Is It Worth Spending a Lot of Money on a Camera Bag?

What’s the difference between a good quality, well priced camera bag and a bag that costs more than twelve times less? Photographer James Popsys runs you through some of the pros and cons when it comes to buying a bag on a budget.

Six Important Lessons Every Photographer Should Learn

One of the great things about photography is that there really is no ceiling; you can always learn something new or expand your skills and creative visions. This excellent video features a longtime photographer discussing six important lessons he has learned over the years.

Why Photographers Hate My Images: Part Two

I recently published an article about why photographers hate my images here, and I think I may have missed a few points, as well as feeling the need to cover more about why most photographers don't understand person work.

Is There Going to Be a Mass Migration Back to Canon From Sony?

The Canon R5 announcement has pricked up the ears of most of the industry for one reason or another. Already, however, we're seeing photographers claiming they might switch manufacturers for it. Is Canon domination on the horizon again?

How Pro Photographers Are Staying Creative During Lockdown

This is undoubtedly a crazy time for photographers. There's no work, and we can't stretch our creative muscles as often as we're used to. How are the pros coping? Many pro photographers are using their photography skills to create something they'd never normally have time to do, and the results are remarkable.

Editing Challenging Lighting in Landscape Shots

With landscape and travel photography, you might only have one chance at the shot, regardless of the quality of light. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through how I edited a blue hour shot of the Virgin River in Zion National Park, using ACDSee Photo Studio and targeted adjustments.

Fstoppers Review: Lensbaby's Velvet 28, Your New Favorite Creative Tool

Since 2004, Lensbaby has been an industry innovator, designing outside-the-box creative lenses and accessories. While other manufacturers chase the expensive, high-tech, spec-fixated market, Lensbaby pursues something entirely different: helping artists find a new creative approach through unique effects delivered by fully analog products.

Learn The Basics of White Balance and Color Temperature

For some beginners — and maybe for some, more advanced enthusiasts — the concepts of color temperature and white balance might be a little confusing. This video, from professional photographer, Omar Gonzales, goes a long way to shedding some light on the subject.

How Adobe Gave Me Three Free Months of Creative Cloud (COVID-19 Discount)

Freelancers, we're no different than anyone else suffering because of the pandemic and associated economic setbacks. Maybe that's not correct, because we've probably become more resilient to uncertainty just by our job description alone. Lucky for us, some brands are paying attention and doing what they can do soften the hit. This is how I received three months free from Adobe Creative Cloud.

Three Mistakes Landscape Photographers Often Make With a Wide Angle Lens

The wide angle lens is probably the most common tool in any landscape photographer's bag, but it comes with its own unique set of challenges and pitfalls. If you are having trouble creating compelling landscape images with your wide angle lens, this great video discusses three common mistakes and what you can do to correct them.

How to Shoot Your Own Film With Little or No Budget

Filming a movie can quickly become a very pricey endeavor, and that can be frustrating if you do not have a huge budget but still want to create something. If you are interested in shooting your own film, this great video will give you lots of helpful tips for filming a movie with little or no budget.

Helpful Ideas and Tips for Black and White Landscape Photography

When done right, black and white photos can be quite powerful, drawing the viewer in with their dramatic play between light and shadow. This excellent video will give you some helpful tips and advice for better black and white landscape photos.

The Lyrid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

Tonight marks the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower, with plenty of meteors visible from mid to late April each year, so get your camera ready and learn how to capture them in all their glory.

Four Helpful Tips for Landing More Photography Jobs

You can have all the creative and technical talent in the world, but if you want to be successful as a photographer, it is crucial that your business abilities be sharp as well. This great video will give you four tips for landing more photography jobs.

A First Look at the Lightweight Samyang 75mm f/1.8 Lens

Samyang recently announced their new 75mm f/1.8 autofocus lens for Sony E mount cameras, and it looks to be a fantastic portrait lens for photographers who want to travel light. This great video takes a first look at the lens and what you can expect from it.

More Ideas for Creative Self-Portraits at Home

You don't need a model to practice your portraiture; you'll do just fine yourself! Here are some more ideas on creative and unusual self-portraits for you to try.

10 Great Hacks for Using the New Rode Wireless GO Microphones

The Rode Wirelss GO Compact Digital Wireless microphones have been a bit of a game-changer when it comes to ease of recording audio. This short video gives you ten excellent ideas of how to make the most from this very affordable piece of gear.

How Do You Add Mood to Landscape Images?

Mood is not as easily definable as it is in genres that involve a living subject displaying emotions for the viewer to see, but it is still possible to convey feelings in a landscape image with just as much power as something like a portrait. This great video discusses the process of adding mood to landscape images.

What Happens When You Put a Mega-Size Lens on a Gimbal and Shoot Video?

Some things involving esoteric and expensive gear we do because they help us bring our creative visions to fruition or enable new technical capabilities that can improve the quality or efficiency of our work. Some things we do just because we can. This video is about the latter.

Panasonic Releases Firmware 2.0 for S1H Camera: 5.9K Raw Video Over HDMI

The Panasonic S1H is already quite the powerhouse camera, with impressive specs that should satisfy the needs of lots of filmmakers and videographers. Panasonic is increasing the camera's capabilities all the more with the release of firmware 2.0, which will enable 5.9K raw video output over HDMI.

5 Pointless Aspects of Photography and What Really Matters

There is a lot of noise in photography, and I am not talking about the sort that appears in your images at higher ISOs. Rather, there are a lot of things in the industry that simply do not matter when it comes to making images, running a business, or simply enjoying the experience and thrill of taking a photograph and seeing it come to life before your eyes. This great video discusses some of the things we should worry about a bit less in photography and reminds us of what really matters.

Take a Trip Down Memory Lane With This Great Collection of Vintage Camera and Lens Manuals and Brochures

One of the things I love most about photography is its rich history of innovation and quirkiness, with a vast range of cameras and lenses with unique designs having come and gone throughout the years. If you would like to take a trip down memory lane (or you need a manual for that old camera sitting on your shelf), this fantastic site features a wide range of camera and lens manuals and sales brochures from about 120 different brands across decades of history.

Can You Make Large Prints From Phone Photos?

It is generally accepted that phone photos are fine for sharing on the web or on Instagram, but for larger applications, you need a dedicated camera. But with modern phones making great leaps in image quality, you might wonder if you can actually get acceptable or even good larger prints from a phone image. This great video examines the sort of print quality you can expect from images shot on a modern smartphone.

The Power of Batch Editing in Lightroom

If you are someone who frequently finds themselves coming home with large collections of very similar images, batch editing can save you loads of time and help you ensure more consistency in your edits. This excellent video will show you the power of batch editing in Lightroom.

Every Premiere Pro Effect Demonstrated in Just Six Minutes

Adobe Premiere Pro is a tremendously intricate and powerful program with a vast range of features and effects for improving your video footage and realizing your creative ideas. This excellent video will show you every single effect in the application and how it affects the look of your footage in just six minutes.

Is Luminar a Good Alternative for Lightroom?

We all know about Luminar. The post-processing software from the company Skylum is quite popular amongst a lot of amateur photographers. Perhaps professional photographers also. It is said to be an alternative for Lightroom, but I don’t agree.

The Canon EOS R5 Boasts Huge Video Specs

The Canon EOS R5 is confirmed to shoot 8K raw video footage, with dual card slots, one CFexpress and one SD UHS-II, and five stops of in-body image stabilization (IBIS) that works in combination with the IS in RF lenses.

How to Understand Lightroom's Luminance Range Masks

Adobe introduced the Range Mask to Lightroom Classic a few years ago, and it’s a useful means for targeting an adjustment when the local tools — Adjustment Brush, Gradient Filter, and Radial Filter — are simply too clumsy. If you want a deeper understanding of how it functions in relation to Luminance, read on.

I Destroyed a Drone on My First Flight and Here's What I'd Do Differently

The first time you do anything, you’re bound to do it poorly. The first time I shot football, I thought a 1/200 s shutter speed would be perfectly fine to stop action. The first time I shot portraits, I thought my f/1.6 photos were perfectly sharp (they were not even close). And the first time I flew a drone was a catastrophe worse than both of those experiences.

Should Photographers Still Be Doing Outreach During Covid-19?

There's no denying that, as photographers, we are living through unprecedented times. No one truly knows what we should be doing or how the next few months will pan out. One big question that keeps coming up is this: should we still be reaching out to brands, magazines, and agencies we'd like to shoot for?

Why Doesn't Every Professional Camera Have This Feature?

Shooting while tethered is probably the best way for many photographers. It's obviously not ideal for certain kinds of photography, like events and weddings; however, for those that shoot on a tripod, being tethered to a larger screen can make all the difference.

An Easy, Free Tool to Sell Vouchers for Future Work

We're all at home now, strategizing what we're going to do once it all ends. Here is a platform where you can sell vouchers and have the money reflecting in your account. And it's free.

Recreating a Classic Hollywood Portrait

Recreating classic portraits can be both a fun creative exercise and a great way to sharpen your technical skills. This awesome video will take you behind the scenes of recreating a classic Audrey Hepburn portrait and adding a modern twist.

The Usefulness of Grids for Controlling Light

Artificial lighting can be a lot to try to learn when you are new to the subject, with a wide variety of tools, setups, rules, and techniques to get down. One of the most useful tools is the grid, and this excellent video will introduce you to how they work and when you should consider using them for your own work.