With the internet, it's easier than ever to hop online, see hundreds of photographs, and compare your work to a bevy of other photographers. But just because you can, it doesn't mean you should. This great video explores the importance of not worrying about the work of other photographers too much.
Spend any time working with post-processing applications, and you will probably end up using blending modes sooner rather than later. They're incredibly useful and fundamental to most workflows, but how do they actually work? This highly informative video will dive deep into the theory behind blending modes and how they work.
After a monster week of F, it's time to get back to some semblance of normality (although the title sounds like a Harry Potter novel!). Coming at you straight from Photography 101 and the chapter on "Composition" is the Golden Triangle, followed from left-field by Nan Goldin.
Using minimalism and negative space can be an effective means of creating striking compositions that catch the eye. Check out this short video for tips on how to create images and why it’s effective.
Symmetry is a basic aesthetic that you can use to greatly improve your composition and attention of the photo. In this article, I dive into different ways you can use symmetry in your photos.
During a few weeks around the summer solstice, the situation in the highest regions of the atmosphere can be ideal to form a rare kind of clouds. Invisible by day, these clouds can be lit by the sun when its beneath the horizon, showing up as noctilucent clouds.
When you put a Canon 5D Mark IV and an L series lens up against an entry level Canon with kit lens, you're obviously going to get better results with the more expensive option. But are the results 10 times worth the price?
If you want to learn to take better pictures (who doesn't?), this is the tutorial for you. Try this simple challenge to improve your compositional eye and expand your creativity.
As an architectural photographer, the main types of lenses I use are tilt-shift lenses. These prime lenses are unique in how they operate because they allow you to move the internal elements parallel to the sensor. This can be extremely useful for perspective control and ideal for shooting architecture. The question is, are they vital or just overpriced?
The polarizing filter is an essential part of the landscape photographer’s tool kit. It can make a huge difference to the final photo. However, there are a few things to be aware of.
Being a professional photographer these days is not easy. Everyone with a camera is out to make money, and the industry is saturated. However, despite this, there are some serious — and sometimes serendipitous — perks to the job.
Being a financially successful photographer is just as much about business sense as it is about photographic skill. One of the best ways to ensure pleasant outcomes with your clients is to learn how to manage their expectations before you even click the shutter.
Fujifilm is due to roll out a new version of its slightly odd rangefinder hybrid later this year. How is it going to improve on the X-Pro2, which sensor will it boast, and will it really feature 5-axis in-body stabilization?
Light is the currency of photography, it's how you use it that defines your creative outputs. As we reach the letter E in our alphabetical journey, what better place to start than with exposure? Joining it, faster than a speeding bullet, is Harold Edgerton.
Whenever I discover something important or valuable to me, I inevitably wish I'd started it earlier. Areas of photography are no exception. So what do you wish you had started sooner?
The photography world is chock full of products meant to make photographers think they will instantly improve their work and take dazzling shots. Some are obviously better than others. Here are the best and worst pieces of photography gear I've purchased.
The phrase, “charge what you’re worth,” makes sense on the surface, and it’s advised so often in photography business circles that no one realizes it’s a bad idea.
Want to spruce up your product photography skills or maybe get some inspiration for your next product shoot? Check out this video guide on how to light and produce great shots for your clients!
Photography is a very secretive industry at times, but a few years ago I decided to share everything and answer any questions via instagram.
Portrait photography takes both technical competence and the ability to work with people, making it a challenging but rewarding genre. This great video will give you five helpful tips to improve your portraits.
Wedding photography is a notoriously difficult genre, full of fast-paced action and challenging scenarios. This fun and interesting video shows a wedding photographer's point of view on the big day and offers some helpful tips and tricks along the way.
Landscape photography can be a tricky genre to work in, particularly since you don't have control of the light or the elements. There are lots of lessons to learn, and to save you time and aggravation, this great video features an experienced landscape photographer talking about lessons he wishes he had learned sooner.
If you spend enough time in this field, your images are going to be stolen at some point, quite possibly on Instagram. What do you do at that point? This video follows a photographer as he discusses a recent case of his own.
When you are new to working with artificial light, one of the toughest parts is learning where to actually place the light for proper images. This helpful video will show you several fundamental lighting positions that can help jumpstart your work with strobes.
A decade seems like a bit of a milestone to me, from my first camera to working as a commercial food photographer. There have been lot of lessons learnt along the way.
One of the best pieces of advice I have been given in recent times was to not be a firefighter. Before you all jump on me and tell me I'm a dummy for saying something negative about people who are clearly more heroic than I am, let me explain. What I mean is to not be proactive in how I operate.
Dog photography can be incredibly rewarding when you do it right, but it can also be quite frustrating when the little puppers are bouncing all around and paying attention in every direction except yours. This helpful video will give you some quick tips to improve your pictures of dogs and to increase your chances of getting the shot.
If there is any basic accessory almost every photographer should own, it's a 5-in-1 reflector. Versatile, portable, and cheap, I have one in my bag at all times. This excellent video will show you the many different uses for a 5-in-1 reflector and how you can employ one to improve your shots.
It has been some time since Adobe last released a new control to Lightroom, and as such, I was very keen to try out their latest addition — the “Texture” slider. Since a good majority of my work is underwater, I was of course interested in what value it could add to underwater images. As I have quickly learned, this new feature is a great tool for underwater photographers — particularly those who struggle with backscatter in their images.
In this article you will learn how to quickly improve the look of your video footage and speed up your color grading by using a corrective lut which is also know as a look up table.
When's the last time that you let yourself shoot images without giving a thought to their monetary value? It's too easy to get caught up thinking about how to monetize our profession and it's so important to step back, slow down, and just shoot for the fun of it.
Obviously, no one watches porn videos, but the adult industry represents 30% of internet bandwidth with a greater visitor count than Amazon, Netflix, and Twitter combined. The French artist Hierophante, who specializes in social satire, made a short video depicting all the cliché of porn videos.
In this extensive breakdown, go behind the scenes of a 1950s themed shoot and see how I shot, lit, and edited it from start to finish.
Creativity comes in many forms, but something that all disciplines have in common is that you need to practice — not just your technical skill, but the act of thinking differently.
The Retouching Toolkit is, without a doubt, the best Photoshop extension I have tried yet. It helps streamline one's editing workflow, improves Photoshop's interface, and with the latest update, it's getting one step closer to becoming the only Photoshop plugin you could ever need.
If you recently updated to the latest version of Lightroom, you may have noticed a new slider near the top of the Develop module: Texture. With many different ways to add this sort of effect to a photo already in the program, you might be wondering if and how this new slider is different. This great video will explain what the Texture slider affects and show you comparisons with things like clarity and sharpening.
A lot goes into making a video look professional, and one of the final and most important steps is the color grade. It's easy to make a mistake here, and this great video will highlight four such missteps that new videographers often make when it comes time to color grade.
If you don't use a tripod, you're doing your photography a great disservice. But how do you know which tripod is best for your particular needs and circumstances?
Have you always wanted to photograph live concerts, but are anxious about how to start? Were you recently hired for your first concert photography gig, but don't still looking for more ideas on how to capture great moments of the show? Well look no further, and keep reading.
One of the more subtle but powerful ways to create impact in your images is to give them the feeling of greater depth. This excellent video discusses six methods you can use to create more dimensionality in your landscape images for a greater impact on the viewer.
Some photos look like paintings. Not because they have some dreadful filter or effect applied, but because their use of light and composition is ethereal. In this video, Vinny Le Pes breaks down what is happening in these incredible images.
Adobe's updates to apps across the Lightroom lineup today include a new Texture slider under the Presence pane for a finer alternative to clarity, tutorials created by photographers you know so you can follow along with their edits, additional tools that help others collaborate to add images to albums with you online, and more.
One mistake that I've noticed many photographers make is not thinking about what type of music they have playing while on a shoot. You'd be surprised how changing the tracks up a little can dramatically affect the outcome of your images. Check out these free playlists before your next shoot.
More and more photographers are either switching to or beginning to add video to their services, and while there are lots of similarities between shooting photos and shooting photos, there are enough differences that it's important to take the time to learn to do it properly. This helpful video will show you five common mistakes photographers make when switching to video and how to avoid them yourself.
Whether you’re shooting headshots at a Fortune 500 company or taking photographs of a family member for Mother’s Day, there’s one piece of gear you should definitely have in your kit for every portrait session.
Capturing an image is one of many steps in the process of putting together a photographic body of work. While titling your images is not obligatory, if you are thinking of exhibiting them or submitting to competitions, then this can be an important step. Although this can sometimes seem daunting, it need not be. If you’ve struggled with this, then read on.
Canon has quite a storied history of extreme lenses, and one of the most famous of those was definitely the EF 200mm f/1.8. This great video examines what made that lens so special and why it was (and remains) so expensive.
It’s one of my favorite photography tools: the simple colored gel. Not only can it improve the color balance of your image, it can dramatically boost your visual impact when used to add touches of color to your shot.
The Canon 11-24mm f/4L lens is a beautiful piece of glass, but it's also a highly pricey piece of glass. This fun video takes a look at just why it's so expensive.
As with anything you wish to progress in, investing both time and money ought to be a careful process. So, what do you believe are the wisest investments you can make as a photographer?
![A Music Video Highlights the Disturbing Reality of the Porn Industry [NSFW]](https://cdn.fstoppers.com/styles/med-16-9/s3/lead/2019/05/f1e5fd394d482d42df420a5e1303a0c0.jpg)
