Have you taken beautiful landscape photos at Lofoten, the Faroe Islands, or Iceland? Or perhaps you only dream about trips to these breathtaking locations. Don't worry; perhaps the best landscape photo you will ever shoot is in your home town, just around the corner.
With digital photography more accessible than ever, is film worth it? I picked up my film camera and shot my first roll of black and white film in over 10 years.
I admit it: I like easy, especially when it comes to photography. That's why I've come to embrace these 10 tips that I have learned over the years. And most of them won't cost you a penny to incorporate.
Today on the Internet, I watched photographers draw analogies between a retouching technique and using nerve gas in warfare. While I stared, aghast at the immaturity, I began to wonder: "What would a customer think of this?"
Making a photograph can be a painstaking process involving location scouting, test shots, lighting setups, model releases and so much more, depending on your subject. However, some subjects — such as wildlife, children, sporting events, and such — require a photographer to be much more nimble. That's why I try to follow a few simple rules to be ready for when that unexpected magic moment arrives.
While I agree that a great photographer can create incredible images using basic tools, it is no secret that great tools can help a good photographer achieve greatness. Over the last year or two, new strobes, new lenses, and a plethora of modifiers have helped elevate my studio photography to new levels, but one tool has brought it to a new level more than anything else: painted backdrops. And so, I wanted to share some resources on how to get painted backdrops without putting a second mortgage on your house.
Ever find your distant objects such as mountains appearing much smaller than they should in your landscape photos? Perspective blending is a great solution that is actually quite easy to do.
Have you found yourself frustrated by being nickeled and dimed for your work? Does self-doubt about your skill and imagery creep in as a result of the prices you are asked to shoot at? You’re not the only one.
Light can easily make or break a photograph. While there is truly no such thing as bad light, there is a good and bad way to use light.
I just picked up my Inspire 2 Monday and couldn't be happier to have it. After working with a Phantom 3 Advanced and Professional for about a year and a half, this new drone makes all the difference in the world.
“I only shoot natural light. I’m a natural light photographer.” I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve heard some variation of this statement. It doesn’t get any less silly each time I hear it, though. Why would anyone want to box themselves into doing only one thing?
We’ve all been spending a lot more time on social media lately. Whether Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or something else (that as a mid-thirty-something I’m not even aware of yet) is your preferred poison, I would like to respectfully submit that it’s time for us all to make some behavioral changes in how we socialize online.
I do my very best to help out photographers who are starting out. There are some negative tendencies in just about any photographer's career; I had them myself. The only difference between me and you is that you will now find out what's wrong, while I had to figure it out by trial and error.
The day has finally come. Capture One users can finally use the XRite ColorChecker to create camera profiles and get proper true-to-life colors in our photos. The necessity for a proper color workflow is imperative for anything you plan on printing, or duplicating in any way (Especially when working with brands).
With every social media boom comes a new wave of photographers navigating its landscape. The TikTok world is completely different from the platforms of the past. On Facebook and Instagram, things are easy enough for photographers: post stills, write captions, engage, engage, engage. On TikTok, however, it’s a whole new ballgame, one that photographers aren’t quite yet prepared for.
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 2022, 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.
Photography competitions are a fantastic way for a photographer to gain exposure, build prestige, acquire credentials, or see how they compare to their peers. Tyler Lanz of Laminart Industries has 10 steps to help improve your chances during your next submission.
It’s always nice to work with a client that has as much invested in making a great image as you do. I recently had the opportunity to work with poet and academic Katie Schmid for some portraits. Outside of her own poetry, Katie writes for a few blogs and online magazines. Katie knew she needed a fairly standard image to use with those publications, but expressed interest in creating a second image that better captured her personality.
Last week Fstoppers released Mike Kelley's latest photography tutorial called "Where Art Meets Architecture: How To Photograph Hotels, Resorts, and the Business of Commercial Architectural Photography." It is the third installment of Mike's thorough educational series on shooting real estate, architecture, and hotels. Throughout our travels, we never turned off the behind-the-scenes cameras so that you can experience a first-person perspective of what goes into producing one of these tutorials. In episode 1, Mike gets settled into the amazing Mauna Launi Bay Resort on the Big Island of Hawaii and shows just how exhausting photographing complex properties can be.
In an era where image quality no longer serves as the sole differentiator among photographers due to advancing technology, having the latest and greatest gear no longer gives photographers a drastic upper hand.
The photo shoot has ended and you are now finished with the editing of the images. What are you going to do next? You could deliver the images to your clients digitally, which can feel soulless, or you can go that extra mile and deliver beautiful fine art prints to your clients. In this article, I will show you how.
Landscape photography is the art of seizing the beauty of the outdoors through images. Landscape photographers aim to make their viewers feel as if they’re walking into a scene without having to get out of a sheltered building. But what is composition, and how is it helpful in landscape photography?
Lensbaby has announced a new set of filters which attach to a lightweight ring atop your lens via magnets. The new kit allows you to use glass and crystals in order to create novelty blur and bokeh effects hands-free, but is it worth using such novelty items in-camera, given that their rather niche effects are irreversible?
One of the most difficult parts of any art is learning to express the things you feel through the medium you are working with. Today we’ll look at one way of approaching this in photography.
What's up? Glad you could make it for part 2 of my Art of Composite Photography series.
We have all had a moment where we said, “I wish I had known that sooner.” Over the years, I have heard this from many mentoring students. Sometimes, it was even, “I wish I knew that before I took that big trip.” If you're starting your photographic journey or have been on it for a while, here are five things that will help make it a little less stressful and more fun.
As we all know, livestreaming can be a very expensive adventure. If you want to go beyond streaming from mobile phones, which are great, by the way, you will need to spend money on some higher-end equipment. This is why we put together a list of the top eight cameras for livestreaming that will deliver high quality at low cost.
On a late night twitter search one of my guilty pleasures is following Pee Wee Herman; it just so happened Pee Wee tweeted an image from this artist's account where he took a dump truck and filled it with fruit loops. How could I not dig further and find out who this creative and silly person is and what else have they done?
Have you ever wondered what went into creating a moody fashion shoot? In this article, go behind the scenes of a fashion shoot I did using a darker aesthetic and mood.
Martin Palm is a commercial photographer based in Sweden. He strives to create clean minimalist images that offer a unique point of view.
I don't make time-lapses, but as a viewer I frequently happen to find time-lapse videos that I can't or don't watch at all. Here are my tips for all of you out there to make your sequence of images more appealing to any audience.
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 2016, we'll be featuring a new photographer every month, whose portfolio represents both stellar photographic achievement and a high level of involvement within the Fstoppers community.
Sharp has released an 8K television. It should wonderfully compliment their 8K ENG camcorder. Now that 4K is so 2017, why don’t we look at how much an upgrade will cost?
What does being a photographer mean to you? Do the people around you see you in the same way?
Who doesn’t wish they could eliminate that annoying bystander threatening the vibe of your shoot with a simple click of a button? Well, you may not be able to do it in real-time, but it is possible to eliminate that pesky drunk with a single click in Lightroom.
It happens to me all too often: a bride or groom sees our wedding work work in a bridal magazine or blog and tells me that it's been a dream of theirs to be featured and can't wait for me to submit the wedding. Often, this happens far before her wedding has been shot; I'm talking first meeting and boom, "I can't wait to be in a magazine." As professional photographers, obviously, we know there is much more to getting featured than the desire itself. At this moment, when my client gushes about their dreams of being published, I see this as an opportunity to educate them and help get their wedding that much closer to being featured.
Although I now work in the commercial world, my passion started with documentary photography. I was, and still am, obsessed with Annie Leibowitz’s work with the Rolling Stones and I loved William Egglestone’s color observations of the mundane world he found himself in. When I find a free day, there is nothing that I enjoy more than walking out with my camera to document someone else's life. However, unlike the plethora of studio lighting tutorials available, there seems to be a real lack of articles on documentary photography. Here are six tips on how to improve your images.
As a landscape photographer, do you feel frustrated when things don’t quite work out? Maybe the weather wasn’t cooperating or despite your best efforts looking for an engaging composition, you couldn’t find one before the light faded. Learn to enjoy the journey and watch the frustrations fade away.
As we transition from summer to fall, two of the most photogenic planets, Jupiter and Saturn, have passed the point of closest approach (opposition) to the Earth for the year. Yet, they still make great targets for planetary astrophotography, especially since they are now high in the sky soon after sunset. As another bonus, photographing these planets does not require traveling to a dark sky site. This kind of astrophotography can be done from our backyards.
Let’s face it. Photographers make all the excuses in the world to upgrade their gear. When we do, should there be an evident difference in our photos?
We're year into working from home, and staying productive is proving difficult. One service has helped me more than anything else.
Making decisions about cameras and lenses is always difficult. Most of the time, we have to compromise. Finding out what you love about photography helps you making a better choice regarding your photography gear.
One might think the vibrant colors of sea life would make color a non-negotiable in underwater photography. But photographer Christian Vizl produced some of the most compelling images of ocean life I’ve ever seen — and they’re all black-and-white.
There's no such thing as too many (photography) podcasts.
The exposure triangle is one of the most fundamental concepts any photographer needs to master to take control of their images. If you struggle to understand how it all comes together to produce a complete exposure, this article is for you.
What part of the photographic process are you operating at a world class level? This article is about owning what you’re great at and outsourcing the remainder of the process to specialists.
Shooting bodies of water is both fun and challenging. In this article, you'll learn five techniques that will rapidly help you to improve your images of oceans, lakes, and rivers.
GuruShots is a photography website that hosts "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” In their latest challenge, they invited participants to submit their best photos of "Impressive Architecture." The challenge received thousands of entries and millions of votes. You can see the three winners of the challenge as well as hundreds of top rated images below.
It sits there on your shelf, looking at you: that old camera that you were so excited about a few years back. Now, it's not even worth the trouble of listing it on eBay or Craigslist. Or is it? Recently I picked up my old Fuji X-E1 and put it through its paces. I was surprised to find out that it's still an enjoyable camera, but not for the reasons that it originally was. Sometimes, a camera's flaws hold a certain charm that can only be appreciated with some distance.
What ultra-wide angle prime lens makes a compelling case to you? Here are six worth looking at.
