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.

Six Ways to Make Your Drone Footage More Cinematic

If you've got a drone, you know that it opens up a near-infinite number of new possibilities, but with those also come a unique set of challenges. This quick and helpful video will show you six tips to get more cinematic looking aerial footage. 

Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck

Shooting high-quality video has never been easier and cheaper than it is today. Most digital cameras offer at least high definition 1080p quality and considering the applications of video from a business standpoint, it seems foolish not to offer this service as part of your photography business. 

How to Fake a Dolly Zoom in Premiere Pro

If you're a Hitchcock fan, you're no doubt aware of the dolly zoom, also known as the "Vertigo effect." It's dazzlingly disorienting, but it also requires a zoom lens and the physical ability to move the lens in space, things that aren't always simultaneously possible, such as if you're shooting with a drone. Here's how to fake the effect in Premiere Pro. 

Using the Lightroom Second Reference Window to Compare Images

If you work in Lightroom quite a bit, I'm sure you've encountered a situation in which you wanted to compare two images or keep one open while working on another. Lightroom offers a few ways to do this, but using the Second Window function might be one of the more helpful ways to do it, particularly if you're working with multiple displays.  

Lessons in Filmmaking: Why We Love the Bus Jump in 'Speed'

Ah, the 90s, when if you wanted to jump a bus across a freeway in your movie, you didn't use CGI; you jumped an actual bus. Go behind the scenes of one the most famous stunts in action movie history and learn why we it keeps us on the edge of our seats despite its absurdity. 

Ripple Trim With Adobe Premiere Pro Keyboard Shortcuts

After working in Adobe Premiere Pro for several years now, I've learned a number of useful keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts help me with a variety of things, from navigation, trimming, and organization, just to name a few. It was only recently that I found my favorite shortcuts, the powerful Q and W keys. You can perform a variety of useful trims with these two keys.

Realism, Formalism, and the Way Movies 'Should' Be Created

You may not realize it, but your brain is waging a battle against itself every time you watch a film. Every film is its own universe with its own laws, and how those laws compare to those outside that universe determine how your brain interacts with the film and evaluates it against reality. But if you're making your own work, it might be worth stepping outside the norms. 

Five Skills Video Editors Need to Have

Successful video editing is a confluence of creative vision, technical skills, and practical problem solving, so it's no wonder that it takes a lot of dedication and practice to become skilled at it. To help you jumpstart that process, here are five skills you need to have to be a successful video editor. 

How to Create Stunning Dog Portraits at Sunset

One of the main reasons why I love photographing dogs outdoors is the challenge of creating beautiful backdrops from the natural surroundings. One of my favorite ways to photograph dogs on location is to use a wide-angle lens to allow the sky to be the dominant background feature.

How to Shoot B-Roll for Your Video Work

B-roll is important stuff. It keeps your viewer's experience from becoming stagnant, and it can be used to explain or elaborate on the main footage. It's entirely its own art to shoot, and this helpful tutorial will give you great tips to get more and better b-roll footage for your video work. 

The Story Behind 'Migrant Mother' One Of The Most Famous Photographs Of All Time

Perhaps no single photo is more symbolic of America’s troubles during the Great Depression than Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother.” Depicting an itinerant farm worker, Florence Owens Thompson, and five of her children apparently in the grips of despair on the side of the road, this single image came to surmise an entire era.  Of course, as photographers, we know that a single image can rare

13 Gimbal Movements You Should Know

Adding to your arsenal of camera movements is always a good thing to do. If you just bought your first gimbal, this great tutorial will show you 13 essential movements that will add more visual interest to your work. 

How to Retouch Hair in Photoshop Efficiently and Quickly

Cleaning hair in post-production is without a doubt retouchers’ and photographers’ worst nightmare. It takes up a lot of time, energy, and precision, but more importantly, there are so many techniques out there that often we forget about even the most basic ones. In this very comprehensive video, Aaron Nace from Phlearn shows how to retouch hair in the most simple way possible. 

On Goals and Motivation in Photography

Photography, especially some of the more niche genres, can be an exceedingly hard thing to stay motivated in. Hear from a large format landscape photographer on how he stays motivated in a tough-to-make-it world. 

Adobe Premiere Pro's Editing Tools Explained

It took me several years of editing video before I became comfortable venturing out to use some of Premiere Pro's editing tools. The problem is that you can accomplish almost everything you need with the Selection tool, and some editors are comfortable doing just that. You can perform simple trims, move clips around, and add transitions all using just the Selection tool.

Filmmaking Tips for Younger Filmmakers

When you're first starting in filmmaking, the veritable plethora of techniques, equipment, skills, and the like you have to have can seem like an impossible bunch to conquer. Being younger is yet another challenge. This video gives some helpful tips and advice to younger up and coming filmmakers. 

Taking Care of Your Crew

Some photographers are lucky enough to work large shoots that have directors or production managers who manage the logistics of the shoot, leaving the photographer free to focus on creating images but, often, photographers are running large scale shoots without the benefit of a production manager.

What Happened When I Broke My Leg While Filming Our Last Project

Last year, right around this time, Patrick and I booked a flight to Mexico to film Mike Kelley photographing the most expensive house ever sold in Playa Del Carmen. It certainly had the potential to be an incredible trip. The day before we were set to leave I decided to go out kiteboarding and I ended up breaking my tibia internally at my knee.

Post-Process Black and White Photographs in Lightroom Like a Pro

Effectively converting a color image to black and white involves much more than a simple “convert to grayscale” type of operation. In this video, Aaron Nace of Phlearn demonstrates how to produce a stunning black and white version of any color image in Lightroom. 

Learning to Work With Your Inner Critic While on a Photoshoot

Being overcritical of yourself can seriously hold you back in your photographic career. If you listen to those seeds of doubt too much you could end up crippling yourself to a point where you no longer feel able to create work or know what your next move should be. Let's see how three photographers manage to cope with an extreme version of that inner critic while on a photoshoot. 

Chris Knight Produces the Bible of Dramatic Portraiture

In an industry saturated with educational materials, navigating the minefield to find which resources are valuable, and worthy of your hard earned money, can be rough. As a photographer, I have purchased countless tutorials, books, and magazines. I have poured through blogs, YouTube videos, attended numerous workshops and endured some questionable Facebook Live sessions.

The Right Way to Wrap Cables, Rope, and Cords

We've recently covered the knots a photographer and videographer must know. The same guy, Mark Vargo, shows us how to correctly wrap cables, rope, and cords on location. It's something I thought I didn't need to know, but the skills will be very useful when your team has one more look to shoot and the wireless trigger's last battery is done and you need to use a syncing cable. 

On Location: Behind the Scenes with Natural Light

The dramatic looks that can be achieved with strobes can very well be accomplished with natural light if utilized correctly. Understanding how to use the sources and the environment will increase the overall image every time. Using pull backs of each shot is a valuable tool in order to truly appreciate and understand how each image was shot.

Mix it Up With These 30 Composition Styles for Photography

If there is one thing I like about budding photographers, it's their fresh way of looking at stuff to photograph. In this analytical process of recognizing perspectives and compositions, beginners often ask important questions that seasoned photographers might find intrinsic. Questions like "How can this photo get more interesting?" or "What makes me keep looking at this picture?" 

Differences Between Luminosity and Color Blend Modes in Photoshop

Blend modes in Photoshop are still confusing lots of us even after years of using the software. This article is about two of them: Luminosity and Color. You may start using them more frequently after you understand their strengths and cases when you should use them.

 

A Helpful Comparison of Various Lighting Modifiers

When you're first starting with artificial lighting, one of the biggest things to learn is how different modifiers affect the face. This helpful video compares numerous modifiers of different types and sizes to help you understand their effects and choose what's right for you. 

Amateur Photographer With Pro Gear Vs. Pro Photographers With Amateur Gear

We have certainly talked about this before, but it seems Gear Acquisition Syndrome is forever waiting in the wings to try to convince us that that new camera will help us make better images. This is a great reminder that skilled photographers with basic gear will do a better job than someone with a nice camera. 

A Beginner's Guide to Colorizing Black and White Images in Photoshop

Colorizing black and white photos is a nuanced and skilled art entirely by itself, but understanding the basics of it gives you some good practice with editing techniques and another skill to throw in your bag of tricks. This helpful video will show you how to do just that. 

Export Videos from Premiere Pro, Upload Them to Instagram

Instagram hit the scene in 2010 as a photo-sharing app for iOS. It didn't take long for the app to explode in popularity, gaining one million registered users in just two months and ultimately being acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for $1 billion in cash and stock.

Keeping Your Videos Interesting With Better Pacing

We’ve all had one of those moments where we were in the middle of watching a video and realized that the pacing just didn’t quite feel right. It’s something that once it catches your attention can ruin the rest of the video for ourselves.

Video Provides Detailed Breakdown of The Cinematography of Wonder Woman

Cinematographer Matt Workman of Cinematography Database has prepared another in depth breakdown. This time he brings into focus the current box office queen, "Wonder Woman" featuring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine. 

So, in the interest of full disclosure, I should probably say right up front that I don't generally like superhero movies. Like, pretty much ever.

An Interview With Master Photographer Benjamin Von Wong

Benjamin Von Wong's work is a tour de force of creativity, technical skill, and the ingenuity and planning ability to pull it all off. Learn more about how he began shooting, the evolution of his methods, and his advice on the creative process and working with others.  

How Simple Lighting Techniques Can Dramatically Enhance Your Photography

It doesn't matter if you shoot weddings, portraits, or work in the commercial world. With the smallest about of kit and a little bit of knowledge you really can dramatically improve the quality of your images. The guys over at Westcott have produced a fascinating video with Chicago-based photographer and educator Bob Davis.

Pan"Tone" - Sports Photography Project With a Color Twist

When a D1 collegiate athlete becomes a photographer, you should watch out. Zach Ancell is a commercial sports photographer from Portland and has been shooting for almost 10 years now. As any self-respecting creative, he does his own personal projects between the commercials he shoots.

Seven Tips When Working With Photos in Adobe Premiere Pro

You can do a lot with photographs in Adobe Premiere Pro: create and customize a time-lapse with the automate to sequence feature, import a layered Photoshop file as a complex layered video sequence, or animate your images in 2D or 3D space. These are just a few of the things you can accomplish.

A Beginner's Guide to Smart Objects in Photoshop

If you're new to Photoshop, you may have heard of these mythical things called "Smart Objects." This helpful tutorial walks you through a very practical application of them to help you understand their role in image editing. 

How the Dolly Zoom Is More Than Just Showing Off

The dolly zoom is a mesmerizing visual effect that is immediately recognizable in use. And while it's an impressive trick, it can carry with it a lot of information that can convey emotion, important plot points, or imminent danger.