
An editorial shoot, like any type of photography, requires a perfect blend of planning and play. Timing is critical, especially when working with a celebrity. In this video, London-based photographer Ejatu Shaw shares a behind-the-scenes look of her shoot with radio host Roman Kemp. Shaw shares her process for planning and shooting a fashion editorial, offering an unfiltered → Read More
How to Photograph a Longform Photography Project
As the adage goes, “you have to run before you can walk.” This also applies to photography. Once you’ve learned how to consistently make a good image within your camera, what is the next step? Well, for many, the next obvious step is to work on a body of work or a single project. By working this way, you’re no longer going for a single good image, but many good images which → Read More
Is Tumblr Poised for a Return?
I have a photographer friend who consistently gets flagged on Instagram for posting images which violate Instagram’s terms of usage. The reasoning: he photographs mostly nudes. Now, the philosophical and legal argument might get long and convoluted quickly. Sure, he has freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but ultimately, you give them up when you agree to use a → Read More