A Closer Look at High Key and Low Key Photography

Sometimes photos are called high key or low key. I never thought much about it and just made the photos I liked, regardless of what it could be called. But when is it correct to name a photo high key or low key? Let’s find out.

7 Steps for Creating Powerful 70-200mm Telephoto Images

There is no doubt that the telephoto lenses are just as attractive for landscape photography as the wide-angles. In this article, I will give you seven steps to help you make powerful landscape photos with a 70-200mm telephoto lens.

Is Telling People To 'Zoom With Your Feet' Bad Advice?

As a photography and video educator, I’ve advised people to “zoom with their feet” more times than I can count. On its surface, it makes sense. But photographer Matt Granger gives us a few reasons why that’s not necessarily the best advice in his latest YouTube video.

4 Ways To Monitor Exposure While Out in the Field

Getting exposure right can seem simple, but it's even easier to get it slightly wrong. While being marginally overexposed or underexposed can be rescued, having blown out highlights or completely black shadows means the details will be unrecoverable. Here are four ways to monitor exposure properly on location.

Tips for Flying Your Drone After it Snows

Flying your drone in snow is not a good idea, but after it has finished snowing, there might be a great opportunity to capture some singular and beautiful shots, both video and photo.

How to Improve Your Wide Angle Landscape Photos

Wide angles lenses are very common for landscape photography, but they can be tricky to use effectively. This excellent video tutorial discusses how to improve your wide angle landscape photos.

3 Quick Tips for Black and White Photography

Black and white photography will creep into every photographer's gallery at some point and it can be a powerful tool. Here are some concise tips for getting the most out of monochrome.

How Good Is the New Colorize Neural Filter in Photoshop?

Photoshop has been embracing A.I and neural filters over the last year or so, and one that has grabbed a lot of attention is the automatic colorize filter. But how good is it for coloring black and white images?

Fstoppers Reviews the Haida NanoPro Interchangeable Magnetic Variable ND Filter

A neutral density filter has probably found its way into almost every photographer’s bag at some point. Variable ND filters can make the process of working with ND filters much simpler in certain situations. Today, we’ll look at a quality, and somewhat different, option from Haida, the NanoPro Interchangeable Magnetic Variable ND.

CIPA 2020 Summary: The Year of the Mirrorless Camera

CIPA has released their figures for 2020 production and shipments of cameras and lenses. While it might make for some brutal reading in terms of the bottom line, it was a landmark year for one reason: mirrorless cameras outproduced DSLRs for the first time.

Why Changing Your Style Could Improve Your Photography

A combination of perfect portfolios and consistent Instagram posts gives our work a style that gives our clients and followers a strong sense of who we are. However, is there a danger that sticking to a certain style can be restrictive?

How to Create Perfect Vignettes in Photoshop

Vignettes are by far one of the most common and effective ways to draw your viewers' attention to the subject of your photo, but you can get far more control and creative freedom by customizing the process instead of using Photoshop's built-in tools, and this fantastic video tutorial will show you how to do so.

Do You Hate Your Own Photos?

No doubt, nearly all of us go through periods of hating our own work, even if we love the process of photography itself. What can you do during such times? This fantastic video essay discusses the topic of artistic anxiety and how to move past it and gain confidence in your work again.

Do You Really Need a Gimbal? Sony IBIS Versus DJI RS2 Gimbal

The technology inside cameras is growing at an impressive rate and even the older technology has been improved and refined to near-unthinkable levels. One such area is in-camera image stabilization (IBIS) to the point where it can rival a gimbal in certain situations. But just how many situations can modern IBIS compete with a gimbal?

A Review of the Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G Lens

For many genres, an ultra-wide angle zoom lens can be quite useful, and while an f/2.8 aperture can be quite helpful, the extra expense and bulk is not always necessary for people like landscape or architectural photographers. For Sony shooters, there is also the FE 12-24mm f/4 G lens, and this fantastic video review takes a look at the kind of performance you can expect from it in practice.

3 Things to Consider Before Buying Your First Film Camera

If digital images feel a bit too clean and clinical, consider giving your photography some soul by shooting on film. Before buying your first analog camera, here are three things that you should keep in mind.

How to Shoot Flash Portraits at Night

Portraits that combine flash with natural light are a highly popular look and a technique that will do a lot to help you gain more confidence and versatility when working with artificial light. However, when you start shooting at night, the technique becomes a little trickier. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to shoot portraits at night when using a flash.

A Different Way to Improve Your Photo in Five Seconds

There are many different ways to accomplish the same thing when it comes to editing your photos. I absolutely love learning new and more efficient techniques for my workflow, and I hope this method will do exactly that.

Hands on With the Sony a1: Not Quite the Perfect Camera?

Sony made waves last week with the announcement of its brand new flagship a1. At an eye-watering $6,498, it brings some notable technological advances, but early testing suggests that there are few areas where it seems to fall short or perhaps doesn’t quite live up to the marketing spiel.

Why You Should Consider Embracing Prime Lenses

No doubt, zoom lenses are extremely convenient and useful for a wide variety of applications across a wide range of genres. Nonetheless, prime lenses can help you improve by forcing you into creative problem-solving, and this fantastic video essay discusses why you might want to try using them more often.

These Images Show Perfectly Why Photography Matters

One of the most important things about photography is that it records moments in time so they are never forgotten by future generations. It also provides evidence that things actually happened. These incredible images from last week's monster ocean swells in Hawaii show why photography is so important in documenting history.

Can't Get Rid of Ghosting Effect in Your HDR Images? Try This Instead

Bracketing your exposures and automatically blending them together in your preferred software is probably the handiest way to get the most dynamic range from your camera without introducing a load of noise. But how can you blend shots accurately when your subject is moving?

What Is Really Important in Photography?

There are hundreds if not thousands of posts discussing why creative vision is the most important aspect of photography. Why, then, are we so obsessed with gear?

The Best Images from GuruShots "Impressive Architecture" Challenge

GuruShots is a photography website that hosts "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” In their latest challenge, they invited participants to submit their best photos of "Impressive Architecture." The challenge received thousands of entries and millions of votes. You can see the three winners of the challenge as well as hundreds of top rated images below.

A Walk Around a Commercial Photographer's Studio

Photography studios come in many shapes and sizes, from family portrait studios on the high street to elaborate YouTuber sets. In this article, I walk you around my studio and explain why I have the layout and kit that I do for my work.

How Social Media Will Kill the Underground

It has almost become a truism: social media creates mediocrity. In an effort to gain a share of the social media pie, artists are rewarded for blending in, not standing out.

What Cameras Will We See in 2021?

When it comes to new cameras, 2021 has already started off with a bang, with the release of Fujifilm GFX 100S bringing high-level medium format capabilities down to unheard of price levels, and the Sony a1 pushing mirrorless full frame into exciting new realms. With 11 months still to go in the year and a lot of exciting gear rumored to be on the way, what can we expect? This great video discusses what we might see.

A Review of the New Fujifilm X-E4 Mirrorless Camera

Fujifilm recently announced the X-E4, the latest camera in the company's beloved X Series line of mirrorless cameras, and it pairs their latest X-Trans sensor with a lot of new features and capabilities at an affordable price. This excellent video review takes a look at the new camera and the pros and cons you can expect from it.

A Review of the Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS Lens

70-200mm f/2.8 lenses are some of the most versatile and highly popular optics out there, but they are rather expensive and heavy. For those who want the flexibility of the reach of a 70-200mm but do not need the extra light-gathering power, the 70-200mm f/4 is a fantastic option, and this great video review takes a look at Sony's option, the FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS.

5 Reasons To Buy a Nikon D850 — or Any DSLR — in 2021

When it was released in 2017, the Nikon D850 could be considered the alpha and the omega of the SLR photography world. It represented almost every advancement ever made for cameras with swinging mirrors. But are there still reasons to buy one of these, or any DSLR, in 2021?

Fstoppers Photographer of the Month (January 2021): Roy Iwasaki

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.

Shooting at Night With a 50mm f/0.95 Lens that Costs Only $755

Third-party manufacturers have gifted photographers with a plethora of extremely fast glass in the last couple of years and this 50mm lens might be far better than you might anticipate. Expect a weighty, manual focus lens with metal construction and some chromatic aberration — not to mention a lot of bokeh and more opportunities when shooting at night.

What Are Focal Reducers and What Are They Used For?

Focal reducers are relatively rare compared to teleconverters, though they work based on the same idea (simply employed in reverse). If you have not seen them in use before, this awesome video tutorial will show you how they work and why they are useful.

Photo Manipulator's Guide To Adobe Stock

In this video tutorial, watch as Dean Samed gives you the low down on all things stock image related. The video is from the perspective of a photo manipulator.

How Diffraction Robs Your Photos of Sharpness

Diffraction is a fundamental physical property, and no matter how expensive your lenses are or how advanced their designs might be, there is no hiding from it. If you are unfamiliar with diffraction, this fantastic video tutorial will show you why it happens and why you should be aware of it in your own work.

Use Lightroom to Add Your Signature to Photos in Under 60 Seconds

Stop thieves from stealing your photographic work or simply put your name on shots so others can look you up by adding your own signature or logo to photographs using this technique in Lightroom that should take less than a minute.