Fstoppers Original Articles

I worry about becoming stagnant. I'm quite sure lots of us share that worry and conversely, most of us will know people who don't have that worry at all. I envy them in many ways; they want an easy life and concentrate on enjoying things. As far as I can tell, that sentiment isn't compatible with self-employment, or if it is, it's so far away on the horizon I can't make it out yet. In my efforts to always grow and always be moving forwards, I invented a minor way to achieve this and I'd like to see if it works for other people.

Last week I was mailed a device that claims to turn a standard paper airplane into a drone. Could this possibly be true?

During World War I, French astronomer Henri Chrétien developed a wide-angle viewer for tank operators, enabling the crew members to see a 180-degree view of the battleground. His invention wasn't used in the cinema until after the war in 1927 when director Claude Autant-Lara decided to use it for his film, "To Build a Fire." Sadly, this invention was only picked up again over twenty years later when Twentieth Century-Fox purchased the rights to the Cinemascope Widescreen Aspect Ratio technique.

A couple of years ago my friend Rob was droning on at me about “if its worth doing, its worth doing badly”. I ignored him, and this is why I was wrong.

The U.K. government has announced that it will soon be a crime to photograph mothers breastfeeding their children in public. Limiting the right to photograph in public places could be seen as an attack on freedom of expression, so is this law justified?

There’s no denying that Italy’s Dolomites are stunning. This monumental mountain range in northeastern Italy is an idyllic playground for both outdoor adventurers and those seeking a taste of the region’s cultural heritage.

Do you track your own development? By looking into the past of our photography career, we can learn a lot about our progress and how to move on.

Getting clients is one of the most difficult parts of being in business. Unfortunately, marketing knowledge doesn't just appear once you have your license in your hands. As a result, many of us look at what our competitors are doing and try something similar, never realizing that there is a good chance that our competitors are also operating from a place of marketing ignorance. One of the most common marketing mistakes I've seen is photographers spending too much time talking about themselves, and not enough time talking to their clients. This means many photographers are shooting themselves in the foot by making their landing pages self-centered, rather than client centered, and they may be losing out on business because of it.

For many of us, marketing ourselves to potential art buyers, publications, and agencies is the stuff of nightmares. Cold calling is certainly one of the most feared.

Have you been thinking about becoming a wedding photographer? If you’ve been toying with the idea of starting a wedding photography business, this article will help you figure out if it's the right path for you. Read on to learn a few steps to get started in the right direction.

How many megapixels do we need? What do we have to consider already out on location, that we are able to print big afterward? How do we choose the right printing material, and how can we be sure to get the best possible printing result in the end?

One of the most rewarding parts of photography is choosing the right type of light for an assignment. The light that will best help convey what we’ve been hired to shoot. Nowhere is that more true than in shooting athletic wear.

As someone who's been a regular Canon EOS R system user for the last few years, it's really dawned on me through teaching students how much things have changed for the better with serious mirrorless cameras.

No matter how much we like to complicate it, photography is a relatively simple pleasure. And rather than always focus on the results, it sometimes pays to simply step back and revel in the process.

Welcome to the new year. As a new set of days arrives, I wanted to share a quick thought on one thing all photographers should remember, but can be easy to forget.

In this article and the accompanying video, I will show you how to create four unique portrait looks using one light and v-flats.

OM Digital Solutions has announced an upgrade to their popular OM-1. The Mark II version has the same sensor and processor, but the development has concentrated on a much larger memory and buffer, improved dials, and a range of new features that will appeal especially to wildlife and landscape photographers.

It's going to happen. You're going to mess something up or you're going to get the impossible-to-please client. Knowing how to deal with the inevitable when it hits is key to preserving both your business and your sanity.

I absolutely love post production as a photographer. For me, a job is 50% photography and 50% retouching. One compliments the other. I get just as excited photographing my images as I get to retouch them. And when I captured a lightning storm in Cape Town a few weeks back, it was no different.

SmugMug, a household name when it comes to online image hosting, has developed a new service called Source. Already known for their incredible functions in online display and sales of images, SmugMug is taking the next leap towards providing photographers with new, never-seen-before cloud storage and management service for next to nothing.

As a full time roadtripper, I am constantly in search of amazing landscapes with the hopes of adding a unique take on what is most likely an over-photographed scene already. There are several ways to do this, but I am going to suggest one which is rarely discussed but hard to overlook in today’s social media outlets: the human element.

Congratulations to the Winners! Fstoppers teamed up with SLR Lounge and B&H to give one lucky person their choice of a premium camera from Nikon, Canon, or Sony. Here are the entrants who won.

It's very easy to find information online about new cameras, news, rumors, reviews, and which camera you should be using right now. But there's far less information to be found about older cameras. Like many photographers, I find it interesting to look at the origins of photography and how far the science and technology in cameras has come in a relatively short period of time.

A location can make or break a photograph, so don't get caught in a bad spot. Fortunately, you don't need to go heading out for hours on end to learn how to do this. In this article, I've put together five of the most powerful techniques you can use to make the best of a bad location.

I worked hard when I first started in photography to become competent both behind the camera and when interfacing with clients, but a subtle error I was making worked against me for a long time until I realized how to fix it. Here is why learning how to think more like a client can improve your work.

With the newest flagship smartphone cameras taking huge leaps in sensor and software technology, are we seeing the beginning of more professional usage in the commercial market?

Finding something to shoot can be tough sometimes. This is truer than ever with all the amazing examples of photography out there raising the bar every day of what is considered a good shot.

With more photographers competing for work than ever before, you need to stay ahead of the pack in any way possible. One area many people in creative professions neglect to improve is business, and you needn't be part of that stereotype.

A nice portrait is made up of four elements: composition, lighting, post-processing, and subject. The first three are easy to learn about and improve on your own, but after annoying your friends and family and getting sick of Facebook and Instagram, how do you improve?

I’ve been to the New York State fair for more years than I can count. It’s a great time. There are carnival rides, animals, music, and lots to photograph. Oh, and of course, corn dogs. But in recent years, I’ve found myself carrying less and less photographic gear to the fair and just enjoying the moment. Except that I wasn’t really enjoying the moment because I wasn’t making photos. That's why this year I decided to challenge myself to make different photos of the same event.

Adobe's Camera Raw sliders make global tonal adjustments easy. But when working in-depth on a single image in Photoshop, we have even more tools at our disposal to customize and maximize our tonal ranges.

Rooftops hold a certain allure but it's not just urban explorers and extreme sports narcissists that are drawn to the tops of buildings to capture this alternative view of the city. Photographer and Artist Alain Cornu drags a 4x5 field camera onto the rooftops of Paris to create stunningly beautiful images that feel like portals into another world.

Aputure’s new flexible LED panels may be the best in class. Intellytech and Westcott will have some serious competition. How do they all stack up?

In the last few years, filmmakers all over the world have been expressing their creativity by shooting short and feature-length movies using their phones, showing that you should never be afraid to tell a story if you don’t own a $50,000 camera. Here are five great ones, shot on five different generations of iPhone, including one shot entirely on the new iPhone X.

It was day one of the family holiday to Austria. A low-key photo week, with the camera on-hand to take some shots and grab anything interesting. We landed, checked in to the apartment, and then prepared to head off for the afternoon. Where had I put my camera?

If there's one thing I've learned from scoring films, it's that the importance of the interplay between music and moving pictures cannot be overstated. Here's how to choose the right music for your video.

There are many bad photographers who think they are good. The topic of why has been discussed on countless occasions. But, is it a bad thing? Is it really wrong to be bad and think you’re good? Let’s find out.

A few quick things to consider when making the shift from still photography to cinematography.

Photography, at face value, is already a difficult combination of capturing a scene as it unfolds and manipulating a tedious balance of exposure, aperture, and ISO to illuminate an image that does true life justice. When you add any additional element to the equation, the entire process can be thrown off. I often find this challenge in photography to be resting on the surface of the ocean in surf photography. Here are six tips I’ve learned that can help your surf photography.

Hey, fellow landscape photography enthusiast! Can you feel that slight chill in the air yet? Yep, fall is right around the corner, and you most likely already know what that means: it's prime time for capturing those breathtaking autumnal landscapes. The vibrant colors and the cozy vibes are a landscape photographer's dream come true. But, before you dash out with your camera, let's chat about how to get prepped for some epic fall photography.

Sharpening to enhance detail is a critical process to finishing any image, especially when preparing images for print. As a photographer who specializes in creating large wall portraits of dogs, I routinely apply a strong degree of sharpening prior to printing. There is one specific technique that I use for sharpening that is especially effective when editing portraits of dogs and other furry subjects. Here is my best tip for enhancing detail in fur and hair while maintaining a soft appearance.

Ah, the allure of the sea! The crashing waves, the salty air, and the breathtaking beauty of the coastline. If you're a beginner photographer looking to embark on a seascape photography journey, you're in for a treat. Seascapes offer a wealth of stunning photographic opportunities, but getting started can seem a bit daunting. Fear not! In this article, we'll explore the five essentials for beginners to kick-start their seascape photography adventure and capture mesmerizing images that will transport viewers to the shores.

As a dog photographer, one critical post-processing skill is the ability to remove leashes from your images. It is often the single most time-consuming step of editing your dog portraits. I have tried many techniques for removing leashes, and I find this one to be the fastest while producing great results.

Small scenes landscape photography: the practice of photographing the little details within the grander scene. Is it simply a genre that some landscape photographers gravitate towards? Or is it the natural evolution of a seasoned landscape photographer?

With film getting more and more popular, it’s about time we cover some of the details. Let’s start by talking about your different options for formats and cameras.

Cameras have always been at the forefront of technology. They've always pushed the boundaries of what's possible. Perhaps then it is unusual to have such a high tech sector so closely wedded to art. That is what makes photography such a passion for me. And while there will always be those that push the creative elements, with the camera purely a utilitarian device for achieving that, others will take the bleeding edge, create new imaginings, add unusual twists and embellishments, and take that edge even further. Commercially then, it doesn't pay to be second. Be at the edge and take advantage of it.

After receiving yet another email stating that my new camera order is still backordered, it is becoming even more difficult to fight the urge to look at other options.

The photography industry has made one error over and over again. It is expressed in the assumption that since the march of technology makes it possible to achieve something with less effort, photographers will be happy to accept the current standard and pay extra for more convenient ways of achieving it. Instead, photographers have consistently chosen lower quality in exchange for convenience or asked for higher quality while keeping the process much the same.

Posting on social media can be tough. Sometimes it feels like there’s nothing new to share at all. Maybe the problem is you’re not using all the opportunities out there. You might be missing some ways to squeeze more juice out of the content orange.

If you believe the advertisements of smartphone manufacturers, the cameras of those devices are amazing and suitable for professional use. Sometimes (often?) these advertisements turn out to be fake, shot with professional DSLR cameras. But how good are those smartphone cameras really?