Fstoppers Original Articles

It has been a long time coming but the newly redesigned Fstoppers.com has finally become a reality! The biggest change coming to the website is an active community run by YOU - our readers. Today marks the first public release of the new site design and hopefully you are as excited to become a part of this community as we are!

Does that mean all art is subjective, and then, that any image is good if I say it’s good? Not so fast...

In this article, I share one of the most important things you can do to take better landscape and cityscape photos.

With the advancement and affordability of video technology available to consumers now, the number of budding and aspiring film and video makers has seemingly raised exponentially. One of those advancements has most definitely been in regards to how the color correction process is handled. There's certainly no one path to success sort of idea with this either, but there are some things that you can do to help simplify and organize your process in order to work quicker and more efficiently.

Photographers have preferences on everything ranging from their favorite camera to their best lens, how they edit their photos, and what photo paper they use to make prints. What if your own preferences aren't aligned with what your potential clients enjoy? We asked dozens of normal people which photo papers and print products they prefer, and the results were not exactly what I had expected.

In our first two segments of building a business plan, we’ve talked about defining your product and forming a long term vision. In this final section we will talk about some of the practical steps you need to take to take those hypothetical concepts and put them into action.

With landscape and travel photography, you might only have one chance at the shot, regardless of the quality of light. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through how I edited a blue hour shot of the Virgin River in Zion National Park, using ACDSee Photo Studio and targeted adjustments.

Not so long ago, I was sitting, browsing through the work I did in 2023. This year was marked by me going outside of my comfort zone. Having spent yet another year as a professional photographer, here are the takeaways I will bring into 2024.

On June 7th, 2021 Apple streamed their Worldwide Developers Conference Keynote for 2021. This keynote had been eagerly anticipated, as we’re now halfway into Apple's transition to Apple Silicon, and many people have been waiting to see what new software will go alongside the impressive hardware launched at the April Spring Loaded event.

Gina Manning Photography has been working with the Bruno Magli team for two seasons now, shaping their brand and new campaign and collections visually. I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest an incredibly collaborative and artistic relationship that has led the way for us to make the art I love seeing in the world!

There are two distinct approaches to photography: reactive and proactive. The type of photography you do depends on your personality and how comfortable you are with each of those approaches. What kind of photographer are you?

When stuck at home, a portrait shooter turns the lens back on themselves.

I would never have guessed that a simple prompt like "green" could have produced such amazing results this week. Our readers really showed up with arguably the best top 10 list yet.

Peter Hurley is a master of headshot photography with his ability to connect with clients and draw out the most flattering poses from his subjects. This Black Friday, Fstoppers is discounting all of Peter Hurley's tutorials. See the details below or visit the Fstoppers Store to see every deal being offered during the holiday season.

The third episode of Mike Kelley's Behind the Scenes series from his architectural tutorial is now live. In this episode, Mike shows you how you can turn an overcast day into a sunny afternoon, how to photograph a resort from a helicopter, and also teaches you an effective way to make a hotel lobby look more inviting. You can also watch as the Fstoppers crew goes night diving with massive manta rays off the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

I love photographing actions sports like surfing, skateboarding, cycling, MTB, and of course motocross and Supercross. Motocross and its cousin Supercross are great sports to photograph and are easy for fans with cameras to get close to the action. Read this first article of a three article series to get some tips to make your first outing or your hundredth outing a little more rewarding.

This week's top 10 list is sure to bring a smile to your face. We challenged our readers to show us photos displaying happiness, and the results should help to brighten your day.

Taking inspiration from cinema can lead to evocative images that also strike a nostalgic chord with movie lovers. Take full advantage of that power to create cinematic photographs that will charm viewers.

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 2017, 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.

Avoid the rookie mistakes that other amateurs make and jump ahead with some professional preparation for your first, or your next wedding photoshoot. You'll be surprised how often these steps are overlooked.

In an effort to please everyone, setting expectations and educating your clients is something that creatives often shy away from. But why not create a shiny little brochure to educate your wedding clients?

For the last few weeks, Fujifilm teamed up with Fstoppers to offer a brand new X-Pro3 mirrorless camera and a XF 16mm f2.8 lens to one lucky entrant. The contest has ended and Brianna Kiser was randomly selected to win the camera, congratulations! We'll be in touch with you via email.

I’ve been in the game for a little while, and along the way, there have been a few "new" things. New flashes, diffusers, scrims, softboxes, continuous light panels, LED wands, animated photos, cinemagraphs, mirrorless cameras, the list goes on and on, not to mention Photoshop and Lightroom, which update more often than I wash my sheets. But the one "new" I was not expecting to face was a new photography usage that has made me have to think anew about composition: Instagram.

Improve your landscape photography this fall with one of my favorite techniques for composing within the photo: the use of leading lines.

This photo is striking. Skimming through the archives at the Library of Congress, I was immediately drawn to this image. But why?

This article is for first time visitors to Sydney, Australia. The city and its beaches are riddled with picturesque spots so it will be difficult not to find a unique location. I will include the general areas around the beautiful harbor.

As the world essentially stops moving due to the widespread Coronavirus, many photographers and creatives are left with canceled jobs and nothing on the horizon. While we wait for businesses to open back up, we need to find ways to survive these stressful times. Here are a few helpful tips to get you through this event.

For the last month, we've teamed up with Wix for a series called "How to Build a Website." In this series, Lee and I talk about some of the advantages and mistakes photographers make when creating their own website. Today, I release my new commercial photography website and walk you through the process.

Finding new ways to evolve creatively is a never-ending process. Take a deeper dive at implementing audio into your workflow in this follow-up focused on photographers and writers.

“In 2017, just 13.7 percent of magazine covers from the top 10 American fashion publications were photographed by women,” according to Erin Cunningham of Refinery29, and yet, according to the 2010 United States Census, the female population of the United States is 50.8 percent. So, why are there so few women shooting the covers of fashion magazines?

Photographer Sana Ullah got the idea for her “Places You’ll Pray” photo project while shopping with her sister, who ducked into a fitting room once to pray as part of her Muslim faith, and so, it’s fitting that the first photo she took for the series several years ago was in a shopping mall.

Billions of people around the world are self-isolating to slow the spread of Coronavirus. However, it's not just our physical wellbeing at risk, but also our mental health. Stu McKenzie has pioneered a new project to help veterans with PTSD, which could also help those suffering from anxiety and depression during the quarantine.

As professional artists, at some point in our careers we will feel as if we reach a plateau in our work and are not growing. In this article learn the ways you can continue to grow and reach your greatest potential and work past that creative rut.

Everyone knows I am a workflow nut, and for a content creator who posts many cell phone images, the concept of downloading them to your computer then retouching and grading them and sending back to your phone is simply not efficient. Today we will be looking at the VSCO X app for mobile devices and how I like to use it for that very purpose.

There's a trend with our social networks these days. All the networks and apps call it "stories." It's on Facebook now, just like it is on Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger, and Snapchat. It's a way of showing others your day, or, documenting it with video and photos and making it a story. This media that has been added to our daily feeds of consumption is obviously difficult for people who haven't learnt to filter out information that they don't need. I follow over 400 people on Instagram, so if each one has a story for me to watch my day will be filled up watching stories which is a lot of time to spend on things that might not have a positive effect on our daily productivity or work.

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 2017, 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.

If spring has been a mixed bag of poor weather and few targets for you, as it has been for many of us, things are looking up as May rolls in. A total lunar eclipse highlights the list on May 15-16.

The camera never lies — it doesn't, it can't, because it's an entirely quantitative device. It counts photons, collecting, recording the number that arrive at the sensor. And for the digital camera, this is an entirely electronic process that is digital end-to-end, producing a number as the final result. It's at that point that we convert it back to analogue (as brightness) for our eyes to interpret. The camera never lies.

You may have noticed a photography education form in recent years online. With the popularization of digital courses, photographers have found fantastic ways to spread education in their community. They’ve also found a lot of opportunities for their business growth in creating an educational platform. So, why do so many photographers get into education in the first place?

You do not need the technical knowledge nor an expensive piece of equipment to be a part of the photography community. Regardless of how subjectively bad your images may be considered, you still are invited, just like everyone else.

We all like to collate, classify, and generally create order out of the world. It's no different with photography and so over the next 26 articles I'll be covering an A to Z of photography.

Production safety might not be the most exciting aspect of your photography career, but these days, like it or not, it’s one of the most important.

Even as the corresponding shifts from film to digital and from print to online have brought with them an expectation of instant feedback, sometimes you gain more as a photographer from being forced to wait.

Everywhere I look, professional photographers are calling for people to put their portfolios on an extreme diet. Well, I'm here to defend my curvier portfolio and why this decision is entirely intentional.

Foreground elements in photography do more than just fill space. When used with intent, they can introduce context, enhance storytelling, provide frames that guide the viewer's attention, create balance, and elevate the visual appeal of the images. Whether you're a hobbyist or a professional, understanding how to effectively use foregrounds can enhance your photography. In this guide to foreground photography, we'll explain the effect of foregrounds and provide you with tips and inspiration for using them effectively in your portrait photography.

The Fall upgrade from Skylum will have users excited, as it contains new features that add a lot to the program's many capabilities, but users will also see some long-standing requests granted. The fall update is available for download or upgrade on October 10.

Photojournalism is ostensibly about capturing the world as we see it, as close to reality as we saw it. That reality often includes color, and the question is: does black and white photography have a place in modern photojournalism?

If you want to start shooting more wildlife video with Sony Alpha cameras while you’re out in the field, here are some helpful tips to get started.

All work and no play makes people crazy. I think there was a movie about that once. Luckily looking at these photos of people doing work requires very little effort at all and will help you ease into your weekend properly.

You are a small-town American doctor, and to your surprise, aliens have replaced your community. Plant spores have fallen from outer space, creating seed pods capable of making identical human copies. Pod people take on traits and memories along with unique personalities. Slowly, an invasion has started. Wait a minute, hold up, reverse that! Sounds scary, right?