Fstoppers Original Articles

Successful Photographers Agree: Your Most Valuable Gear is Your Mind

I thought he was crazy at the time, but my college photography professor Richard Ross had little interest in teaching us the finer points of lighting and retouching. Instead he believed, “Anyone can learn those skills, I’m going to teach you how to think.”

Is This the End of the Stock Photographer?

The demand for images is higher than ever, and yet, the security of many photo jobs is in more peril than ever. One of the hardest-hit genres of the last few decades has been stock photography. Is AI going to kill the genre entirely?

Five Photography Series and Documentaries to Help You Out of Turkey Coma

Need a few suggestions to help you take full advantage of that inevitable Turkey-coma that's sure to set in at some point this Thanksgiving? Fstoppers compiled a few photography-related shows and documentaries for you to comb over – just in case you need some “Netflix-and-chill” time while all of that tryptophan hits your system.

Storehouse 2.0 Arrives as Redesigned App That Better Complements Your Professional Life

When Storehouse first launched, it was hard not to fall in love with the ease with which anyone could create visually stunning multimedia layouts. Version 1.0, however, was a perfect example of how the way people end up using an app can create completely unexpected climates and patterns of use. Storehouse 2.0 does away with a large part of the social media aspect of the app while keeping the great story creation tools and simplifying (and concentrating) how users share content.
Five Ways to Attract More Clients

Whether you're a full-time photographer, interested in making the transition from hobbyist to professional, or just using photography on the side, attracting more clients is paramount to success and growth. With a plethora of photographers saturating the market, it can be intimidating and difficult to carve yourself a slice, but carve you must. Here are five of the most important ways I have attracted new clients.

How to Protect Your Camera in the Heat

Shooting in the sun isn't easy — for you or your equipment. While you're at risk of heatstroke, dehydration, and sunburn, your camera also needs taking care of. Here are some tips to follow if you're caught in Europe's current heatwave or if you live somewhere hot year-round!

How Much of a Difference Does Modern Lens Technology Really Make?

I've always been a fan of odd lenses and crazy rendering from some vintage lenses. I have even gone further than most and used vintage lenses on my Sony exclusively on actual customer sessions, and I have been pleased with the results. Today, I want to talk about how much difference modern lens technology really makes in actual real-world usage.

Small-Town Photographers, This is For You

Regardless of whether your idea of a "small-town" is one with 100 people or 20,000, the potential hurdles small-town photographers must get over can stack up quickly if you only focus on the negatives. Perhaps your goal in photography is to simply maintain a hobby. Maybe you aspire to maintain a high-profile business instead. Either way, I’m here to tell you that it’s possible to achieve your goals regardless of where you currently reside.

Fstoppers Reviews Go Pro: Studio Beauty Video Training

Beauty photography is a very technical genre. It requires substantial lighting knowledge, as well as interest and taste for the subject photographed, and a solid team of creative professionals. The learning curve can be quite steep. Therefore having someone teaching you the ins and outs for the genre is crucial if you want to make beauty your specialization, and save years of learning on your own. Lucky us that is exactly what Julia Kuzmenko offers through her latest video training: Go Pro Studio Beauty. This week only, Fstoppers readers save $50!

A Simple Tip to Get More out of Your Golden Hour Portraits

You’ve covered your bases for that ever elusive amazing sunset shot: you’ve checked the time for sunset, mapped the exact location of the sun, and have composed a few frames so you know what to do when you get to the location. But what about the location itself?

Call of Duty Trivializes War Photography

In a few days, Activision will launch the 18th installment of Call of Duty, returning players to the Second World War. To market the game’s new photography mode, two conflict photographers were immersed inside the virtual world and tasked with photographing it. The resulting commercial portrays mankind’s most brutal act of self-destruction as little more than a game of football.

How to Take Spectacular Photos on Overcast Days

When I travel, I stay in each location I visit for several days to increase my chances of encountering great light. But even a week is sometimes not enough to get a single colorful sunrise or sunset. Either the sky remains free of clouds or it's completely overcast, preventing any interesting light from breaking through. Night photography is one way of dealing with a clear sky. But what can you do during gray weather?

How to Make Great Wedding Images in Not so Ideal Conditions

If you are a wedding photographer, then at some point in your career you will be faced with the challenge of making great images with conditions that are less then ideal. These tips can help you make the best of any situation.

Portfolio Editing Using Lightroom

I worked as a travel photographer for 8 years. In this period, I shot hundreds of thousands of images. As this part of my career came to a close, I wanted to have a portfolio of images that represented eight years of commercial travel photography. In this article, I’ll share how I used Lightroom and the Creative Cloud to edit a large body of work into a portfolio.

Fstoppers Reviews the URSA Mini Pro

I really believe that the URSA Mini Pro is the best camera that Blackmagic Design have ever released. That doesn’t mean that it’s the perfect camera for everybody, but it’s reaching out to a much wider audience than its predecessors.

18 of the Most Creative Music Videos

The music video might be the perfect vehicle for an artistic statement: It's succinct, it has a built-in springboard, and it's conducive to both abstract and literal statements. Here are 18 of the most creative and interesting music videos out there.

Six Ways to Hack a Light Stand or Tripod

Tripods and light stands are found in virtually all photographer's kit bags. While most of these stands already do an excellent job, a few low-cost modifications can make them infinitely more versatile.

Taking the Next Step Forward: Working With Modeling Agencies

You’ve reached a point with your work at which shooting friends and family doesn’t quite cut it. Your curiosity to challenge yourself and move forward is piqued, and you have a good sense of established skills that make you think seeking out agency-represented models is your best move. The question is: Where do you go from here and how do you even start?

Visiting Sir Elton John’s Dazzling Modernist Photography Collection

In 1990, Sir Elton John got sober and unknowingly began collecting one of the most significant private collections of photography in the world. He has collaborated with the Tate Modern to exhibit an extraordinary collection of photographs from the classic modernist period of 1920-1960. On a cold and wet Thursday afternoon in London, I went to see The Radical Eye exhibition for myself, and it didn’t disappoint.

The Harsh Reality of Being a Full-Time Photographer

Doing photography full-time is anyone's dream. Full-time is regarded as a sign of making it in the business. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Here are some of the blessings and curses of being a full-time photographer.

The Essential Gear for Shooting a Meteor Shower

With the Perseids meteor shower set to peak in the next few days, it's a great time to review the techniques and gear involved in capturing a meteor. Want to know how to catch a picture of a shooting star?

Is Photography Dead? The Relentless March of AI

With Adobe's latest beta offering what they call Generative Fill, we're given a very powerful feature that lets us create or undo what is in our images. And I think features like Generative Fill are causing another round of soil searching, praise, and panic from photographers. I've tried to put my own thoughts in order, so I'm humbly sharing them, even though my thoughts will continue to evolve, or maybe devolve. I also wanted to create a forum in comments for your more recent thoughts as AI becomes more and more mainstream.
Make More Money with Adobe Stock and Textures

If you're relatively new to the world of stock photography and trying to figure out the best way to make money, then I might just have the answer for you. With creativity, you can produce work that fills a need and earns income. In this article, I aim to provide some methods that will help give you an edge.

3 Ideas for When Skies Won’t Cooperate for a Photo

I'm envious of the fortunate people who live near Maine's beautiful landscapes. This proximity provides numerous opportunities to capture the perfect shot of some of my favorite lighthouses. But what happens when you make the trek and the skies simply don't want to cooperate?

Are You a Photographer or a FOMOgrapher: Part Two

FOMO, the fear of missing out, is seriously limiting your photography and you probably don’t even know it. Social media is the obvious culprit but we need to also acknowledge other key elements that play a part.

Happy Holidays to Me: 9 Photography Gifts You Deserve

As the holiday season approaches, the search for the perfect gifts intensifies. For the photography enthusiasts in your life, there's no shortage of thoughtful and inspiring presents to make their Christmas merry and bright. In this guide, let's explore nine photography-related gifts that promise to delight shutterbugs, from beginners to seasoned professionals. Whether it's innovative gadgets, educational resources, or creative accessories, these gifts are sure to bring joy to the world of photography. Best of all these gifts make the perfect gift from you to you. After all, who knows what you want and need the most?

Want to Become a Photoshop Rockstar in One Week for Free?

Have you fallen behind on keeping up with the tsunami of Photoshop updates and new capabilities? Or have you wanted to master this powerful tool, but you haven't been sure where to start? Well, put on your sweatpants, order in your favorite food, and thank your lucky stars, because next week, you can join Aaron Nace, Kristina Sherk, Ben Willmore and more live from your living room all week. And the best part? It's free. No, my editors did not miss this typo, it's true, and I'm here to tell you all about it.

This Is My Favorite Portable LED Light For Video

Are you in need of a powerful, versatile, and compact RGB LED light that won't break the bank? I was and this might now be my favorite hot light for shooting on location.

Medium Format in the Sky: Eric Crosland's Aerial Photos of the Icelandic Eruption

Eric Crosland is the director of Sherpa Cinema, a collective of artists who produce some pretty amazing stuff. Crosland recently went to some rather remote parts of Iceland with Dave Mossop and John Trapman working on capturing some landscapes, something for which Iceland is a mecca. While there, the Icelandic eruption occurred and Crosland was ready with a Phase One.

My Several Year Path to Creating This Composite

This is a how I did it story. Along with some “why.” Unlike most all folks my age, I am very fond of the WW2 history and even more so WW2 aircraft. My favorite plane of all time is the B-25 mid-range bomber. This concept has been in my mind for years, and I waited to actually implement it until I felt I was able to do it right. Had I done it early in my career, I feel the quality wouldn't have been up to the standard I would have liked.

film-old-cameras-where-to-find

Nearly every photographer owns a film camera whether it be in the dark recesses collecting dust or they use it on a regular basis. The most common reaction when people see one of these film beauties out and about is shocked that you can still acquire the film to shoot with one of these models. So if you own a 35mm, Polaroid, or even a medium format film camera, Dust it off! Don't know where to begin on buying film? Have no fear! I have become your personal film guide and have tried and tested all the major players out there in the film world, so you don't have to!

Why Choosing the Wrong Color Space Can Be a Disaster

As you get more comfortable with editing, you’ll probably come across color spaces. Just picking a random color space to edit or export with can cause major issues with your photos, however. Want to know which color space to use and when?

Before and After: Rowboats on Lake Titicaca

After every trip I go on, I always end up with a favorite image. Maybe it’s the one with the best story, or the one that was the hardest to get, or the one with the nicest person I met on the journey. In 2014 I headed to Bolivia to shoot a wedding, and a few weeks later found myself wandering around on an island in Lake Titicaca. And there, my favorite image of the trip was born.

Add Impact to Your Photos by Showing Less

As a beginner photographer, your natural instinct often tries to capture everything that catches your eye. If you’re standing in front of the most beautiful view you’ve ever seen, of course you’ll want to show the whole scene in your image, but you’ll often create the most compelling images by showing less.

5 Tips for Taking Awesome Portraits of Musicians

Capturing portraits of musicians is one of my favorite things to do. As a musician myself, I think that I have a unique perspective that helps me to connect with my musician clients. Working with other creatives always makes for an inspiring portrait session, and finding novel ways to incorporate an instrument into a portrait is a fun challenge. In today’s article and accompanying video, I will give you five tips that have helped me create engaging portraits of musicians.

Do You 'Take' or 'Make' Photographs?

An interesting debate around word choice among photographers is the question of whether one "takes" or "makes" photographs. There are compelling arguments behind both choices. But which is correct?

Why We Should Return to Places in Landscape Photography

Landscape photography brings us to the most beautiful places all over the world and there are so many of them out there, that it is impossible to visit them all in one lifetime. There is no obvious reason to return to places we have visited already, but as a pro landscape photographer with more than 30 years of experience, I do it again and again, returning to places for photography.

Fascinating Jarred Landscapes by Photographer Christoffer Relander

Ansel Adams once said “you don’t take a photograph, you make it.” I have always thought that what he meant by this quote was the process involved in reaching the final image. It has never been about clicking a picture simply, but it involves the creativity the photographer pours into his image. And creativity and sensibility also are what transpire in the beautiful conceptual project of Finnish photograper Christoffer Relander, titled “Jarred & Displaced.”

Where Will You Be for the Geminid Meteor Shower?

This week will have one of the most amazing astronomical events of the year (besides that continent-crossing solar eclipse this past August). The Geminid meteor shower is streaking across the sky this week on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. If you didn't know or maybe just forgot, it's time to make plans to get to a dark sky area for a once a year celestial show that many astronomers call the best meteor shower of the year.

How to Make Instagram Stories Easier and More Engaging

When making Stories for Instagram, it's not always ideal to chat straight into the camera, and speaking while presenting a single photograph or a webpage that you've created can be fiddly. These simple tricks make the process a lot easier, and simplifying the workflow, making it more enjoyable.