One of the Best Ways to Become a Better Photographer
There are a thousand skills — technical, artistic, and observational — that need to be mastered to make great images. But to really get better we have to, first, learn to do this.
There are a thousand skills — technical, artistic, and observational — that need to be mastered to make great images. But to really get better we have to, first, learn to do this.
If you like photography and science then this competition is for you, and 2019's results are simply magnificent.
To celebrate our newest video tutorial with Elia Locardi, “Photographing the World,” Fstoppers has teamed up with our friends at ViewBug to host a landscape photo contest for your most epic images. The contest will run until January 5 and one of the judges will be Elia himself. Whether you win or not, all participants will receive complimentary access to the first lesson of “Photographing the World” for free! See the contest details below.
Fstoppers has partnered with the awesome folks at ViewBug to bring you sweet, sweet contests weekly! We're starting things off with a bang by giving away your choice of a Canon 5K Mark III or a Nikon D800, arguably two of the best DSLRs on the market. The theme of the contest is "Creative Compositions." The contest will be judged by Dan Carr, a senior photographer for the Canadian ski magazine Skier.
If you fancy yourself as a good pet photographer or think you have some images of pets that can beat the best of them, enter this year's Comedy Pet Photo Awards and earn a chance to win more than $2,000 in cash. Here are some of the best entries so far.
UPDATE: 3 Days left to enter! Yes, are giving away another camera to a lucky reader! Fstoppers has teamed up with our good friends at SLR Lounge and the album design firm Fundy for one of the most exciting contests of the year! On June 15th, one of our lucky readers will win a brand new Sony a9 mirrorless camera... and no, we aren't entering our own contest either! There are 7 easy ways to enter and if you do all 7, you can gain up to 23 individual entries to increase your chance of winning. We have the juicy details in the full post below and make sure to BOOKMARK THE LIVE EVENT HERE.
We have teamed up with PremiumBeat.com to give away what may be the most anticipated video camera of 2012, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. This camera is has a 2.5k sensor that shoots in 12-bit Raw with 13 stops of dynamic range for less than $3000. Up until now, these specs were only available in cameras over $10,000. Just like our last 3 major contests, this is a Facebook contest and it is extremely easy to enter.
I challenge you to look at these incredible images and not be blown away and wonderfully amused at the same time. The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards have been run and won for 2019 and there were some outstanding entries that deserve your attention and your laughter.
Last week, Patrick challenged me to colorize an image he shot during the historic snowfall in Charleston. We decided it would be great to see our readers' take on the colorization process as well. These three photographers have won their choice of an Fstoppers Tutorial! How do you think they did?
An annual award that TIME magazine started three years ago has chosen it's official 2015 winner. Stacy Kranitz is an Instagram photographer who is most famous for her work in the Appalachia area. The poverty stricken, drug and alcohol filled area is certainly an eye opening subject. But why her in particular?
The London Natural History Museum is about to close entries for the 53rd Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and you can choose your own favorite right now.
Fstoppers is asking for your help! We have a 10-minute survey that will make you eligible to win 1 of 4 prizes and will also guarantee you an Fstoppers Original Tutorial discount. All you need to do is complete the survey below and you will enter the drawing. Here's what you can win:
It's been a while since we have seen new educational content from Photographer Zack Arias but it seems like he is back and this first video explores some of the reasons you might not be winning photo contests.
We shoot and share our photographs. We want our images seen by other people, as a way of expressing ourselves. Entering photography contests leads to a great way of showing our images to more people with a chance of being approved by a selected jury, but what if some contests are just scams?
Over the past few months, I've been looking at how we can improve our POTD feature to make it more, well, awesome. For a while now, we've been taking your submissions and combing through them to find some interesting shots. But we're going to change that up a bit. We're going to turn it into a contest format for a month, and the best shot takes home $100 at B&H for doing nothing more than sending us an image.
Following 320,000 submissions from more than 200 countries and territories, the winners of the Sony World Photo Awards 2018 have been announced.
I've met photographers who sold almost everything they had to travel the country in an RV, doing portrait sessions along the way. I've known people who have given up everything they know about their way of life in order to have the ability to adopt a new sense of adventure. But this guy. This guy! He left everything, started diving around the world, and became National Geographic's "Nature Photographer of the Year."
January 1 is time for new beginnings, and the Blue Riband event for amateur photographers worldwide is the 365 Project. For the few of you who this doesn’t sound familiar, the name of the game is to try to post a picture a day without fail for a whole year. It has developed the skills and talents of many incredible photographers, but it’s not for everyone. Here are 10 things to consider before you decide to embark on your own 365 project.
Our friends at ViewBug teamed up with Trey Ratcliff to celebrate his 80 Stays Around the World tour where he'll be holding free Photo Walks across 10 great European cities! Unfortunately, not everyone can join us in Europe for one of these fun events, so we brought the party to you! Get involved by sharing your favorite vacation or travel photo.
Want to start the new year with a free tutorial from Fstoppers? All you have to do is help us choose our Photographer of the Year!
There's a huge variety of photography competitions, from your local camera club, to huge global awards and some big prizes if you win. So, how do you win a photography competition, and is there a special formula you can use to reap the rewards?
Fstoppers is teaming up with SLR Lounge and B&H to put a brand new Canon EOS RP Mirrorless camera in the hands of one lucky community member. All you have to do is enter the giveaway below.
June is the month to win cameras here at Fstoppers. Not only are we giving away a Canon 5D MKIII or a Nikon D800, but until June 26, you can enter to win a Lytro! This tiny little camera got a lot of hype at the end of 2011, and for good reason. It basically redefined what a still image could be and introduced the new light field sensor unit of measurement, the megaray. So join Fstoppers and Camera Awesome as we give one away!
Two weeks ago we asked you to submit your best "Featured Image" and the top three submissions would win a year of SquareSpace. We wanted to see what images you would use to entice visitors to your website. We got hundreds of entries, but after careful deliberation we narrowed them down to the top ten images we thought really brought a "pow" to the party. Now we leave it in your hands: vote for your favorite!
If you wanted to attend the Fstoppers workshops in the Bahamas but don't have the money, you have one last chance to win an all expense paid trip that covers your flight, hotel, 4 classes, and $300 gear rental. We are giving away one last ALL EXPENSE paid trip to one lucky winner that can upload a short video of themselves explaining why they should have this opportunity and what gear they will rent from Lensrentals.com.
[UPDATE: A winner has been chosen. Congratulations to Verginiya Yancheva for getting 48 upvotes for her image! Check out her winning image below.]
We are teaming up with Moleskine and MILK to give away one of their new Leather Albums (valued at $795), and YOU are all judges! Submit your images, and the Fstoppers Community will upvote their favorite image which they believe "belongs in an album." There are just two simple steps to enter!
The drone manufacturer DJI just launched a free photography contest via its official Facebook group. The theme of the competition is based around water. Post a picture related to the ocean, beach, river or lake to win the latest Spark drone and the Osmo mobile gimbal. Each contestant can only submit one picture. The contest is live until August 10th.
The first ever Fstoppers Workshop in the Bahamas is happening May 28th - June 1st at Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas and we want to give one of our readers the trip of a lifetime for FREE! We are actually doing 2 separate contests and they both end today, Friday May 28th at midnight eastern time.
Only a few days remain if you want to win the Tamron 18-270mm Di II VC PZD lens for Sony, Canon or Nikon crop-sensor mount (winner's choice) worth $649! Got a full frame camera? That's ok! If you win, you can opt for the 28-300mm Di VC model.
The votes are in, and you've helped to choose our Fstoppers Photographer of the Year! We've also randomly selected one reader who voted to receive a free Fstoppers tutorial of their choice!
As you all know, we are currently pushing ourselves here at Fstoppers HQ to produce 30 videos for the month of January. Patrick Hall didn't want me to miss out on the fun, so he challenged me to recolor an image. Not an old black and white one, but an image he took with our new Nikon D850. Want to give it a try too? You could win a free tutorial if you've got what it takes to colorize an image.
Ever had to use your high tech gear for a really low tech purpose?
B&H has an awesome contest for those of us who have ever had to use any of our high tech gear for a purpose that's not exactly what it's meant for! Submit your funny videos today of how you use your gear in an unintended way and you could win the first prize of a Canon EOS 6D or a Nikon D600! If that's not enough, second prize is a Canon EOS Rebel SL1 or a Sony Alpha NEX 5R Mirrorless and Third Prize is a Canon Powershot S110 or Nikon CoolPix P330!
We've narrowed the entries to our Unique Wedding Image contest down to the top 10. Now it's up to you all to pick your favorite. So which one wins the Custom USB drives to help make their wedding business better? Poll will remain open until tomorrow evening at which point we will announce the winner!
DJI has recently released the winning photos from this year’s SkyPixel Photo Contest. The grand prize winner this year was Florian Ledoux for his image “Above the Polar Bear.” With over $90,000 worth of prizes being handed out, Ledoux was one of over 40,000 people who submitted photos into this year’s competition.
We were talking with our good friends over at Lowepro, and decided to sneak in one more contest before Christmas. We're giving away Pro Roller Lite 150 AW, Pro Messenger 160 AW and a Lens Exchange 200 AW to one Fstoppers reader who needs them dearly. That's $570 worth of gear! Basically, we wanted to have you covered in any situation you might come across in the world of photography. To win, you just have to show us how bad your bag situation really is.
Did you ever play those "hot or not" games, where you were given images of two people and you clicked on the one you were more attracted too? Well, GuruShots is not really like that, but it is a photography community that's based around a similar concept of voting for images you like. Currently, you even have a chance to have your work exhibited at the Usagi Gallery in New York City.
Several months ago, Fstoppers and ViewBug teamed up to host a landscape photo contest with Elia Locardi as the judge. Thousands of images were submitted with some heavy competition but the best have surfaced to the top. Check out the winning images below and get a little inspiration from the Grand Jury Winner below.
GuruShots, host of "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” has released yet another fantastic challenge. Participants were invited to submit their best photos of "Incredible Architecture." The challenge received thousands of entries and millions of votes. Check out the three winners of the challenge as well as hundreds of top rated images below.
There’s no doubting the “Shot on iPhone” campaign has been successful for Apple, and the 10 winners of the latest contest showcase the best photos taken all around the world using iPhone devices from the 7 to the XS Max.
Do you wish your strap was more comfortable? Still using that uncomfortable strap that came with your camera? Well our friends at JOBY have launched a new camera strap line including the revolutionary UltraFit Sling Strap and the 3-Way Camera Strap. The comfortable UltraFit Sling Strap allows fast access to every shot and hands free-stability when on the move.
Should you join photography competitions?
Two weeks ago we announced our latest Flickr contest sponsored by our friends at ClickPixx. The winner would receive a 30 x 40 inch wrap print to mount on their wall, and we thought a fitting contest theme would be "Epic." We narrowed down the entries to these top 9, but couldn't decide which one we liked the best. So we're leaving it up to you. Fstoppers of the world, vote for your favorite Epic image!
In the competitive world of social media experiments it seems companies are coming up with all sorts of tactics to build brand loyalty and interaction. Fashion designer Marc Jacobs is no stranger to the social media game. Earlier this year Marc Jacobs launched a pop-up shop that would trade free gifts in exchange for your tweets, likes, follows, and instagram pictures. Now Marc Jacobs is back with a new proposition. Tag your picture with the handle #CastMeMarc and you could be the new face of Marc by Marc Jacobs.
For the last month, Fstoppers has been running a contest with our fellow friends SLR Lounge and Fundy. Last night during Fundy's world premiere of their documentary "The Power of the Print," we picked a random winner for the contest. This lucky winner will be receiving a brand new Sony a9 Mirrorless camera body. You can view the full documentary and the winner being announced here on Fundy's Facebook page, or keep reading for the winner below.
That's right, $3,700 is up for grabs in the newly announced Comedy Pet Photo Awards. Just take a humorous photo of a pet and you're in the running. And the best part is that it doesn't even need to be your pet. It can be anyone's. Read on for more information.
A couple weeks ago, we asked the Fstoppers Community to submit their best lifestyle images for our next episode of "Critique the Community." This episode is particularly special because we are giving away two free camera bags from HEX to two of the photographers who were selected for critique. We chose a total of 21 images to offer feedback to, 20 of them were submitted and one was chosen from some of Fstoppers most popular photos. Check out the image we chose to critique, see who won the backpacks, and give your thoughts and feedback on the pictures in the comments below!
Applications are open for grants worth over $3,500 in gear for up to 3 Black photographers and filmmakers based in the U.S. via companies Peak Design, Sony, and BorrowLenses.
Earlier this month we announced a contest where we are giving away 3 Pocketwizard Plus III units and a copy of Peter Hurley's The Art Behind The Headshot ($700 value). We are entering in the final week of the contest so be sure to hit the full post to read how you can enter. We will pick a random winner May 1st and make the announcement here on Fstoppers. Good luck to everyone who enters; someone is going to be pretty excited next week!