How to Color Grade Images in Lightroom

Color grading is a subtle art, and yet, it is one of the most powerful ways to give your image a professional look, convey a certain mood, and establish a recognizable personal style. If you are new to the technique and looking for some advice on how to do it in a professional manner, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you a wide range of useful tips and techniques for color grading images in Lightroom.

Is This $8,000 Bokeh Machine Worth the Price Tag?

Portrait photographers will often drop significant amounts of money on top-level lenses, but even by those standards, the Nikon NIKKOR Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct is particularly expensive. At $8,000, can its performance and image quality justify that stratospheric cost? This great video review takes a look at everything you can expect from the lens.

Make Your Own Film Presets With This Simple Tutorial

The nostalgia of film and the decades gone is fascinating so no wonder film presets and looks are popular to buy for your editing software. They’re pretty easy to make yourself if you put a little bit of time into understanding what elements in editing make the film look different from digital. Follow my tutorial to make your own vintage film presets for Capture One, Lightroom or PhotoShop.

How to Edit Skies in Landscape Photos in Lightroom

The way you edit the sky can have a tremendous impact on not just the quality of a landscape images, but the mood it conveys to the viewer. Lightroom offers a lot of power and versatility for editing skies, and this fantastic video tutorial will show you how to take advantage of those capabilities to create better and more precise edits.

A Review of the New Venus Optics Laowa Argus 28mm f/1.2 FF Lens

Venus Optics, well known for creating some of the most unique lenses available, recently released the Laowa Argus 28mm f/1.2 FF, which offers an extremely wide maximum aperture in tandem with a popular in-between focal length. This great video review takes a look at the new lens and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

Helpful Tips for Using Your First Ultra-wide Angle Lens

The ultra-wide angle lens is one of the most exciting out there, able to take sprawling, majestic scenes and bring their entirety into a single frame. They can be rather challenging to use, however. If you just picked up your first ultra-wide angle lens and you are ready to get started, check out this helpful video tutorial that will give you a range of useful advice sure to have you on your way in no time.

Which of These Premium 50mm Lenses Do You Prefer?

The wide-aperture 50mm lens is, by far, one of the most common lenses out there, and for good reason, as it is also one of the most versatile, able to tackle a humongous range of scenarios and needs thanks to its neutral focal length and top-notch low-light and narrow depth of field capabilities. Both Sigma and Sony have recently released professional-level 50mm f/1.4 options. So, which is right for you? This excellent video comparison looks at both to help you decide.

Super Telephoto Lenses: Amazing or Overrated?

Last summer I bought a super telephoto lens to capture wildlife in Alaska. After more than half a year of using it as a lens for landscape photography, was it worth it?

One of the Biggest Pitfalls of Being a Professional Photographer

Without a doubt, finding success as a professional photographer takes solid technique and a strong creative voice, but those alone are not sufficient. Becoming a successful professional takes quite a bit of business savvy, including the ability to monetize your work, anticipate market trends, and understand how to convert one-time clients into loyal returning customers. This great video essay featured an experienced pro discussing one of the most common mistakes newer professionals make and how you can fix it.

What's the Frame Rate of the Human Eye?

Have you ever wondered what the frame rate of the human eye is and, just importantly, why it matters? It turns out the answer is far more complex than a simple numerical value, and that has tremendous consequences for the design of cameras and why we work the way we do. This neat and informative video takes you behind the scenes of the science behind how the eyes sees to discuss the topic and the implications it has for filmmakers.

5 Common Landscape Photography Mistakes

Landscape photography is a challenging genre that takes a combination of strong technical skills, planning ahead, a keen awareness of conditions, and often, a smidgen of luck. As such, there are a lot of places where things can go a bit wrong and end up derailing your images. This great video tutorial details five such mistakes and how to fix them or avoid them altogether.

Why Film Directors Avoid Deep Focus in Cinematography

You may notice that most cinematography has a shallow depth of field. There are lots of reasons for this, and in this video, one filmmaker goes through the pros and cons of using it and why it is often avoided.
Photographers and The Cost Of Living Crisis: Can We Really Survive?

In the land of the photographer, times are harder than ever before, with companies ending their contracts at lower levels and shoots being less available, with budgets cut and a huge number of working photographers facing hard times. With all this uncertainty in the world, can we really survive doing what we love and live comfortably?

The Canon EOS R3 Just Got Smarter

The Canon EOS R3 is already the company's most advanced camera at the moment, and thanks to a new firmware upgrade, it just became more capable.

Fstoppers Photographer of the Month (March 2023): Leigh Schneider

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 2023, 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.

How to Retouch Lips in Photoshop

We spend a lot of time working on perfecting our retouching technique when it comes to hair, skin, and eyes, but just like those aforementioned aspects, the lips are also a crucial part of the face, and as such, they deserve equal attention in the post-processing phase. This excellent video tutorial will show you the ins and outs of retouching lips in Photoshop to ensure your portraits are in tip-top shape.

How to Create Better Landscape Photo Compositions

Landscape photography takes a wide variety of skills and techniques in order to find success, and often, just a bit of luck thrown in. However, one skills that tends to elude photographers more than any other is composition. If composition is something you tend to find yourself struggling with, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you a range of helpful advice sure to improve your landscape image compositions.

The Rolleiflex Digital TLR That Was Too Good To Be True

A few weeks ago, an intriguing "Coming Soon" tweet popped up in my Twitter feed, teasing the announcement of a new Rolleiflex digital TLR. I gave the tweet a like and followed the account since the idea of a twin lens digital camera sounded interesting, although strange, and thought little of it until the account issued another tweet titled "My Apology."

How to Recreate 'The Last of Us' Color Grade

The Last of Us has been a tremendous hit, initially as a game, and now as a TV show. The cinematography has appealed to many, but so too has the post-production. In this video, find out how to replicate the sort of color grade you can see in the viral series.
Go With the Flow: We Review the Insta360 Flow

Insta360 has now introduced the Insta360 Flow a handheld, lightweight, foldable, and pocketable gimbal with tonnes of features to help you create stunning videos. If you've ever used one of their products you'll know the quality they deliver. I've personally had the opportunity to try the Insta360 One X2 and loved it, and hopefully will own the new X3 in the future. So when they asked for a review I jumped at the chance.

The Importance of the Everyday: Why I Shoot Street as a Pro

Street photography is a realm of photography that carries enormous weight. A genre derived from some of the world's photographic pioneers — the big names. The generations taking cameras to the front lines of war, documenting death, destruction, humility, and the human spirit, and bringing it home to document the everyday. It’s a genre of photography like no other, and here’s why you should be shooting it.

The DIY Food Photography Setup: The Gear You Shouldn't Bypass

It's annoying, I know. You thought you had it figured out. You thought you'd ticked every box, but I guarantee you didn't. I certainly didn't and haven't to this day! The amount of gear we use as photographers is ridiculous. It makes even the smallest of shoots a test in organization, packing, loading, unloading, setting up, packing down, and remembering to do it all again. But there are some items that simply can't be ignored.

Helpful Practical Photography Tips

Want some easy and immediately actionable advice that will improve both your images and your workflow in no time? This is the video for you. This helpful tutorial features 10 helpful tips, tricks, and accessories that will make you a better photographer in no time.

Common Scams Photographers Should Watch Out For

Photography is a common hobby and profession in which high amounts of money and valuable equipment frequently change hands, making it a popular target for scammers. This excellent video essay details some of the most common scams in the industry and how to recognize and avoid them to ensure you are not taken advantage of.

Why Just Mastering Photography Technique Isn't Good Enough

The technical side of photography takes a lot of committed study and practice to master, and it is something to be proud of when you have gained the skills to stride confidently into a variety of scenarios and produce adept images. Nonetheless, just that alone is not enough to find success and recognition, particularly in the professional realm. This great video essay features an experienced photographer discussing what it is that differentiates the most memorable pros from their peers.

What Does a Box of $175 Worth of Junk Cameras Get You?

We all dream of heading to a thrift store, pawn shop, or storage unit auction and finding a great camera or lens for a fantastic price. This person actually took a chance on a similar auction, dropping $175 on mostly unverifiable camera gear to see if it contained any hidden gems, and this fun video takes you through the unboxing to see if the gamble paid off.

5 of the Most Iconic Cameras of All Time

There are hundreds of cameras in existence, some more successful than others. However, some cameras have become icons that managed to define the industry and technology for years. Despite technology evolving rapidly in the past 20 years and cameras becoming too good to be true, some pieces of gear were so perfect that professionals used them despite newer versions coming out. In this article, I will look at five of the most iconic cameras ever made.

5 Important Rules Every New Photographer Should Learn

Learning photography is a complex process that takes the confluence of a variety of skills and knowledge sets in order to find success. And while there is certainly a ton of specific information you will need to learn, if you follow the five simple rules contained in this helpful video tutorial, you will find yourself ahead of the curve in no time at all.

A Quick Look at The New Sony ZV-E1

Sony just announced the new Sony ZV-E1 full-frame interchangeable lens camera. Currently the smallest and lightest full-frame interchangeable lens camera on the market. But who is this camera designed for?

Important Advice for New Photographers

Being a new photographer, whether you have aims of going pro or you simply enjoy the hobby, comes with a lot of challenges you need to overcome to find success and contentment with the craft. If you are just getting started and looking for some guidance, check out this helpful video tutorial that features an experienced photographer sharing some important advice.

Peakto Integrates Pixelmator Pro, With DXO Links on the Way

I gave a favorable review to Peakto a couple of weeks ago, and one thing I noticed is that they do frequent updates, which is a positive thing in my view. Bug fixes and new features are frequent. Today, they've offered an update to Peakto that includes integration with Pixelmator Pro, a popular photo editor. Peakto, please note, is a Mac-only application.

Fix Your Photos With Selective Image Transformations

As you learned in my articles about editing mistakes, too strong image transformations can harm the quality of your photos. But if you use them selectively, they can be of great help. In this article, I show how to use selective image transformation in Photoshop to fix compositions.

One of the Most Important Traits of Any Photographer

Being a photographer, whether you are an amateur or a professional, is a complex thing that takes knowledge of and experience in a multitude of factors and scenarios in order to find success. And though all of those factors are undoubtedly crucial, there is something else that all successful photographers share in common, and this great video essay discusses how you can embody it to become a better creative.

How to Add Realistic Light Using Lightroom’s Intelligent Presets

This tutorial looks at using Adobe Lightroom Classic's intelligent masking and preset tools to create realistic light in post-production after you've already shot your images. Then, you can save the preset to use on any photo with just one click. This is essential for portrait and landscape photographers and will make your images better with less effort.
3 Portrait Lighting Setups Using 2 Lights

Tutorials on using a 1-light setup for portrait photography are commonplace, and rightly so. There are several ways that a single light source can be positioned to create flattering lighting on a subject. You might think that switching to a 2-light setup would be twice as complicated. This isn’t the case. There are several 2-light arrangements that are easy to understand and quick to set up. Using 2 lights can make it easy for you to transition between a clean headshot and a dramatic portrait.

The Story Behind One of History's Most Famous Photographs

"Migrant Mother," a photo by Dorothea Lange, is, by far, one of the most important and well-known images ever taken, having become an iconic symbol of the Great Depression. If you do not know the story behind the photo, check out this great video that will show you some of the history that went into it.

How to Get Rid of Dark Circles Under Eyes Using Photoshop

By far, one of the common retouching requests photographers receive when editing portraits is to lighten dark circles under the eyes. Thankfully, it is not an especially difficult problem to address, and this excellent video tutorial will show you everything you need to do to lighten those circles in a convincing and high-quality manner.

Is This the Best Landscape Photography Lens for Fujifilm GFX Users?

The Fujifilm GFX line of mirrorless cameras has become popular for making medium format more modernized and financially accessible than ever, making it a legitimate alternative to full frame for many photographers. For landscape photographers using the system, the GF 20-35mm f/4 R WR looks like the ideal lens. This excellent video review takes a look at the lens and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in usage.

Beware of This NFT Scam

In this article, I share my experience with a new NFT marketplace called Fantasea.io. There's not much information available about it online. The domain has been registered just a little over a month ago, and the homepage currently feels like a work in progress. Because more and more photographers seem to get contacted to sell NFTs on this site, it's important to determine if it's legit.

Eye-controlled Autofocus Is Coming to More Canon Cameras

Eye-controlled autofocus, in which the camera selects the autofocus point by detecting which one you are looking at, is one of the niftiest features in the Canon EOS R3 mirrorless camera. In a bit of good news, Canon has confirmed that the feature will be coming to more mirrorless models in the future.

Product and Food Photography: This Is the Way

When it comes to product and food photography, lighting is critical and can make or break the final image. Achieving the perfect lighting can be a complex process, even more so if you are just starting out with this type of photography.