Light is everything in photography. If it's good, shooting feels like you just won the lottery. If it's bad, it can be incredibly frustrating to work in. This great video talks about finding the right time of day for the light you're looking for.
Flickr has been acquired by SmugMug, and the official date for the switchover is looming. Here is why now might be the time to back up everything, reach out to all your followers, and maybe think about deleting your account forever.
Photographing people, especially when they are not models, can come with some challenges. Not many have the experience of being in front of the camera. Throw some kids into the mix, and it can become a lot more difficult with a different set of obstacles during your session. What can you do?
On May 8th, Fujifilm released their updated firmware for the X-T2 mirrorless camera. This takes the current firmware to version 4.0 and embodies Fujifilm’s Kaizen philosophy by making enormous changes to what the camera is able to do. Let’s take a look at it here.
It's tempting to chase the idea of being unique in any creative field; after all, those are often the people that stand out. But the very pursuit of that can actually inhibit you from finding your true style, as this great video essay discusses.
Have you ever thought that you need to shoot more for yourself but have no idea where to start? Photographer Pierre T. Lambert will save you time on this and offers a fun exercise that every photographer should try at least once in their lifetime: shoot underwater!
Using gels opens up a world of colors when shooting portraits. But you don't always have to place the gel paper over the light and shoot. How creative can you get when shooting portraits with color gels?
As professional photographers, there's no doubt in our minds that making photography into a career should be considered "a real job." However, the path you take to become a professional may make or break your career choice.
Mathieu Stern got his hands on a Scarlet-W, which shoots a whopping 5K image, to bring the best out of a vintage 135mm lens he picked up on eBay.
The Retouching Academy has announced a new contest, open to beginner and experienced enthusiast skill levels. Download the contest image file and submit your best retouch by May 15, 2018 for a chance to win some great prizes from Wacom, Capture One, and Retouching Academy.
Teleconverters are an interesting proposition: a cheap device you attach between your lens and camera body that gives you an increase in focal length. This great video will give you an introduction to their strengths and drawbacks to decide if they're right for your work.
We are all addicted to tutorials; at least, I know I am. I'm also addicted to food, so I need to double up my free time. My goal was to come up with an easy way to watch all the tutorials on my iPad. Sure, you could copy the tutorial files onto your iPad, but if you are like me and have a lot more content than would fit on the iPad and don't want to keep putting on and taking it off, there is a better way!
Justin Odisho is a prolific video maker who also shares great video-editing orientated tutorials on YouTube. In this video he discusses how to get clients and how to build your video portfolio with Daniel Schiffer.
When it comes to our cameras most of us put a lot of time into researching which camera to purchase. We review websites like Fstoppers, read user reviews on B&H and Amazon. All to make sure the camera we end up with has the feature we want and the best image quality we can afford. What we forget, however, is that image quality in real life usage can be quite subjective.
I live in a small city far from popular landscape photography locations and seemingly devoid of fellow photographers. I oftentimes find myself feeling a bit alone in the creative process. To remedy this, I went online to find peers and look for resources to get constructive feedback on my work. I ended up meeting someone who helped me improve my work and whose generosity took me completely by surprise.
Sometimes, you have a great lighting setup that gives you the exact look you want, but you need to fill in the shadows ever so slightly. This great video shows you how a ring flash can allow you to fill in shadows without changing the overall look of your setup.
Today marks 10 years since I first filed paperwork to start my photography business. It's been quite the roller coaster, and I've learned a lot of things about photography, business, and myself that I didn't expect. Here are some of the highlights from my first 10 years.
Should you avoid shooting popular photography locations? One landscape photographer tries to answer that question while searching for a unique composition at a classic photo spot.
Social media is a weird beast that makes a lot of us at least somewhat uncomfortable, but most of us also acknowledge it's a bit of a necessary evil for the modern creative. This great video talks about being realistic about what social media is, your relationship with it, and what you can expect from it.
Surprisingly often, simple courtesy is overlooked by photographers when hired to perform work as a peer. These principles sure seem like common sense, so what could be the problem? Take a look at these basic standards of professionalism.
What’s on your travel bucket list? Iceland? Norway? New Zealand? Ever considered Siberia? Neither did I, but after this two-minute video, that just might change.
When shooting video or photography, you need gaffer tape. There are some advantages of using it instead of duct tape, and this video shows you all the various uses on and off set.
With recent advances in third-party lens tech and glass quality, Tamron’s new 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD superzoom lens with its small form factor and incredible versatility just might be the best travel and walk around lens for APS-C cameras to date. With a price of $650, this could easily replace two or even three lenses for some users. But who exactly is this lens for?
Later recently released the ability through the API permissions granted by Instagram to automatically post your content without using the push-notification, copy-and-paste method that was all hated but reluctantly accepted as our best option.
Michael Shainblum has been creating jaw dropping and memorable time-lapses for years and he has just released a new video centered on the Italian coast of Cinque Terre. Glimpse of Cinque Terre is a beautiful time-lapse that showcases the area and spans several scenes of day moving into night while capturing the surreal coast.
There’s nothing better than capturing great footage in-camera, and not having to go try rescue it in post with LUTs, warp-stabilization, and compositing. In this video there are some simple tips on how to get shots without any additional gear.
At the beginning of 2018, I set a goal to read one book a week to broaden my mind and seek inspiration from new places. So far, I've stuck with it. Lee Morris, Mike Kelley, and I decided to sit down on camera and discuss the experience.
When creating imagery of any night landscape, you are taking your camera and the other equipment you own and pushing them to their limits. With that in mind, should photographers be upset when their favorite imagery is put together in post?
There are a few pieces of gear I think every photographer should own, and near the top of that list is a 5-in-1 reflector. Today only, you can get one (or a few extras) for half off.
While it is tempting to constantly compare ourselves to other photographers, it’s important to remind ourselves of what we already know: the quality of art cannot be measured in numbers.
There're so many stories about big brands and companies approaching photographers in the hope of getting free images to use in exchange for the popular currency that is exposure, but what happens when they exclude the photographer from the equation completely and instead head straight to your client asking for free images?
Lightroom Mobile continues to become a more capable companion to the desktop app. This great video examines the benefits of a mobile workflow and how it can make your life easier when you sit back down at your computer.
We don't all have the luxury of a wide open studio space with 20-foot ceilings that we can fit any modifier into, no matter how massive and unwieldy. This great video will show you how to get big, soft light, even when you're working in small spaces.
Making a short film is quite expensive, they say. However, if you know what to do, you can achieve your goal with very little tools and on a small budget. But let me warn you: it's not a simple task.
Instant film and the nostalgia that goes with it is very popular right now, so popular, in fact, that it's the main source of Fujifilm's profit. Now, Canon is getting into the game with their new miniature mobile photo printer, the IVY.
You may have already read about Steven Holleran in a recent Fstoppers article. If not, let me briefly fill you in: Holleran is an extremely talented and accomplished visionary behind the lens. He's been commissioned by companies such as Google and Nike, and was the daring cinematographer for the popular Netflix series Fire Chasers and the award-winning Sundance film "A Boy. A Girl. A Dream." Plus, he's a badass.
Working day in and day out as a creative professional, I don't put a lot of stock in inspiration as a source of drive and creativity. Some days, you just have to do your job whether you're inspired or not. For me, staying motivated is far more important!
An image is eye catching when it's extraordinary. So why is it that the ordinary and banal can appear extraordinary? And if that really is the case, how can we go about achieving that?
If you wonder how people who keep only two complementary colors in their images do it, then look no further. You may not know what the Technicolor Two-Strip technique or Process 2 is, but mimicking it in post-production is what you’ve been looking for to achieve this distinctive look.
The term “digital nomad” or "location independent" is becoming more attractive to many, led in part by millennials as the world shrinks due to the connectivity the internet brings. Artists, engineers, and developers alike are ditching the normal routines and instead embracing the constant adventure of the nomadic lifestyle.
Being a landscape photographer means that the most meticulous or sometimes frivolous thing we do is pre-plan. Sometimes, these plans are our way to take the chance of making a mistake or they're so we walk away with what our mind has already created but our camera hasn’t captured. What happens when our planning doesn't work?
It's easy to take for granted the fact that our camera sensors somehow translate light into digital data that is eventually reconstructed as a viewable image on our monitors when we return to our studios. However, there's some very deep and impressive science behind this feat, and this neat video will introduce you to how it all works.
Personal projects often take a lot of planning and persistence to pull off. They are passion driven assignments which is a big part of why they are so important to evolve as a photographer. However, sometimes opportunity and timing don't line up so you have to make the best of a poor situation. This is when experience and determination make or break an idea.
With all the hectic distractions that come with today's fast-paced lifestyles, it's nice to slow things down sometimes and focus on one thing. That is exactly what long exposure photography offers, and our readers made it hard to pick out the best photo, as there were so many great shots this week.
Many of us love the look of shallow depth of field portraits and strobe lighting, but when you move into the studio, this combo can present some difficulties. This helpful video will show you some good workarounds for shooting such portraits in your studio.
Growing up in Syracuse, New York, Tom Drone was only exposed to the beauty of this city at ground level. As time went on and technology advanced, drones became a popular tool for filming things from a new perspective. After years of work in the drone business, Tom returned to his hometown to film it from the sky.
Three-dimensional models are now widely used in the gaming and movie industries and one of the most common methods for creating them uses computational photography. This, the first of two articles, explains how it works.
One of the most important characteristics of a growing photographer is the ability to accurately assess their current skill level, where they need work, and what sort of jobs they can take on and perform well. This great video examines the importance of being honest about one's abilities.
A little while ago I showed you a fantastic LUTs pack, called Lutify.me, compatible with most photo and video editing including Capture One, Lightroom, Premiere, and Resolve. However, since Lightroom has been updated, it’s now even better than before with much better integration with both the CC and Classic CC versions.
Iceland is one of the more popular locations for landscape photographers due to its huge range of absolutely gorgeous landscapes and unique beauty. From its magnificent black sand beaches, roaring waves, to the auroras and majestic mountains, they all help to make stunning images.
