Fstoppers Original Articles

Have you ever taken a photo of a sunset and been disappointed at what it looks like on the camera? Well, follow along for some expert editing tips to transform them into gold.

When you’re planning a trip to visit Iceland’s majestic countryside, chances are that you are probably following the ring road in one direction or another. And with good reason. Almost all the major sights are dotted around this single road. Or are they? Should we even be chasing these well-known compositions to get a copy of our own on the wall?

With the latest Capture One, you get an incredible level of control over your images. I’ve already been a fan of the layers and masks in Capture One for a while, but with the new update, the software can create those for you. This, and so much more, is why you should try out the new Capture One.

No stranger to unique and challenging photography pursuits, Ben VonWong's latest adventure sent him across the Western United States in search of summer thunderstorms, with an entourage of assistants, filmmakers, and models helping along the way. VonWong shared this behind-the-scenes video, but also some insightful information as to the conversation he hopes to start– one about the seriousness of climate change.

Rawtherapee and Darktable are two advanced editing programs for photographers. The best part is they are free. But which one suits you? Here, you’ll find out.

Creating an even, flattering light in the studio doesn't have to be difficult. In this tutorial, I will show you three simple parallel lighting hacks to make portraits that everyone from the boardroom to Broadway will love.

Until last year, f/2.8 standard zooms for Sony mirrorless cameras were limited to Sony’s hefty GM, an impressive lens with a price tag to match. Suddenly, there’s a trio from which to choose, and the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art is a welcome addition to the fray.

You don’t need another image of the bride’s shoes, the groom’s bow tie, or some other “detail” photo to repost all over your Pinterest album. Really, you don’t. That’s not the photo that will make you the hero of the wedding day, or even keep you in the conversation for the rest of the evening.

What do you actually need to know to do landscape photography?

Imagine living in the 1900s as a professional photographer. People were overdressed, kids were running around the streets, not with knives or guns, but with sticks, chasing something crudely resembling a wheel. Yet, photographers everywhere were getting upset. Not only because of some "weekend warrior" undercutting them, but due to the fact that Kodak unveiled something that would forever shift the photographic market for decades to come...

From modern-day yogis like Kelly Slater to Tim Ferriss, all have one piece of advice that I will paraphrase here: if you want to excel at your craft, you must always be the student, not a master, and immerse yourself into your discipline at all times.

Fujifilm has revolutionized the medium format digital world. Their cameras came in at one-tenth of the cost of the existing players, and they want to make them even cheaper! I have worked with the GFX 50S for several months and own a GFX 50R, so when I had the chance to spend a couple of days with the GFX 100, I snapped it up. I'll share my experiences with it here.

Unless you're a photojournalist, the chances are low that your photos will ever go viral. If you're trying to go viral, you'll probably be prepared ahead of time. If you just so happen to be in the right place at the right time, you may not be prepared for what happens when your photos go viral.

After delving into some of the regrettable gear choices I've made, it's time to shift the focus to the gear that has truly excelled in my toolkit. In this article, I'll share the equipment that brings me joy whenever I use it. Be it a camera, or a light stand, or even a keyboard, it's all in here.

If you are an active user on Facebook (and not living under a rock), you have surely seen status updates and links referring to your friend's profiles on the new social network, Ello. But as a working photographer or cinematographer, is investing time into another social network really worth it?

With Adobe just releasing their latest iteration of Lightroom Classic, I thought now might be the time to look at how to optimize and speed up Adobe's favorite image management and editing application.

With the year coming to an end, it’s a great time to take inventory and see what you did right and what needs improvement. This also translates to your gear. What was used the most and what should be thrown up for sale? This is a list of my most used gear for 2019.

A few months ago, I shared how to take stunning night photos. There, I touched on the technical aspects of taking and editing such images. In today's article, I expand on the topic, focusing on creating perfectly noise-free night images.

When I was younger, my dad took a class on photography at a local community college. To this day, he says that the biggest thing he learned from the class was that to take interesting pictures, you have to go to interesting places. I suppose that if you are a travel, landscape, or nature photographer, that is true. What a lot of people don’t realize is that interesting places are all around us. Having grown up in Ohio, I always thought that I was stuck in a dreary, featureless landscape of corn and soybeans.

A common issue that we're often faced with when using hard light modifiers such as a beauty dish or open reflector, is that of over-exposed highlights on our subject's forehead, nose and under eye areas, which also results in lost skin texture in those regions. While raw processors offer up the ability to recover highlight detail, this rarely leads to satisfactory results. In this tutorial I'll show you how to recover the texture while leaving the overall luminosity in-tact to produce a well-balanced result.

In the last two years, Samyang has introduced a number of autofocus prime lenses specifically for Sony’s FE mount and, having recently bought the Sony a7 III, two in particular caught my eye: the 24mm and 35mm f/2.8. These tiny lenses have been in my bag for the last month and I think they’re fantastic value for money with unexpected performance given their size.

Three months ago, I decided to take the leap to turn my long-time hobby into something more and see what happened. There are a few philosophies in monetizing your work, and here, I go over my thoughts, progress, and revenue streams so far.

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 2020, 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.

I have mentioned before that I am always seeking new ways to improve. Today, I want to share one of my daily initiatives that I religiously employ, and that’s my daily color exploration.

Taking the leap in to professional photography is daunting and full of traps for you to fall into, but there's one that you can jump in willingly and without realizing it's a trap at all.

I've heard stories of clients who said that. They feel the service of a certain photographer is way too expensive, as to them, it's merely clicking of a button. I tend to agree with many who say that.

There is a ton of gear buying advice on the internet. It ranges from people telling you to spend thousands on gear, to people saying all you need is a stick and a brick. I try to be somewhere in between and buy gear based on factors such as return on investment, need versus want, and return on creativity.

For years photographers and YouTube commenters have been telling us that in order to get the most out of our Profoto B1 and D1 lights, we need to add the Profoto Frosted Glass Dome to our strobes. Today I test this add-on to see if it makes a difference at all, and the results are surprising.

I often see instructional videos and one-on-one tutorials with amazing photographers on various websites and while many of them are amazing and full of valuable information, they usually cost several hundred dollars. There are a lot of photographers that I would love to have a one-on-one tutorial with, but often it is just not in my budget. While I like to stay as busy as possible with my own photography business, in my free time I'll sometimes come across good opportunities. When I started assisting in my spare time, I quickly found that I could learn as much, if not more, than if I was watching a tutorial or having a one-on-one conversation with an experienced photographer — and I get paid to do it.

In a previous article, I shared my favorite way of dealing with an overcast sky in photography. Today, we will focus on the opposite: clear skies. Those can also be a challenge for landscape photographers. But there are ways to take great photos under such conditions, and in this article, we'll explore several of them.

I strive to capture moments in time with my photography, and one thing I like is once in a lifetime or very rare moments. The Neowise comet (aka C/2020 F3 NEOWISE) is one of those moments that won't happen again for about another 6,800 years.

I’ve seen the future of film... and it is bright. In the next few weeks I will be interviewing companies that are pushing the film photography industry forward. As the large film companies cut film stocks from production, these people are pushing forward. Developing new films, cameras, products, and services. This week, I start with CineStill.

It's rare that any piece of photographic equipment is versatile and affordable enough that I recommend it to everyone, but the GVM-600S Ring Light is one of those rare products. If you shoot photos or videos, you should buy this light.

Over the last two years, photographer Pedro Oliveira has worked on a photo essay celebrating an underappreciated demographic, and the results are timeless.

The votes are in, and you've helped to choose our Fstoppers Photographer of the Year! We've also randomly selected one member who voted to receive a free Fstoppers tutorial of their choice!

Talking cameras isn’t always about lavishing praise on the most recent release. Nearing two years since I first placed my order, the Nikon Z9 continues to be the best camera I’ve ever owned.

Correct buildings that appear to lean back away from the camera with three techniques using both software and hardware, it's simpler than you'd think.

Sony has established the era of the incremental update, offering new bodies at an alarming rate that are putting the old guard to shame. Where flagships used to be replaced every four to five years, Sony has just announced its ultimate camera after the first iteration has been on the market for a mere two-and-a-half. Is this what customers want, and is the a9 II a big disappointment?

I guess you will have a zoom lens in your camera bag. It is a very handy tool that allows you to zoom in, and to zoom out. But you can also use it to manipulate the size of the background compared to your subject. Let me explain.

Almost a year and a half ago, I undertook the most technically challenging photo shoot of my career. I was fairly proud of the results and the community rallied around it but Lee and Patrick have publicly criticized the image. This will hopefully settle the debate between us.

Infinite view, the soothing repetitive sound of crashing waves, and probably the most romantic sunrises draw us to the sea. Where many people relax and leave their care behind, photographers start to struggle: what's the right shutter speed?

There was a time in my life that weddings were my main source of income. After being laid off from my job as a scientist, my hobby soon turned into a career. When I was first starting out, I took any and every gig I could to make ends meet. However, I held a secret during that time that I would never had admitted until now. I hated weddings.

Adding color to an otherwise boring grey background in Adobe Photoshop isn't terribly complicated. In this short video tutorial, I'll show you how to accomplish that in just a few short steps.

A few weeks ago, I read some news about the rare NEOWISE Comet passing by Earth and being large and clear enough to see with your naked eye. I got up, went outside, and looked up to a bunch of cloud cover. Luckily for me and all of you, we can always hit up Instagram and Facebook for great photos other photographers captured.

Sure, the photo-focused social media app is saturated. That doesn’t mean you can’t use it to drum up more business. If you’re a photographer wanting more clients, Instagram has the potential to be a powerful marketing tool.

Focus and sharp images are always at the top of the photographer's priority list. But you shouldn't just toss out a photo because it's not pin-sharp exactly where you want it to be. In fact, there are many reasons why you should covet that soft shot over the others.

Working with a second shooter has a ton of advantages: you can cover more moments, you get different angles and perspective on the same moments, and they even allow you to try new things during the day that you normally couldn't afford to do. One of the more frustrating things about working with a second shooter though, is when you get back home to later find out that your cameras were not synced to the correct time. What you're left with is images from the reception all intermixed with images from getting ready.

Years ago Instagram was filled with poorly filtered and over processed HDR images. Thankfully we have moved away from those days but how did we end up in a world without much color?

Last week, fellow Fstoppers Writer Ty Poland wrote an article called "The Power of Overshooting." Ty is a great photographer, and he made some very valid points, but I must respectfully disagree. To me, undershooting is what advances your skills as a photographer.