Exclusive articles and expert opinions written by Fstoppers’ talented team of creative professionals. Here we cover everything from the latest photographic techniques to advice on running a successful photography business, to first hand accounts of working in the photography industry.
Browsing a dusty used book store on the north side of Chicago in 2008, a familiar name caught my eye: Aldous Huxley. The Huxley book I saw there, published in 1942, had an intriguing title: The Art of Seeing.
Do you know what the most expensive photography book ever sold was? What would your guess be? How about the most expensive photography books on retail shelves? The rarest or most sought after? Take a few guesses, write them down, and then compare when you get to the end.
With the newest flagship smartphone cameras taking huge leaps in sensor and software technology, are we seeing the beginning of more professional usage in the commercial market?
Canon’s flagship APS-C DSLR, the 7D Mark II, is long overdue for an overhaul, and all of the speculation for 2019 was that its successor, the 7D Mark III, would soon be announced. Rumors now suggest that it will be merged with the 80D, with an EOS R in the pipeline to take its place.
As we've been discovering over the past few months, there are many options and choices when it's time to print your artwork. Today's paper is a rock star when it comes to unique yet subtle texture and really works wonders with your muted color palettes, so let's check it out.
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.
Photography is a wonderful hobby, but for some, a hobby just isn't enough. Some of us get so infected with the craft that we instantly know we want to one day spend all our time on it. So what skills should a hobbyist photographer focus on?
We live in a digital photo era but that doesn't mean that your old photos and negatives boxed up in the attic should be forgotten. The first step in preserving these is to get them organized. Next, you need to digitize old photos so they can be easily viewed and shared with others.
In the song Sunscreen, Baz Luhrmann teaches certain “inalienable” truths about life: you’re not as fat as you imagine, politicians will philander, and you too, will get old. So I’ve compiled a short list of some funny yet brutal life-truths about becoming a professional photographer.
Carrie Beene has long been one of the top retouchers known for her amazing work on ads for cosmetics and hair product companies. We recently sat down with Carrie to learn more about how she started and what advice she has for aspiring retouchers.
Following yesterday’s tragedy, I found myself reflecting on a moment ten years ago and the impact photography has had on my life.
Sometimes shooting on location, or even finding the ideal location, can be so difficult that a photographer has to rely on their own ingenuity to bring their vision to life. Here is how I turned my tiny bathtub into a forest pond for a magical shoot, with some tips on how you can do the same thing.
Adobe introduced a number of software updates ahead of the 2019 NAB Show. After taking some time to check out the updates and speak with the members of the team, I’m excited to see the future of Adobe’s video production tools.
The world of macro photography can look complicated to a beginner but it’s really not and in these five tips for better macro photography I’ll show you how you can improve your macro photography.
When it is time to buy a camera, image stabilization can be something that is on the bucket list of must haves. Image stabilization makes it possible to shoot with longer shutter times than normal, preventing the use of a tripod. There are many different implementations of image stabilization, but it is not the Holy Grail. You could say image stabilization is overrated.
I recently read an insightful Instagram post, made by Outside magazine. In this post, creative director Emma Sheffer spoke of a loss of originality and the current saturation of homogeneity in Instagram feeds. With her comments, I couldn't agree more.
I ran some tests over the weekend with different versions of Premiere Pro, and realized that the latest version is able to scrub through footage far faster. It’s definitely worth the upgrade.
Following a recent interview with one of Canon’s senior executives, we’re getting more of an insight into what the Japanese giant has in mind for its vast range of cameras: EOS M is the most likely future of APS-C mirrorless, with no suggestion that there will ever be mirrorless versions of the large array of crop-sensor DSLRs.
Rules of composition seem to get a lot of flak. Really though, they are simply commonly appreciated methods of composition and certainly have a place in our repertoire. This is especially true while we learn the ropes.
I love what I do and pursue my passions fervently and in all directions. While you're starting out and not achieving much, you feel a wealth of support, but with success comes a type of guilt I've labeled, Dreamer's Guilt.
The annual income of the typical photographer in the U.S. is 20 percent less than the national average. There are both good and bad reasons why photographers don't earn a decent wage and you might want to give these five reasons some thought if you want to survive as a creative image-maker in the modern world.
You have a daily workhorse camera that gets used for all your run-of-the-mill jobs. Like most businesses you go with a five year replacement cycle, so why would you replace it with a seven year old camera?
It has been gone since fall, but the galactic core of the Milky Way is back and rising up in the early morning. Spring is a great time to learn how to photograph the Milky Way in the Northern hemisphere, so you can have your process perfected and be ready when the galactic core reaches peak altitude in July and August.
Macro photography can be useful to many disciplines, but mastering the craft can require some heavy duty gear, and some in-depth knowledge. However, one mistake I see a lot of macro photographers make is also the easiest to fix.
If you had your time again, would you change anything about your photography career? Here are 10 regrets I have accumulated while practicing as a professional photographer for the last decade.
When it comes to being creative and personal photography, how do you approach your shoots? Do you prepare a well-researched mood board and vehemently stick to it, or do you let your creative juices flow and see where the shoot takes you? Is there a right way?
During a fascinating interview given by one of the company's senior executives, Canon dropped a few bombshells, including the plan for a full frame mirrorless camera that is even cheaper than the recently launched EOS RP. When you consider how affordable (and limited) the RP is, you have to wonder what Canon has in mind.
Making the move to being pro is fraught with the anxieties of not having the right equipment. So what equipment do commercial photographers use? Being a commercial photographer is pretty much as vague a job description as being an administrative assistant.
I recently heard about three Puerto Rican photographers who would go out and shoot casually as friends. But, what made them unique was that these three photographers specialized in three completely different genres of photography.
If it wasn’t already crystal clear that dyed-in-the-wool photojournalists needed to add video to their toolbox, Apple News+ has just made the case even more pressing.
Capture One is multi-faceted image processing and asset management software. As a raw processor, it is considered the gold standard, supporting over 500+ cameras, and with it comes a uniquely powerful toolset for developing, color grading, and tethering. But that is just the tip of the technological iceberg that is Capture One. With a focus on user experience, its mountain of capability and complexity is hidden under a veneer of simplicity so as to make working with your images fast, focused, and easy.
Late last month I did a post on my ongoing problems with Adobe and the Creative Cloud software and apps. I sometimes find Photoshop unreliable, as well as Bridge. I've also had numerous crashes with the Creative Cloud app too. There were a lot of good comments on my piece, and I also attracted some of the good folks at Adobe who were anxious to weigh in on my experience, which I welcomed.
Have you ever thought what post-processing is involved behind the car images you see in the ads? An interview with founder and CEO of "Curve Digital" Nick Limb lifts up the curtain behind their workflow.
Why would you want to simplify your landscape compositions? And once you're convinced, how do you start?
A recent round of layoffs at Canon’s USA headquarters in Melville and the closing of a major service center in New Jersey can’t mean good things for the company’s future in photography.
Building a shooting space in your home can be difficult to say the least. For most photographers, a home studio is never large enough and every inch of space becomes a commodity. In this video we show you perhaps the easiest and cleanest way to hang seamless paper in your studio space.
Depth of Field, or a lack thereof, has become a buzzword of sorts in photography circles. Many times the term is used as a blanket nomenclature to cover anything to do with how much or little of a subject is in focus. What we often fail to consider is why. Why are we choosing to use as much or as little depth as we do? It's time to look past aesthetics and really think about depth of field in relation to our subjects.
A few weeks ago, I beat Lee Morris in our Puerto Rico Landscape Challenge. With that victory, many of our readers said my edit in Photoshop was simply too over the top. Today, I try to re-edit my photo to see if I can create something a bit more realistic.
Have you ever made a picture of a landscape? Sure you have. Everyone has. Making the photo is the easy part, but showing the landscape how you experienced it, is something else. Often the photo does not show the landscape from you perception. Finding a subject is often one of the solutions.
A quick trip into downtown Los Angeles allowed me a closer look at one of my photographic heroes.
One of Darwin's most seminal remarks on evolution, quoted en masse throughout the internet and various text books, is a profound piece of advice to any photographer looking to build a lasting career in the industry. The only catch is, he didn't actually say it.
Fstoppers wouldn't exist without Ritz Camera. Patrick and I met each other working there 13 years ago. But, as many of you know, Ritz Camera went bankrupt, and we know why.
With one simple change to my everyday routine, I suddenly feel more creative, able to generate ideas more quickly, and with greater clarity. You can achieve the same thing with one simple trick that won’t cost you a penny.
Were you one of the early adopters who jumped to a Fuji X series, selling your extensive Canon camera body and lens range, to be thoroughly unimpressed with the image quality to then jump back? Or did you fork out on a PhaseONE medium format, drooling over that dreamy tonal range to then see Pentax release the rather good 645Z for a quarter of the price a year later? Enter the "Yesterday's Tech" purchasing model.
We've all heard of saving less than perfect images by turning them black and white, but when should you really do it? Here's how I decide.
Travel photography is mostly associated with exploration of wild, untouched spaces, but in my experience, most commissioned travel photography takes place in cities. This article provides five tips for getting started in urban photography.
Maybe you've had a prospective client — someone you've never heard of — ring you up to discuss your photography services... and had your brain freeze, making the conversation awkward. Even if you've been landing photography gigs for years, the excitement of an unexpected phone call can throw you off course.
So you upgraded to a DSLR to take your photography to the next level and you now feel a strong urge to step into the big bad world of professional photography. You have the kit lenses, but you know they won’t cut it. Let me introduce you to the must-have kit lens of professional photographers.
As a photographer or a videographer, do you routinely get stuck in the same cycle when working on a project, which may or may not include Imposter Syndrome, exasperation, and more? What's your unique "cycle"?
