“I was doing whatever it took to just save money, get married, and start my photography business.”
Dani Diamond is an amazing NYC fashion photographer with a huge following on Instagram but he’s a husband and father first.
“And once I got into the photography business, I didn’t even look back.”
0:40 A Father First
2:16 Taking the Leap
4:08 The Secret to Success
5:11 Instagram
7:39 Breaking In Now
9:29 What do you get scared about?
11:13 A Boy from Ohio in NYC
16:52 A Printed Portfolio
19:19 Dani’s 30’s
20:25 Advice
22:34 Finding Dani
“There is no easy action in Photoshop that you can click and then suddenly make money.”
Dani Diamond has become a household name. His breathtaking portraits and signature style have taken over all forms of social media, from Facebook to Fstoppers.
Dani grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and now lives in Connecticut with his wife, Etty, and works in New York City. He began his journey into photography merely as a hobby after graduating with a degree in business administration.
Dani started shooting landscapes and portraiture and found that people responded fiercely to his portraits, due to the connection Dani was able to create with his camera. Dani grew a fast following on facebook and social media. Dani’s ability to answer, comment and respond to his followers is just one more thing that makes Dani the photographer that he is.
Dani’s gear of choice is his Nikon D800 and his favorite lens the 85 1.4g. He uses the 85 to allow him to be close to his subject but also allow for nice compression and blur. The “blur” is what got Dani interested in portraits in the first place, his curiosity pushed him to find out how he could create that, too. The rest is all in the details, and as Dani delved into the world of photography, he made a new path.
The process of creating such gripping photos comes with something every artist needs. A workstation. Dani’s workstation is like no other, equipped with surround sound to so Dani can work in harmony while retouching. He has created a facebook group for music retouching [Epic Remixes For Retouching], where other photographers and editors share their work jams and share retouching secrets.
“I’m not the kind of guy who can sit on the couch and watch tv.”
What Dani knows about photography, Dani loves to share with you. He is not one to hide his secrets to his own success. He enjoys weekly writing articles for Fstoppers and making tutorials and how-tos. He offers mentoring sessions as well helping other photographers realize their goals and take their work to a new level. Dani finds the people he works with inspire and push him to grow more, every day.
The emotion and realness of his work is felt in every photo. Each piece is retouched and edited to natural perfection, enhanced just enough to highlight the moment and reel the viewer in. This is similar to how he works in person. A photoshoot with Dani is just like a walk in the park. Dani focuses on the relationship between subject and photographer. The technical details are there, but if there is no expression…there is no great portrait. Retouching, lighting, gear – it doesn’t matter unless the connection and moment is there to build on.
Something Dani believes is that you don’t need to be talented to be successful, but you need to be ambitious. He hopes to continue his career in fashion and portraits for the rest of his life.
Dani attributes most of his success to his wife Etty, who is his true secret to success.
“The wow factor of a printed portfolio is ten times that of an iPad.”
