Why I Don’t Mind That My Astro Photos Aren’t Great

Like many photographers, I love to see interesting astrophotography. There are plenty of stunning examples out there, usually featuring the Milky Way over a dramatic landscape. Also, like many photographers, I've tried my hand at astrophotography and have not quite gotten the same results. Unlike many other wannabe astrophotographers, my images make me feel happy.

An Advanced Headshot Lighting Setup

Once you have mastered the basic properties of light by working with a single source, you can begin to explore your creativity with more advanced lighting setups. This fantastic video tutorial will show you an advanced four-light headshot setup for creating an eye-catching image and everything you need to know to replicate it in your own work.

6 Different Ways to Get Out of Using Your Camera's Auto Mode

When you are new to photography, you probably use your camera in auto mode. And that is a great place to start, especially since modern cameras are remarkably competent at creating balanced images. Nonetheless, if you want to advance your photography, you will need to eventually embrace semi-automatic and manual modes, and this great video tutorial will show you six ways to start taking more control of your camera and your photos.

How To Edit/Fix Backlit Photos

Every photographer has been faced with the task of photographing subjects in front of beautiful sunrises or sunsets. Ideally, you'd have a light, but if you don't or the subject is too large to light, you're going to have to fix the image in post.

How to Fake Eyeshadow in Photoshop

Many photographers and artists say that your subject's eyes are the most important element in an image. But trying to enhance them or add a little eyeshadow can be very tricky. This tutorial will show you exactly how it's done and teach you great Photoshop techniques in the process.

Do You Need To Be the Best at Photography?

It’s probably fair to say that we would all like to improve our photography, perhaps in a small specific way or maybe a whole new aspect, such as off-camera flash or wedding photography. Having a desire to improve is why we do things like buying lots of expensive new equipment in the hope it will improve our images or spend hours taking photos and editing them, much to the annoyance of our family and partners.

How to Photograph Beer Using Basic Equipment

There is no better reminder that strong technique and knowledge of how to shape light are what create good images than seeing a professional make compelling photos use basic equipment. This fantastic video tutorial will show you how to create a professional-level product image of beer using entry-level equipment and also walk you through the retouching process in Photoshop.

How to Know the Perfect Moment to Take a Picture

Cameras are more advanced than ever, but at the end of the day, nothing can replace the sort of experience, technique, and intuition that all go into knowing exactly when to press the shutter to capture that perfect moment. So, how exactly do you know when to press the shutter release? This fantastic video essay discusses the topic and how to improve your own sense of timing.

Long Exposure Photography of Clouds

Long exposures are highly popular in landscape photography, normally used for turning turbulent, violent water into silky smooth flows. However, they are fantastic for creating motion in the sky as well. This great video tutorial will show you how to create such images, including the gear, settings, and compositions that go into making compelling results.

Is LiDAR the Master Plan for Apple Smartphone Cameras?

September is fast approaching, which means we’ll soon be getting a new iPhone announcement. It’s a safe assumption that Apple will be announcing a faster processor and a better camera. But how can smartphone cameras continue to improve without the ability to include large lenses and larger sensors?

A Year With the Canon EOS R5: Is It One of the Best Cameras for Video?

The Sony a1 and Canon EOS R5 hold the distinction of being the only two consumer cameras currently on the market that offer 8K raw video. And while the video specs of the EOS R5 certainly are mightily impressive, you might wonder how it performs in the real world, particularly with issues like overheating. This excellent video review discusses the camera's video performance over the course of a year, including 8K, 4K 120p, overheating, and more.

What to Do When You Hit a Wall With Your Photography

Whether you are an amateur or professional, it is something that we will all struggle with at one point or another: hitting a wall with our work. So, what can you do when things just are not going well? This insightful video discusses the topic and offers some great advice for getting out of a rut.

How to Create Eye-Catching Photo-Based GIFs in Photoshop

We've all seen the cute cat GIFs and the funny GIF memes. But, making your own photo-based GIFs is a great exercise and can be a fun way to spice up your photography work without having to dive headfirst into video.

Does Tamron's Latest APS-C Lens Make More Sense Than Buying Sony?

Tamron has produced a host of excellent lenses for Sony over the last couple of years and has recently been fleshing out its offerings for APS-C. How good is Tamron’s new 11-20mm f/2.8, and should you consider it over the equivalent Sony f/4 lens?

It's Confirmed: The Canon EOS R3 Will Be 24 Megapixels

The Canon EOS R3 is getting closer to a full announcement and release and is currently in use by photographers at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. After a lot of rumors and speculation, we now have firm confirmation that the camera will indeed feature a 24-megapixel sensor.

Shooting Golden Hour Portraits With the Remarkable Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM Lens

Canon's EF 85mm f/1.2L lens was well known for being a superlative portrait lens with a boundary-pushing design that was popular with many photographers. However, it was not without flaws, particularly a notoriously finicky autofocus system and soft image quality at wide apertures. The RF 85mm f/1.2L improves on both those issues and brings modern refinements to the classic version, and this awesome video shows the kind of images you can get from it.

Is This the Ultimate Portrait Lens?

Portrait lenses are some of the most widely used optics on the market, and so, photographers have plenty of options available, with something out there at just about any price point. At the top end, there is the Fujifilm GF 110mm f/2 R LM WR, and this excellent video review takes a look at the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

Fstoppers Reviews the StellaPro CLx10

I’ve used a ton of constant lights. What they almost always have in common is that they just aren't powerful enough to keep up with the majority of shooting conditions. The StellaPro CLx10 solves that problem plus so much more.

Why a 50mm Lens Is So Useful for Portrait Photography

When it comes to portrait lenses, 85mm tends to be the focal length that gets the majority of the attention from gearheads and is often where manufacturers put some of their flagship designs. That being said, 50mm lenses are an excellent choice and often the choice of top portrait photographers, and this excellent video will show you why they are so useful.

How to Post-Process an Astro Image

Some genres almost require post-processing of images to fully finish them, astrophotography being one of them. The post-processing techniques involved are rather particular, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how to edit an image with the Milky Way combined with a light-painted landscape, all using Photoshop.

Is Ansel Adams Still Relevant?

No landscape photographer is as iconic to the genre as Ansel Adams. But can someone who worked primarily in black and white and whose heyday was over half a century ago still teach us anything today?

Use These Visual Storytelling Basics for Better Photos

Photographers often look for the "epic" shot — the one that will stand out, get thousands of social media likes, and get printed by our clients for wall art. While these photos are important, it's also essential to slow down and look for the other images in the scene that help tell a story and capture the vibe and emotion of the moment. In this video, we'll review a simple storytelling framework called "Wide, Medium, Tight" to help you find these opportunities.

Minimalism
Critique the Community

Minimalism

Submit Your Best "Minimalistic" Photo

The last few critiques have been all about complex lighting, but for this critique, we want to keep things simple. Show us your best minimalistic photos. 

This contest has ended.
Here Is What You Should Not Care About As a Photographer

In a recent article, I talked about upgrading your skillset and knowledge as a photographer. Continuing with that topic, I want to address some of the things that photographers seem to care about, but really shouldn’t.

How To Make and Sell Your First Photobook

Self-publishing your own photobook has never been easier. This helpful video gives you some insights into how to create a platform for your product, choose a printer, take preorders, and get your book on sale.

Deleting Photos: When Is It Too Much and Should You Stop?

Back in film days, you loaded up a 24 or 36 exposure film and shot away until it was used up. Frames were precious because when your film was gone, it was all over. Digital removed that barrier, which has just created different problems. So, should you delete photos and, if you do, when should you stop?

Questions Photographers Won't Answer on YouTube

The internet has a wealth of information available for free, but there are some questions that photographers seem to dodge as a question. Especially the more British of those. Let's try to answer a few of these.

Is Blackmagic's Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro Worth the Investment?

Blackmagic's pocket cinema cameras have been a revelation for videographers with a tight budget and high standards. But their latest iteration, the 6K Pro, while boasting some amazing features, falls well short of being the perfect budget cinema camera — according to this professional videographer, at least.

It Takes More Than Talent to Be a Successful Photographer

The sad and often frustrating truth is that many times, there are very talented photographers who do not find success as professionals, no matter how good they are with a camera and how many interesting creative ideas they have. So, what, if not only talent, does it take to find success as a photographer? This important video essay discusses the traits of successful photographers.

Make Lightroom Classic Yours: The Best Ways To Customize Your Experience

While Lightroom Classic doesn’t offer as many customization options as programs like Photoshop, there’s still a number of major improvements you can make to the default experience. You can speed up browsing, create a way smarter default set of adjustments, and even rebrand Lightroom with your logo, in just minutes.

Common Wide Angle Lens Mistakes in Landscape Photography

When it comes to landscape photography lens choices, the default choice is almost always a wide angle lens. Making successful photographs with one is tricky, however. This great video tutorial discusses some of the challenges and pitfalls of shooting with them and what you can do to improve your work when using one.

Four Habits You Should Change to Become a Better Landscape Photographer

We all develop bad habits no matter what genre we shoot in, and landscape photography is no different. Learning how to recognize those habits and rewire ourselves to break them can improve our images and make the process more enjoyable. This fantastic video tutorial discusses four common habits of landscape photographers and how tweaking them a bit can lead to better photos.

Is This the Craziest Camera Lens Ever Made?

There are a lot of crazy lenses out there, whether by design or price (some by both), and the Sigma APO 200-500mm f/2.8 EX DG sits near the top of both those categories. Not many photographers ever get the privilege to shoot with one, but this camera reviewer did, and this awesome video takes a look at his experience with this ridiculous lens.

7 Streams of Passive Income You Can Create as a Photographer

Income is important, but passive income is incredible. While it can be tricky to develop revenue streams that pay you passively (even just to a degree) in every industry, it is possible, and if don't correctly, can free you up to work on what you love.

Fstoppers Photographer of the Month (July 2021): John Kimwell Laluma

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 2021, 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.

We Interview the 'Greatest Photographer in the World'

I met the self-styled “greatest photographer in the world,” Harry Schidtshlinger, last week. He was sporting a bloody nose, trying his best to stem the flow with his lens cloth. I offered to postpone, but he was determined to be interviewed, and I wanted to hear his story.

How Does the Kandao Obsidian Pro Stack Up in the Pro 360 Camera Space?

The year’s been pretty quiet for 360 cameras, which is why the launch of the Kandao Obsidian Pro, a 12K 360 camera made up of 8 APS-C sized sensors, is pretty much an extinction-level event this year as far as 360 cameras are concerned. The specs put it easily above other all-in-one 360 solutions, but how does it stack up in the real world?

How Your Phone Will Make You a Better Photographer

Phone photography has come a long way since its flip phone origins. Today, you might not even be able to tell the difference between a photo taken by a phone and a dedicated camera.

This Crazy Camera Shoots Between 24mm and 600mm

Most of us would love a lens that could literally cover every focal length we would ever need, and the Sony RX10 series actually offers that, with a range of 24-600mm. This neat video shows you its versatility and creative potential shooting street photography.

How To Automatically Blur Backgrounds in Adobe Photoshop With Neural Filters

If you're somebody who hates heavy-handed post-production, you might want to keep scrolling. For those of you who are happy to do whatever they can to get the image they want, here is an example of Adobe Photoshop's new beta Neural Filters in which the background of an image can be blurred.

How To Prepare for Your First Paid Photoshoot

Running your first paid photoshoot can be a daunting process, with organization, planning other people and products, and timing to get right, there's a lot more to juggle than just camera settings. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to prepare for your first paid gig.

How To Get the Most Out of the iPhone Camera App

Apple's iPhones have some fantastic built-in cameras that can handle a wide variety of situations with ease, making them a great option for a camera that is always in your pocket. While the stock camera app is designed to provide a simple process that ensures you always get a great shot, there are more powerful options hiding within that interface, and this great video tutorial will show you how to get the most out of them.