Ahhh…..rejection! Everyone has experienced rejection many times in their life, but it is especially prevalent in the fashion and photography industries. I’m sure you have been rejected as a photographer before, whether it was by a gallery, publication, or model you have wanted to work with. I can safely say that if I had a dollar for every time I experienced rejection as a model, well, you get the picture. I have been rejected by some of the sweetest photographers, who unintentionally made me feel like I should never have reached out. Similarly, some photographer’s rejection tactics needed some major fine tuning and left me feeling fed up with how some people in the industry tend to act. As a model, I 100% understand that I will be rejected 9 times out of 10. It is completely okay to say no! Saying no is healthy! But it should be done with professionalism, tact, and respect.

Every couple months or so, I find myself in a conversation about the state of photography. There is no doubt technology is pushing our field farther and faster than ever before, but is this technology actually killing photography?

Ok, sure it's advertising but it's creative, entertaining advertising by global ad agency Saarchi & Saatchi and executive creative director Jason Mendes. Imagine going to your favorite local theater, plopping your butt down with your popped corn in one hand and coke in the other. And just as you settle in look up to find that you have become an advertising superstar.

Photographer Jason Lanier is on a mission to end discrimination against the small business photographer. As seen in the video above, he and his group were confronted multiple times while attempting to do a shoot. In the first location they are asked to leave the premise altogether. In the second they were asked to "make it look less commercial" by getting rid of a strobe. In both instances they weren't interfering with any event around them nor were they disturbing the public and only had a single portable strobe setup. Lanier notes a growing trend to neglect and discriminate against the small business photographer.

Once in a while, despite our due diligence and training, we all end up in circumstances where we must handle a difficult situation. As a model with a wide range of experience, I have a large network of professional photographer friends and have seen first-hand how unprofessional my fellow models can be. Here are a few ways to handle a variety of sticky situations without compromising your reputation as a respectable industry professional.

Having your images stolen at one point or another is virtually a formality when it comes to being a photographer. It’s frustrating, not least when it happens through one of your customers. One new website claims to have the solution to make sure you never get ripped off again.

Most amateur photographers assume that they need to buy a ton of expensive gear in order to compete or reach the level of most professional photographers. I’m quite guilty of doing the same. As a matter of fact, I spent the first couple of years studying the work of photographers that I admired and I was quickly intimidated by their level of production. I didn’t think that I could possibly afford to invest in the type of equipment they used. It wasn’t uncommon to see these photographers use 3+ studio strobes on set, along with a seemingly endless list of modifiers they had access to. Their level of production just didn’t fit my personal budget at that time.

There is a wealth of information for every step of the photographic process, but one area that drastically improved my work some years ago is also one of the areas discussed the least.

Every photographer, at some point in their career, will have an internal debate to accept or decline a job because they may feel insecure about having the right skill sets or gear to complete the job. Personally, I have found myself accepting certain jobs and a few hours later, I wonder if I made a mistake in accepting the job since I may muck up a huge opportunity. A few days ago, I was offered a job that, at first, I did not think I could execute. Luckily though, I talked myself down the ledge and remembered I was in fact prepared for it.

London-based product photographer Sean Tucker is releasing a three-part video series on photographing large objects, such as chairs and sofas, in a studio setting. Here in part one, Tucker demonstrates how to set up your lighting and camera in order to achieve a great, clean image that will be easy to cut out in post-production for online product catalogs.

Do you ever have trouble talking with your subjects during a shoot? Not sure what to say to them to get that perfect facial expression? No need to worry, Peter Hurley is here with "Hurleyisms."

Being a photographer comes with perils that only fellow photographers can relate to. Here are 7 things that only photographers care about on set.

Filmmakers, YouTubers, and other content creators received a big win recently when a D.C. Federal Judge ruled that the permit and fee requirements applying to commercial filming are unconstitutional. Still photography rules remain unchanged, although they weren't as restrictive as the filming rules.

Designer Roberto Cavalli recently designed a gown for Beyoncé, exclusively for the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour. In an official press release that was sent out by the Italian fashion house on Tuesday, one very controversial photo of Beyoncé wearing that dress was attached. In what looks like a heavily Photoshopped image, the company behind this ad made her look very thin, unrealistically thinned and stretched her legs. As art it's interesting, but it wasn't received well by many viewers.

Car photography is a sharp learning curve, with the incline coming primarily in post-production. A tutorial like this can save you incredible amounts of time learning techniques.

Just when I thought I had seen it all I was sent this incredible video by one of our readers. The Marmalade, a special effects studio in Germany, has created an incredible high speed robot used to film precise moments during ultra high frame rate takes. The results look so perfect that I thought I was watching CGI at first. Even if you aren't into robots you will want to watch this video for the most stunning macro videography I've ever seen.

What am I worth? This is a question every new photographer ultimately asks himself. If you’ve ever wondered what you should be charging your clients and what the best way to go about it would be, keep on reading. I will go over how to determine your personal creative fee and how to present it to your client in a way that makes sense.

We have all been there at one point or another. The thought of picking up a camera and having to take more pictures seems less than appealing. Shooting the same thing over and over, dealing with frustrating clients, or simply not getting the results you had hoped for. All these things can take a toll on your mental state and will eventually translate into feelings of disdain towards your passion. It might feel like you need a miracle to find your passion again, but here are four things which have worked for me, and maybe they can work for you as well!

Matthew Vandeputte is a Belgian photographer living in Sydney, Australia, whose work is at the forefront of commercial time-lapse and hyperlapse photography. In this video he gives a short insight into his work and offers a nice introduction to time-lapse photography while also providing some inspiration to anyone seeking to turn a hobby into a profession.

There are a zillion photographers out there, but there aren’t a zillion clients. How do you make your work stand out? Success comes when a client will book you because it's you and not because you are just another good photographer. In the process, having a recognizable style might also make you a happier photographer. But how can you get there?

As I continue my articles on interior, architectural, and real estate photography, I thought it would be interesting to see different approaches to shooting these types of subjects. So, for this month's article, I've invited a number of professional interior, architectural, and real estate photographers to share their images and techniques with everyone who reads Fstoppers.

I haven't been writing very much lately, but when Swedish Commercial Photographer Erik Johansson hit me with an email about his recent creation, I had to stop and take notice. And I'm not the only one. For the third chapter of their miniseries, "Human Made Stories," Volvo (in partnership with Sky Atlantic) spent three days this summer documenting Erik's process as he breathed life into his latest piece, "Wake Up." Volvo's miniseries features defiant pioneers who inspire, do things differently, challenge conventions, and blaze their own trail. Yup, that sounds like Erik to me.

This is it. By now, You will have been inspired, honed your ideas, found the perfect location and booked your talent. You will have taken that little bit of inspiration and nurtured it into a full fledged shoot. If you are anything like me, you will have tossed out far more ideas than you kept and you will have spent hours upon hours solidifying the few that stuck with you. It is safe to say that the hard part is over.

In the last segment of our commercial pricing guide we will tackle the least talked about and most misunderstood portion of your invoice; the licensing fees. I will go over what they are, why you should be using them, and my preferred method for calculating them no matter who my client is!

Have you ever wondered where those amazing air-to-air shots you see in airline marketing videos and the like come from? Go behind the scenes of Wolfe Air Aviation's marketing work with Air Canada for their new livery on the Boeing 787-9 and one of the coolest photoshoots you'll ever see.

Excuse me a moment while I try and reassemble my brain, it’s kind of just been blown by the video reel I’m about to talk about. While I collect my senses, feel free to join me as I showcase this piece of artistic genius and the talent of the young lady who put it together. This might just be the most insane, joyous 50 second video you’ve ever seen.

Architectural photographers face many technical challenges when shooting massive structures, especially when space to shoot from is limited. This is one of those cases in which the gear absolutely enables the photographer to take better images.

My photographer-friend from Moscow Aleksey Dovgulya is visiting me in Los Angeles right now. We went to the same high school, but only met in 2008 after I got into photography. While I was studying in Australia Aleksey built an impressive list of commercial clients in Russia. In the past few years he has photographed for major brands such as Rolls-Royce, Renault, BMW, Schwartzkopf & Henkel, Benetton, Vogue, Christian Louboutin, and the list goes on and on.

6 months ago Dylan Patrick flew to Charleston SC for a week to film our latest tutorial; The Cinematic Headshot. As always, editing this 6 hour tutorial was much more difficult than we expect but I'm excited to announce that it is finally available.

When photographing commercial interior images, a common issue is an unsightly glare on reflective surfaces. Removing these reflections by compositing image layers significantly improves your images, separating you from the pack of "run-and-gun" real estate and interior photographers.

It is official: Canon has toppled Olympus to become the leader in terms of market share in the Japanese mirrorless market for 2018. The Canon EOS R, released in the autumn of 2018, might not have impressed the pundits but seems very much on it's way to becoming wildly popular among consumers, at least in Japan.

A recent spate of camera purchases has indeed improved my photographic skill, but perhaps not in the way you may be thinking.

Almost four years ago I began a new journey in my photography career. At the time I was still bartending part-time and concentrating on building the headshot side of my business, when hospitality photography came and slapped me upside the head. As it goes with most other good things, it all started over a few drinks with a friend, and has spiraled into a full second stream of income from photography.

In a dramatic scene from "Interstellar," the space crew was nearly overcome by a massive wave on a distant planet. Take a look behind the scenes to see the filmmakers and actor Wes Bentley discuss the lighting and composite work required to produce this daunting visual effect.

Last year, Fstoppers produced a tutorial with Monte Isom, which has helped numerous photographers including Gregg Shipman. In this video, Shipman details how he earned an extra $31,000 in just one photoshoot using the knowledge gained in the tutorial.

A few weeks ago you may remember Ikea's attack on product photography. Today news has spread that the Saudi Arabia franchise has photoshopped all females out from catalogs distributed throughout the Islamic nation. Women aren't the only ones being censored, however, as even glasses of wine have been transformed into less offensive "festive cups". What does Ikea have to say about the post processing changes found in their catalogs?

Building a quality portfolio can be an expensive endeavor, especially if you don't budget and carefully consider your costs. Putting together professional quality shoots on a budget can be challenging. After experiencing some of the wide variations in cost for things like models, makeup artists, and the other essential pieces of a shoot, I wanted share my experiences and lessons learned the hard way.

In Part 1 of our Dramatic Beauty Portrait Tutorial, we looked at the lighting setup, gear breakdown, and shooting of our dramatic beauty shoot. In Part 2 of the tutorial we will now look at two different ways of exporting and preparing your image for retouching. The first method involves creating versions in Lightroom and exporting directly to Photoshop. The other method utilizes Adobe Camera Raw and the ability to make variations within Photoshop. I will also discuss the overall goal of our pre-edit stage.