There are so many budget lens manufacturers that I've begun losing count. What I haven't lost track of, however, is how strong the quality has become.

David Ma is a director and filmmaker whose cinematic photos and videos of food have caught the attention of both the culinary and creative worlds, earning him a spot in Adweek's Top 100 Creatives of 2021. In this interview, we learn his valuable creative insights, advice for filmmakers and photographers, and how creating content on the go allows him to be more productive, build stronger client relationships, and make more compelling content.

Of course, it would be great if the weather would cooperate every time we went out to take photos, but that simply is not going to happen, and if you avoid creating images whenever the conditions are not ideal, you are going to lead a frustrating career as a photographer. This great video tutorial is an important reminder that even in terrible conditions, you can create compelling images.

Photography can be an expensive pursuit, with cameras, lenses, and lights setting you back thousands and thousands of dollars. While that is true, the operative part is "can be". There are lots of ways to create amazing images on a modest budget.

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 2022, 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.

Voigtlander is known for making all-metal manual focus lenses that offer durable construction and sharp and contrasty images. The Nokton 21mm f/1.4 Aspherical lens is another in that tradition, and it offers a unique focal length paired with a very wide maximum aperture. This great video review takes a look at the lens and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

Canon's 7D series of DSLRs were some of the company's most popular cameras, as they borrowed many features from the company's more expensive full frame bodies and put them all in small and more affordable packages. And so, the announcement of the EOS R7, the mirrorless successor to the 7D line, has generated a lot of excitement. With a range of new features and improvements, it looks to be quite the camera. This great video review takes a look at the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in use.

Lightroom has become quite an impressively capable editing program, able to tackle many advanced post-processing tasks that used to be reserved exclusively for Photoshop. As such, it can easy to overlook some of its tools. This excellent video tutorial will show you a lesser-known tool, what it does, and how to use it to create more precise edits.

As photographers, we often are bogged down in what gear to buy, what lens to choose, what has better specs, and so on. To everyone's satisfaction or disappointment, these things will only make a marginal difference in most cases. As a photographer, you need to have more skills than gear. I am here to tell you the five most important ones.

And while we're on the subject of which is better, iPhones are far superior to Android devices, the iPad is objectively the best tablet available, and digital imaging is far superior to analog film in every way imaginable.

As the saying goes, an intelligent person makes the difficult seem simple, and an academic makes the simple seem difficult. How does a photographer get on when he shoots ice in Iceland?

Have you been feeling the heat this summer? Taking photos out in the sunshine can be a challenge. However, it can be made a lot easier with the right preparation. Here are five of my photography hot weather essentials.

I subscribe to Premiere Pro and own Final Cut X and Da Vinci Resolve. I’ve been weighing up which one to focus on in order to become a better editor and video professional. I’ve considered the ease of use when editing and exporting, the support and community of each, and the market demand.

ACDSee, known for their fast and capable digital asset management software, has announced ACDSee Free, a totally free application that offers a range of features for culling and managing raw files without needing to import any of them. Read on for what you can expect.

Content-Aware fill is one of the most useful innovations in the history of Photoshop, allowing you to convincingly replace a wide variety of things in an image quickly and easily without having to do a lot of manual cloning and blending. It is not perfect, though, but with a bit of know-how, you can get a lot more from it. This helpful video tutorial will show you everything you need to know about the Content-Aware tool and how to customize it to your needs.

Reduction of single-use plastic is increasingly on the minds of conscientious consumers, and the practice of shooting with physical film in preference to digital does bring with it considerations in the area. But fear not, Ikigai Film Lab is here to recycle, reuse, and repurpose, to put our anxiety at ease and help us keep shooting with a clearer conscience.

Running a successful portrait session can be a daunting task, especially for photographers who are new to working in a studio. The myriad of options can easily become overwhelming. There are endless choices for light modifiers, backdrops, props, clothing, poses, and all the rest, but I have found that having a consistent plan and process is the key to success.

Knowing how to balance flash and ambient light is one of the most crucial skills a portrait photographer can have, as it will give you the ability to shoot in just about any environment with full creative and technical control. If you are newer to working with artificial lighting and want to learn this skill, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you how to balance flash and ambient light for better images.

Looking back at my early portraits often makes me cringe. I’m not even afraid to admit it now. It was always a goal of mine to be a competent portrait photographer, but I was incredibly shy and didn’t know how to engage with the people in front of my lens. I was always somehow dissatisfied with my results, as I could never seem to connect with my subjects on a level deep enough for them to let their guard down.

Unless you're filming horror, shaky footage is almost always highly undesirable. Now, however, you have lots of ways you can create dynamic shots and keep the visuals steady, so which is the best one?

When a passion project collides with a good cause, it's a win-win, and photographer and videographer David Zapatka's lighthouse photography project is just that.

Tamron has reinvented themselves in recent years, releasing highly practical and affordable lenses alongside innovative options like the 35-150mm f/2-2.8 Di III VXD. They have now announced the development of another lens in the spirit of the latter group, the 50-400mm F/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD, expected to arrive later this year.

Imagine being tasked with photographing press events featuring some of the most famous people in the world, on a regular basis. Are you confident that you can come away with photographs as strong or better than those of your peers? Can you find the small, personal moments taking place in the chaos to create images that are unique? Christy Bowe is a photographer who has successfully accomplished these tasks for the past three decades.

Like it or not, hard light happens a lot outside, and if you are a portrait or wedding photographer, you can't just reschedule the ceremony or session every time you don't have clouds to give you soft light. So, what can you do to still create flattering images? This excellent video tutorial will show you how adding a bit of flash to the scene can be just the solution you are looking for.

Medium format is more affordable than ever, and its resolution, tonality, and dynamic range make it a dream for landscape photographers, who almost always prioritize image quality above anything else in a camera. So, to switch back to full frame from medium format might seem like a strange decision. This interesting video essay features an experienced landscape photographer discussing why he is considering doing just that anyway.

If someone gave you $1,000 and told you to buy a camera and lens combo, what would you do? Yes, it is hard to get a good kit for relatively little money. Yet, there are some hidden gems that are great to kickstart your career and offer an improvement over existing gear.

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most complex and malleable tools in a photographer's arsenal. With many fatigued from the debate over whether an image is edited or not, perhaps you want to weave in some magic to your shots.

Most newer photographers will begin their editing journey in Lightroom rather than Photoshop, and even as you become more advanced, you will notice that you can still do a lot or even most of your editing in the former, only needing to resort to the latter for truly complex post-processing tasks. If you are a beginner and looking to understand how the various editing functions in Lightroom work, check out this great video tutorial that will have you up and running in no time at all.

One of the most exciting topics for me to cover during my time as a professional newspaper journalist was fires and firefighting, and the potential for great images is there for anyone who approaches the matter with a little preparation and knowledge.

A photograph is a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional scene, and as such, part of the challenge posed to the photographer is recreating a sense of depth in the image. This is particularly important to holding your viewer's attention in landscape photography, and one of the most effective ways to accomplish this is through the use of layers. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to leverage them to create more effective photos.

Becoming a successful photographer takes the confluence of technical aptitude, creative thinking, problem-solving capabilities, and more. This requires you to be able to address multiple aspects of your work simultaneously, sometimes making it a bit tricky to figure out why things might not be going well. If you are struggling to grow as a photographer, check out this great video that discusses five reasons why that might be and what you can do to get back on the right track.

Whether you're brand new or have many years experience, printing your work can be the most satisfying part of photography. Something you might not realize is how much your work might change after you make that first print.

If you're still not sure exactly how to use masking in Lightroom, this will answer all your questions.

When a lens is sold out, you always know it's a good sign. See what all the fuss is about with the new Sony FE 16-35mm f/4 PZ G lens.

The Nikon Z fc is styled after one of the greatest 35mm cameras of all time, the Nikon FM2. And although the Z fc looks like an FM2, does it live up to the hype?

Those who wish to practice their off-camera flash technique or simply, wish to create a successful concept shoot to boost their portfolio, should strongly consider practicing the arrangement with themselves as the subject.

Soft light is generally the preferred style for portraits, as it is more flattering on the subject. However, soft light produces more gradual transitions and requires relatively larger sources, which can make it more difficult to precisely control where it is falling in the frame. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to create a portrait using soft but carefully controlled light using flags and v-flats.

Like it or not, mirrorless cameras have overtaken DSLRs as the cameras of choice for most photographers. As the major camera brands transition away from developing new DSLRs and focus on mirrorless technologies, there are still advantages to using a DSLR.

Skin retouching can seem a daunting task if you are a beginner. What brush do you use, what layer goes where, and how do you smooth the skin? And on top of that, you have to remember all the steps involved. So, how does Infinite Guide make the whole process simple?

Landscape photography is a popular yet difficult genre, and while you can learn to create a technically apt photo, finding your creative voice is another issue entirely. Why is it so difficult to be creative in landscape photography? This fantastic video essay looks at the question and offers some useful insights you can apply to your own work.

50mm lenses with wide apertures are some of the most popular out there, and you can find options from under $100 to well over $10,000. So, what can you get near the top end of that range? This great video takes a look at the Leica Noctillux f/1.0 to answer that question.

The original M1 MacBook Air was a highly popular model that offered remarkable performance and battery life in the iconic Air chassis. The new M2 model brings with it a new chip, but it also comes with a wide variety of new options and upgrades. So, which is right for you? This excellent video comparison will help you choose.

Fujifilm gets a pretty bad rap these days from the film photography community. So, it’s easy to forget that from the 1980s to the early 2000s, Fujifilm produced some of the best cameras ever made: medium format, point and shoots, the extraordinary Xpan, and a sack full of other interesting goodies.

Landscape photography is a challenging genre full of nuance, as it requires a combination of technical aptitude and the ability to work through issues out of your control, such as poor weather or hard light. If you would like to improve your landscape images, check out this excellent video tutorial that features an experienced photographer sharing a range of helpful tips sure to bring you better shots.

Leica is polarizing by virtue of — and this is almost the entire reason — their prices. Nevertheless, the quality of their products is not in question. One of Leica's most famous creations is the Noctillux f/1.0, but how is it to use?

Luminar Neo is getting its release with the HDR extension on Thursday, and I was sent an advance copy to see how it works.

We've all heard of the stereotype of "the starving artist," but a new study from the UK put concrete numbers on this portrayal, showing that graduates with a degree in photography truly do (on average) become starving artists. Adding insult to injury, the study reveals that photographers are not only on the list, they are ranked the worst for post-graduates making low income. Ouch.

It sounds a bit strange or even silly at first, but it is advice that will serve you well, especially in an age where we are inundated by images and unsolicited feedback. This great video features some really important advice that is well worth taking the time to listen to.

Composition is always a tricky and subtle thing, and in a genre where you do not have control of the physical placement of the elements, like landscape photography, it can be particularly difficult. If composition is something you struggle with in your landscape images, check out this helpful video tutorial that will share some useful advice sure to help you improve your photos.

A few years ago, asking whether one should get a laptop or a tablet for professional work would be a ludicrous question. However, with options like external display support and the same chip used in MacBooks, the iPad Pro is an intriguing option and in some ways, it is even a better one. So, which is right for you, the MacBook Air or the iPad Pro? This great video will help you answer that question.