The lesson of having a good tripod is sometimes one that takes many years for some photographers to learn. Often, the idea of spending more money for a tripod than a lens seems crazy to some. Once you've used a good tripod, you understand.
Sony’s first foray into the world of mirrorless full-frame cameras came in the shape of the a7 in 2013. Seven years later, how does this camera stack up against today’s cameras, and is it still a worthwhile purchase over more recent APS-C models?
Nearly every modern camera has different metering modes to measure the amount of available light. It is possible to measure the average across the image, or just a part of the image. Do you use all of these metering modes? Or is it better to limit the use to only one?
Mary Bel is a single mom of 2 teenage kids, works full time, and finds a small glimpse of love, through self-portraiture.
Lightroom is a great piece of software, when it works. In my case, it's an essential piece of my workflow for photography. Unfortunately, it's got some major quirks. Some can be particularly frustrating to solve — here's 3 weird tricks that helped when I ran into an issue.
Whether you are new to editing, or you have solid experience, you might have moments where something in your workflow is constantly dragging you behind. Professional video editor, Lucas J. Harger, shares several of his organizing techniques in order to speed up post-processing.
We are currently locked down in Puerto Rico, and it's literally illegal for us to go outside to take photos, but we found an old lesson we filmed in Alaska that was never released.
Laowa, the king and queen of interesting lenses, have released a 9mm non-fisheye lens. That is, an ultra wide-angled prime lens, with "zero distortion."
There is no doubt that a lot of photographers have strong opinions about Lightroom, but it remains the standard application for cataloging photos and performing basic global edits for a lot of creatives. This great video discusses three things one photographer loves about the program and three things he hates.
Most professional photographers use full frame, medium format, or APS-C cameras, though micro four thirds has been chugging along for a little over a decade now and maintains a loyal contingent of users who value its especially compact size. Are the tradeoffs in sensor size worth the portability and other features? This great video discusses one photographer's experience with the system after two years.
Few cameras are more legendary than the Nikon F, having been in the hands of countless professionals over many decades, while still remaining a popular collector's item and film camera today. This awesome video takes a look at just what made the camera so popular and what it is like to shoot with.
Foggy forest photos are a beautiful and ethereal interplay between the sharp, defined, and intricate lines and geometry of trees and the nebulous fog. With the challenging conditions, they can be a bit tricky to shoot, however, but this great video will give you a wide range of helpful tips to get fantastic shots.
Whereas Canon began their mirrorless lineup with a bunch of extreme lenses, Nikon mostly went for more practical designs for their Z mount. This excellent video review takes a look at one such lens, the Nikon NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S lens.
Almost every manufacturer has a 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens or something similar, as it represents a useful and versatile telephoto focal length range for many photographers without the stratospheric price of supertelephoto primes. This great video review takes a look at Sony's version, the FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS lens.
Justin and Kirby share some great tips on how to pose normal people. What do you do when your subject isn't an experienced model? Give them lots of encouragement, and show them the poses you have in mind.
Landscape photography can become an addiction — including your photography gear. When is the right time to give in to the urge of trying something new — and what's important in the beginning?
When most think about maternity photography, the visual is light airy looks with flowers wrapping the soon to be mother. However there have been many changes in the way photographers are shooting this genre and many photographers want to break the stereotype.
I used to clean my cameras and lenses before every shoot. Now that washing my groceries has become common place, cleaning my camera gear has taken on new meaning. This isn’t likely to change any time soon – even if the world opens back up. How are you dealing with this?
As the lockdown continues here in the UK, Anete and I are finally getting the time to finish some of the videos we filmed a little while ago. We are currently missing the ability to go out and shoot portraits again, and very much looking forward to end of this lockdown.
Jessica Kobeissi and Kayleigh June share some quick and actionable portrait tips that don't need any special equipment — what's not to love!
California is a place we all seem to hold a special place for. It is the subject of songs, movies, and the dreams of many Americans. Take a moment to see how beautiful the Golden State landscape truly is in this stunning time-lapse video.
A woman from Kazakhstan fell over 100 feet to her death on Sunday after she climbed a safety barrier to take a photo celebrating the end of her city's pandemic lockdown.
Fighting off cabin fever while stuck indoors is hard to do. Trying to be creative can also be a real challenge. Check out this video full of tips to break you out of your isolation woes.
In this video walkthrough watch, as I show you how I created this stylized female boxer composite portrait image in Photoshop.
It was the year of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, iTunes, the final Concorde flight, and the invasion of Iraq. George W. Bush was President, and Tony Blair Prime Minister, whilst Serena beat Venus at Wimbledon and the Devils won the Stanley Cup. In cinemas "Matrix Reloaded," "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Finding Nemo," and "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" first aired. But what happened during 2003 in the photographic world?
With the outlook of the coronavirus finally starting to look a little less ominous, people are beginning to think about life in a post-coronavirus world and reflect on how this time has impacted the world of photography.
Phase One’s new XT is the modern-day version of the large format field camera, complete with field camera movements and spectacular large format style lenses. Its distinctive design combined with an IQ4 brain and its innovative tools make for a head-turning technical camera solution.
Just when you think you’ve got your head around light paths and optics, along comes a scientist to make you think again. Here’s how you can build your own lens that can see an object that, according to your brain, is hidden by what’s in front of it.
In this video walkthrough watch, as I show you how to use the Portrait Enhance features in Luminar 4.2.
If you are thinking about shooting nude models, there are a few extra things you want to consider beyond other photoshoots. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
ON1 has teased the launch of ON1 360°, a new software platform that blends in cloud functionality with its raw editing capabilities.
Astrophotography is a genre that requires some of the most extreme and specialized gear. At the same time, though, photographic technology has made some remarkable leaps in the last few years, with some of that technology making its way into smartphones. Can you photograph the night sky with just a phone? This great video shows what you can accomplish.
Artificial lighting can open up a wide world of creative possibilities and looks not possible with just natural light, but it can also be a bit tedious to work with when you have to set up more complex designs. So, why not maximize the number of looks you can get out of one lighting setup? This excellent video will show you how to get lots of different shots without changing the setup.
Landscape photography is a vast genre with a wide range of different subjects and creative avenues you can pursue. This fantastic video shows the often overlooked and beautiful subjects you can find in the forest during the springtime.
After getting off to a somewhat middle-of-the-road start with the EOS R and EOS RP, Canon blew the doors off the photography industry with the upcoming R5, which has jaw-dropping specs across the board. Not content to stop there, the company will likely be releasing two more mirrorless bodies in 2021.
If you have been putting off learning how to work with artificial light and are currently stuck at home, now is an excellent time to break out your speedlight and start working on the basics. This excellent video will explain how flash helps to freeze motion and get you up and running in no time.
The Nikon Z 6 and Nikon Z 7 have been generally well received, with the Z 50 filling out the current lineup at the lower end. There is still room to grow in both directions, however, and it seems that will soon be the case, with at least two new cameras expected from the company in the next year or so.
So far, the year 2020 has been tumultuous, to say the least. And our country now faces a tough new chapter in the Coronavirus pandemic: the controversy over reopening non-essential businesses. You may find yourself asking: When should photographers return to work?
If like so many of us you find yourself at home with a lot of time on your hands, consider using that time to experiment with different art papers and print some of your favorite images from your hard drives.
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.
One of the best exercises you can do as a photographer is to try to copy the work of masters. Even though you obviously will not use a copied photograph in your portfolio, the techniques you learn will be invaluable to your own work.
The DJI Mavic Air 2 is here, and it brings with it a bevy of improvements and new features all within an impressively compact package. If you are trying to decide between the Mavic Air 2 and the Mavic Mini, this great comparison video will help you pick the right drone for you.
If you are currently stuck at home and looking for something to shoot, natural light portraits are a fantastic option, especially if you do not have any strobes or monolights in your house with you. This excellent video will show you how you can use items around your house and natural lighting techniques to take stunning portraits.
Adobe has announced that it has created a fund of $1 million to support artists, offering grants of up to $5,000 in order to make your project happen. Applications to the Creative Residency Community Fund are now open.
AI editing tools are one of the newest and most exciting features in post-processing. This fun video features a photographer challenging himself to a post-processing contest versus AI editing tools and retouchers from Fiverr.
Astrophotography takes a lot of technical savvy, patience, and careful post-processing, but the results can be absolutely stunning and well worth the time and effort. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to improve the colors in your deep sky images in Photoshop to make them really pop off the screen.
The new iPhone SE looks mighty tempting to photographers hanging on for dear life to their older generation iPhones. It brings the promise of combining the smarts of the A13 Bionic chip with a single camera unit in a body similar to the iPhone 8, but does that help it’s photography any? Not much, it seems.
It's not very often that I watch a video online and react by literally gasping and audibly saying "wow." Watching Captain America stare down Thanos and his whole army, in an IMAX cinema, on a huge screen, was the last time I reacted in such a way. This time, even without the huge screen, resolution, and quality, this video is simply incredible.
There are places that no one would have ever expected to see as empty but COVID-19 has really proven that even the busiest places on Earth can be turned into a ghost town.
Starting a new self-driven project doesn’t typically involve getting on a flight and throwing yourself into documenting a city undergoing violent civil unrest. I spoke to photojournalist David Butow to find out what led to his award-winning work covering protests in Hong Kong and how he operates when the teargas canisters start flying overhead.
