Fstoppers Original Articles

We have a lot to be thankful of as photographers. We make our livings doing the things we love. Clients hire us to create images because they love what we do. They entrust their most precious moments to us, and believe that we will deliver. Personally, I have photography to thank for the fact that I am able to live in another country, travel the world, and meet everyone from farmers in remote villages to presidents of entire countries. The diverse work that I do gives me experiences that not too many people have. So why is it that every winter I dig deep into the recesses of my soul and question who I am and why I do what I do? Why do I always want to quit?

Clients these days prefer to stare at your work on their phones rather than a framed work of art to pass on for generations. This is where the art of selling prints comes in to play. In just five simple steps learn how to take your print sales to the next level and see why once you start selling prints, you'll never look back.

Tonight marks the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower, with plenty of meteors visible from mid to late April each year, so get your camera ready and learn how to capture them in all their glory.

Island Darkroom presents CEARNS, an exhibition featuring the work of award-winning Isle of Lewis photographer Deljeem Rai. This event marks Deljeem Rai's first solo exhibition and his debut showcase on his home island.

In this video tutorial, I'm going to show you how I photographed the bedrooms on a $12 million yacht. Although the rooms are large for a boat, they are very small compared to your average bedroom.

It’s not an uncommon thing to see photographers being stuck in an endless loop of un-productivity. If you look at photography a little more seriously than as a hobby then you may have been looping in this cycle for so long as well.

Light trails are a perennial favorite for long exposure shooters, and a right of passage for any budding photographer. So why restrict yourself to cars in a street scene when the sky's your limit?

Last weekend was PDN’s Photo Plus Expo, and like a lot of east coast photographers I was in attendance. It seems like every year photo conferences get bigger and better drawing in massive crowds and yet there are still photographers who don't see any value in them. It makes me wonder if people understand and are taking full advantage of these events.

For many people, starting a YouTube channel can be a creative outlet, an opportunity to educate, or a job. For Matt it was a chance to share his thoughts and opinions about something he loved – the lasting impact on the film community was just a bonus.

Previsualization may be the one thing standing between you and a smooth production resulting in incredible photographs.

If you look through the galleries here at Fstoppers, trending images on social media, or those on the pages of magazines, they usually depict beauty. Beauty is easy to like and is, understandably, popular. But there is something far harder to capture that is sublime.

Therukoothu is an ancient folk dance art form, almost 2,000 years old, which originated in South India. Documenting Koothu has always been my dream, and there are so many aspects to it. I wanted to start with the artist, the one who carries the soul of this art.

We have all heard about how choosing a single color palette can be a good design choice for a photo shoot, a room, or even your Instagram profile. For this edition of the weeklyFstop, everyone rose to the occasion and shared some beautiful photos featuring the color pink.

I had the wonderful opportunity to shoot this fashion spread for Glamour South Africa back in March while I was in Barcelona. Right before the trip, I did some research and had asked some locals for some location recommendations.

If anyone knows how to put together an incredible fantasy ensemble, it's creative portrait artist Laura Sheridan. Want to know where you can source amazing pieces like her for fantasy photo shoots? She's got a list for you.

Some time earlier this year, I had this idea to try and find my own approach to portraiture solely for children. It was a multi-faceted idea which came to me pretty much at random. I was reviewing some of my recent portrait work when I realized that I had only ever worked with a couple of children as my subjects throughout my entire running career as a photographer. I figured out a long time ago that family portraits really just weren't something I was interested in, but that didn't really have anything to do with my actual choice of subjects. Just because I didn't want to shoot family portraits didn't necessarily mean that I couldn't work with kids.

Creating imagery that’s “brandable” is part of many working photographer's bag of skills but still takes some know how with lighting, posing, and while creating a human connection to excel at a high level with consistent results. Let’s dive into how we can make our commercial and branding imagery simply while also growing our network and earning new clients in the process.

Fake contact lenses (also known as circle lenses) are becoming wildly popular. They seem to have first started to gain momentum in the cosplay world but have begun growing well beyond that. I've started to encounter models regularly wearing them, especially ones focusing on Asian fashion trends. Circle contacts look great at a glance, they make the pupil larger and often change its color to be more exciting. When walking around in real life or when in video the eye is constantly moving so the weakness of being obviously fake is much less apparent. However, when photographed the eye is frozen in perfect sharpness which instantly reveals how fake circle lenses can look, especially the cheaper ones.

Whether you think about conceptual art, impressionism, or high fashion, they are all deviations from the traditional art expressions. Is the emperor naked, or do these forms of art have nothing to do with that well-known story? Is it possible to make more profit from impressionism than from traditional photography?

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 2021, 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.

Datacolor has released a brilliant new bundle to help you manage your colors and deliver better results. The new SpyderX Create Kit includes the world's fastest display calibrator the SpyderX Pro along with several accessories including the ColorReader EZ.

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 2021, 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.

Maybe you are like me and you just settled into a new place and are looking for places nearby that you can shoot. After moving to a new location about an hour away from where I was living at home, I have been trying to keep up with all my shooting. In a way, I feel like it has gotten a lot more difficult because I need to find places to go, people to work with, and all sorts of other things that interest me to keep shooting and creating new content. There are times where I feel like I am stuck and times where I feel like I've found such a cool spot and I am super happy about it, however I think the biggest key to success is actually going out and lfinding places to continue your work.

Being a successful artist can sometimes mean being both determined and flexible at the same time. But how can such a duality exist over the course of a career?

You may be a wedding photographer thinking of ways to secure additional future jobs, or you might simply want to focus on doing a wider variety of shoots other than just weddings. So, in what ways can you branch out?

Every day it seems like there’s a new unpredictable and intense weather phenomenon on the horizon — state-wide wildfires, raging storms causing massive flooding, polar vortexes, and my recent favorite: the bomb cyclone.

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 2018, 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.

Being an artist means keeping an open mind to all possibilities. But sometimes, limiting your scope can lead to a world of opportunities.

In a world where digital photography is ever-present, film photography often takes a back seat. But this analog medium actually has some crucial lessons to teach all of us, if only we're willing to listen.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you have the head-slapping moment where you utter the immortal words "Why didn't I think of that?" When it comes to camera systems you might modify that to "Why didn't my camera manufacturer think of that?"

Seems like protests are a pretty regular thing these days, and so there’s a lot of chances to photograph history in the making. So when you’re photographing a big news event, how do you get a picture while wading through the big-news crowds? Try using a monopod. I'll explain.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the season of shorter days and more time spent indoors is upon us. Indoor pet photography can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to result in leaving the camera down until spring.

Optical snoots are inexpensive attachments that can open up a world of possibilities for precise light placement. Here is a detailed description of how to use them and what you need to start creating with them.

Modern business exists for one primary purpose: to maximize profit. In this article, I’ll explain why, for the past six years, I’ve run my business in the opposite spirit, often knowingly leaving money on the table.

To grow as a photographer you have to get out there and challenge yourself. Consider joining in on the weeklyFstop as a great way to try new things and enhance your photography skills.

You've heard it before, there's no doubt: the creative gap — that picture you have in your head of what you want a shot to look like and what you come up with in the end. As kids we're completely fine with this, we can always just draw or make something else 10 seconds later, but as adults we often get crippled with the fear of rejection.

The 2018 wedding season is quickly approaching for many of us. Long days, bridezillas, constantly on the move, all for that amazing shot the couple will look back on decades later to reminisce about their special day.

I use flashes a lot in my photography, whether a speedlite or in the studio with some big strobes and modifiers. But this is the first time I have ever used a drone-mounted flash.

Picking the right music for your next video project can elevate your final cut or destroy it. The soundtrack is the beating heart of any video project, and you can direct your viewer toward an emotion or message based on your selection. Here are some tips to choosing the right music.

MindShift Gear has just updated their popular ROTATION 180° series of adventure bags with the new 22L, 34L, and Pro 50L+ V2 editions, each completely redesigned with new features for active photographers who need to always be on the move.

There are all kinds of photographers out there. Those who shoot fashion, products, street, editorial, and all manner of other genres. There are those who trust Canon, those who worship Sony, and those who swear a Leica is the only camera you need. We all have our different gear and varied subjects, but there is one thing that unifies us all. We all make photographs. What is it that makes all these different photographers with their myriad gear make photographs? Why do they release the shutter?

Like it or not, 2016 is going to be a huge year for virtual reality content and technology. It seems like every major brand is dipping their toe in one way or another. Even Pixar is creating their own movie studio in order to create 360-degree films. Magazines are no exception for desiring and creating this content. It's a perfect way to immerse their readers into their content. Recently Hearst Publishing's Car and Driver Magazine hired my company, 8112 Studios, to help create their first ever virtual reality car reviews.

This is one of my most favourite test shoots I’ve done to this date, not only based on how we got the shot but also how they turned out. Here’s how we shot it, how it was lit, and everything that came together to make this shot happen.

Symmetry is a basic aesthetic that you can use to greatly improve your composition and attention of the photo. In this article, I dive into different ways you can use symmetry in your photos.

Photography is not only a creative outlet for the photographer, but it also can provide healing to your clients. Most boudoir sessions are sought after in order to gain confidence, many family sessions are there to capture generations for preservation, and even underwater sessions can provide a healing to clients who are in need of the surreal emotions that come with being submerged.

During an effort to rid my house of excess belongings this weekend, I stumbled upon an analogy that should help inform my gear buying decisions going forward.

Back in March, Globe Newswire reported that the global facemask market is expected to reach $21.2 billion in sales by 2026. For many photographers, this represents an opportunity to try out a new revenue stream as other sources of income dry up. So, how do you get started selling face masks featuring your photos? We'll take a look at a few vendors on the market.

Would more automated editing speed up your workflow or are you still concerned about the AI role in the subjective world of photo-processing?

I know a lot of us can't go outside right now to shoot panoramas due to quarantines and self-isolation, but perhaps you have some panoramic shots you took months back on a trip somewhere, buried away on a hard drive in the cupboard. Now's a good time to dust them off and get to work!

Planning may be one of the most important things when it comes to taking the aerial photos you want. A lot of the stuff I shoot is mapped out thoroughly so I can plan days and times to go shoot what I have in mind.