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How to Structure a Screenplay

With the advent of digital photography, more shutterbugs than ever have taken to calling themselves photographers and many have even gone into business for themselves. Now, with those same digital camera manufacturers offering better and better video options embedded into each iteration of their flagship still cameras, more and more photographers have added the word “filmmaker” to our business cards and taken aim at everything from short films to features. But being a real filmmaker requires more than the ability to just produce stunning images.

Tips on Traveling with Film: Don't Be Naive, X-Ray Scanning Kills Film

Airport authorities officially say that film at or above ISO 800 may be damaged by X-ray scanning. But they really should tell you that ISO 800 film will be damaged and that less sensitive film still could be affected. I found this out the hard way. Here's how I learned an important lesson along with a few other tips for avoiding issues while traveling with film.

Three Mindsets That Kill Creativity

Having a flawed mindset about yourself or your photography is often the biggest hindrance to your creative work. From each of our unique life experiences, we have all developed ways of thinking that can either allow us to move forward or could greatly hold us back. Here are four mindsets that, over time, I have seen negatively effect creative people, including myself. I encourage you to read through each one and see if any of these have hindered you as well.

Quick Way to Dodge and Burn

There are many methods and reasons behind dodging and burning method for photography. Some use it for retouching and some for adding a more punchy and contrasty look. While those are the only reasons to use dodging and burning, those seem to be the more popular uses out of the many. Interested in seeing a quick and easy way of dodging and burning to add some stronger contrast to your work?

A Short Film Made With Cinemagraphs

Eric Flores Garnelo has made a short film using mainly cinemagraphs to create the scenes. The audio is well produced, and the production of the scenes are done with craftsmanship. Watching each of these shots with only one item moving opens up the capacity to contemplate. Being a photographer, the first phase was to think how he did it and what it must have taken to actually get the shot. Secondly, it takes you deeper, into the human condition and the small moments during the day that can seem insignificant, but holds so much beauty if we just opened our eyes.

How to Develop Your Own Black and White Film at Home: No Darkroom Needed

Shooting film is a lot of fun, but part of what pushes photographers away from it is the cost, a lot of which is tied up in developing. This awesome video will show you how to develop your own black and white film in your bathroom with a minimal kit and much lower costs than sending it out.

The 2017 Monitor Buyers Guide for Photographers: Top Recommendations

Even with all the notes and advice, it’s typically a tough job to find a quality monitor in any price range. This is why I’ve decided to hand you my top recommendations as of November 2017. After sifting through literally hundreds of monitors, I’ve distilled five classes of monitors, among which are Fstoppers top recommendations in either class.

Deconstructing Cinematography of Scenes From 'Blade Runner'

As filmmakers and photographers, we tend to guess how other people shot specific scenes. Depending on our level of experience, we may be right or wrong. In this video we can see the approach of master DPs to deconstructing the cinematography of their favorite moments from "Blade Runner."

Are Black Female Fashion Photographers Underrepresented?

The fashion industry is home to some of the most dynamic and fluid trends that the world has ever seen. No doubt, the existence of this ever-changing and highly creative environment is mainly as a result of the diversity and creative uniqueness of the individuals that constitute it. However, even with this seemingly all-inclusive and globally encompassing genre, there is a prominent neglect that seems to be growing even further: the underrepresentation of black female photographers.

Three Helpful Techniques for Better Black and White Conversions

There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 ways to convert an image to black and white, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. This method shows why just pulling the saturation out of a photo probably won't give you a satisfactory result and how you can take more control of the final product.

Twenty Helpful Tips and Tricks for Photoshop

Photoshop is a tremendously intricate and nuanced program, and you can never have enough tips and tricks to navigate all its features and options and make your workflow both more powerful and more efficient. This helpful video will show you 20 more tips and tricks you might not have seen before.

Five Fun and Cheap Items for Creative Portraiture

It's easy to get caught up in thinking of only photographically intended accessories when trying to expand your creativity and as a byproduct, getting locked into paying photography accessory prices. However, with a little imagination, some very cheap items can make for inspiring and fun portraits.

Stop Being a Photographer, Be an Image Maker

Last Tuesday, Adobe hosted an event in London, which was headlined by a keynote speech from Nick Knight OBE, the world-renowned fashion photography visionary. He spoke about his views on the world of photography and innovation in his field, whilst offering some fascinating takeaways for his audience, not least the blending of formats and mediums that has lead to himself retiring the term “photographer” from his CV.

Syncing Social Profiles Automatically With IFTTT

There are many different ways to sync social profiles, and most have some form of interaction with one another via API calls. An example would be Instagram posting to Twitter automatically, but there are sometimes issues such as when the photo gets pushed to Twitter the image is not shown, rather a link to the image is provided. Without that thumbnail, it's likely to lose 80-plus percent of possible views because people aren't going to click an image when they don't know what it is. I am now using an app called IFTTT which stands for "If This Then That" and it's essentially a mobile version of Mac's Automator app that I love so much.

An Interview with Digital Artist Antti Karppinen

Antti Karppinen is a digital artist, photographer, retoucher, and instructor from Finland with a unique eye for visual storytelling through photography. His work relies on traditional photography skills combined with an active imagination and complex Photoshop editing work to create fantastical images. He spoke with me about his work, process, and the inspiration behind a couple of his most popular composites.

Watch a Full Editing Project From Start to Finish With Commentary

Whether you are a full-time video editor or just occasionally edit some of your own projects like me, you have probably found yourself on Youtube at some point trying to learn. Tutorials are an amazing tool at our disposal and we share and create some great tutorials here on Fstoppers all the time. However, sometimes I just want to see how someone does what they do from start to finish. That's where Taran Van Hemert comes in with his newest editing video. It's not a tutorial at all. It is 4 hours and 20 minutes of a standard video editing job for the Youtube channel Linus Tech Tips from start to finish. 

Success as a Creative: The Only Way to Be a Professional Is to Be Professional

There's a certain mysticality that often gets assigned to work as a creative — the gifted artist that somehow conjures genius from thin air. This image is inaccurate at best, and it's downright poisonous for the artist themselves to subscribe to it. Here's how a professional really thinks and works.

How to Style Your Own Fashion Shoots on a Budget

Whether you're shooting a high-fashion model, a mom to be, or a high school senior, the clothes always matter. I'm a sucker for over-the-top drama in my own work but am not always able to find a stylist to help me out with these shoots. Even if you don't have a need to do this yourself, give it a go from time to time. It will improve your work from behind the camera too, as photographing people is usually involving fashion in one way or another. In addition to keeping up with the latest trends, you might even start to confidently help your clients out when they ask for your opinion about what they're nervously wearing.

A Quick and Easy Way to Enhance Skin Tones Using Photoshop

Whether it's because you're shooting in the dead of winter or just because your model is naturally pale, sometimes, you'll want to add slightly more vibrant tones that give your subject richer skin. This helpful tutorial will show you how to do just that quickly and effectively.

Making Unique Pictures in a Location That You Have Shot Many Times

"Oh no, it’s the same location, yet again!" That’s a statement you’ll hear frequently from wedding photographers when they are assigned to shoot in a location they’ve visited frequently. I agree that shooting at the same location over and over can be testing. It might look like reinventing the wheel with very little space to innovate. This post is about how you can win over such a tricky situation of a repeated location on cards for your next outdoor shoot.

A Desperate Plea to Stop Screwing Up Eyes Using Photoshop

One of the most common retouching catastrophes I see on a day to day basis is an overzealous attack on eyes. Like over-baked HDR, obnoxiously over-retouched eyes have become almost ubiquitous among less experienced retouchers. Awareness is the first step to recovery, so in the spirit of painting a big obvious flag in front of all of you eye ruiners out there, take note. Your models will love you if you learn how to make their eyes look amazing without making them look like they belong in an episode of "Stranger Things."

How to Create More Refined Black and White Images Using Photoshop

There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000 ways to convert an image to black and white, but of course, not all methods are equally effective or offer the same level of control over the final product. This method takes a bit more time than most, but will give you the exact results you desire.

The Story Behind a Landscape Photograph

What is it about landscape photography that draws us back into nature? Is it waiting for the perfect light to hit the mountains overlooking a vast, green valley? Is it sitting on a rocky shore, listening to and witnessing the sheer power of Mother Nature's waves crash against the rocky shore? Is it the calmness of a misty pine forest at dawn, waiting for the sunrise and hearing the gentle crack of the trees, as a gentle breeze sweeps through the branches? Or is it the thrill of chasing a storm, down a highway in the countryside, while being pelted with hail the size of golf balls?