Fstoppers Original Articles

Sometimes, we admire one's work, but we may not understand the path they took or how they perceive images of their own. For a few years now, Photographer Dennis Ramos has graced the front page with his popular photos and Photos of the Day here on Fstoppers. I had the great opportunity to sit down with Ramos for an interview at Tampa Image Factory to find out what exactly his photographic journey entailed in order to become one of the best black and white fine art photographers around.

What if I told you there is a social media platform on which you can earn money whenever somebody likes your content? And it's not owned by a big corporation but is governed by its community. In this article, I share my experience with such a platform that has been around for several years already.

A few days into my landscape photography trip in Oregon, I hit a creative low. While watching a disappointing sunset, I started journaling some thoughts that helped turn a series of failures into stepping stones.

Ever have one of those shoots that seems to never go as planned? Ever have fail after fail but you have to maintain your focus just for the client? This can happen with underwater sessions in a matter of minutes. When you are dealing with something as beautiful but chaotic as water, knowing you have the tools to fix the issues will help regain your sanity.

As a U.S. citizen, I have to abide by the laws of my country; As a drone operator, I have to abide by the rules of the FAA, just like anybody else. Yesterday I was at a wedding in New York when I found out President Trump was venturing to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey for a 17 day vacation. Along the way, he brought an amazing Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) that is stopping me and many other people from flying with in a 30 NM radius of his location.

There are numerous applications for soft light, from portraiture to product photography, from macro to fashion. Soft light stands as one of the cornerstones of photographic expertise.

When you love photographing moving subjects, it may be difficult to get a perfectly sharp photo. The best way is by moving your camera with the subject to keep it in the frame. This technique is called panning. I have 10 tips for successful panning photography.

In this series, I'm tying philosophy, post-processing and the nature of beauty together through the genre of landscape photography. We're going to take a closer look at what beauty actually is, before I propose a new definition for photography.

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about copying. It is true that almost everything has been invented or someone has already done it one way or another, but I am still having difficulties thinking about copying as a basis for inspiration for work.

If you're on this site, you're likely a photographer or interested in becoming a photographer. In either case, if you're new to this wonderful craft, there are some bad habits that can really hold you back, and they're worth noting. Here are five I think you ought to be wary of, but make sure to add your own in the comment section.

This week, I got a chance to connect with Blackmagic Design to discuss some best practices when approaching color grading video footage through DaVinci Resolve Studio.

A few weeks ago, I spent two days in Doha, the capital of Qatar, especially to shoot some of its amazing architecture. And due to a little serendipitous oversight, I ended up getting exactly what I wanted.

Last week I picked up Intellytech's version of a flexible LED panel. It's crazy thin, light, and portable. How does it stack up against a regular panel?

Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) is something photographers deal with all the time: that feeling you get by purchasing something that you think might be the one tool you need to really upgrade your work. Here are some ways to manage these impulses and stop you from buying unnecessary gear.

Photography is a very secretive industry at times, but a few years ago I decided to share everything and answer any questions via instagram.

As DSLR cameras become more capable in capturing high quality video, there is a temptation to add videography as a service to clients. But the learning curve from photography is videography is a steep one if you attempt to do this on your own, believe me, I tried! Whilst there are many free resources out there to help you grow as a videographer, I have found that by investing in the right subscription based services, your journey to professional filmmaker can be an enjoyable one.

Yes, that's right! In fact, all of your gear and equipment are there for you to help show what you want to say, but before that, you need to use your best tool: your mind. I'm not going to talk about the quality or techniques and skills for taking a better picture, instead I want you to think one step before that. One of the most important things for an artist is to create a piece of work showing exactly what they are thinking in their head. The difference between your idea and your outcome defines how powerful you are as an artist, and that difference is small for a great artist.

Simplicity is the name of the game when it comes to powering your video system.

Have you seen people with those small digital cameras or smartphones, holding them at arm’s length, and viewing the LCD screen while taking a picture? As a serious amateur photographer, you don’t want to takes pictures this way. I have six good reasons for using live view screen when photographing from a tripod.

It doesn't take long to burn out on a single photographic genre, especially for a creative person not being challenged enough. If you’re in danger of burnout and could use a unique challenge to reignite your passion for photography, consider astrophotography.

As a commercial artist, your portfolio is your introduction to the world. So what is the best approach to making sure that you are always putting your best foot forward?

After the hack today that took down some pretty major sites out there that we all use on a daily basis, I wanted to share some helpful information I've come across in the WordPress world. I myself have been hacked twice. Ever since moving my photography business website from a big company, I've finally been able to move on with my life.

I love taking ring shots. I usually take them during a slow time on the wedding day when there isn’t a lot going on. I have full control of where I put the ring, how I light it, how I pose it, and how I frame it. This leaves a ton of options to really get creative. So it confuses me when people just place the ring on a bouquet of flowers and call it done. These shots are not bad, but they are average. I already did an article on how to get away from the average ring shot, but I didn’t explain how to take one of my favorite ring shots. The ring silhouette.

Our lives are collections made up of people and moments. Every day, there is a plethora of wisdom that passes by, but sometimes, you get one piece of advice that can change the course of your entire life or career. In this article, I share the five pieces of advice I've gotten over my eight-year career that helped shape me into the photographer I am today.

Even though we repeat it quite often, photography doesn’t have a steep learning curve. Actually, the curve looks different for every photographer. Still, it can teach us something.

Modern DSLR and mirrorless cameras are capable of shooting razor sharp footage in spectacular 4k 60fps and up. But how do you give your footage a cinematic feel without purchasing pricey anamorphic lenses and professional cinema cameras? Fstoppers is here to help with five great hacks to achieving a cinematic feel to your video without spending a small fortune.

As the northern autumn draws closer, bizarre little creatures pop up all over the temperate forest. On the forest floor, underneath hedgerows and on trees, alive or the ones who have fallen. Fungi are the cleaning crew of the forest as they take care of layers of fallen deadwood and provide nutrients back to the forest. Surely they are great subjects for macro photography. Like everyone else, I’m looking to find their reproductive organs: Mushrooms. They let our imagination run wild as these little toadstools hint of fantasy worlds when photographed in a certain way. This is how I recreate my own little fantasy world.

Point and shoot. That's how many people think about modern photography. A lot of things we take for granted today developed in the 1800s, including photography. Exposures took days until Louis Daguerre invented his daguerreotype process, which reduced days to minutes and produced clearer, more detailed images. At about the same time, the Victorian Period began with the ascension of Queen Victoria to the British throne. Disease was rampant and mortality rates were high, especially among children under five years old. Arguably, these were contributing factors to the unintended birth of portrait photography.

Having completed what proved to be one of the most challenging shoots of my career, I was then faced with the task of editing and compositing the images. Due to my inexperience, getting the results that I wanted using Photoshop proved to be a steep learning curve. Here’s how I went about it.

What causes blur? It seems a simple enough question, but in pursuing the answer to this, I've ended up becoming a firm believer in quantum efficiency. So where did this journey begin?

We all have our pictures online. But do we have a picture that defines who we are as a professional and what we do? In this competitive world where your digital presence is a business card, what difference does a professional portrait make?

When a D1 collegiate athlete becomes a photographer, you should watch out. Zach Ancell is a commercial sports photographer from Portland and has been shooting for almost 10 years now. As any self-respecting creative, he does his own personal projects between the commercials he shoots. Pan"Tone," which is one of Ancell's recent shoots caught my attention, and he kindly agreed to share all we want to know about the set.

Every day there is an unreadable amount of content that purports to tell you how to achieve success in everything from Instagram to business, but there's one important ingredient that is often missed out. And it's inconvenient.

How do you spot a good retoucher from a novice? It's in the skin. Sure, that’s an oversimplification, but one thing that separates the best from the lesser is how they treat skin.

Not all of us chose to live in New York, Paris, or London, but that doesn't meant that we can't be professional photographers.

I handed it over and Jennifer just looked at me stunned. Her lower lip trembled and then, overwhelmed with emotion, her eyes welled up before tears rolled down her cheeks and she began to cry. Smiling, she turned to Emma who was sat on her left. She grabbed her hand reassuringly and then also started crying before giving Jennifer a hug. Across the table, next to me, was sitting Lilly - with both Jennifer and Emma now in tears she also welled up and then began to cry too.

Last week, Patrick challenged me to colorize an image he shot during the historic snowfall in Charleston. We decided it would be great to see our readers' take on the colorization process as well. These three photographers have won their choice of an Fstoppers Tutorial! How do you think they did?

When it comes to protecting our photography data we all know we should do it, but for a lot of us, we don’t know how to protect our data from loss. Should we use a RAID 1 or a RAID 6, striping or mirroring, NAS or DAS? I use KISS, or Keep It Simple Stupid.

I have the best part of a decade of professional photography under my belt, with some very hard years and some good years during that time. I have learned a lot about the craft, the industry, and most of all, about running a small business. The majority of the lessons that had the most significant impact on my career were not around techniques, post-production, or even equipment; they were about running a business.

As I am knee-deep in production this week, I thought I’d take this week’s article to share an experience outside the normal photography realm that still has lessons to teach for every small business owner.

Most photographers looking to advance their commercial photography careers come to the realization that in order to score the big jobs, they need to work with creative agencies. The question is, how does a photographer get those agency gigs? I sat down with Associate Creative Director Scott Wallace of Magner Sanborn to discuss the creative agency/photographer relationship and what we can do as photographers to get noticed and ultimately get hired.

As you advance in landscape photography, you'll likely come across techniques such as exposure blending or focus stacking. But what if you want to do both?

I'm guilty. As a commercial and fashion editorial photographer as well as a writer for Fstoppers, I love lighting, bokeh, rigging, and all technicalities involved with cinematography and photography. For many months, content fell second to setup. From my experience, there are three types of photographers: those that confide in instinct and sunlight, those that rely on post processing, and those that excel at artificial lighting and formalities.

We all know how expensive being a photographer can be and while there are some no-go areas for cutting costs, there are still several huge savings to be had if you look in the right places and change a few habits.

Last week Apple introduced new MacBook Pro models and the prices already initiated discussions. Maybe it is still better to build a custom PC for getting the bang for the buck.

Think of the nowadays common term #squadgoals; now, turn off your Taylor Swift playlist on Spotify and really listen. Would that term have the same meaning if some of the "squad" were paranoid, bitter people? Probably not, because those kind of people don't make for very good company. Instead, you're probably picturing a team of diverse, amazingly talented powerhouses from various walks of life who all have one thing in common: eating faces and taking names.

In an ideal world, we’d have every aspect of our business set up correctly from the start, but that isn’t realistic. The future version of your photography and your business will be shaped by the lessons that you are learning now.

I've seen photography products that have made me laugh at their silliness. I've seen products that have made me roll my eyes at their absurdity. But it wasn't until I saw this product that I audibly cursed at my computer screen in sheer disbelief.

As a photographer and videographer, I need a lot of fast, redundant, widely accessible storage. Let me show you my setup.

I have had an Instagram for a while now. Having tailored my account to photography, Instagram has been the backbone for my social media presence. But I, as well as most creators, don't like using it. We still do, though.