It's never occurred to me that creativity can come from a place of insecurity, but this video made me think about it. I'm a confident guy, and I get my creativity in the same way Chris Do gets it: by being optimistic and believing that reaching the top of the mountain only shows you the next peak to start climbing.
When you talk about landscape photography, chances are, you associate it with wide angle lenses. Telephoto lenses are probably the least used in landscape photography, but they do have some fantastic qualities to them.
As we've been discovering over the past few months, there are many options and choices when it's time to print your artwork. Today's paper is a rock star when it comes to unique yet subtle texture and really works wonders with your muted color palettes, so let's check it out.
The world of macro photography can look complicated to a beginner but it’s really not and in these five tips for better macro photography I’ll show you how you can improve your macro photography.
When it is time to buy a camera, image stabilization can be something that is on the bucket list of must haves. Image stabilization makes it possible to shoot with longer shutter times than normal, preventing the use of a tripod. There are many different implementations of image stabilization, but it is not the Holy Grail. You could say image stabilization is overrated.
How many of you have ever been to a national park or hiking trail only to find people disregarding the rules and trails all in pursuit of an ever better selfie or photo for Instagram? Then check out this Instagram account that's getting traction right now for calling out those very people and their bad behavior.
Go behind the scenes of this awesome image and learn how to create it yourself, from lighting all the way through post-processing.
When we think of epic landscape photography, we often think of dramatic golden light creating soaring rays and striking shadows, but unfortunately, the sky doesn't always cooperate to give us those results. This great video shows the possibilities we can achieve by embracing flat light.
Sometimes, depending on your shooting environment, you might not be left with ideal lighting. This fun and educational video tutorial will show you some clever techniques to augment existing lighting to make the scene a bit more cinematic by using Photoshop.
Perhaps one of the most underutilized areas of Lightroom is the Detail panel. Nonetheless, it offers some very useful functions that can make a large difference in the final look of your photos, and it's well worth getting to know how all the features work. This helpful video will show you all you need to know.
The almost mythic quality of the tortured artist is something we see reiterated over and over in all forms of media. But just how accurate is that image?
Every genre of photography comes with its own common problems, and landscape photography is no different. This great video examines three of the most common problems landscape photographers face and how you can overcome them.
The local adjustment brush is one of the most convenient and efficient ways to make edits in Lightroom, but with a bit of work, it can be even more useful. This helpful video will show you a great trick for getting more out of the local adjustment brush in Lightroom.
If you had your time again, would you change anything about your photography career? Here are 10 regrets I have accumulated while practicing as a professional photographer for the last decade.
Landscape photography can be a tricky genre that requires a lot of patience and nuance. This great video details seven common mistakes landscape photographers make and how to fix them.
If you spend any amount of time consuming photographic educational content, you've probably heard a lot of the same tips repeated almost to the point of cliché. This interesting video examines which of those tips are worth committing to memory and which are probably a bit overrated.
One of my favorite up-and-coming Youtubers is Mik Milman, and last week, he released a video interviewing clinical psychologist Dr. Ali about the hardships of being a freelancer and how it can affect your mental health as a creative.
![The Case for Nudity in Art [NSFW]](https://cdn.fstoppers.com/styles/med_16_9/s3/lead/2019/04/2209e1a115466631c2cc2e2119ce99b2.jpg.webp?itok=sBwvkXht)
The place of nudity in photography and art at large is often debated, and the way photographers and artists have used the human body to convey ideas and emotions has a long and nuanced history. This great video examines the place of nudity in art.
Warning: the video above contains many depictions of nudity in artistic forms.
We all know about golden hour and how it can offer you warm, soft, and flattering light for your photos, but if you're only working with natural light, restricting yourself to only golden hour can make it quite difficult to get shoots done. This great video will give you some helpful tips for dealing with harsher midday sun.
With today's modern sensors and powerful editing software, it's easier than ever to push files to extremes. But of course, just because you can push a file that far, it doesn't mean that you should. This thoughtful video talks about a better, subtler way to edit files.
When you're new to artificial lighting, it can be a bit overwhelming trying to understand how various setups, positions, and modifiers will produce different results, which is why it can be tremendously helpful to learn some setups that can get you off and running. This helpful video will show you five such portrait lighting setups in just five minutes.
To expose a photo correctly is one of the most basic things to learn in photography. It can, however, be hard for even advanced photographers.
One of the most fundamental skills any photographer can have is the ability to mix both ambient and artificial light. This helpful video takes it a step further by using high speed sync to photograph action while still maintaining some ambient light to complete the shot.
We've all seen the incredible first image of a supermassive black hole, but how on earth do you capture something so far away and that, by its very definition, consumes light?!
Are you stuck in your old ways with Adobe Photoshop? Me too. However, the newly updated Content-Aware Fill tool may be enough to break habits of slow clone stamp methods.
Have you ever made a picture of a landscape? Sure you have. Everyone has. Making the photo is the easy part, but showing the landscape how you experienced it, is something else. Often the photo does not show the landscape from you perception. Finding a subject is often one of the solutions.
One of Darwin's most seminal remarks on evolution, quoted en masse throughout the internet and various text books, is a profound piece of advice to any photographer looking to build a lasting career in the industry. The only catch is, he didn't actually say it.
With one simple change to my everyday routine, I suddenly feel more creative, able to generate ideas more quickly, and with greater clarity. You can achieve the same thing with one simple trick that won’t cost you a penny.
When you're new to lighting, it can be tempting to jump into complicated setups to try to achieve popular looks, but you might be surprised by just how much you can get out of one light. This great video discusses why it's important to stick with one light for a while while you learn the ropes.
We've all heard of saving less than perfect images by turning them black and white, but when should you really do it? Here's how I decide.
Travel photography is mostly associated with exploration of wild, untouched spaces, but in my experience, most commissioned travel photography takes place in cities. This article provides five tips for getting started in urban photography.
Maybe you've had a prospective client — someone you've never heard of — ring you up to discuss your photography services... and had your brain freeze, making the conversation awkward. Even if you've been landing photography gigs for years, the excitement of an unexpected phone call can throw you off course.
Creating a tight, accurate selection is the most challenging part of changing the color of an object in an image in Photoshop. You don't want to leave any pixels bleeding outside the edge of your selection making it obvious that a color was changed. So why bother making a selection at all when you can use this handy trick from Colin Smith at PhotoshopCAFE?
I personally want to learn. I want to learn how other creatives think and I want to draw upon their experience. I loved this video and you can pull so much out of it despite the photographs being kinda ugly. Everyone taking photos are photographers but are they artists? That is a whole other question. Here are seven thoughts to help you become an artist.
We planned a few days at the Opal Cast in France, a wonderful seaside area with rocky coasts, large tide differences, and a lot of remains of the Second World War, that has shaped the landscape many years ago. The forecast promised fantastic weather for landscape photography, so we had high expectations for impressive sunrise and sunset shots, and perhaps even a few star trails.
Last autumn, I finally decided to get my butt in gear and become FAA Part 107 Certified to be able to fly my drone commercially. Since I had pretty limited time in the busy fall season, and had zero prior aviation knowledge, I decided to give one of the many online courses out there a try.
What makes an image evolve from a great piece of art to a masterpiece? Is the value of an image defined by the ability to see every detail, or is it the intention and where those details are and aren't where the greatness truly begins and where light and mystery meet?
One of the most common issues you'll have to deal with when shootings portraits is uneven skin tones. This super helpful tutorial will show you everything you need to know to even out skin tones using Photoshop.
All photographers can agree that you won't stay in business long if you do not charge for your work. But what if I told you that the best way to gain exposure to high-paying commercial clients was to give away your images for free? Today, we sit down with commercial and composite photographer Josh Rossi and explore the concept of free.
You may have heard of t-stops before, but what exactly are they and why do only some lenses use them?
In this video, Nick Turpin offers his point of view as he takes viewers on a shoot in London. By offering the view through his lens, Nick offers a rare insight into the process of street photography in a way that is rarely seen.
Here in the northern hemisphere, night photographers are starting to come out of their winter slumber and getting ready for the summer night photography season. If you’re looking for some quick tips on shooting star trails on your next over night photography excursion, today is your lucky day.
I do not think I have heard this many great tips for visual control and storytelling in such a short video before.
You saw that wonderful long exposure image on the internet, with a smooth water surface and moving clouds in the sky, and you thought; I want to shoot images like that. So you invested in a dark neutral density filter that makes it possible to shoot with shutter times that are 1000x longer. Now you can start making those long exposure images.
Every camera is standard set to AWB, meaning "Auto White Balance". AWB uses 18% gray as a reference, to correct any color cast in the image. But the auto white balance is a dumb algorithm that cannot interpret a scenery. Perhaps it would be best to set the white balance yourself, instead of relying on the camera.
Sometimes it's the most basic accessories that can prove to be the most relied upon in the field, or in this case, the car.
You have all probably heard of SEO or search engine optimization and know how important it is for any website. Did you realize that using the right hashtags on Instagram is the exact same concept?
If you've ever wondered how surfers, water photographers, and marine daredevils get those incredible images from deep inside the heaving bowels of deathly, cavernous waves and want to know how you can do it too, find out exactly how it's done here.
Most of us know that branding plays a role in some of the most successful companies around the globe. Story Brand helps you understand your brand's story to such an extent that you too can market yourself just as well as a company like Apple.
When you talk about macro photography, people instinctively think bugs, insects, and creepy crawlies up close and personal, but there is so much more you can do when it comes to macro photography.