Some time ago, I wrote an article about the worst photography purchases I ever made. These were some specific things, as well as some categories of items. In this article, I will talk about some of the best purchases I was fortunate enough to make. Again, specific items.
While we spend a lot of time talking about the choice of key light and how it is used in a portrait, it is often not the only light source present in a shot. The fill light makes a large difference in the final look of your image and deserves just as much attention as the key. This great video tutorial will show you the ins and outs of different fill lights and how they affect the final look of your portrait photos.
If you want to get into filmmaking, one of the most fundamental and powerful tools you will need to get a grasp of is the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. If you are unfamiliar with the concept and how you can manipulate it to your advantage for more powerful storytelling, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you everything you need to know.
The big names in the photographic industry have made some mistakes. Some have been addressed, while others are rearing their ugly heads. It's time they cleaned up their acts and served photographers and not their investors.
Sometimes the simplest desires in post-production can prove to be the trickiest. Color is a common example of this where you just want to grab the color of one thing and make the color of something else match it. Well, here's how to do it quickly and easily.
In what is becoming a disturbing trend, photographers are being attacked and robbed in broad daylight at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts. The latest attack, which was caught on video, has photographers who work in the area on edge.
The Holidays are here and we are celebrating with our best sale of the year! Right now, all Fstoppers photography and video tutorials on sale. Every Fstoppers photography or video course is automatically 30% off but when you add additional products to your cart, you can get up to 60% off each tutorial.
Over the past two years, I've been trying to replace my Induro CT-114 tripod. Looking through countless offerings of various brands, I learned that finding a tripod that fulfilled all my requirements and didn't cost a fortune wouldn't be easy. As Leofoto released their LQ-365C, I thought I had finally found the perfect tripod. In this article, I share if this assumption turned out to be correct or if I regret my purchase.
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.
You have probably seen black and white architectural images of single buildings edited to have dramatic, contrasty lighting against an inky black background. Of course, this is not how it looks in real life and takes some Photoshop savvy to achieve. This great video tutorial will show you everything you need to know to achieve that look.
With Black Friday approaching day by day, we are all excited about the massive rebates on photo gear this 2022 peak season. Indeed, there were exciting new releases by a lot of camera brands that make this season like no other. If you want to learn how you can afford all the cool purchases, this article is for you.
Fujifilm's new X-T5 mirrorless camera is an exciting step forward for the ever-popular X-T series, bringing with it a wide range of upgrades and innovative features. How does it stand up in practice? This excellent video review takes a look at the camera specifically for photography work and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in those scenarios.
If you want to improve at something, one of the best ways to do so is to find masters of their craft and simply emulate them. But how do you know which things to copy and which to ignore? Here, you'll learn seven skills that good photographers have that you can easily add to your skill-set.
Canon has released a series of nice primes that are reasonably priced and in a friendly size and weight. Most of these lenses also have 1:2 macro abilities. The latest one is the RF 24mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM. Let’s find out if it's just as great as its siblings.
The road to becoming a successful professional photographer has many aspects to it, ranging from the photo work itself through business practice and more. If you would like to one day make money from your images, check out this helpful video tutorial that features an experienced pro discussing four things you need to learn on the photography side of things.
Winter will be upon us soon, and seemingly familiar landscapes will be totally transformed into entirely different worlds. As such, it takes a different approach to create compelling landscape images. If that is something you struggle with during the colder months, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will give you 12 tips for better winter landscape photo compositions.
Pen tablets and controllers for editing and retouching definitely help photographers, especially when working on large batches of images. These editing tools from Xencelabs seem to expand that to a whole new level.
Capture One 23 is here, and fans of the program will be pleased to see that it brings with it a variety of new features and upgrades that make editing easier, more powerful, and more efficient. This helpful video tutorial will show you the new features and how to employ them in your own workflow for better edits.
Drones have quickly evolved into powerful and sophisticated tools for aerial photography and filmmaking, making them desirable tools for a wide range of creatives and applications. In all that sophistication are a lot of nifty and useful features that are easy to overlook. This great video tutorial will show you nine great features you should check out on your drone.
For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s now coming into the cozier and colder time of year. Fall is great with all its colors, but the dead of winter can leave photographers feeling drab and uninspired. Check out my four spots to photograph when the weather turns inclement to keep you photographing all through the seasons.
As a photographer who works primarily within an art context, I often find myself seeking opportunities to share my work. In saying that, I would imagine being able to convincingly write and communicate about your work is a skill all photographers might find useful.
The Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN Contemporary lens is a small, light, and fast zoom lens suitable for a wide range of subjects. I spent a week testing the 18-50mm, and I was very impressed with this tiny powerhouse of a lens, which is now available for Fujifilm X Mount cameras.
Autumn is just about over, and though the leaves are no longer on the trees, that does not mean we do not have any use for them anymore. If you gather a pile of leaves and bring them into your studio, you have a wonderful prop for a wide variety of portrait looks with all the control of studio lighting. This great video tutorial will show you how to take fallen leaves and turn them into an eye-catching and versatile props for studio portraits.
If you've ever found yourself posting a photo in which you've masterfully designed your shadows, created asymmetrical balance, and selected a brilliant color palette just to see it wildly out-performed by a reel of a 20-year-old aimlessly walking down a sidewalk and spiraled into complete despair, then this is for you. In this article, I will walk you through how to shoot skillfully crafted images and easily stitch them into a stop-motion. The artist strikes a treaty with the Insta.
Earlier this year, the scientific community was abuzz when an image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the galactic center of the Milky Way, was released. How did scientists actually create the image, though? It took petabytes of data from a virtual telescope that size of the entire planet. This interesting video will take you behind the scenes to see how it all came together.
DJI has just released the Mavic 3 Classic. Very similar to the standard Mavic 3, the new DJI Mavic 3 Classic has one major difference that brings the price down significantly. Does that change compromise its performance or make it less attractive? Take a look at this pilot's first impressions.
If you are a Lightroom user I'm sure by now you have experimented with most of the newly updated features. One feature, in particular, I was very interested in is the AI-powered Person Mask Option and how it actually performed.
The Canon EOS R3 is currently Canon's most powerful mirrorless camera, and it offers some impressive features and capabilities that have impressed most of its users. Nonetheless, the title of "flagship" will eventually belong to the EOS R1. It looks like we might have to wait a while for that, though.
Landscape photography takes the confluence of a variety of factors: technical skill, creative vision, time management, ability to predict conditions, and often, just a little bit of luck. If you would like to get your landscape photography on the right track, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you an eight-step process to creating a compelling image.
Infinite Color for Infinite Tools is a color grading plugin for Photoshop. We put it through its paces.
While senior portrait season is still a few months away, the time to gear up for it is upon us, with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday deals just on the horizon. If you're starting out and looking to get into this style of photography, here are a few options from photographer and YouTuber Michelle Nichols.
Instead of bouncing light underneath your subject, this method could make life easier.
Photographing headshots can be a great entry point into a career as a professional photographer. Or if you have a few years under your belt, they can be an excellent source of additional income alongside your main field in photography.
Across all their social media accounts, these four pro photographers have well over a million followers and subscribers. That means people like what they do and what they say. Here, these four get together in one room and share their best beginner photography tips, favorite apps, most loved destinations and so much more.
Thanks to the popularity of mini touchscreen monitors, these little screens are more available and affordable than ever. For this reason, now might be a good time for photographers to add one to their existing setup.
Today, I’ll talk about one of the best values in my constant lighting kit.
There is a quiet rise of small, pocketable cameras when it comes to popularity. In this video, James Popsys gives his thoughts on the little Ricoh after spending some time shooting with it. So, if you're in the market for one, take a look.
If you're a photographer who earns a living photographing people, you need to be prepared for this.
Perhaps one of the trickiest parts of landscape photography is that you get no control over the light or the conditions, and while paying attention to weather forecasts and planning ahead can increase your chances of getting the shots you want, things will not always work out like you had hoped or expected. That does not mean you should pack up and go home, though. This great video tutorial will show you how to tackle the wrong weather and still come home with worthwhile images.
When it comes to landscape photography (or really, any genre), there is a time when you grow more comfortable with the technique and creative process, but somehow, your output stagnates. This excellent video tutorial will show you why that often happens and what you can do to fix it.
As you can see, recently, I have been doing an evaluation of all the gear I have in the studio. This time, I looked at a dozen or so light modifiers that I own and selected my top five favorites. Rather surprisingly, they are far from what “conventional” light-shaping tools are.
Most photographers drool over 85mm f/1.4 lenses for portrait work, and while those are certainly a lot of fun, they might not actually be the best choice for you. This awesome video will show you why you should consider a 100mm macro lens for your work.
Have you ever wanted to produce a night shot but during the day? Well, it's possible, and it's not even that difficult if you know how to control light properly. In this video, go behind the scenes on an outdoor shoot during the day that yields images that look as if they're in the middle of the night.
Let me rewind the clock by a decade: it’s the tail end of 2012, and the NYPD was in the process of clearing out Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan. Over the last year, Occupy Wall Street had been picking up steam, with an encampment filling the better part of the park and protests regularly spilling out into the streets.
85mm lenses with wide apertures are about as popular as can be, but they are often quite expensive as well. Thankfully, in the last few years, we have seen an influx of affordable yet impressive third-party options, with two of the most notable being the Samyang AF 85mm f/1.4 FE II lens and Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art. Which one is right for you? This excellent video comparison takes a look at the performance and image quality of both to help you decide.
Capture One 23 is here, and it brings with it a wide range of new features and upgrades sure to please a variety of photographers. As always, there is a strong focus on portrait photography. This great video will take you through some of those new features and show you how to use them to improve your portrait edits and make them more efficient.
As a professional photographer, I use quite a lot of different gear to make my photographs, from cameras to lenses, to tethering stations and solid state drives, and lights. In this series of articles, I will tell you exactly what gear I use and why, starting off with cameras and lenses.
The Fujifilm X-T5 mirrorless camera is here, and it brings with it a huge variety of upgrades and new features. This great video review takes a look at the new camera and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.
Do you ever feel challenged by the creative energy of your subjects? The pressure to create something unique when you're walking amongst giants? I had a chance to talk with renowned music photographer, Denis O'Regan about shooting some of the biggest names in modern music history.
With shorter daylight hours and longer dark, cold, and wet nights, it's time to think about what to shoot indoors: something new perhaps? For myself, it's going to be trying something new, and that's macro with the Astrhori 85mm f/2.8 Macro Tilt lens.
