Fstoppers Original Articles

Want to be an awesome pro photographer just like Annie Leibovitz, Dan Winters, or even the next Ansel Adams? Here are a few tips that can enhance your techniques. From what I've learned in the past, the one tip that all photographers share is "practice makes perfect." Remember, don't practice until you get it right; practice until you can't get it wrong. When I feel that creative rut creeping in, I just remind myself of that phrase.

There are lots of ways to improve your photography. Getting your workflow in order, learning to light, but I think I have learned the one thing that has impacted my photography more than almost anything else. (Other than practice, of course).

Boudoir photographers know that collaborations with vendors that fit their brand can be extremely beneficial for all parties involved. It alleviates some cost of the product for the photographer and it gives the vendor professional images for their sites. Getting connected for shoots such as this is not as difficult or impossible as it may seem.

High ISO is usually meant to be used when there's not enough light. However, there are cases when you have to take it up from its minimum value even when the sun is bright.

One of the reasons I love art is that is it the most effective way not only to entertain us, but to help us reflect on life itself. A well-placed verse or a well-timed press of the shutter can connect the world in ways that a thousand politicians simply can’t.

As a young, rebellious teenager in love with music and films, I discovered my love of photography when I was handed an old Olympus film camera and I have since fallen deeply in love with the art of photography. Years went by as I experimented with different ways of shooting and discovering new ideas I wanted to pursue in this medium until I finished school and needed to think seriously about what I wanted to do in life. The choice was easy: either become a musician or a photographer.

In this article, I share the photo editing workflow I use for all my photos, and if you want to achieve high-quality results, this is for you.

It is easy to feel overwhelmed with the many different features of Adobe Lightroom. Lightroom has so many possibilities, that even after years of using it, I still am consistently learning something new. I have found that there are so many new photographers who either feel too overwhelmed to start learning the intensive software, or they still aren’t confident that they have been using it correctly. Because of this, I wanted to create a simple beginner’s guide to using Lightroom. This is the first of what will be a multiple part series of articles on Lightroom basics.

Kickstarter has allowed the photography community to share and create incredible ideas. We all know the success stories. What about the underdogs, though?

A few weeks ago I published an article here on Fstoppers about handheld focus stacking. In this article I share my in-the-field workflow, as well as the automatic stacking option Photoshop offers to put all images together during photo editing. This option has its limitations though and because I lately had to work on some very complex stacks, I had to look for a better solution. And with Helicon Focus I found it.

The Sony a7S series of cameras is strange. They're described as stills cameras; however, most customers seem to use them for their video features. At best, they're an odd compromise that doesn't fit anywhere properly. For this reason, I'd like to discuss why Sony should get rid of this line completely or at the least, revamp the series.

One of the simplest ways to make your images more effective is by paying attention to this one fundamental component of photography and applying it in ways that you may not have thought of.

Whether going out for a shoot or for personal business, there are tools and accessories that fit a photographer’s lifestyle seamlessly. Here are some EDC accessories that we can recommend.

Last month, I wrote an article called Hacking Instagram to Grow a Huge Following and Build Better Engagement with "Instagram Pods" that was received far better than I ever thought possible. I received hundreds of direct messages within the app of people asking about Instagram pods as well as wanting to join one. I apologize to those I have not yet gotten back with but rest assured, the hack seems to work and has sparked new life into my social media experience on the platform. Not only has it doubled my engagement, likes, and blown comments through the roof in comparison to a few months ago but its become a new found way to connect with new creatives from around the world.

Social media consumption is at an all-time high and is on pace to increase at an exponential pace for the foreseeable future. We all seem to have capable technology on us always, whether it be a cell phone or dedicated interchangeable lens camera. With this rapid rate of consumption and the accessibility of technology we are living in a world saturated with quality content everywhere we look. Standing out among other photographers is getting more challenging daily and that’s why I put together these three ways to help separate yourself from other photographers.

For many, wildlife photography is all about natural colors and objective realism. The light, composition, and behavior captured should do all the talking. And for the most part, I agree — for that other tiny little bit, though, I beg to differ. Please allow me to elaborate in more ways than one.

Don't get me wrong, natural light and golden hour are gorgeous and a huge part of what we do. But, in addition to these types of photographs, we have built our name on imagery that differs from the typical wedding or couples photograph. Our studio (Lin and Jirsa Photography) has become known for unique and epic environmental portraits. While almost every client wants golden hour imagery, these stand-out epics help draw clients to our brand in the first place.

About this time last year, the Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art series lens was released and I went ahead and decided to pull the trigger and invest in the new glass. I had heard great things about other entries in the art lineup and understandably Sigma's new 85mm focal length was getting a solid amount of hype. For the past year, I have been shooting exclusively with Sigma's 85mm. It's been the only lens in my camera bag and the only lens I've used for a straight year. What follows are my impressions after a solid year of use; what I like about the lens and what I don't like.

According to Wikipedia lifestyle photography is "a style of portrait / people photography which aims to capture and document real-life events, situations, or milestones in an artistic manner and the art of the everyday." Photographers every day are advertising sessions as lifestyle photography, but in reality, are totally missing the mark.

A little over a year ago, I got to live out one of my worst nightmares. I had a day where the personification of my anxiety sprouted legs and ambled right into the middle of a wedding ceremony that I was photographing. Mr. Anxiety-Incarnate snuck into a church, and like a biblical plague, snuck right back out and took something precious with him. Never to be seen again was $12,000 worth of gear that was stored in my roller bag. That’s right, I lived out the photographer’s terrifying dream equivalent to showing up to a high school class naked.

Off-camera flash is a great way to augment your existing photographs. There are so many times when existing light just doesn't give you the result you desire, and that flash could be a solution to creating the image you have in your mind. When you first start, however, the options can be quite overwhelming and it can be difficult to know exactly what you'll need. Let's look into a simple but versatile kit that will allow you to stay mobile and work in many different situations.

The first thing you should be doing when editing landscapes (or any kind of photo) in Lightroom is to apply a new profile. By adjusting this base render of your raw files, you’re providing a solid foundation on which to edit.

Getting your prints to look exactly how they should is a constant battle for many photographers. Minimize the amount of time and money wasted on reprinting by downloading these free templates and using a traditional technique borrowed from the darkroom.

Canon’s new RF 85mm f/1.2 L has been officially announced, along with a hefty price tag. Considering the specifications and market this lens will compete in, is the price fair?

During the past decade, the world economy has experienced steady, gradual expansion. But what goes up must come down, and the question photographers are wise to consider is: "how will the next recession affect me?"

The buzz around Canon's announcements has been electric and, frankly, invigorating. But before you dive into that riptide of gear acquisition syndrome, you need to ask some hard questions.

Most landscape photographers argue that scouting locations ahead of time creates the best final product. I beg to differ.

Have you ever wondered what that obscure tab called “Channels” in Photoshop does? You know, the one with black and white layers of your photograph that are anything but red, blue, or green? Turns out they do some pretty amazing things and aren’t really that hard to understand once you get familiar with them.

Having a flawed mindset about yourself or your photography is often the biggest hindrance to your creative work. From each of our unique life experiences, we have all developed ways of thinking that can either allow us to move forward or could greatly hold us back. Here are four mindsets that, over time, I have seen negatively effect creative people, including myself. I encourage you to read through each one and see if any of these have hindered you as well.

Just like ever camera owner is a photographer, every person who owns an abundance of MAC products is a makeup artist. At least that is how it seems on Instagram these days. There are now more makeup artists on social media than ever, and finding the right ones to follow can be tricky. Following the best makeup artists can make a portrait photographer better. If you follow them closely, you can step up your game.

In this article, I'm going to go through the settings I use to get the best results from my drone photography. These settings can be applied to all DJI drones, Phantom 3, Phantom 4, Mavic, and Inspire, as long as you use the DJI app or Litchi. Let me fly through the basic stuff.

My love for street photography pre-dates my time as a photographer. But one thread that runs between all my favorite street photographers is a characteristically dark and moody aesthetic. Here are my top 10 to follow.

Being busy doesn't mean being profitable. Working on all kinds of projects doesn't lead to a successful photography career. This article is not the usual "Five quick steps to become a wealthy photographer." To be honest, it's a slow process, but if you understand its principles it will guide you on the journey to success.

Images are extremely easy to copy, repost, and republish on the Internet and as photographers we have an inherent interest to not let that happen without our permission. We work hard to create our photographs, investing time and money into our projects. But with a few simple clicks or the help of apps, people can take images and do almost whatever they want with them without many technical restrictions.

Lensbaby has always been an enigma to me, and I've never been quite sure what niche they're meant to fill. Perhaps you can help me.

Photographing forests is one of the harder parts of landscape and nature photography. This editing trick might change how you approach your subject.

"I'm a natural light photographer. I don't shoot with artificial lights. I don't like the look of strobe-lit portraits." That's fine, but why are your post-processed images look so unnatural?

Instagram Stories have been around for quite a while now, and we have actually already shared a few articles regarding how you can make better use of them to build engagement on your account. In this new write-up, I wanted to share with you a couple of techniques that aren’t too tedious to use on a regular basis to help you build higher quality stories. The goal is to create stories that people will want to follow on a daily basis and thus start to engage more with you. Content may not be king on social networks anymore, but it’s still the only thing that retains followers.

Today, we will eschew all the glitz, glamour, and pixel-peeping and get down to brass tacks on why I chose to use a specific camera for a specific use case.

Though the Panasonic Lumix S1R remains a dark-horse contender among its full frame mirrorless competitors, I believe Panasonic made a strong entry into the market that is still worth considering over the more established and up-to-date competition. Check out this article to learn about some interesting features that the S1R has to offer for landscape photographers.

Retouching photos is as much an art as a skill, and portrait photographers must understand the proper way to retouch images, even if they prefer to have a retoucher do this work for them. Although there are a variety of ways to retouch an image, using frequency separation is the most common method and is considered one of the best. In this article and the accompanying video, I detail the process I use to retouch my headshots and portrait work.

When the leaves start turning those beautiful autumn colors, it’s prime time to get the camera out and make some photographs.

Platon has photographed many of the world's most powerful leaders and biggest celebrities and often shoots covers for magazines such as Wired, Esquire, Newsweek, Rolling Stone and New York Times Magazine. Most recently, he captured comedian and TV show personality Stephen Colbert for the cover of Time, which you can see in the video posted above. His style of shooting proves that you can take some of the most legendary portraits of our most powerful people with nothing but a light or two and a real connection between subject and photographer. In fact, I learned that from him directly when he came to teach a couple of classes to some of us lucky photo majors back at Rochester Institute of Technology over 10 years ago. It was those classes that changed my view on portrait photography forever.

Leica has always tried to maintain a balance between their reverence for the past and their willingness to embrace the future through innovative camera releases that shoot black and white only or cameras that don’t have a rear LCD. I believe their next flagship release, expected to be unveiled on January 13, 2022, will take the bold step of removing all buttons, dials, and switches from the back of the camera in favor of a touchscreen-only interface.

If you’ve viewed deep-sky astrophotos (not landscape astrophotos), you may have noticed that extremely long exposures (not counting mosaics) are used. In extreme cases, exposures may run over 12 hours. Unless you have a space telescope, it should be obvious that multiple exposures have been used.

Earlier today, DxOMark released their evaluation of the Canon 5D Mark IV, concluding that it has made notable strides in sensor performance. Anecdotally speaking, I can corroborate their results based on my time with Canon's latest generation of bodies. For years, many have bemoaned the company's sensors as lacking in dynamic range and being generations behind those of Nikon and Sony, but it seems now that they have essentially caught up to their rivals. However, for the everyday work of photographers, the story is a bit more complicated.

If what we read on the internet is to be believed (and who doesn’t believe everything they read on the Internet?) film is definitely not dead. But for a debate which has been raging for well over a decade, I can’t help but wonder whether the wrong question is being posed. Is it not photography itself, rather than film, which has been dying a slow death in front of our very eyes?

If you've found yourself wondering how you can go about using hashtags on Instagram for tagging your work, here's how I go about it. Spoiler alert: I don't overthink it, and I keep it as simple as possible.

For a long time as a photographer, I did not have access to a studio nor did I have the necessary lights to help create a studio setup indoors. And let’s not talk about renting studios! So, in absence of a studio, I came up with one easy way to create the studio feel, which you will find is pretty cheap.

I was recently involved in a conversation via Facebook that centered around new camera gear and becoming a better photographer. The saying generally goes: “It’s not about the camera gear at all.” While I generally agree with this way of thinking, it’s not always accurate.