While March might be a bit early for me to already be filling out my holiday wish list for Santa Claus, the recent announcement that Nikon is developing a Z 9 to be released this year already has me in a festive mood.

How often do you think about either being deceived by or deceiving the viewer when you think about landscape photography? It's a topic worth talking about, as depending on how strongly you feel, it's a potentially polarizing subject.

Professional lenses with a wide aperture, like f/2.8 lenses, have been a staple in photography for years. But with the advancements in software today, some might wonder: are these high-priced lenses still worth it, or can you rely on software to get the same results with cheaper gear? The question is valid, and photographers on a budget are increasingly exploring whether they can save money without sacrificing quality.

While speaking with "E! News" earlier this week, Kate Winslet mentioned that in her contract with L'Oréal, there is a stipulation that all her Lancôme ads must be devoid of any retouching, reigniting the debate about the use of Photoshop and its impact on body image.

To preface, most professional photographers are of course only doing their best to help others when they speak from past personal experiences and while giving advice. However, even the most well-intentioned words from somebody may create negative consequences for the listener. Sometimes it’s not even in the words, but the examples they tell through their actions. When it comes down to it though, you must always remember: Don’t let anyone — even the professionals — ever give the final say in how you do your photography or run your business.

Sometimes, photographers like to make things harder for themselves for no good reason. Whether it's shooting film in 2024, or pretending to shoot film in 2024, sometimes the exercise itself is part of the fun.

If you're creatively talented and you dream of turning your passion into a lucrative career full of fame and riches, you might want to give photography a rather wide berth, because it's underpaid and, well, quite looked down upon.

Sometimes you just need to slow down. Last year, I shot just north of 95,000 digital photographs. That may not seem like a lot to some of you wedding photographers out there, but it was enough to make me take a step back and want something else. How many did I throw away? How many were made without thought or conviction? This was enough to trigger the impulse to try something new, and that something new was large format photography.

The arrival of a new camera at my doorstep yesterday and the coming holiday weekend brought to mind an easy but often overlooked lesson from long, long, ago. Here is a short story to highlight what I learned.

My studio receives client inquires anywhere from once per week to several times a day. Obviously not all of these inquiries turn into paid work, some are a downright waste of time. Dealing with client inquiries is not my favorite pastime, but if everything goes to plan, at least a few of them get me behind the camera and end up paying the bills. Here's a few things to keep in mind when making initial contact and responding to client inquiries.

If you own an APS-C system camera and you're on the lookout for some amazingly sharp lenses to get your hands on heading into 2019 without breaking the budget, this top 10 list is absolutely perfect for you.

We’re often told that we need to focus our photographic efforts on one genre and that you shouldn't try to be an expert at everything. While I agree that you need to target your marketing at a specific photographic field, many people take this advice far too literally. They disregard other genres and miss out on a tremendous amount of valuable knowledge that can be obtained through the exploration of genres outside of our comfort zone.

You can shoot a Vogue cover on an iPhone, stop wasting your money on new gear.

Remember that time you planned a business and it worked out perfectly? Neither do I. Starting a business, any business, is a daunting task. The reality however is that most of us overcomplicate the starting process and do some severe damage to our business before it ever takes off. Let’s put things into a bit of perspective.

The whole idea of what a camera strap should look like and how it should perform changed when the MoneyMaker hit the scene just a few years back. Gone were the days of tactical black nylon. A new era of stylish form and function began when Tulsa, Oklahoma based wedding photographer turned entrepreneur Matthew Swaggart founded HoldFast – a luxury line of leather camera gear and accessories.

The number of things I have learned, unlearned, and relearned all over again along the road from hobbyist to professional photographer would require something of a short novella to recount in their entirety. So today, I want to share just one of them.

Back at it again, the charmingly abrasive but always informative Jaren Polin (or as most of us know him, Froknowsphoto) released a new real-world review on Sony’s newly released a7R III. Love him or hate him, Polin always puts out the some of the most in-depth camera reviews in the photography YouTube space, and this video is no exception.

Have questions you want to ask a creative industry professional, but wasn't sure who to turn to? I've been writing for Fstoppers for over a year now. I've been able to share my own BTS shoots, those of friends, reviews, tutorials, and more. I've had the chance to interact and meet some great people through here, and I really want to do something more for you folks. Rather than do a fresh article this week on something I find interesting, I am leaving the content completely up to you.

Virtual war. That's what Instagram declared yesterday when the Facebook-owned social media giant rolled out their latest update sharing an all too familiar user experience touted by rival platform, Snapchat. What are they doing? How could this happen? Why are they doing this? After turning over a few stones, we saw this coming from a mile away. Facebook and Instagram ultimately decided that if you can't buy them, become them.

When it comes to photography and the quest to improve, there is no shortage of advice out there. Some of it's great, some of it is rather questionable, and some of it is utter nonsense. Here's some of the worst advice I've received over the years.

In the first two parts of this three-part series, I discussed my initial impressions of the new Nikon Z 6II, a bit of casual shooting, as well as a fun trip to photograph some birds. Today, we will put the camera to a real test in a professional shooting situation to see how the camera might handle a commercial advertising campaign.

I didn't study photography in any official capacity — not unless you count a quick Google whenever there’s a term I don’t understand. So naturally, I'm biased in the argument about whether studying photography is worth it. But in my opinion, the most valuable asset to a photographer is something that cannot be searched on the internet, nor can it be taught.

If you ever feel the weight of the world on top of you, you might want to consider letting loose with your camera. I've found that going outside and having fun with my camera is a fantastic way to combat stress and anxiousness.

We're creatives! We're supposed to love what we do and never get tired of it, right? Wrong. You can love image-making with every fiber of your being and still need a break from it, and to ignore that need is detrimental to your mental health and creativity.

Most modern lenses provide astounding image quality. The image is sharp from corner to corner, and any chromatic aberration is kept to a minimum. Flares are suppressed by smartly designed coatings. But you probably don’t need such high-quality lenses for your photography.

Let's play a game. Your rich uncle just gave you his credit card and told you to buy whatever camera and lens (old or new) you want. What do you pick?

So you might have heard the rumblings this week that Photobucket is holding users' photos ransom after a recent change in their Terms of Service. The long and short of it is that free accounts can no longer embed their images on third party sites. Photobucket's failure to inform users with anything besides the quick blog post linked above has caused an uproar amongst their millions of users; many of whom have relied on the image hosting service for years to provide storage for anything from photos for blog posts to online sale listings on Amazon and eBay.

No, I don't mean car chases, transforming CG robots, and explosions. I'm talking about small budget videos and films that sometimes require a lot more investment than you or your clients might think.