Fstoppers Original Articles

As you’re probably aware from the level of hype in your news feed, the Perseid meteor shower is approaching and you should get outside to see it now! Technically in late July, it is already active in our skies, but the reality is that there is a fairly narrow window of high activity only around the peak time. My own experience is that the number of meteors drops off dramatically a day before or after the peak evening.

On September 2, Sony announced that the previously rumored FX6 cinema camera was indeed coming before the end of 2020. Here’s some juicy speculation on what we can expect.

What does it take to create an amazing landscape photograph? So many photographers, me included, have been guilty of creating beautiful content that portrays only the successes of landscape photography. In today's free landscape tutorial, I'm going to share some of the failures.

Many boudoir photographers starting out may be green with envy on studio owners with larger square footage. In many cases the ability to move around furniture and props without tripping every step is a welcomed luxury. However, the grass is not always greener on the other side. Having a large studio also means having more issues on controlling light, especially when it is natural light.

It's a very mixed feeling: you are happy they like the shot, but you are also disappointed that it's not sharp. I'm going to share my way of dealing with the situation, but I am also curious about your way of handling the problem.

Camera sales are declining rapidly. There is seemingly nothing that we can do about it.

Canon’s announcement of the 1D X Mark III has inevitably set the camera world chattering, confirming some rumors (raw video) and debunking others (there is no new battery with a secret new feature). Among the specifications, it’s interesting to see what’s been left out and how this compares to Nikon’s own “announcement” last month, not to mention the Sony a9 II.

Sometimes, the things that make a camera the perfect fit for you aren’t the same things that make all the headlines.

We all have that person or two we've been following on social media since first opening our own accounts. For me, Joshua Snow is one of those people. Snow is a fellow landscape photographer who I've been fortunate to follow since I first started posting to Instagram. Recently I was able to chat with him about how he transitioned from aspiring to professional photographer, and where his motivation and inspiration lies.

If you are a beginning photographer who has only worked with amateur models, it may be your dream to work with a professional model one day. Is there a noticeable difference between working with a professional model and an amateur model?

If you've often been shooting in what seems like dramatic light only to get back to your computer and realize that the images are kind of so so, then you're not alone. However, in certain situations, what seems like a dull and unimpressive image might just need a little tweaking to take it to another level.

With over 20 million YouTube channels on the platform in 2019, it's important to stand out. Check out a selection of my favorite YouTube channels in the photography and filmmaking category that you should be following today.

Warning: although Photoshop was used to identify the guitar, this isn't really photography-related, but this story is too good not to share.

5 Day Deal is back again and even though Patrick and I made a video attempting to explain it, we are still getting a ton of questions and complaints from confused photographers. People keep asking us if this is a scam. Let me try to answer everyone's questions.

A lot of new lenses are amazing. Although the quality of the predecessors was already good, the new generations are even better. But with the amazing quality comes a size, weight, and prize. You should ask yourself if these are the lenses you need.

Today, I’d like to review, well, reviews. Since gear and gear reviews are something all of us, including myself, spend a bit too much time obsessing over, it’s worth taking a step back to think about what they do and do not have to offer.

Being a photographer can be a very expensive endeavor. Seeing pros on the internet have the latest and greatest gear in large quantities makes you wonder if this is what you need to be one of them. The truth is, no. Here is our list of basic gear that you need to start a business.

We have all heard the old adage: buy cheap and buy twice. Here are five things you shouldn’t skimp on.

Cameras don’t always come cheap, but when you find the right fit for your style and your business model, value isn’t always only about the sticker price.

Each day there are new ways to accomplish the same task, especially with the ever-evolving social media whirlwind. Today I want to share my favorite two methods I use for sharing to Instagram (or any other social platform, but primarily Instagram since posts need to be made from your mobile device).

All I’ll say, is that I owned the original a7 and it kinda sucked. Is Nikon going to get it right the “first” time? Or will next week's supposed announcement of the Z-series cameras begin a long cycle of trying to one up themselves while trying to keep up with the major mirrorless players?

One of the biggest questions that photographers face is how to find clients and make a living from the craft. There is money to be made with photography, especially if you find a good contract. Here is one such opportunity that will allow you to make money with your photography.

Pressure, fear, joy, excitement – these are not uncommon emotions on any shoot. A few weeks ago, I spent a few hours in a helicopter above New York City with Vincent Laforet where we experienced all of these emotions. This exclusive interview and BTS video highlights not only what’s involved to produce aerial stills of this nature, but provides 5 key insights we can all apply to our own shoots.

Last month B&H helped us build an extremely expensive workstation. Today, we built a computer that rendered footage faster in Adobe Premiere for 1/3 of the price.

If you're a creator of any kind, chances are you've experienced being in a creative rut at some point in your journey to make cool stuff. As a photographer and cinematographer, nothing could be more true for me. Photographers by nature, I feel, have a "do it yourself" attitude. In talking with Photographer Nikki Smith, a DIY backdrop project could be just what you need to reignite that missing spark and add an additional element of creativity to your work.

I have to admit it: I’ve never been on team Lightroom. This may be a bit of a low blow, but Lightroom has always seemed like the sandbox for those who couldn’t play on the big-boy playground: Photoshop, of course.

"Oh, this is going to be good," I chuckled to myself. Fstoppers co-founder Lee Morris had just posted an article and video called "The New iPhone Fashion Shoot: Bikinis, Foam Core, and Flashlights." I knew the response would be fast and passionate. I wasn't disappointed.

You use Lightroom to process batches of images because you know how important efficiency is. But if you're not fully utilizing Lightroom's available rating (and sorting) options, you're not running as tight a ship as you could.

A photographer based between LA and NYC has fallen victim to an “international travel scam” on a huge scale, which saw her end up in Indonesia and down thousands of dollars, in what she believes may have been part of a larger kidnapping plot.

Here at Fstoppers we use exclusively Manfrotto tripod heads and in the past we used two different types of plates. For still photography we used the 200PL plate on ball heads and for our videos we used 500 plates on pan heads. I have always hated the longer 500 plates and today we are finally getting rid of them.

If you're ready to check out a few more fantasy portrait photographers, then you're in the right place. This time around, the goal is to find and highlight a few folks that you're probably not already following but are definitely worth a look.

Long before I ever picked up my first camera I was always fascinated by the subject of psychology. To understand some of the reasons why humans behave the way they do is rather useful in many areas of our lives. Once I started to get into photography more seriously I began to realize how the two subjects could be used together to make more powerful images.

Photography is tech-reliant. With cameras coming out so often, it’s easy to get lost in constantly upgrading your camera, lens, light, and so on. However, there is one thing that I am always upgrading as a professional photographer.

Some beginning photographers keep on shooting in JPEG because of one reason. They’re a bit of afraid of the raw file format. But shooting in raw is easier than you think. If you want to start photographing in raw but you don’t know how, I’ll show you how it’s done.

If you are a fan of The Beatles, then two documentaries currently streaming on Disney+ will certainly satiate your thirst. Look closely, and there are important lessons we can learn from these talented musicians that apply to creative photography.

The evolution of boudoir photography has changed drastically over the years however the core of what it stands for remains the same. It is a look into a clients insecurities and help regain the strength through the newly found confidence. While looking over some images of a fellow boudoir photographer during his Body Confidence Campaign, the final images where something no one saw coming.

More and more people get infected every day, and I’m a victim of it, too. Yes, I’m talking about GAS, which usually hits me when spring is coming. For this reason, I am focusing a little on purchase decisions lately.

How many times have you snapped a beautiful scene, only to be disappointed when your images don’t adequately represent the reality? Though the camera’s images sometimes fall short, have no fear, because bracketing is here.

Ever wonder how photographers capture what looks like a single moment in time, but you're not quite sure how they got it all in one shot? Join me for another day of adventuring in the San Juan mountains to find out.

First and foremost, gear is not the be all and end all. Creativity will bring the most out of the simplest of gear. We stand on the shoulders of giants now. Remember that it was only a few years ago that high ISOs were all but unusable and that once you'd shot a black and white frame, it stayed black and white. The fact remains, though, that understanding what your gear is capable of is the key to exploiting its strengths and weaknesses, which is where creativity lives. Learning a few simple things about what your existing gear is capable of will do more for your images than any shiny new purchase. Use these five simple exercises to learn more about what the tools you have can do.

I don’t get to shoot landscapes as often as I’d like, but when I do, I try to maximize the time I have in a place to the fullest extent. Many times, that’s just waking up for sunrise while my relatives snooze their alarms on a family trip, but eventually, when I started planning my own adventures, I had a hard time figuring out where to start until I discovered an incredible tool.

Back in 2018, I wrote an article about being a professional photographer and how viable it was. I thought it was time to update this.

There are 10 Lightroom features I use more than any other, and many of you reading might not even be aware of them, as they're often hidden away or require sneaky keyboard shortcuts, so read on to find out what they are.

The dynamic range of a camera is something that is considered to be important. A large dynamic range is often preferred. But how can you make use of this in your photography? In this article I will explain how you can use your camera’s dynamic range in post processing.

If you’re a budget-conscious photographer looking to buy a full-frame mirrorless camera in August, you should probably just buy the new Nikon Z 5. For the money, it looks amazing.

I know I harp on about gear not mattering. Nevertheless, there are individual purchases that I have made over the years that have had a real impact on my work. Having been a commercial photographer for some time, I thought I'd share my opinion on this.

It’s the equivalent of a presidential Twitter feud, but for the photography world. Everyone’s favorite Anderson Cooper lookalike Tony Northrup released a video on November 4 about the benefits and downsides to shooting raw files versus JPG files, and in this video dispensed some advice on when to shoot raw files and when to shoot JPG files (and when to shoot both). Naturally, this elicited a strong response from everyone’s favorite (only?) Fro, Jared Polin of “Fro Knows Photo” fame, who is known for his shirts indicating to the world that he does indeed shoot raw. All the time.

There are literally thousands and thousands of 35mm film cameras that have been produced over the last 100 years or so, and more are being manufactured even now. However, there's one camera that sits at the top of the tree, at least for me.

Since the introduction of digital photography our cameras are provided with a nice LCD screen to see the photo we’ve just taken, or to see the photo that we’re about to take. But be careful with these screens, they can be misguiding in some situations.