Fstoppers Original Articles

Why does vintage photography gives some people "the willies”? Whether or not you've noticed this, the portrait subjects in the oldest black and white images are almost always glaring sternly into the lens.

Shoots that run smoothly will always produce better pictures and keep clients happy. Use this detailed checklist to avoid any major headaches and improve the chances that your next photoshoot is a huge success.

With over 3 million Instagram followers, and a client base that includes Apple and Nikon, Brandon Woelfel is doing something right. Now, in his new Skillshare Original online class, the photographer is sharing not only the secrets behind his shooting and editing techniques, but how he achieved his successes.

Despite heavily investing in new cameras over the last couple years, it is the still excellent Nikon D850, purchased two years ago, which has suddenly become brand new to me.

I was at Photokina when Fujifilm first announced the 33mm f/1.0 and I honestly didn't care. A few people were excited about it but it seemed like such a pointless lens to me at the time especially because it was probably going to be ridiculously huge. I'm elated at the fact that Fujifilm is now scrapping this lens in favor of a much more practical 50mm f/1.0

If you're thinking of taking the leap into professional photography, or have wondered if you can possibly make a living in such a saturated space, take this one piece of wisdom and chant it like a mantra.

Having completed what proved to be one of the most challenging shoots of my career, I was then faced with the task of editing and compositing the images. Due to my inexperience, getting the results that I wanted using Photoshop proved to be a steep learning curve. Here’s how I went about it.

And so with some sadness, tinged with a sense of relief, we reach the final letter of the alphabet. And what better way to finish than with a vastly successful company that has virtually spanned the lifetime of photography, along with some photographic input from yet another novelist.

I guess you will have a zoom lens in your camera bag. It is a very handy tool that allows you to zoom in, and to zoom out. But you can also use it to manipulate the size of the background compared to your subject. Let me explain.

There are many people out there who call themselves photographers. Probably most of them are able to take decent images, a few are professionals, and hardly anyone is a master of the art. Where do you put yourself?

Learning any new photography software can be challenging and time consuming. Even when we learn enough to do basic image edits, we often overlook tools that would speed up our process or give us better results. That's why we teamed up with Quentin Decaillet to produce The Complete Capture One Editing Guide.

Over the years I have had the pleasure of attending a handful of workshops, trade shows, and conferences, but the last two I have attended have been different, and the changes I see are exciting.

Everyone has projects they dream of and clients they would like to work with. Dream projects don't put food on the table alone. They have to be paid for, right? How do you manage to get both and be satisfied with the results?

I recall reading an interview years ago in which Steve McCurry — a master at assembling powerfully wrought imagery — claimed not to think about composition. I was dumbfounded, even more so when I realized he was telling the truth.

When it comes to a handmade fine art paper, this is one that absolutely does not mess around, and with the right image, it can stop a viewer dead in their tracks. In fact, it's so serious that this paper is sold by the individual sheet.

As photographers, we choose many things. We select our camera bodies, lenses, filters, gear, and settings galore. Why do so many photographers settle with the natural aspect ratio of their camera sensor?

When you look at a photo, what are you looking at? Composition? Lighting? Color grading? With your knowledge and expertise, you look at certain things with more intent than others, but are you seeing the whole picture?

Have you ever been to a spectacularly picturesque location and envisioned a perfect image in your head, only to never commit and follow it through? I’m far too guilty of that, but this time, I was determined to get the shot I wanted, no matter how many ridiculously hilarious mistakes it took along the way. Here’s how I did it.

As a parent of two young children, there isn’t as much time for photography as there used to be. I often go weeks without making an image that isn’t one of the kids. But all that changed when I discovered the joys of a zoo membership.

It’s 2010, and a young Ted Hesser is in Nepal, rappelling into a cave from a mega-sketchy anchor: Two pieces of two-foot rebar hammered in the mud. He’s joined an expedition team, supported by National Geographic and The North Face, and it just so happens to be Cory Richards’ first-ever photo assignment for arguably the most well-known publication in the world.

In the share economy, more and more people are finding their side hustle in the form of renting out extra rooms or vacation homes through services like VRBO and Airbnb. Earlier this month, I did a quick and easy property shoot for one such hopeful side hustler. Using a minimal photo kit and about an hour of editing, I created a nice set of images, sure to help them get bookings. Here’s how I did it.

When your only strobe dies on location, you'd better be prepared.

The Dehaze tool in Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Lightroom is fantastic for landscape photography. Here are some examples of its use.

In this article we turn to the society photographer, and fortune teller sounding, Madame Yevonde, but before her another Japanese brand that bit the dust. Yashica were prominent in the post-war photographic world, but when did they cease production?

When it comes to editing software, there are dozens to choose from, however Capture One takes the cake. Find out why in this article.

Most panoramas can easily be shot by hand but what happens if you want to shoot a multi-row pano? What if you want to create a truly "gigapixel" image that could require over 100 images? You're going to need some hardware to help.

Autumn and winter are upon us, and in the north the polar light has appeared in the night skies. Time to go out and photograph the elusive Northern Lights. Here are a few tips on how to capture it.

Having now had the Fujifilm GFX 100 camera for a couple months now, I thought I might share a couple of the ways I’ve found most efficient for me to use the system. Perhaps some of the following tips may help you with the GFX 100 or other Fujifilm systems as well.

It's very difficult to stand out from the crowd as a wildlife photographer. It's a genre where one can go overboard with creative editing quite quickly. Many would say not to get creative with wildlife editing at all — that wildlife imagery should be an accurate representation of the animal and its environment. So, how does one create an image that stands out from the crowd?

If you are doing any business or marketing on Instagram, then at some point, you have been annoyed that you can only put one link on your profile. For a lot of users and most photographers, the ultimate goal is to drive traffic from Instagram to your website/portfolio.

When the weather gods do something crazy, don't ask questions; just say thank you. You can try and plan your outdoor photography until you're blue in the face, but sometimes, when it starts to look like the conditions might be epic, you need to be spontaneous and just get out there.

We live in a time where quick and easy are the ultimate goals of the many. That kind of mentality is bad for business unless you make a living off clients who'd like to buy quick and easy products.

Photography and retouching are a lot of work. Framing, exposing, getting your color right, cropping, zooming, dodging, burning, sharpening: it's enough to do your head in! But sometimes, we can get lazy, and in my opinion, it can be beneficial to lean into your own laziness rather than burn yourself out working for 10 hours a day.

I admit it: I like easy, especially when it comes to photography. That's why I've come to embrace these 10 tips that I have learned over the years. And most of them won't cost you a penny to incorporate.

On the back of producing the world’s best-selling lens, Tamron has released a piece of glass that got me incredibly excited: the 17-28mm f/2.8 for Sony full-frame cameras. I’ve tested this lens extensively on both jobs and personal projects over the course of a month, and hopefully, I can now tell you whether you should buy this lens or not.

GuruShots, "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” recently hosted a challenge asking participants to submit their best photo that tells a story. With thousands of entries 60.5 million votes, the top images were selected. Check out the three winners of the challenge below as well as the 100 top rated images below.

Discussions about entry-level, mid-level, and pro-level cameras often revolve around the differences in their sensor size or resolution. However, that's just one aspect of many that separate these types of cameras. Let's take a look at the other benefits that a pro-level camera brings to the table.

You don’t need a fancy studio to take fancy photographs. Sometimes, all you need is a garage.

Fstoppers recently covered a vlog that detailed the benefits of repeatedly photographing the same location. And now we have further proof that repetition can pay off in photography, this time from the Scottish countryside.

There are lots of ways to improve your photography. Getting your workflow in order, learning to light, but I think I have learned the one thing that has impacted my photography more than almost anything else. (Other than practice, of course).

I know, it’s a loaded question. Heck, it’s a loaded word, that one — good. According to whom? By what measure? Who do you think you are to criticize my work? I know. And, I agree. But I suspect there are still a few checks we can make to see if an image is headed in the right direction. Let’s look at five of them!

As high quality RGB Led light panels become cheaper and more compact, more and more photographers and videographers are finding just how useful these little lights can be. In this video, I compare the new Falcon Eyes Pocketlite F7 light to my favorite RGB light panel as we explore a few unique lighting setups any photographer can create on the fly.

There are many smart tools and life hacks out there, which aim at making us more efficient in our work and life. The following method has been inspired by a former president of the U.S.

I put off buying a graphics tablet for years after taking up photography, before buckling the best part of a decade ago. But, do you really need a graphics tablet?

We can't deny the fact that an overwhelming majority of the stories and articles we see online are about professional photographers and going all-out in shooting. So for a day while traveling, I thought I would step back, reflect, and shoot like how I did before I started taking photography way too seriously.

There’s been a tug of war in the last few years in photojournalism. On one hand, you have the skill and excellence of craft with photojournalists doing their jobs with professional DSLR and mirrorless cameras, and on the other you have reporters doing a “good enough” job with smartphones.

The Godox AD200 Pro is considered by many to be the best value in photography strobes but Geekoto recently created their own competitor, the GT-200. Is this new strobe a better option? Let's find out.

We say, "never forget" when we think of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. And while none of us will forget the event itself, it's easy to lose sight of the individuals who lost their lives in the attacks.

Once I bought a Manfrotto pistol-grip-upside-down ball head, with the typical Manfrotto camera plate. After a while I wanted something more robust, and I choose for an Arca-Swiss compatible ball head from Kirk Enterprises, and a matching L-bracket. The latter was one of the best choices I made.

With the letter X we move on to looking at Fuji's highly regarded X-Trans sensor which is very different from nearly all the sensors in other digital cameras, before looking at the work of contemporary Chinese photographer Xiaoxiao Xu.