Exclusive articles and expert opinions written by Fstoppers’ talented team of creative professionals. Here we cover everything from the latest photographic techniques to advice on running a successful photography business, to first hand accounts of working in the photography industry.
Explore the national park or national forest for a week or more, maybe get paid? There are tons of artists-in-residence opportunities scattered across the United States. Take a chance, see a new part of the country and create new work inspired by unique landscapes.
When I first started out using speedlights for flash photography, there weren’t many options aside from Canon and Nikon. As a result, I’ve amassed a large collection of Speedlights (and Speedlites), but now that I also shoot mirrorless bodies, are my SB-700s and 600EX-RTs any good?
Even though people love to knock presets, if you look under the hood, you might learn some things about how many different ways you can manipulate your photos in Lightroom.
There are an infinite amount of photography-related items you can spend your hard-earned cash on. Sometimes, it's the small and insignificant purchases that can really save the day.
Hasselblad was one of the first that used super resolution techniques. Today it can be found in many cameras, producing resolutions that are up to four times higher than the pixel count of the sensor. You can also do this with your camera. This is how it works.
Maha's new Powerex MH-C980 8 Cell Charger/Analyzer is out and it's a full-featured, professional charging beast. Check out the nitty gritty on one of the most advanced AA/AAA battery chargers on the market.
When striving for success, the reality of what you want and what you pictured beforehand seemingly don't always align. In fact, they can appear wholly different and strange. This is one such peculiarity.
Are you in need of a powerful, versatile, and compact RGB LED light that won't break the bank? I was and this might now be my favorite hot light for shooting on location.
Viewers are complaining that they couldn’t actually see parts of the latest episode. Is this due to cheap televisions or by design? This article contains spoilers.
Apple Aperture began with a bang in 2005 and promptly became a favorite of many professional photographers. But what began with a bang ends in a whimper, as Apple quietly issued a support document with some bad news for those few photographers who were still using it.
Every so often, among the broad and amorphous photographic community, you will find a rather puzzling paradox: Gear doesn’t matter, and yet if you don’t have expensive gear, you’re not a proper photographer. How ridiculous.
As I stumbled, sleep-drunk, in to my bathroom this morning I had what I would categorize as my first photography shower thought.
Mention off-camera flash and people often think about C-stands, flash heads, large octaboxes, and V-flats. Hardly what you would call portable. So how do go about assembling one?
The Fstoppers community is brimming with creative vision and talent. Every day, we comb through your work, looking for images to feature as the Photo of the Day or simply to admire your creativity and technical prowess. In 2019, we're featuring a new photographer every month, whose portfolio represents both stellar photographic achievement and a high level of involvement within the Fstoppers community.
Chasing clients to ensure I am properly credited for my work takes up more of my time than I care to admit. It’s frustrating to see my images used without due recognition, but none more so than this particular incident in which a relatively well-known musician’s team seemed to prefer removing the image from Instagram entirely, rather than simply adding my handle to the caption.
The rise of smartphones has left many professional photographers wondering if their services have a future. However, it’s now having an impact on the industry in ways that many might not have anticipated.
Pitching can seem like a really scary thing to start doing. But I fully believe that anyone can pitch effectively, they just need to know how to! So today, I’m going to break down how to get started.
I asked people in the industry what their unpopular photograph opinions are, and I got a lot of interesting answers. And some controversial ones.
It’s amazing what mid or entry-level hardware can deliver when you pair it with great software. The best software will be able to make up for some of the weaknesses and exploit every ounce of its strengths – ideally with relative ease. That's what we'll see here with Capture One's Luma Range tool.
Every day it seems like there’s a new unpredictable and intense weather phenomenon on the horizon — state-wide wildfires, raging storms causing massive flooding, polar vortexes, and my recent favorite: the bomb cyclone.
If you’re looking for a new location to shoot, consider checking out these destinations that might be right by you.
Sharpness: it's what we all want from our photos and it's something many of us obsess over. If your shot out of camera isn't quite as razor edge as you'd like, there are quite a few ways to get more sharpness in post-production. This method is by far my favorite.
What lengths would you go to in order to capture an amazing, unique perspective of one of the most photographed events in human history? Photographer Jon Carmichael shares with us the extraordinary story about how he captured an amazing aerial shot of 2017’s total solar eclipse.
Even veteran photojournalists grinding it out day after day still find time and energy to develop a personal project and sometimes those projects circle back and grow into more work.
Creating the perfect photograph used to be my ultimate aim. It was a pursuit that left me feeling like a failure. What follows is an argument to give up on perfection and the suggestion of a beneficial alternative.
You may have seen certain ideas or advice circulate on Internet, that makes you say "but I already know this." So, why is it important to keep recycling ideas in this industry?
Following the announcement of the winners of the World Press Photo competition last week, Spanish photography website Photolari.com compiled the metadata to examine what the leading photojournalists are using to capture their images. The results are quite interesting and demonstrate that the mighty DSLR is going nowhere. Here's why.
I once tried to color calibrate my monitor... It was a disaster.
Making the switch to Capture One from Lightroom is easier and quicker than you think. There’s this perception that given the two pieces of software are from different companies, moving your Lightroom catalogs to Capture One is some arduous and protracted process, that you’ll have to start from scratch with all your images, re-edit, re-rate, and create whole new folder structures. But that perception is not reality.
It isn't fearmongering to say that one mistake, and not even necessarily your own, can bankrupt your photography business if you're uninsured. So Fstoppers have teamed up with Insurance Canopy who have created Full Frame Photography Insurance to go over the issue and offer some insight.
Firmware is the magical sauce that turns the manual operation of your camera in to a fully digital supercomputer, controlling the high precision mechanical instrumentation, making it a thing of artistry. More amazingly, this fundamental component of your camera is fully replaceable. Would you pay for an upgrade?
I'm not talking about gear you buy. I'm talking about investing on the stock market. Many of the companies we as photographers use are public companies. For me, it's become a time to consider investing. What would you buy?
A full tank of gas, a Fujifilm GFX 50S, and a partner in crime make for a perfect day to remember what happiness is all about.
For many of us, the tragic event at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris served as a stark reminder of how fragile and delicate the remnants of our human past can be. Whether globally historic or personally sentimental, we are all connected to the past. It helps give meaning to the present, and invariably helps to shape the future. With this in mind, I feel it timely to introduce fine art photographer Lisa Folino.
It's a bizarre question that can be applied to any of the arts. Typically, creatives are seen as passionate creatures, but is it essential to a career in the industry?
With sensor prices dropping and given that mirrorless finally has some competition at the top end, it’s time for Nikon and Canon to treat its customers to something classic: a pocket-sized camera featuring a full frame sensor and a fast, fixed prime lens.
The S1 has just started shipping, and the reviews are a little mixed. Will it work how you need it to?
For a lot of us, being a professional photographer is a dream job that isn't realized. Even for those of us who do make a living from it, it probably isn’t exactly as we had planned.
Browsing a dusty used book store on the north side of Chicago in 2008, a familiar name caught my eye: Aldous Huxley. The Huxley book I saw there, published in 1942, had an intriguing title: The Art of Seeing.
Do you know what the most expensive photography book ever sold was? What would your guess be? How about the most expensive photography books on retail shelves? The rarest or most sought after? Take a few guesses, write them down, and then compare when you get to the end.
With the newest flagship smartphone cameras taking huge leaps in sensor and software technology, are we seeing the beginning of more professional usage in the commercial market?
Canon’s flagship APS-C DSLR, the 7D Mark II, is long overdue for an overhaul, and all of the speculation for 2019 was that its successor, the 7D Mark III, would soon be announced. Rumors now suggest that it will be merged with the 80D, with an EOS R in the pipeline to take its place.
As we've been discovering over the past few months, there are many options and choices when it's time to print your artwork. Today's paper is a rock star when it comes to unique yet subtle texture and really works wonders with your muted color palettes, so let's check it out.
How do you spot a good retoucher from a novice? It's in the skin. Sure, that’s an oversimplification, but one thing that separates the best from the lesser is how they treat skin.
Photography is a wonderful hobby, but for some, a hobby just isn't enough. Some of us get so infected with the craft that we instantly know we want to one day spend all our time on it. So what skills should a hobbyist photographer focus on?
We live in a digital photo era but that doesn't mean that your old photos and negatives boxed up in the attic should be forgotten. The first step in preserving these is to get them organized. Next, you need to digitize old photos so they can be easily viewed and shared with others.
In the song Sunscreen, Baz Luhrmann teaches certain “inalienable” truths about life: you’re not as fat as you imagine, politicians will philander, and you too, will get old. So I’ve compiled a short list of some funny yet brutal life-truths about becoming a professional photographer.
Carrie Beene has long been one of the top retouchers known for her amazing work on ads for cosmetics and hair product companies. We recently sat down with Carrie to learn more about how she started and what advice she has for aspiring retouchers.
Following yesterday’s tragedy, I found myself reflecting on a moment ten years ago and the impact photography has had on my life.
Sometimes shooting on location, or even finding the ideal location, can be so difficult that a photographer has to rely on their own ingenuity to bring their vision to life. Here is how I turned my tiny bathtub into a forest pond for a magical shoot, with some tips on how you can do the same thing.
