Recent Product Photography Articles

GoPro HERO3 Launches at Midnight With Impressive Specs

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It's official, the GoPro HERO3 is now out for sale and she looks powerful. CEO Nick Woodman announced the new HERO3 as the smallest, lightest, most powerful way to document your life. If that is not enough it is also Wi-Fi enabled and can capture 4k video (4,000 pixels) at 12 frames per second and 1080p HD video at 60 frames per second. (Picking jaw off the floor!) Read on to hear more about this radical new camera.

Fstoppers Reviews PFixer MIDI Controller for Lightroom

The first automobiles were controlled by something called a tiller (similar to how ships were steered). It was, obviously, not the most practical or efficient means of control. However, in 1894, the first steering wheel was fitted on a four horsepower Panhard for a race from Paris to Rouen. Within ten years, nearly all tillers had been replaced by steering wheels. The mouse, although all-purpose, is the tiller of Lightroom. Ladies and gentlemen, the PFixer by Pusher Labs is the steering wheel we’ve been waiting for.

Photographer Creating Multiple Sources of Income by Thinking Outside of the Box

Thomas C. Corley, author of Rich Habits, wrote that the the most successful business owners create multiple sources of income. Seasoned photographers have experienced the ebb and flow of the portrait business over the years and know that the best way to stay afloat is to be consistently adaptable. Maintaining multiple baskets for income to be generated is key to surviving a slow season.

Nokia Busted Faking Mobile Phone Footage With A Stabilized Camera System

Earlier today news broke out about Nokia and their Lumia 920 simulation video not being exactly forthright. The video before the shameful reveal had no indication that it wasn't filmed with the actual product that it was marketing. When reddit.com users got their hands on the video they quickly noticed that the reflection in the video is not of a person filming with a mobile phone on a bicycle, but of a man in a van with what looks to be at least a DSLR sized camera with what seems to be some type of Gyro-stabilization system.

Hands-On with the Everyday Messenger: The Bag That Raised Nearly $5 Million

While running a Kickstarter campaign might be a bit easier for veteran company Peak Design, there’s something to be said for raising over $4.8 million of excitement over a messenger bag. What is so special about this bag that merits this reaction? After reaching out to Peak Design, they sent a just-finished version of the Everyday Messenger — the "Trey Ratcliff bag" — for review so I could answer some of those questions.

Phase One Announces The A Series - Medium Format Mirrorless Camera Systems

Announced through Digital Transitions, is the new A series from Phase One. The A series is a line of medium format camera systems, with the power of mirrorless technology. This new system combines the power of Rodenstock optics, and ALPA bodies, making the first digital medium format camera system without the use of a mirror and in a much smaller package.

Is Flixel Ushering In A New Era For Photography?

We’ve heard plenty about the death of the humble photo as video proliferates. But photography is still far more accessible than video, often because video editing is still so time intensive. Instagram introduced video more than a year ago yet it is still predominantly a platform for sharing still photographs. But all that could be about to change. Last month I shot video as Flixel partnered with Lindsay Adler and saw something very interesting take place that got me thinking - could we be about to usher in a completely new era for photography?

The Ultimate Tutorial on Product Photography

Brian Rodgers Jr. has become the most popular and highly rated product photographer on Fstoppers, and today we are releasing his full-length product photography tutorial, “The Hero Shot.”

Joey L. Reviews Three Portable Lighting Kits for Traveling Photographers

Joey L. is a photographer best known for his stunning personal work creating portraits of the peoples of Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, and other exotic places of the world. He uses studio lights on-location to achieve his unique and dramatic look for his portraits of these exotic people. Consequently, he is frequently asked about what lighting gear he takes with him for those kinds of shoots. Recently, Joey made a video and blog post outlining three major options for portable studio lighting for photographers with varying budgets who want Joey L.-esque studio lighting on the go.

Fstoppers Reviews The Griffin PowerMate

It’s no secret that I have an unquenchable, near fetish-like lust for buttons and sliders or anything really that makes image processing akin to playing some freaky, incongruous musical instrument one might find in the Mos Eisley Cantina. This year, at CES 2014, Griffin announced an updated version of their PowerMate - an all-purpose, aluminum knob that will be wireless and wonderful and not out for a few more months. Luckily, there is a pretty great (and relatively inexpensive) wired version available now.

Nikon Announces the Nikon D610

The rumor mills have been buzzing, and Nikon has finally answered the rumors with the announcement of the Nikon D610. The main upgrade for the D610 is the shutter mechanism, after addressing the “oil-like leak” on the sensor from the D600 model. Other enhancements include a small jump in burst speed, and some new weather sealing advancements.

Evolution Of Me - 5 Investments That Changed My Career Forever

I have only been shooting photography for a little over 3 years now. Things have progressed so quickly during that period of time that I haven't really had the chance to look back at the evolution of my photography. I had to think thing long and hard about the investments I have made over the 3 years and the things that really changed the game for me.

Image Stabilization, F/2.8, and 15-30mm: Tamron Just Brought Us the Best Wide-Angle Zoom You Can Get

The extreme wide-angle focal length is an area that I had long ignored. When I was first starting out, I just wasn’t interested in it. I was interested in people – and that meant 85mm f/1.4, 105mm, 135mm, and 200mm lenses with both great compression and bokeh. Leave it Tamron to bring me back to the wide side with the world’s first ultra-wide-angle zoom with vibration control: the Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD.

Eizo Raises the Bar with the New 4K 31 Inch Monitor Covering 99% of AdobeRGB

Eizo monitors are known by many as being among the top of the line monitors, that come with a premium price tag. With the announcement of the ColorEdge CG318-4K, Eizo is hoping to raise the bar even further, pushing out 4K resolutions in a 31.1" screen with built in self color calibration systems, and perhaps most importantly, 99% coverage of the AdobeRGB color spectrum.

The Siros: Is Broncolor’s New Affordable Strobe Any Good?

With companies like Profoto and Elinchrom offering an increasingly broad range of self-contained strobes, Broncolor was no doubt feeling left out with its predominantly pack and head oriented lineup. That’s all changing now with the release of the new Siros strobe; a compact, wall powered, feature rich and wallet friendly flash unit.

What is PASS? Who Cares. This Is Better!

I use PASS for my gallery systems. I use it because it’s pretty on both the computer and on mobile devices, something that Smugmug and Zenfolio sometimes fail on. The system is pretty expensive ($30 per gallery), and gets a lot of criticism for completely hustling photographers over with their print system and prices. To top it off, Pass creator has had his share of controversy. Introducing Pixieset, everything that PASS SHOULD be, and at a reasonable price.

[Fstoppers Original] What Is Lens Diffraction And When Does Diffraction Happen?

If you are like me then you might not always get caught up in some of the super technical aspects of photography. One aspect of photography I recently investigated was the loss of sharpness caused by Diffraction. Last night while playing with the new Nikon D800 camera I examined lens diffraction and how diffraction can seriously affect the sharpness of your photography.

Apple's Magic Mouse 2: 'Charged' With a Major Design Flaw?

There's a myriad of ways us photographers interact with our computers on a daily basis. While Wacom tablets are certainly the luxurious way of editing, many of us still love our trusty mouse for plenty of tasks. One of the most popular and controversial mice on the market is Apple's Magic Mouse, and it looks like the love/hate fest is going to see even more action with the new Magic Mouse 2.

eSteady: The $200 Homemade Version Of The  MōVI

Tom Parker, avid aerial photographer and videographer from Cambridge, UK, decided to try and make his own homemade MōVI rig without losing all his savings in the process. Parker is a Product Design and Manufacturing student at the University of Nottingham, where he got the knowledge on how to design and build the rig for his GoPro camera. The final result works great, and all he had to pay was $200. Not bad if you compare it to the $15,000 it will cost you to get the MōVI. Check out how he did it.

[Fail] You Won't Believe This Enormous Photoshop Failure

A user on the popular social website Reddit was the first to bring our attention to this enormous Photoshop fail. A recent Target advertisement left one of the models sporting a little something extra. You won't believe your eyes when you see this, nor will you believe that somehow, nobody caught the mistake.

$500 for an Ice Light got you Down? How About a $62 Light Wand From Yongnuo?

The Westcott Ice Light has been around for awhile, and a number of photographers in the community on our site have shown it to be a part of their kits. Whether they're being used to light cars for an automotive shoot, or for food or small product photography, one thing that's been noted more than a few times is the steep price.

FS Review: Custom SLR's Unusual Finger Ergo Upgrade ProDot

Ah the ProDot, tied for the win as recipient of the most baffled and confused responses from photographers along side Tiffen’s confusingly expensive flashlight. Many of you laughed aloud when you saw this product hit the market, and even more after you watched the launch video. But is it possible that you might actually like the ProDot? Actually, yes.

How To Light And Photograph A Beer Bottle Advertisement

Last year Fstoppers threw its very first live photography workshop in the Bahamas and world class food and drink photographer Rob Grimm was one of the instructors. I was able to sit in on a bit of Rob's class and I learned a ton about photographing drinks. We just got our new order of FlashDiscs in and I decided to try a shot of my own using the new modifiers.

I Just Bought The iPhone 5 For $40.

I use my iPhone camera more than any other camera I own. It is on me all the time and is so convenient to quickly share photos from. Even on photo shoots I always find myself pulling out the iPhone for a couple BTS snaps or video. I have had the iPhone 4 since it came out and it has been showing it's age. I heard of a way to get an iPhone 5 for the cost of sales tax, and so I decided to give it a shot tonight.

Why I Switched From My Stock Wacom Stylus To The Classic Pen Stylus

I've been using Wacom tablets for almost ten years now to the date. I picked one up on a whim during the holiday season and have become hooked ever since. For these past few years, I've never considered changing the stylus that came with every tablet I've used. The stock stylus always felt great to me. Recently, I decided to give the Wacom classic pen stylus a try.

How To Photograph Jewelry For Catalogs

As a commercial photographer, I specialize in product, food, and architecture. One of the products we've been shooting a lot of lately is jewelry, specifically jewelry for catalog use. In my opinion, jewelry is one of the hardest things to photograph, and many photographers don't know where to start. Whenever we're tasked with photographing shiny, reflective, spherical objects, our studio sounds like a group of sailors on leave with all the profanity flying around (often times strung together to make complete sentences).

Elegantly Frame Your Shots With Unique Photoshop Plugins

Lens Distortions is a Photoshop plugin that allows you to easily add lens blurs and light leaks to your images for creative effect. With the continual proliferation of digital photography, there is still a great demand for the look and authentic feel of 35mm film. There are certain colors, textures, and tones that are unique to the format many of us grew up with. Lens Distortions Legacy Plugin allows you to build on the replication of analog photography by adding carefully placed imperfections to your photographs.

How to Create Sharper Images

Creating an image that appears “sharp” is something I struggled with for a LONG time. I read countless articles on the topic and invested heavily in gear thinking that was the cure. While gear can certainly help, I believe there are a few key areas to focus on in order to create images that are tack sharp.

Tips To Improve Your Beverage Photography: Secrets Of The Craft

This week I wanted to share a few of the tools we commercial photographers use to create our tabletop images. Particularly the items used in photographing beverages. There's a lot of trial and error when it comes to this sort of photography, often times we find ourselves using things in ways far from their originally intended purpose. Having said that, there's a lot of things that have become kind-of standard practice in food/beverage photography, some of those items I'll share with you today.

Adobe Announces Series of Mobile Apps with Plenty of Innovation

Announced this morning to kick off Adobe MAX, Adobe has released a series of applications for mobile devices that are designed to increase productivity, especially when on the move. They were able to show me some of these pieces of software during a briefing last week, and I must say, these look to have incredible potential for photographers, videographers and graphic designers.

Atmosphere Aerosol Is Your New Portable 'Fog In A Can'

Christmas is just around the corner and you might find yourself scrambling for a cool little gift for that photographer in your life. Atmosphere Aerosol is a new product which, as the name describes, is an aerosol can that dispenses a cloud of fog in a pinch. Small, light, and not needing electricity, this little can of foggy goodness might just be the perfect replacement for that fog machine. Will this be the next addition to your camera bag?

New GoPro Rival Has Unbelievable Price Tag

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is bringing its attention to the camera world with results that would make even the most die-hard GoPro fan think twice about their next purchase.

Has Canon Admitted The Difference Between The T4i and T5i is Nothing?

Canon fans were left wanting more after the announcement of the Canon Rebel T5i. Fans everywhere made comments on how it wasn't much of an upgrade from the t4i, and just a money grabbing attempt from Canon. Perhaps Canon has finally admitted that they're the same camera, as they're using old T4i ads, for the new T5i.

Give your iPhone Manual Controls with the DxO ONE

DxO, a company best known for its software, has unveiled a pocket-sized DSLR quality camera that is meant to be paired with your iPhone. Using the iPhone as a control panel and proofing screen, the camera itself concentrates on capturing images using it's own lens and settings. This idea could be the best of the DSLR and iPhone worlds. It's small and offers much more versatility and control than the normal iPhone camera all the while, still capitalizing on the immediacy of sharing with an iPhone camera.

Canon Announces The 16-35mm f/4L IS EF Lens

Announced tonight, Canon adds the 16-35mm f/4L IS to it's prestigious L series line of lenses. With an Optical Image Stabilizer system, the 16-35mm f/4 IS adds up to 4 stops of correction for great performance, even in low light. While this announcement is exciting for many of us, it also has many of us scratching our heads in confusion.

A Portable And Inexpensive Seamless Background System

Do you use a sweep in your portrait or large product photography? Sure a roll of paper several yards in length is necessary for photographing people and large products, but what about food and small products? Walking into a bakery or the back of a kitchen with two C stands and a large roll of paper is not going to work in the often small kitchen shooting environments.

Model making funny face with color chart

It's happened to me and it has most likely happened to you: you order a shirt and can't wait for it to arrive. Then it does and it's a completely different hue than what was pictured in the online store or catalog. Odds are the photographer may not have used a color chart during his or her shoot. There are many photographers that never learn to use a color chart at all, and others who won't do a shoot without one. Here are a few major points on how a color chart can help make your product photography color spot on.

Oops Olympus! Justin Bieber's New Music Video Was Also Shot With GoPros [UPDATED]

A couple of nights ago a close friend of mine, Jesse, gushed over Justin Bieber's new music video, 'Beauty and A Beat'. How it was entirely shot with the new Olympus TG-1 (a point-and-shoot camera) and how I should write a post about it for the site. So, taking his lead I went ahead and did some research on Justin's new music video.

Hands-On with the Newly Announced Sony RX1R II

Sony has just announced their latest full-frame mirrorless camera, the 42.4-megapixel RX1R II. This very sleek fixed-lens 35mm f/2 digital camera packs many of the same imaging features you’ll find in the new Sony a7RII (along with some surprising new ones), but in an even smaller, true compact-sized design. It’s a genius product of advanced engineering and technology, and I had the chance to get my hands on one to use.

Fstoppers Reviews the Yongnuo TTL Flash System

In the world of off-camera flash, there are two sides: the full manual side and the TTL (through the lens) side. I have always been on the full manual side, because when it comes to triggering a TTL flash off camera, things start to get complicated. In order to trigger the flash, you either need to have an expensive on-camera flash, an expensive TTL radio trigger, or a cumbersome TTL cable. Then, I found the affordable and feature-rich Yongnuo TTL system and instantly fell in love.

A Closer Look at the New Canon 80D DSLR Camera

While most professionals may have overlooked the latest DSLR to come out from Canon, the 80D, there are a few new features that are important to note. Whether you're a Canon shooter or not, keeping up with the featureset that's included with a modestly priced ($1200) compact camera is a good way to stay plugged in to where certain manufacturers are at, especially when it comes to having a lower-cost, backup camera. Here's a few videos that go in-depth with the 80D, and point out some of the more notable tricks this little camera has up it's sleeve.

The Aviator Travel Jib: A Portable Jib For Video Shoots In Hard To Reach Places

My passion is shooting outdoor lifestyle and documentary projects, and those shoots often require me to be on the go and in remote areas. Historically, getting an expensive jib or crane in those locations was not possible. With the Aviator Carbon Fiber Travel Jib, taking a jib into the field is not only possible, but easy for everyone.

Preparing and Packing A Portable Studio Efficiently

When people walk through my living room studio, they are puzzled that I do not own or rent a permanent studio space. What many do not know is that when I’m contracted for a commercial assignment, about 80% of the time I must travel to a location or shot at the client’s home base. And, in many cases that requires transporting several 9 foot seamless backdrops and a whole lot of equipment. I don’t have a giant bus to haul all of my studio gear, so it’s been a trying experience to find the right tools to efficiently pack and tote my mobile studio.

Fstoppers Review of the Canon 24-70mm F/2.8 L II

Reviewing this lens has not been a simple task. As is the case with, say, a new Apple product, many can argue that the original 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens is so good that any improvement would or should simply be a minor enhancement or fix. A new version should just address what little quibbles we all have had over the past several years. Little things. And with little changes should come minor price adjustments, if at all. This did not happen with the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L II, and thus I am hit with the daunting task of wrangling in this new piece of hardware.

This LG Commercial Shows How Having a Good Screen Can Make a Difference

As photographers and videographers, we always hate when people look at our work on a crappy-uncalibrated-small screen with bad colors. With their most recent commercial, LG proved how having a great calibrated screen can make a huge difference. With their new 84" ultra high definition TV they made people believe they were actually looking out a window. What happens next is absolutely hilarious.

A DSLR Shooter Reviews the Hasselblad CFV-50c

Last time I wrote an article for Fstoppers was almost a year ago when I had just picked up a Hasselblad V-system medium format film camera for the first time. If you remember my first post, I taught myself to shoot 120 film while traveling in Europe. I reported my findings as best as someone with only a month of practical experience could. In the year that's passed I've learned so much about the modern uses and challenges of this legendary camera system and it has become a fixture in my studio. In today's market it's not always the right tool for the job, but when it is, it's a remarkably satisfying camera to use.
A Cheap LitePanels Alternative? A Review Of The Zabolight LED Light Kit

An LED light kit for video is something I've always wanted to own. After years of using hot ARRI and Lowel lights, and renting LitePanels when the budget allowed, I discovered a company called Zabolight that was making LED panels and other fixtures at a much cheaper price. I purchased a kit of these, and did some testing to see how they compared to other more expensive brands.

Fstoppers Reviews the Flashpoint 14" Fluorescent Dimmable Ring Light

Flashpoint’s 14” Fluorescent Dimmable Ring Light ($140) is by no means a perfect product. It’s not the sturdiest of creations; it seems to have about as much metal in it as a pair of sunglasses. It’s bright but not powerful; bright enough to want those sunglasses if you find yourself on the business end. With all that said, this light may be the best value in the lighting market today.

Fstoppers Reviews the Canon 40mm f/2.8 Pancake Lens

When the Canon 40mm f/2.8 pancake lens was announced a couple weeks ago, Canon fans all over were squealing with joy- myself included. This tiny lens would be great for life on the go, had a brand new AF engine called the Stepping Motor (or STM), and looked to be extremely versatile. But does it live up to the expectations?