Recent Education Articles

The Three Best Photo Spots in Lisbon

Not only is Lisbon the capital of Portugal, its largest city, and a major tourist destination in Europe, it's also a great location for cityscape photography. Its hilly profile offers beautiful views of the narrow streets and Mediterranean architecture. All across the city, you'll find interesting photo spots, and in this article, I show you three of the best in Lisbon's center.

A Beginner’s Guide to Editing Landscape Photos in Lightroom

Creating a strong image is more than just pointing a camera—it’s a detailed process of planning, capturing, and finally, editing. The editing stage in particular is where you bring out the colors, light, and mood you intended, creating a finished piece that truly reflects the moment and story you envisioned.

How to Become a Professional Portrait Photographer

Portrait photography is one of the most popular genres out there, and though it can be quite challenging, it can also be very rewarding. If you are just starting your portrait photography journey and feeling a bit overwhelmed, check out this fantastic video tutorial that shares everything you need to get started, ranging from technical skills to developing a creative mindset and starting a business.

The Importance of Light in a Landscape Photo

In landscape photography, we do not get control over the light on the scene, but just like any other genre, light can make or break an image. Knowing how to read the light, predict its evolution, and wait for it to be just right is crucial to creating successful images. This great video tutorial will show you why just how much of a difference it can make.

The Most Important Thing in Your Photography

There is so much to think about and keep track of in photography, even more so if it is your career. As such, it can be easy to get caught up thinking about the wrong thing or focusing too much on something at the expense of another. It is important to remember what really matters at the end of the day, and this worthwhile video discusses that.

Learn Some Helpful Portrait Photography Tips While Watching This Photoshoot

Portrait photography can be a real challenge given all the factors you need to balance simultaneously, and the two that often give photographers some of the greatest difficulties are posing and composition. If those are factors you tend to struggle with, check out this helpful video tutorial that follows a photographer on a shoot while offering a range of useful tips to improve your work.

3 Steps for Better Seascape Photos

The sea is constantly changing, and that means you always have opportunities to create unique images just about whenever you are ready to pull out your camera. If you would like you create better seascape photos, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced photographer sharing three steps that will help you improve your shots.

How to Light a Portrait Using a Speedlight

While learning artificial lighting can feel a bit daunting, it makes you a far more versatile photographer and frees you up to explore many creative avenues that would not be possible otherwise. You do not need to start with expensive equipment, though; a speedlight and small modifier are a portable and affordable way to learn. This excellent video tutorial will show you everything you need to know to photograph a portrait using a speedlight.

What Do You Lose When Compressing Images With JPEG?

We encounter and use JPEG files daily, but rarely do we give any thought to what the process entails. More importantly to us as photographers, what data do we lose when using this lossy image compression technique?

Keep Persevering: Why Persistence Pays Off in Photography

If you're engaged in a genre like landscape photography, the simple truth is that no matter how prepared you are, there are things outside your control that may hamper your ability to get good images. This video is a great reminder that a bit of hard work and perseverance will pay off in the end.

Fstoppers Exclusive - On Location With Dan Holdsworth and Audemars Piguet (BTS and Interview)

When you combine an amazing landscape photographer, a stunningly beautiful location, the brilliance of a strong team of film makers and a luxury brand that is synonymous with craftsmanship and excellence, magic does indeed happen. Welcome to the ‘Defining Moment’ by Audemars Piguet - and a redefining of what it means to "shoot a “commercial".

5 Unconventional Tips to Improve Your Editing and Managing Post-Processing Workload

In today's fast-paced world of photography, managing the post-processing workload efficiently is almost a non-negotiable skill, especially when we are all guilty of shooting too much, only to suffer when dealing with large quantities of images. In this article, we will discuss several unconventional tips that I have learned throughout my career, including back-to-back assignments and trips, to address the challenges of editing fatigue and compromised post-processing.

Why Feel Is More Important Than Rules in Landscape Photography

Between the rule of thirds, camera settings, guidelines on focal length, depth of field calculations, and more, landscape photography can be a rather prescriptive genre. And while it can be good to have rules that increase your chances of coming home with a keeper, they can also be overly restrictive. This great video tutorial features an experienced landscape photographer discussing why feel is more important than following the rules in the genre.

Using the Lightroom Second Reference Window to Compare Images

If you work in Lightroom quite a bit, I'm sure you've encountered a situation in which you wanted to compare two images or keep one open while working on another. Lightroom offers a few ways to do this, but using the Second Window function might be one of the more helpful ways to do it, particularly if you're working with multiple displays.

Don't Underestimate The Importance Of Casting In Your Workflow As A Photographer: Why, When, Where, and How

Casting is time consuming! It can suck up all your energy. It can leave you exhausted and frustrated. It is mostly the one part of photography that always demands tons of effort, and does not always reward us with the results we hope for. That’s why there are casting directors, both in the stills and film industry. It is a job! When you are working on your portfolio you rarely have the means to hire one, so better to get efficient with it on your own. If you are a landscape or a still life photographer, move along gleefully.

Memory Card Tips and Best Practices

Memory cards are one thing that all digital cameras have in common. If you think about it, nothing happens if your photos don't get onto the card, and nothing happens if you can't copy them from the card to your computer.

Film Flashback: Reviewing the Fujifilm GF670

One of the best things about shooting film is that there are so many cameras to choose from! Of course, your wallet may disagree with me. The number of formats, combined with the different brands, form factors, lenses, and options make shooting with film almost impossible to get bored with. If you're at all familiar with my articles on Fstoppers, you know that I tend to focus on film and bringing it to a new audience. To that end, I've created a new video series profiling various film gear, some of it well known, some not so much! In my quest to learn about and use different systems, I hope you'll learn along with me. First up, a medium format rangefinder style camera from Fujifilm: the GF670.

How to Take a Great Supermoon Photo

The last supermoon of 2020 is on May 7, and it is a great chance to take an entrancing and unique image incorporating it into a landscape or cityscape of your choice. This excellent video will show you how to plan and take a supermoon photo worthy of framing and hanging on your wall.

Helpful Composition Advice for Landscape Photography

Effective compositions are something we all struggle with at one time or another, and with so many ways to construct a frame, it can be tough to know how to fix things. If you are struggling with your landscape compositions, this excellent video tutorial will offer some useful advice that is sure to improve your work.

The "Cutting Edge Editing & Post Production Tour" Review

The premise for the Cutting Edge Tour headed up by Adam Epstein, five year veteran video editor and post production guru for Saturday Night Live, was a tricky one. I know because I spent a few days bouncing ideas around with him and looking at how to structure the thing. This review will set out specifically what you will (and won’t) find in the workshop.

How to Increase Your Landscape Print Sales With Panoramic Photographs

Photographers, are you looking for ways to increase your print sales? I have a few super simple but often overlooked concepts that are not only easy but successful. Jump in and let’s explore how you can make panoramic prints profitable.

Let’s discuss your market. Who buys your prints now and who do you want to buy them? Whether you sell through a gallery, your own website, an Etsy shop, or other art-focused platforms, you will find that buyers look for and purchase art for a reason. For landscape photographers buyers are often situational such as customers who have been...

There's More to Life Than Photographic Technical Perfection

If I have one major regret about how I handled my portfolio when I was first learning, it's that I threw away a ton of images that weren't technically perfect when I should have kept them. Now, I really wish I had a lot of those images back, because they were compelling despite their flaws. There's more to life than perfection.

You Are a Second-Rate Photographer: What Can You Do About It?

There are many reasons why a photograph can go wrong. But to be a photographic flop takes a special skill that most failures don’t even know they have. If you don’t want to be a second-rate photographer, here is how to avoid it.

A Beginner’s Guide to Adjusting Hue and Saturation in Photoshop

Photoshop has lots of powerful tools to improve your images and help you develop a personal style. Two of the most fundamental of those are the HSL and Color Balance tools. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to use these tools to change the color of anything in Photoshop.

How To Separate Your Subject Without Relying on Narrow Depth of Field

With the increased availability of high-quality lenses with wide apertures, we have become quite obsessed with images that use a narrow depth of field to isolate the subject and blow the background to smithereens. And certainly, that can be a valid way of doing things, but there are many other great ways to draw attention to your subject, and this informative video tutorial will show you some of the best methods.

Financial Risks of a Photography Business

Running a business always entails risk, and photography businesses are no exception. Let's explore the various financial challenges we face and ways we can protect ourselves and our livelihood.

Shooting Low Key Portraits in Studio Space

Shooting low key portraits is fun. It does not require any fancy equipment, only the right understanding of light and the execution of the idea in mind. In this video from Adorama TV, Gavin Hoey explains his school of thought on shooting low key portraits in a small studio setup.

How Understanding the Inverse Square Law Will Make You Better at Lighting

The inverse square law is one of the most fundamental and important concepts in lighting, and as such, any photographer working with artificial light should have a good understanding of it. If you are new to it, this helpful video tutorial will show you everything you need to know, from the way the law works to the practical consequences it has on your photos.