Fstoppers Original Articles

Style. The idea of finding your own voice and style has become an intricate part of growing as a photographer and differentiating yourself from the competition. It's not only a way to get work, but a way to be remembered in a field of talented artists. But, as a portrait photographer, I find that my need to make a signature image sometimes gets in the way of capturing the human being in front of me. I'm so concerned about making the image "cool" that it's almost as if the person in front of the camera doesn't matter. Today, that ends (I hope).

In 2019, every camera on the market, from action cameras, to 360 cameras, to Interchangeable lens cameras, has WiFi. Unfortunately, that means that every camera requires its own app to make work wirelessly.

The wide-angle lens is very well known to be “the” landscape photography lens. That being said, it can be a little hard to figure out how to use it in the beginning. Here are five tips.

As a professional photographer, I use quite a lot of different gear to make my photographs, from cameras to lenses, to tethering stations and solid state drives, and lights. In this series of articles, I will tell you exactly what gear I use and why, starting off with cameras and lenses.

Sony is said to be releasing six new E mount lenses in the next 12 months. Given the size and quality of the range of Sony glass, what do you want and what do you expect? And what do the likes of Tamron, Zeiss, Sigma, and Rokinon/Samyang have planned?

Photography's expensive. Bodies, lenses, filters, software: it all adds up. But what about tripods? Do you really need to spend big on them to get what you want?

A couple of months ago, I finally pulled the trigger; I broke out my wallet and dropped a (rather large) chunk of change on my first mirrorless camera kit, the Fujifilm X-T2. I had been researching mirrorless options for almost a year, and finally landed there for a multitude of reasons. I was mainly interested in a mirrorless kit for use while traveling and backpacking, and loved the idea of a smaller, lighter kit. All signs started pointing at the X-T2 over the other long-term contender, the Olympus OM-D EM-1 MK II. It was only a couple of weeks before I headed off to spend a month in India and Nepal, so I needed to learn this camera relatively quickly.

One of the most overlooked, yet most used items in a photographer's arsenal, is the grip kit. A grip kit isn't something most photographers set out to buy, build, or assemble, it's generally born from necessity. Over the years we find ourselves on jobs needing certain things that we don't have readily available and we end up improvising to get the job done. Usually we make a mental note of how we can be more prepared in the future, which often times leads to adding small "grip" items to our pack list. When we collect enough of these items, they typically make their way into some sort of crate, bag, or box also known as a grip kit.

If you use screw-in lens filters, sooner or later, you may end up with a stuck lens filter that refuses to come off. Have no fear, though: here are 10 ways to remove that stuck lens filter.

While browsing through various photo-sharing platforms, you might get the impression that everything has already been photographed. After all, millions of photos get uploaded each day to Instagram alone. But if you take a closer look, you'll see a lot of repetition. Many photos show the same places, the same compositions, and often similar light and editing. Even today, it's possible to discover new photo spots. In this article, I show you my favorite way to do so.

For the last seven years, our video tutorials have taught the Fstoppers community how to take better pictures. Our latest tutorial, Making Real Money: The Business Of Commercial Photography, is the opposite of that. In fact, there isn't a camera or lens in the entire 14-hours of video. But, I believe it's the most valuable tutorial we've ever made.

Did you know that Canon introduced the world to eye control focus back in 1992? In this retrospective, I will discuss the Canon EOS A2E, the world’s first camera that allowed the user to select a focusing point by simply looking at it.

Visual weight is an often overlooked but essential component of your photographs. It influences how your pictures are viewed and is what drives your compositions.

In many ways, digital photography is not on the same level as film photography. In many others, film cannot compete with digital.

Today, we're going to discuss how dodging and burning can improve your photos and show you how easy it is in Capture One 20.

Are you able to do everything you need from inception of an idea to execution up until delivery with Adobe CC alone, or do you need other apps like Da Vinci Resolve and Capture One for coloring your video and photo projects? With Adobe's latest update, is it possible to do it all using only Adobe?

It seems like there is always a video from a major YouTuber about selling his or her gear, and these videos can rack up hundreds of thousands of views. I’m not sure why that is.

For most beginners, distinguishing hues, or noticing over saturated areas, can be an issue. Even some most advanced retouchers still have problems color correcting their images. Reaching the point where our eyes see colors properly takes time and a lot of practice. Fortunately enough, visual help layers in Photoshop can aid us separate luminosity, hue, and saturation. In this article, I will show you how to isolate the latter two to facilitate your color correction.

Put your camera down. Over there. Immediately. You don't need it if you want to earn more money as a photographer.

Do you feel at a certain point, after making a long run of photoshoots, that you're hitting a wall with your creative side? Or have you "lost your touch" so to speak? This is also known as "Creative Burnout." As creatives, we've all been there before. At one point we all plateau and need to find a way to break the "funk" to get back of the swing of things. So how do we overcome this?

In a world that often celebrates bold and boisterous personalities, your quiet approach behind the lens can be a revolutionary strength. Here's how to thrive as an introverted photographer.

As photographers, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. But there’s one disadvantage that almost every photographer has in common.

Before today’s launch of the Sony a7R IV in the U.S., I had the opportunity to use the new 61-megapixel camera on a few occasions. Ultimately, these hands-on experiences led me to purchasing it for animal photography and in this article I list a few reasons behind the decision.

The new iMac is here, and of course, it’s sporting the fancy new M1 processor that’s inside everything Apple these days. That’s great news all around, but I have a feeling that Apple’s got something even bigger up its sleeve for the real creative set.

I owe a lot of the success I’ve had in my career to the critique I’ve had from other photographers. Since specializing though, I’ve had to unlearn many of those lessons. Specializing has proven to me that critiques from photographers are often wrong.

One of the most important compositional decisions to make when photographing pets is choosing a focal length. Due to perspective and lens distortion, ultra wide angles (generally considered to be less than 24mm on a full frame camera) can yield unflattering results when photographing humans. However, when photographing pets, shooting with an ultra-wide angle lens can do wonders in making your photos stand out.

Long exposure photography is a powerful technique in landscape photography, allowing you to capture the smooth, dynamic movement of clouds and water while keeping stationary elements sharp. One challenge we often face is dealing with moving subjects, such as boats, which can result in blurred images if not properly stabilized. Ensuring the stability of boats is crucial to achieving sharp, high-quality long exposures.

As always, I would like to preface this article with a bit about my background in commercial photography as well as my technical knowledge, or lack thereof.

Like Photoshop, Lightroom is a powerful piece of software. Sadly most of us learn the basics and don't take advantage of all that is has to offer. One powerful feature is called the "Survey View." Are you taking advantage of it? If not, take a couple minutes to watch this two minute video where I go over how to use the tool and the shortcut to get there.

Earlier today, we posted about Target forgoing the use of Photoshop in their latest ad campaign, when one of our eagle-eyed readers pointed out that it may not be true that Target went Photoshop-free, which would not be the first time the company was caught in such a fiasco.

Mastering any craft takes a lot of time, intentional practice, and dedication. However, getting out of the blocks quickly can put you further along that path, sooner.

When it comes to deciding how good a particular image is, there are three aspects that I think are most important: composition, lighting, and colors. These three properties could be described as the technical attributes of an image. There are those who have compared this image to The Birth of Venus and the Virgin Mary, based on a number of styling choices, one can see some similarities.

Photographers — myself included — love using wide-open apertures of fast glass. If we need something more in focus than that can offer, we'll use around the sweet spot of the lens, or from f/8 to f/11. But what about all the apertures in between?

I have been fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of some great advice over the years. In this article, I go over the five bits that have resonated the most with me and that I think of on every shoot.

Known for combining functionality with aesthetics, Olympus is also synonymous with innovation. Their unique features, great design, and ergonomics result in an increasing flow of photographers, both young and old, from other brands to their stable.

As a headshot and portrait photographer, I'm always looking to streamline my process and create consistent results for my clients. With that in mind I want to share with you my "bread and butter," super-simple setup I've been using for the last two years.

In Part 1 of this series, I explained the basics of how Lightroom works, the best way to import your photos, and the different options you have when culling your images. In Part 2, I want to show you the essentials of the Develop module. This module is the area of Lightroom where you can color correct, crop, straighten, sharpen, and perform several other adjustments as well.

When talking about bokeh, the majority of the photography community instantly thinks of those nice creamy out of focus backgrounds. This is because most of the photographs we see only involve a subject and a background. Once you start to incorporate foreground elements though, you will quickly see that bokeh in front of the subject can be just as important and impactful as having bokeh behind the subject.

Every photographer needs a camera bag. Preferably one that not only protects the equipment, but is also comfortable to use. It has to carry at least a camera and a couple of lenses, along with the necessary accessories. Unfortunately, there is not one camera bag that is perfect for every situation.

Being a photographer is fun. Or is it? The good news is that it can be fun. But you have to know some hard truth that photographers sometimes don’t tell.

The tradition of the White House photographers, now officially known as the Chief Official White House Photographer, was started by John F. Kennedy in January of 1961. A free press is responsible for accurate reportage and is essential to a democracy, though access can provide certain limitations. Having unprecedented access, where the press are typically held at a greater distance, the President’s photographer adds a level of transparency for the American public to engage and see the President working for the country within the context of current events.

One lens that is a staple in almost all camera bags of professional photographers is a fast, ultra-wide-angle zoom. Being a Canon shooter, the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 II found a place in my bag when I purchased it back in 2008, and I have been using it constantly for work ever since. However, it also was the weakest lens in my kit from a sharpness standpoint. But if I needed 16mm and f/2.8, it was what I had to grab. Until recently, there simply wasn't a sharper option available.

As creatives, most of us know the value of a strong internet presence and what that can do to boost brand recognition and our business bottom-line, but we don’t always know how to make the best of that presence. I spoke with a successful web builder and graphic designer to get a glimpse of the most important aspects of boosting web potential for photographers.

What's the first rule of any working professional photographer? Backups. What's the second rule of any working professional photographer? Backups for the backups.

I remember the excitement of wanting to start and have a thriving wedding photography business. I remember how my heart would skip a beat whenever I’d get a new photography inquiry regarding my services, and I remember how desperate I was for any type of wedding photography gig. I also remember not knowing how to price myself, being scared that if I charged too much, clients wouldn’t want to book me. Or if I told a client no to a request, they’d find another photographer. I look back on the first few years of my business very fondly, but I also remember a few times that being a wedding photographer made me want to crawl into a hole and hide from the world forever.

Did your dreams come true this holiday season? Are you holding a shiny new camera, eager to mount a lens and run out to start shooting? Before you do that, be sure to read this list of 10 things you should do to make sure you maximize your experience with your new camera.

No, this is not yet another article about the rule of thirds. Rather, it's about a simple composition technique I've used consistently over the years to maximize the impact of my images. Best of all, it's easy to duplicate.

As a keen photographer, whether professional or amateur, one of the best parts of traveling to unfamiliar places is being able to capture new and interesting images. Whether you’re going on a dedicated photography trip, working away, or on family vacation, I'm sure we all put aside some space for our main camera and a lens or two. What if you left your kit at home and traveled light?

I always wanted to shoot the portraits of a classic Bharatanatyam dancer, but by adding a modern touch to the 2000-year-old traditional dance form. Here is how we created dramatic dancer portraits with a little technique and lots of imagination.