Natural light photography is sought-after in lifestyle, fashion, lingerie, and many other photography genres. Anita Sadowska takes us through how she uses natural light in her small apartment and what decisions you need to make when you plan on using natural light.

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.

Shooting portraits in natural light typically means choosing a huge aperture to create creamy bokeh and pleasing subject separation, but keeping your image pin sharp in the right places can be tough. In this short video, photographer Julia Trotti shares her tips on how to nail focus.

Although it would seem like common sense, proper motivation is key toward not only getting things done, but getting things done well. This is true in any creative field and this is especially true, it seems, in the over-saturated everybody-with-a-camera-is-a-photographer world we live in.

I’m a big believer that you don’t need expensive equipment and a complicated lighting set up to create beautiful images. Some of my favorite images were captured with a really simple lighting setup and with little or no lighting equipment at all. Sometimes too much emphasis is often put on equipment and we can easily get caught up in complicated lighting and expensive gear.

In the boudoir industry it is a main priority to help the client feel confident and empowered. Some clients prefer the high-key fashion look associated with strobe work and solid backdrops. For those clients who prefer the anonymous images, Chris Nelson guides you through how low key images highlighting just the curves while shadowing the mood can help your clients make the decision for that large fine art wall piece.

Photographer Lisa Bettany, creator of the Camera+ and MagiCam iPhone apps, put together a fascinating and thorough comparison of images coming from every generation of the iPhone ever created. With insight into low-light performance, macro capabilities, overall sharpness, and how Apple's own image processing algorithms seem to have changed over the course of time, the results are certainly interesting.

In this video essay, Evan Puschak aka The Nerdwriter explains some of the techniques Ansel Adams used to achieve his technical and esthetic mastery. Using visualization and some other relatively easy to learn techniques, Adams learned to bring what he saw in his mind's eye to his photographs (yes, I said "easy to learn," but hard to master). It was Adams' commitment to taking photographs, with intent, that made him a master artist and led him to develop the tools he needed to bring his images to fruition.​

Canadian Photographer Melissa Trotter is getting a lot of attention with her latest foray into alternative themes. "Blood Dress" was viewed more than 1.3 million times in just 8 hours after being posted online. Inspired by a "milk dress" shoot, Trotter says she instantly fell in love with the idea of creating the same concept with blood. There are plenty of comments to go along with the provocative image. The owner of Stolen Innocence Photography, Trotter says she's been overwhelmed with the response she's gotten, pointing out most of it has been extremely positive.

Go behind the scenes on a professional portrait shoot at the most picturesque time of the day to see how these stunning images were created.

It's been 3 years since Fstoppers' Patrick Hall posted on the Midway project, where Seattle-based photographer Chris Jordan made us aware of the horrific plight of albatrosses living on the Midway Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. Since then Chris and his team have put together this short film documenting the tragedy that plagues the inhabitants of the island, where the Great Pacific Garbage Patch continues to kill. This short is a bit of a teaser for their featured film due to be released later this year.

Earlier this year, Patrick Hall did a thorough comparison of a variety of neutral density filter brands. The test included findings on color cast, vignetting, exposure, and sharpness. The goal was to find the best and most cost efficient neutral density filter available. In an effort to dig a little deeper into the question which filter is best for your gear set, I decided to add on a test of a similar product that photographers may prefer, filter holder sets.

Portrait and fashion photographer Lindsay Adler is not only a great photographer, but also a superb educator. Just recently she did a session with creativeLive on studio lighting, and also taped a new show with Framed Network. In her most recent video, Lindsay shows a very cheap (between $0 and $20) way to create beautiful soft light just by using your window and some black foam core. No need in expensive strobes, no need in extra equipment. and the results are amazing.

Whether you’re a photographer or you focus on video, this article highlights the high octane visual set piece created by Slaughterhouse Pictures, who successfully combined principles of both stills and motion work to create high impact visual media with zero budget and very limited resources. Read the exclusive FStoppers article and watch the BTS video to get some simple and highly effective little tips that you will be able to apply to all aspects of your own work.

Prepare to dive headfirst into the world of waterfall photography! In this article, we'll uncover the five secrets that will make your waterfall shots as majestic as possible. So, grab your camera, put on your raincoat, and let's embark on this adventure.

Erik Almas, one of the best commercial composite photographers, has recently teamed up with the team at PRO EDU to create a fully comprehensive tutorial on his complete shooting and retouching process. In this video Almas takes us through an hour-long tutorial, retouching and completing the backplate for one of his tutorial images. I'm always impressed when photographers and retouchers, especially those at the top of our industry, open the doors and reveal their entire process and Almas has done no less here.

Fstoppers Original: The Studio Wakeboard Shoot from FStoppers on Vimeo.

Knowing the importance of color matching strobes indoors is crucial when combining strobes and ambient lighting. Fixing mismatched lighting temperatures can be extremely difficult in post process. Ian Christmann, a commercial and lifestyle photographer discovered a method which will change your life.

How many times have you snapped a beautiful scene, only to be disappointed when your images don’t adequately represent the reality? Though the camera’s images sometimes fall short, have no fear, because bracketing is here.

"Oh, so you're a photographer now...?"

It's a question I'm sure each of us has heard. Coming to us from a friend and/or family member that we haven't seen in a while, maybe those who we're remotely connected to on any one of the social media platforms where we post our work. It rings of sarcasm, and while I don't believe it's meant to hurt us, truthfully, it kind of does.

Spring has arrived, which means the time for gorgeous golden hour shoots in wonderful weather is nearly upon us. Sunset (and sunrise) are indisputably the most consistent crafters of amazing natural light for portraiture. The warm soft glow of the sun as it falls towards the horizon not only creates fantastic atmosphere but also some of the most flattering light that can be found. For portrait photographers the golden hour as the sun rises or sets is the perfect time to shoot.

Over the years as a boudoir photographer, I have noticed a theme when it comes to new shooters about the "restrictions" they come across. Countless times I hear or read, "I wish I could upgrade my gear," "I just do not have a commercial space," or my favorite, "I just cannot afford to have all those set ups." Well quite frankly, that is a load of bull.

In this valuable tutorial Glyn Dewis takes a quick snapshot and shows you how to pull detail from highlights and shadows to make it a beautiful image. Dewis mentions some great workflow tips and tricks in Adobe Lightroom as well as how to bring your image over, non destructively, to Photoshop camera raw.

This past weekend in Colorado I decided to give my full frame mirrorless camera a break and shoot some portraits using the much smaller Sony RX100V. I was curious to see if a small, pocket-sized camera could give me the kind of results that I would be happy with. Here are my experience and recommendations if you choose to do the same!