Editorial Photography

This is a topic that many paid video and photo shooters tend to feel very strongly about, and I’ve tried to analyze my experiences for some rational thoughts on the matter. If you want your voice heard, leave your opinion in the comments, but first read about how one particular band actually offered pro and hobby photographers press access to shoot images of their performance. For a fee of $150.

After a horrible decision to fire an entire photo staff on Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times media writer Robert Feder, released a Facebook statement from a memo sent out by managing editor Craig Newman. It seems that in the next couple of days, editorial employees will be starting "iPhone Photography Basics."

Large, imposing and drop dead gorgeous, the new Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX DG OS APO HSM AF is one hell of a lens. Sigma has done an outstanding job in recent months producing some top quality lenses and they didn’t let up on the gas with the first Sport category offering in their new global vision. With two levels of optical stabilization, a wide open f/2.8 aperture, crazy fast and accurate AF and a beautiful body build, you want this lens, even if you don’t know it yet.

In surprising news out of Illinois today, the Chicago Sun-Times has let go of all staff photographers and will be hiring only freelancers moving forward. The estimated 20 photographers found out about the move this morning.

Think Tank launched “About A Photograph,” a video series that features stories from photographers about the photographs they have created.

The videos are co-produced by Think Tank Photo co-founders and award-winning photojournalists Kurt Rogers and Deanne Fitzmaurice. Each video will feature some of the world’s leading photographers recounting the stories behind these images that captured global attention.

"Coty Tarr is an active lifestyle photographer based in New York City," so says the not quite so lengthy bio on his website. On initial thought, one might think the concise personal description is a little off-putting, but to anyone that has ever met Coty, it is nothing if not an apt discriptor. In a world where many photographers feel the need for shameless overpromotion (not that there's anything wrong with that), Coty takes a more subtle approach, working tirelessly and letting the caliber of his images and his work ethic speak for him.

Print is not dead and celebrity portrait photographer Sam Jones has created offCamera magazine — part print magazine, website, web television series and podcast — to showcase and profile actors, musicians and artists working at the highest level of their professions. Jones, whose work frequently appears in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Men's Journal, intends for offCamera to be an artistic vehicle for further exploration of the casual chats that often occur on set during his editorial photo shoots.

Charlie Haughey, a retired cabinet maker, was drafted to the US Army in 1967. While being stationed in Vietnam, Haughey was told by his commanding officer to document the war. The twist was that the photos were not to be shot of traditional combat, but as morale boosting photographs of the unit.

It's no secret that many people have predetermined opinions about strippers and the private lives they may lead. In a recent project by photographer Bronwen Parker-Rhodes, their lives and their method of self-expression via exhibitionism are put on display.

Parker-Rhodes' began this project after forming relationships with some of the dancers at various clubs she would DJ at. It begs the question, 'How do you capture the private lives and intimate moments of someone that exposes everything (or almost everything) regularly? What do you choose to reveal?'

Reviews are a tricky subject. On one side, there are a lot of people out there who want to hear as many voices on a product as possible before they make a decision. On the other side, there are skeptics across the internet who assume the worst of people and believe every review to be somehow influenced in a particular direction by unseen greedy fingers. We really want to clear the air on what makes an Fstoppers review, both in the past and in the future.

GL Wood is an editorial fashion photographer who's work has graced the covers of Nicki Minaj's Pink album as well as magazines like Elle, Vogue, Out and Bullett. When you look through his portfolio, this caliber of client comes as no surprise. It may, however, shock you to hear that Wood rarely uses Photoshop, but instead opts for old school methods of collaging, painting and drawing to alter his final images.

On May 20th, one of the deadliest twisters in known history touched down in Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City. The Tornado caused catastrophic damage to homes (over 13,000 of them were destroyed), infrastructure, schools and a hospital. Take a look at these powerful images showing the aftermath of the deadly Tornado as found on (the new) Flickr.

The New York Times is being forced to examine their policy in regards to retouching on their images. Of course, they stand by the fact that manipulation of their news images "strictly forbidden.” But recently, they received backlash when the cover of their [style] magazine T had what many readers felt was a fashion model that looked 'shockingly thin' and 'underage.'

The longer I've been a photographer, the more I've come to realize that the quality of the camera you own is far less important than how you shoot. The iPhone fashion shoot, now an iconic post on Fstoppers, showed that quality images can be taken without the biggest or latest camera body. While I'll affirm that shooting professionally shouldn't be determined by what kind of cameras you have, I think professionalism should be somewhat defined by how many cameras (and lenses) you have.

Sigma, hot on the heels of the outstandingly successful 35mm f/1.4 Art lens, has been releasing and announcing new lenses in their Global Vision realignment like crazy. Recently they released the 30mm f/1.4 lens for APS-C cameras, and I had high expectations for it after being told that the president of Sigma was aiming it to meet the performance set by the 35mm. So did it?

Original BBC Article (w/video)

Prof. Miles Padgett and his team of scientists at Glasgow University's School of in Scotland have created a technology which can generate a 3D image using just four stand-alone pixels by capturing light frequency waves beyond what the human eye can see.

Whether I’m going out for a short hike, a weekend camping trip, shooting the zombie apocalypse, or assisting someone for their personal project, there are many times when I’ve needed to be light and fast in my video rig setup. Besides going with a single camera and lens, the accessories I choose enable me to be versatile and get better clips in the end. Here’s my top 8 list of items that keep me on the move while I’m shooting video.

You may not have known it, but I'm certain you've seen a Norman Seef photograph. What photo do you think of when you think of Ray Charles? He shot that. Carly Simon? Yup. Steve Jobs? Seef again. After reading our own Douglas Sonders' article on how short the window of time is when working with celebrities, seeing how much Seef could get out of his subjects is awe-inspiring.

Monopods, once really only useful in a handful of situations, have evolved into irreplaceable members of our creative arsenals due to the advent of high quality video being produced in DSLRs. The idea of a “video monopod” might frighten video purists, but there are those such as Patrick Hall and myself who swear by them. Manfrotto’s version was a fantastic foray into the medium, but slightly pricey. Benro recently released their more affordable versions, and I was more than ready to see if they were able to hold their own.

Photographer Mario Testino shoots my favorite super lady, Kate Upton, for the June 2013 Vogue. Kate keeps things super classy for her spread and even rocks some rather large, dark eyebrows with her look. I am certainly one that appreciates some curves on a model, so I am glad to see Vogue is beefing up to the competition (see what I did there) instead of the same ol' too-skinny girl. Click through to see the shots from her upcoming feature

Ok, so we've covered why you should love the Creative Cloud: it gives you access to everything Adobe everywhere you go. It gives you all the outstanding programs at your fingertips. It is taking connectivity to a whole new level for creative collaboration. Updates are instantaneous. But all that aside, it's a stifling, expensive system that might be forcing you into something you don't want.

Adobe Creative Cloud, in lieu of Adobe Creative Suite 7, has some great new features but also some hotly contested issues including the loss of disc support and move to a monthly payment feature for all future software. Mike Kelley, Rebecca Britt and I (Jaron Schneider) discuss what this means for creatives and why it may not be the big deal some are trying to make it out to be.

“These new ways might be found by men who could abandon their allegiance to traditional pictorial standards—or by the artistically ignorant, who had no old allegiances to break. There have been many of the latter sort. Since its earliest days, photography has been practiced by thousands who shared no common tradition or training, who were disciplined and united by no academy or guild, who considered their medium variously as a science, an art, a trade, or an entertainment, and who were often unaware of each other's work…

Since last November I have been shooting a photo series titled 'Comedic Value' which consists of NYC comedians shot in NYC locations for NYC charity, Art-Start. Of the 25 comics featured in the project, 1 of my favorite shoots was with Jim Gaffigan and his fantastic family. When discussing concepts with Jim, he mentioned that he needed a shot of him and his kids for his new book, 'Dad Is Fat' which will be out next month.

People create photo series for a number of different reasons. Sometimes you come up with an idea and pursue it while others just fall into your lap unexpectedly. For portrait photographer Willis Bretz the Washington D.C. metrorail system is where his series was brought to life or rather awakened from other commuters' slumber. We sit down and talk about his series entitled, 'Sleep in Transit'.

There is fierce competition among the top digital imaging companies, fighting for several billion in dollars worldwide. I have examined Olympus and Sony in the past, and this year I wanted to bring in Canon and Nikon to see how their last fiscal year treated them. Though the publicly filed information tends to be pretty vague in specific company categories (instead opting to give general aggregated sales), I was able to get some approximate final sales numbers in digital imaging for these four companies. Let’s answer the big question: who came out on top?

...pretty outstanding and powerful photos. Every single image that was awarded the prize was taken by photographers covering the war in Syria. What's particularly unique about the winner of the "Breaking News" category was that there was not a solitary winner; the award was shared by five photographers.

We can all be a little shy: it's not the easiest thing to go up to a stranger and start taking pictures or strike up a conversation. Adam Marelli had an interesting post on his blog called, Can I Take Your Picture, How to Talk to Strangers, in which he discusses how most people are okay with being photographed if you just take the time to talk with them. He even argues that you should always talk to a stranger you're about to photograph first. But are there exceptions?