Photography Education

Whether you just picked up your first camera or you've been shooting for years and hit a plateau, there's always more to learn. This section is where Fstoppers publishes educational content aimed at genuinely improving your photography — not just gear tips, but the foundational understanding of light, composition, and visual thinking that makes the difference between a competent photographer and a compelling one.

The Time to Prepare for Viral Photos Is Before They Go Viral

Unless you're a photojournalist, the chances are low that your photos will ever go viral. If you're trying to go viral, you'll probably be prepared ahead of time. If you just so happen to be in the right place at the right time, you may not be prepared for what happens when your photos go viral. 

Lesser Known Photography Galleries: Seek Them Out

If you’re into photography and you’re into galleries, I’m confident you’ve heard of New York’s MoMa, Toronto’s AGO, and London’s Tate Modern. But what about some of the lesser known galleries that are often given short shrift in favor of the bigger iconic galleries?

Sizing Your Video for Your Target Audience in DaVinci Resolve

Considering your target audience when creating content is one of the most crucial aspects of any marketing strategy. That's why creators need to find out exactly who the majority of their viewers are when making and editing material.

Why This Photographer No Longer Uses Sliders to Edit His Images

There is a veritable plethora of ways to edit any image, and each method has its own benefits and drawbacks. This interesting videos discusses why one photographer chose to stop editing using sliders, instead relying solely on local adjustments.  

Three Reasons Why Minimalism Can Help Create a Better Photo

The natural tendency for a beginner photographer is to try to show as much as possible in their photos. They want to show everything that they're experiencing at the time. Under the right conditions, a wide-angle shot like that has its place. However, often, the better shot is the one that shows as little as possible. This technique in photography is called minimalism. 

Photoshop Shift Key Tips You Need to Know

Thanks to Photoshop's myriad of features, it's more than understandable that you don't know every single key combination or shortcut out there. Here are several ways to use the shift key to make your life while editing so much easier. 

25 Helpful Photoshop Tips and Tricks

Photoshop is a tremendously complex and intricate program, and it can take years to master all its various functionalities. This helpful video will move you along that road by showing you 25 tips and tricks to improve your Photoshop skills in no time at all. 

What Has Improved Your Photography the Most?

With more information available to us than we could consume in a thousand lifetimes, we're forced to do what humanity has always had to do: look at what has been successful for others and emulate it. 

How to Get Cinematic Results From Your Gimbal

Along with improvements in resolution and dynamic range, one of the biggest changes witnessed in the world of videography in recent years is how easy it has become to add movement to a shot. A gimbal can open a world of possibilities, and this short video gives an excellent introduction. 

Avoid the Photoshoot Hangover With These Simple Tips

Have you ever gone to a photoshoot you were so excited about, had the greatest time there, just to go home and realize all the images were shot in JPEG? Or you go through the photos and you realize a lot of the shots the client’s hair was in the way? These are both examples of a Photoshoot Hangover. 

Building a Travel Story

All too often, I find myself guilty of concentrating on hero images — the one phenomenal image that will get noticed by the right people and will propel my career. In this video, National Geographic photographer Susan Seubert talks about the process of creating a story. 

Kando 3.0: What It Is and Why I'm Excited to Go

At a momentary glance, Kando 3.0 might seem like the traditional photography workshop you see announced almost every day. But give it a minute instead of a moment and you’ll see Kando is way more than that. In fact, it’s not really a workshop at all. 

A Guide to Putting Together Your First Lighting Kit

When you are new to artificial lighting, the veritable plethora of terms, modifiers, prices, and more can be a bit overwhelming and paralyzing when you are attempting to put together your first kit. This helpful video will give you all the guidance you need to put together your first lighting kit and be up and shooting in no time. 

The Importance of Patience and Curiosity as a Photographer

We live in a culture where we expect instant results and gratification, and sometimes, that attitude can transfer to our photography workflow. That's not always a good thing, though. This great video discusses the importance of patience and curiosity as a photographer and how it can improve your images.  

Helpful Tips for Landscape Photography at Longer Focal Lengths

When you think of landscape photography, you probably think of wide angle lenses for the majority of shots, but there's more to life than just shorter focal lengths. This helpful video will give you some great tips for creating landscape images with longer focal length lenses. 

Alternative Processing Film: A Third Approach

In part of three of making prints of my shoot with Cognito, I made a kallitype from a film scan. A kallitype is an iron-based contact printing solution that yields a wonderful tonality that, in my opinion, can only be found in analogue printing. Here's a quick overview of the process and some thoughts on why you should venture out and try something different! 

Seven Helpful Landscape Photography Composition Tips

Good composition is one of the subtler and trickier aspects of landscape photography, and it goes far beyond just memorizing a few heuristic guides such as the rule of thirds. This excellent video will give you seven advanced composition tips to improve your landscape photos. 

Watch How Movies Create Mood by Avoiding Flat Lighting

Sometimes you look at a photo or scene in a T.V show and think "that looks rubbish." For me, 9 out of 10 of those cases are the result of flat lighting. Let Vanity Fair's Reverse Film School series show you exactly how much of a difference it makes. 

Watch This When You're Feeling Down About Your Work

It's certainly easy to go through periods of feeling down about your creativity or the quality of your work; it's something we all go through. If you're currently going through such a phase, it's worth taking a few minutes to watch this great and inspiring video. 

How to Create Realistic Bokeh In Photoshop

There are a variety of valid reasons you may need to enhance the out of focus blur in Adobe Photoshop. Whether it’s a limitation of your equipment, limitation of the shooting environment, or you just want to make a creative change, this tutorial shows you the trick to making fake bokeh look great. 

How to Balance Strobes and Ambient Light

Being new to strobe lighting can be a bit overwhelming, but learning some fundamental techniques and manners of working can have you on your way. This helpful video tutorial will show you one of the most important techniques: balancing strobe light with ambient light. 

The Problem With Instagram and How It Undersells Your Photography

Nowadays, the majority of photographers have an Instagram account to showcase their work, while some even use it as their primary portfolio. But while the platform is certainly a great tool to get your work in front of the masses, it's not perfect, and this thought-provoking video essay explores one of the subtler reasons why. 

Wildlife Photography: How to Get Closer to Animals

You aren’t going to get very far as a wildlife photographer if the animals are constantly being scared away before you get into position. Here are some helpful tips on improving your approach. 

Using Shutter Angle for Video and Why It’s Better Than Shutter Speed

Understanding what a shutter speed is has been with us since the beginning of learning photography. For shooting video, shutter speed gets a little more complicated as it now has a direct relationship with the frame rate to calculate for. Shutter angle is what will make everything simple again. 

Can You Steal a Photographer's Style?

Photographers can be very protective of their techniques and creative ideas, while others can be extremely open about how they work. Regardless of the process, the end result is on display for all to see. Does this mean it's possible for others to steal a photographer's style? This thought-provoking video examines exactly that question.  

Seven Myths About Landscape Photography That Might Be Holding You Back

There are lots of myths out there about photography that can end up holding you back if you listen to them, and it's important to avoid falling prey to them. This great video discusses seven such myths in landscape photography and sets the record straight on what it's really like. 

Removing Halos From HDR or Aggressive Photo Edits

If you’ve pushed a photo edit too far in post processing, you’ve probably noticed a halo effect happening at high contrast areas of your image. If you didn’t catch it right away, here’s the trick to removing them at any time. 

Your Guide to Sony Autofocus Settings for Video

Sony cameras have become a big hit among the indie filmmaking crowd due to their versatility, cost of entry, and video quality. If you’re new to these cameras or just need a refresher, here’s what you need to know about setting up autofocus for video on Sony cameras. 

The Straightforward Video Guide to Teleconverters

I consider teleconverters to be an essential piece of photography gear for wildlife photography. Check out this great video on what makes them special and how to get the most out of them. 

One Tiny Change in Photoshop to Speed Up Cropping

For many of us, we’ve been using Adobe Photoshop for so long that at this point we don’t question our own workflows; we do what we’ve done before because that’s the way we’ve always done it. I did something crazy the other day though. I questioned if a tooltip’s displayed information could be changed. And I was a little shocked that yes, it could be. 

How to Photograph Birds With Clean, Simple Backgrounds

One of the most difficult challenges in bird photography is finding the subjects you want in front of non-distracting backgrounds. With limited means of placing wild birds exactly where you need them, what methods can be used to ensure other elements in the frame don’t overpower the subject? 

So Many Photographers Make This Mistake. Are You One of Them?

We all make mistakes. They are part of the learning process, and if we want to improve, we have to accept that we'll make plenty of them. Photographers are no different, but there's one big mistake I see so many photographers make time and time again, yet it's so avoidable. 

How Often Do You Try to Recreate Photos?

The wonderful thing about the internet is how incredibly easy it is to instantly access a veritable plethora of masterful photographs to inspire you. But do you ever attempt to recreate those photos yourself? This great video shows the challenges and benefits of trying to recreate other people's photos. 

Would You Spend $20,000 on a Photography Degree or Gear?

20 or 30 years ago, the benefits of going to college for photography were pretty obvious. But nowadays, there is a veritable plethora of premium education available for free or for a fraction of the price of a degree, and as such, the value of going to a university isn't as clear cut as it used to be.

Quick Tips to Get the Shot in Any Condition

Photographing underwater possess its own challenges even in clear visibility. Coming into a body of water you are unaware of the conditions can make or break you, only if you allow it to.   

The Importance of Not Comparing Yourself to Other Photographers

With the internet, it's easier than ever to hop online, see hundreds of photographs, and compare your work to a bevy of other photographers. But just because you can, it doesn't mean you should. This great video explores the importance of not worrying about the work of other photographers too much.  

All About the Mathematics of Blending Modes

Spend any time working with post-processing applications, and you will probably end up using blending modes sooner rather than later. They're incredibly useful and fundamental to most workflows, but how do they actually work? This highly informative video will dive deep into the theory behind blending modes and how they work. 

The Versatility of Large Light Sources

When you are new to artificial lighting, it can be a bit of a tough world to navigate. This great explores one of the most fundamental concepts behind working with artificial light and why it's so useful for photographers.  

Bad Things to Say During a Photo Shoot and What to Say Instead

When you're new to photography involving people, you might spend a lot of time working on getting your technique just right, but that's only half the puzzle, as you have to be good at directing people as well. This great video discusses several things to avoid saying during photo shoots and what to say instead. 

Some Helpful Dos and Don'ts in Landscape Photography

Landscape photography is a unique genre full of its own challenges and difficulties, but it can also be highly rewarding and even meditative. This helpful video discusses several dos and don'ts of landscape photography to improve both your work and your experience.