I have been using a square filter system for many years. It proved to be a flexible system that allows one filter to fit on every lens I own. A magnetic filter system is a great alternative, though. I tried both during my recent travels over Lofoten, Norway and I want to share my experiences.
This is a brief overview of why you need filters for landscape photography, comparing the different types of systems you may encounter, and breaking down which setup is right for you.
If you look at your camera, you will find a button to change the white balance. You can choose either auto white balance or one of the other predefined settings. But it is also possible to set the color temperature itself. Is there a difference between color temperature and white balance?
Often, I read about natural light photographers who prefer a high-ISO setting above the use of flash. The latter is considered unnatural and unflattering light. Perhaps that photographer should consider the benefits flash can offer without the sacrifice of a natural-looking photo.
When we shoot photographs, we may or may not want to increase the appearance of depth in the image. Many more tools than depth of field are available to us. Here are some things we can do to add or decrease perspective.
All photographers need the ability to sell well, from selling prints to selling ideas to others to selling themselves. Use these psychological concepts to help you get more of what you want.
Capturing portraits of musicians is one of my favorite things to do. As a musician myself, I think that I have a unique perspective that helps me to connect with my musician clients. Working with other creatives always makes for an inspiring portrait session, and finding novel ways to incorporate an instrument into a portrait is a fun challenge. In today’s article and accompanying video, I will give you five tips that have helped me create engaging portraits of musicians.
Would you like to hang up a boring picture on your wall? Properly not. But what can we do to turn boring weather conditions into interesting photographs?
They can change the ordinary to the extraordinary. However, there is a lot more to creating low- and high-key photographs than just under- and over-exposing. Discovering how they work can dramatically improve our photography. It's also the reason why cameras should have one specific feature.
Few subjects are more timeless than sunsets and sunrises, and every day brings a new sky and new opportunities. Shooting them comes with its own set of challenges, however. If you are new to photographing them and wondering how to go about it to get the best results, this fantastic video tutorial will get you up and running in no time at all.
A lens like a 16-35mm f/2.8 is often the workhorse of choice for landscape photographers, but have you ever tried heading out with nothing but prime lenses? This interesting video shows you some of the benefits of doing so.
In recent years, Godox has become the go-to brand for many photographers looking for competitively-priced lighting products that are packed with features.
I always take a tripod with me in addition to my camera when I'm out on a hiking or scouting trip because there can always be an unexpected photo opportunity. And since I apply focus stacking to nearly all of my photos to ensure optimal sharpness, photographing handheld is not an option. Or is it? In this article, I show you how to use the automatic focus bracketing feature of modern cameras to perform handheld focus stacking.
There are a lot of sayings bandied around in photography that sound impressive but are meaningless. However, an image being greater than the sum of its parts is something we should heed as it is the basis of how our minds perceive images. Here are seven ways to achieve this.
Whether you couldn't shoot at the time you wanted or you just want to experiment with composites and heavier editing, this video will show you how to make a complete transformation.
Being a successful professional photographer is no easy task, and it takes the ability to simultaneously juggle a wide variety of different skills and responsibilities. If you want to give yourself a better chance of finding long-term success as a photographer, check out this great video that will give you three tips to help you find success.
As photographers, our perception of the world around us is our most important tool, and our only interface to the visible world. There's much to be said about reducing screen-time, but it may not be practical for everyone. Instead, here's another way to relieve your eyes; with a simple daily routine.
Capturing hundreds of images on a shoot is easy. Culling a large number of images down to a handful of keepers is a time-consuming and often mentally difficult process for an artist. In this video, originally posted by Wired, photographer Steve Winter takes us through his thought process as he reduces 112 images down to one single select.
Often, I see the term "bokeh" being used when "depth of field" is meant. That’s wrong, simply because it is not the same. Although many will understand the distinction between the two, I will explain the difference for those who do mistake depth of field with bokeh.
Knowing how to light, pose, and shoot a good portrait is only half the battle; you also need to be able to edit your images to produce a fully finished and compelling final product. If you are new to portraiture and looking to improve your work, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you a full image edit, including retouching, dodging and burning, color grading, and more.
If you're open to more heavy-handed retouching of your images, you have almost limitless possibilities of what you can do with even the blandest of images. In this tutorial, learn how to create realistic light rays and dappled light to add some atmosphere to a photograph.
Roland Barthes was a theorist and philosopher whose literary contributions to photography are still discussed and hold relevance today. I believe he is mandatory reading for anyone who considers themselves a photographer in any capacity.
A polarization filter is a great tool for reducing glare on shiny surfaces. A welcome side effect is the more saturated colors. Especially during autumn, a landscape photo will get a nice warm appearance. Unfortunately, automatic white balance may counteract the effect.
It is quite often overlooked when it comes down to creating a stunning photograph, although it has a big impact on the composition and even on the story of an image. We are talking about the right focal length. Avoid one of the biggest traps about focal lengths and find out how to impact your composition with the right lens.
Enough about the “best lenses” for this kind of photography. Let’s talk about what is practical and what works.
With modern HDR-blending algorithms making exposure blending so quick and easy, manual exposure blending may seem like an outdated skill for landscape photographers. However, automated software doesn't always produce the cleanest results. In this article, we'll discuss a foolproof workflow for manual exposure blending that will give you total control over your images and ensure results of the highest quality. The good news is that this workflow doesn't require any third-party panels or difficult luminosity masking!
Lightroom is a place where a lot of photographers spend a ton of time, and any tips you can pick up to speed up your workflow or improve your image quality can pay off quite a bit. This helpful video tutorial will show you five tips that will both make your workflow more efficient and increase your image quality.
In conversation with Platon, we spoke about finding the best image, competing with other photographers, and what photography is all about. His answers were among the most moving ones I could imagine.
In certain situations, you may be stuck behind a fence shooting your subject, which can lead to a very distracting grid across your final image. Such a situation is certainly annoying, but luckily, it is something you can fix in post, and this great video tutorial will show you how to get rid of the fence using Photoshop.
Today, Fstoppers has teamed up with NiSi filters to launch a brand new, free tutorial series with landscape photographer Elia Locardi. Not only are we releasing new video lessons every week, but we are also giving away over $600 worth of free gear with every video. Welcome to our long exposure adventure in Puerto Rico!
Ever looked at one of your images or prints and been hugely disappointed with how it came out? What you're doing or not doing to your screen is probably why you're having problems.
Autumn is just about upon us, and soon, the leaves will gift us with show-stopping vibrant colors that beg to be captured. If you are getting ready to head outdoors with your camera, check out this fantastic video that will give you seven great ideas for fall photos.
You've probably seen the photos featuring a landscape with an intense red sky. There is a simple but effective way of achieving such a photo even when the colors are only a small band at the horizon.
One of Photoshop's most useful and classic techniques is the ability to change the color of any object convincingly. This can come in handy in a wide variety of situations, such as adjusting the color of your subject's clothing, and this great video tutorial will show you how it is done.
There is little more frustrating than one of your best shots in any given shoot being slightly blurry. While sometimes it's all but unavoidable, there is often lots you could have done differently to capture the shot without any blurring. In this video, an expert bird photographer discusses how he keeps his images so sharp.
For landscape photographers, a sunny day with no clouds in the sky is kind of boring and does not make for particularly interesting photos. On the other hand, that does not mean you should just pack up your bag and head back home if you encounter such a day. This excellent video tutorial follows a landscape photographer as he demonstrates what you can shoot on such days.
There are two types of opinionated photographers: those who love Godox lights and those who feel Godox lights are not for professional use. Here are some considerations for whether the Godox system is for you.
When photographers hear overcast skies, we immediately think of flat light. What this usually means is an overall lack of detail and contrast, especially in the sky. It might be easy to assume that the sky during overcast days is uninteresting, but I want to show you the opposite, that overcast days are some of the best times to get deep and dramatic images. In this video and article, I'll be walking through how to shoot and edit dramatic clouds during overcast conditions in Adobe Lightroom Mobile.
There is not a more confounding and mysterious element of digital photography than ISO. And just when we've all thought we've figured it out and it starts to make sense, another wrinkle appears and threatens our conceptions all over again.
So many tips and tricks for photography are either ineffective, highly niche, or flat-out untrue. Nevertheless, there are still some brilliant tricks that can improve your workflow, and here are eight of them.
We call this the "environmental shutter drag portrait." A shutter drag portrait is a portrait that uses slow shutter speeds to capture the motion around the subject. This technique is best done in a big grand scene full of action and detail. The eye-catching nature of these shutter drag portraits makes them perfect for impressing clients and serving as the highlight photo for every album and event. Today, I'll be walking through 10 easy steps on how to photograph your own shutter drag portrait.
One of the most useful tools for taking greater control of your edits is the luminosity mask, and it can also save you a ton of time. If you have not seen them in action before or are not sure how they are used, check out this great video tutorial that will show you why so many photographers love them.
There's no doubt about it, even if you have the best camera and lens, the correct settings, a good location, and a great model, a poorly thought out pose can ruin the image. Here is a tip for ensuring you pose your subject in a way that has you taking great images.
Focussed on the sharp, perfectly composed, and exposed shot? Why not try Intentional Camera Movement or multiple exposures to create something unique. You may quite like it.
How do you rate success in photography? Maybe, it’s earning a living from it. That isn’t a goal for everyone, but valuable lessons about successful photography can be learned from the business of professionals.
Some genres almost require post-processing of images to fully finish them, astrophotography being one of them. The post-processing techniques involved are rather particular, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how to edit an image with the Milky Way combined with a light-painted landscape, all using Photoshop.
We all develop bad habits no matter what genre we shoot in, and landscape photography is no different. Learning how to recognize those habits and rewire ourselves to break them can improve our images and make the process more enjoyable. This fantastic video tutorial discusses four common habits of landscape photographers and how tweaking them a bit can lead to better photos.
Want to improve your images? Here are seven rarely talked-about approaches, not involving the camera settings or composition, that may help you take your photography to the next level.
Adobe Photoshop is unfathomably complex with so much nuance, it would be difficult for any person to ever say they have mastered the software. In this brief video, you'll learn how eight of the blending modes are different from the rest and in the same way, and just how powerful they can be.
The majority of landscape photos are shot with a maximum or almost maximum depth of field. Everything is sharp, from front to infinity and beyond. But have you ever considered shooting a landscape with a shallow depth of field?
