Can't afford those beautiful but expensive textured backdrops for your food and beverage photography or maybe you just like the idea of making your own unique version? Check out this video for a fun and affordable way to create your own.

The year 2020 has been, for a majority of people, an absolutely bizarre year that few (no one?) would want to relive. For this film photographer, here are the best things from 2020: the best expensive gear, cheap gear, inspirations, etc.

With many Canon photographers making the transition from the EF DSLR mount to the RF mirrorless mount, there are questions over whether it's worth adapting your current glass, or selling it and replacing it with the RF versions where possible. So, how do they compare?

Was your portrait lacking the interesting wardrobe you wanted it to have? Are you planning a shoot but can't attain the range of garments you're after? Well, here's how you can revolutionize pieces of clothing in post.

Want to start the new year with a free tutorial from Fstoppers? All you have to do is help us choose our Photographer of the Year!

2020 was quite the year, starting relatively normal and then spiraling quickly out of control as few have seen before. Plans were shredded, and normal daily life was abruptly changed like a cold bucket of water to the face.

New Year's resolutions have a bad rap — it starts with a well-meaning desire to lose a few pounds in weight, drink less, or quit smoking. Sure enough, a couple of weeks later those "promises to self" lie in tatters and you discard any further well-meaning thoughts. So don't think about making one, instead, go the whole hog and make three!

2020 has been a tumultuous year for the industry with some manufacturers struggling while others seem to have all but shrugged off the pandemic and released incredible new cameras and lenses. What does 2021 have in store?

Working with couples, you want to be able to capture the connection they have, especially when it's their engagement or wedding portrait session. Here are a few things you can do to help make their session memorable and deliver amazing photos.

Each December, LensRentals releases its list of the year’s most-rented equipment and it’s evident that change might be coming but it is taking its time. Canon dominated 2020 — and so did its DSLRs.

Capturing technically sound and compelling portraits take the confluence of a variety of skills. If you would like to improve your portraits, check out this fantastic video tutorial that is brimming with a wide variety of helpful tips and techniques.

Photoshop is a powerful tool for retouching a person's appearance, and one of the most impressive things it can do is convincingly make someone look younger. This fantastic video tutorial will show you how to adjust all of a person's features to take away years from their appearance.

Remember floppy disks? The little disks that could store a whopping 1.44 MB of data were the ubiquitous choice for portable data storage for decades until faster and (much) higher-capacity options came along. Still, that did not stop a clever and nostalgic tinkerer from managing to compress an entire feature-length film enough to fit it on a single floppy disk.

With the requisite attention to detail and myriad of tasks you often have to perform, retouching can be a very time-consuming process, and as such, it is worth finding any little areas you can to make your workflow more efficient. This excellent video tutorial will give you a variety of tips for saving time while retouching without sacrificing any image quality.

Using strobe or flash lighting for the first time can be daunting, but it's easier than you might realize. If you're looking at trying it out, here's a beginner's guide to getting started.

Sometimes you need to ensure that you set your shots apart from the norm, which is easier said than done. Well, this is one example that really achieved what it set out to do!

Photographing birds is tremendously tricky and requires as much wildlife know-how as it does knowledge of settings. So, if you're interested in getting started, here is a beginner's guide to push you in the right direction.

In the wake of surging COVID-19 cases, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has asked the film industry to "strongly consider" shutting down for the time being.

As the Brexit transition period comes to an end, many of the details regarding the United Kingdom’s new arrangement with the European Union remain unclear. Creative industry professionals are keen to avoid having their work impacted by new restrictions. This petition to the U.K. government requests visa-free travel.

With all the fanfare and excitement surrounding Canon's RF mirrorless line, it can be easy to forget that the company actually has two separate mirrorless lines, with the second being the EOS M. That line's future has been in question since the introduction of the more advanced RF line, and it seems now that Canon may be getting ready to shutter the line.

Getting good audio is essential to creating a quality video. The Lark 150 from Hollyland is positioned as a turnkey solution for easily recording two subjects without the need for a tangle of wires. Whether you’re just getting started with video or are looking for a competent wireless option, you’ve got to hear what this piece of kit can do!

How many photos do you have in your Lightroom Classic Catalog? Thousands, tens of thousands, or perhaps even more? I have 10 tips to create order in your Lightroom Classic Catalog.

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 2020, 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.

The 50mm focal length on full frame cameras is a staple, but there are more options than ever before. So, which is the best for the Z mount, and is the quickest worth the cost?

I’ve waffled and flip-flopped on Apple’s computational imaging claims in its new iPhone 12 series, and so, to finally put my curiosity to rest, I decided to pit what’s (to me) the most compelling iPhone, the iPhone 12 Mini, against my previous favorite phone photography standard-bearer, the Google Pixel 3a.

In this video walkthrough, I will show you all the steps it took to create this neon homage to Synthwave in Photoshop. Synthwave is a genre of music that has striking conceptual imagery to accompany the albums.

Composition is confusing at first, then it appears incredibly easy. But, once the basics have been mastered, the composition rabbit hole goes much deeper.

The anamorphic look is attractive and loved by many videographers and filmmakers. The problem is, it costs a lot to achieve, and prices itself out of reach for most videographers. But what if you could effectively fake it?

Sigma has been busy producing some interesting new glass over the last 12 months, but its 105mm f/2.8 Macro is one of its older lenses that’s proven to be popular over the years. How does it stand up almost a decade after it was released?

The “Google Camera 8.1” update arrived back in November, and it’s taken a few months for users to notice that Google has quietly taken away functionality for certain models of phone: the ultra-wide lens no longer takes astrophotography images.

In my look at the new features of ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2021, I was excited to see the inclusion of color wheels and tone wheels. I first started using this style of editor in video production; it’s a big part of what gives stylized video like Mad Max its distinctive look. When editing photos, however, it’s a great, intuitive way of working with the luminosity and color ranges in your image.

It’s little more than a year since Sony announced the launch of the Sony a9 II, but despite that, we could see its successor unveiled within a matter of weeks. Rumors suggest that the a9 III is on its way, so what does the Japanese manufacturer have lined up?

A few months ago, Tamron released its first E-mount APS-C lens in nine years: the 17-70mm f/2.8 Di III-A VC RXD. Its constant fast aperture makes it rather special, but how does it perform on the job? This short video seeks to find out.

The XF 56mm f/1.2 R has long been known as the superlative portrait lens for Fujifilm shooters, but the company recently released the XF 50mm f/1.0 R WR, which pushes the boundaries of lens design all the more. This great video review takes a look at the lens and if its performance holds up to its impressive design.

In this video tutorial, watch as Dean Samed shows you how the top three hacks for cutting out hair in Photoshop. Each one is a great way to get those tricky hair cutouts mastered.

Dodging and burning is both a fantastic way to shape the light in an image and to retouch blemishes; in fact, it is the technique preferred by a lot of high-end retouchers over other more common methods. When working with subjects with dark skin tones, you will want to take note of a few differences in technique compared to working with subjects with lighter skin tones, and this excellent video tutorial will show you everything you need to know.

Teleconverters and speed boosters are two common accessories that can make your lenses more versatile and even save you from having to buy a second lens. This excellent video will show you how they work as well as their pros and cons.

To have a publisher wanting to produce a book of your work is a dream many photographers have. But where do you start? What costs are involved? And is it really worth doing in the first place?

You might not think of landscape photography as a genre that relies on split-second timing, but when you are dealing with dynamic scenes, just a moment's difference can create separate images and tell entirely different stories. This fantastic video discusses why you should consider the timing of your shots and how you can get multiple images from the same scene simply by varying it.

At first glance, the vibrance and saturation sliders might seem like they do the same thing, and while they do operate in similar manners, they are fundamentally different in their functions. This excellent video tutorial will show you the difference between the two so you can take better control of the color in your images.

As Gray Kotzé points out, there are bushels of reviews for entry-level cinema lenses on the web, lenses you might look to pick up on sale maybe. However, most feature films are shot on prohibitively expensive lenses that were always intended to be rented out over their multi-decade lifespans. The cost for these lenses puts them out of reach for most filmmakers who aspire towards ownership, but, if you have a budget and you're looking to shoot feature/cinema quality films, it's important to understand what's available for rent.

From an early age, Bertie Gregory was sailing, surfing, swimming in the ocean. He was always outside, taking in nature. When you spend that amount of time outdoors and in nature, you gain an appreciation for it by osmosis. Even in England, a place not known for wildlife, he was able to appreciate it.

Bag and accessory manufacturer WANDRD recently announced a new range of camera straps, all featuring an ingenious new attachment system that will appeal to anyone who loves minimalism.

One of the greatest advancements in consumer video products in the last decade or so has been the appearance of affordable and portable stabilization devices. Handheld gimbals allow you to get smooth, professional footage in almost any situation, and this fantastic video tutorial will give you five tips to get more out of yours.

Photography, like any artistic pursuit, will see the flow of your creative juices wax and wane, and it can be a real struggle when things are not going well. However, that might actually be the best time to consider your process and how you approach things, and from that, new ideas might grow. This great video discusses the issue and what you can do to overcome it.

In this video tutorial, watch as Abbey Esparza shows you all about Smart Objects in Photoshop and why you need to use them. This is definitely a good tutorial for those who still work destructively.

The Canon R7 has been rumored for a while now, and with some interesting patents acting as evidence, we now may have more information on exactly what role it aims to fill.

Photo edits can often become very complicated, time-intensive things, but they don't always have to be. This great video discusses the common trap of being overly complicated in your image editing.

If 2020 has somehow given you an appreciation of tactile experiences and a slower pace of life, you might want to consider periodically leaving your digital camera at home in in the new year and start capturing the world on film instead. Here are a few good reasons why.

When you are new to photography, it can feel a bit overwhelming trying to understand the wide variety of camera settings and equipment and how to combine them all with your creative side to make compelling and technically sound images. This fantastically comprehensive video tutorial will take you through all the basics with lots of explanations and examples so you can get up and running as soon as possible.