Education

Our latest article in the Seniors Ignite series with Jen Basford from 3 girls photography covers how to create a year round senior business. Jen has created a studio that doesn’t slow down in the off months. Instead, she is constantly building her portfolio and generating revenue. How does she does do this? In this article, we dive into the four things that have helped Jen create a year-round business.

Capturing the launch of a space shuttle is undoubtedly a tremendous task to take on. Add to that the pressure of capturing the last space shuttle launch and you may have one of the most immense photographic endeavours of your career. In a very passionate and insightful video talk, Dan Winters takes us through the process of accomplishing said task. From his emotional relationship with capturing launches, to diagrams of his camera setups, Winters not only shows us how he captured his incredible photos, but conveys what doing so meant to him as a photographer as well as a human being.

I’ve just read a comment from a photographer who said it’s time to stop shooting in black and white. He claimed we don’t see the world in black and white and it was something only done in the past due to the limitations at the time and it’s time to move on. Here’s a number of reasons why I think it’s critical to shoot black and white from time to time, and how it can help nurture your photographic eye.

Everyone has heard the saying, "The eyes are the window to the soul." There is a lot of truth to this when it comes to photographs. The first thing many of us look at when we see an image are the eyes of the subject. In this article I'm going to teach you how to enhance eyes using the brush tool in Lightroom.

Any photographer who wants their work to stand out has to offer something unique to the viewer. The following list contains ideas, poses and editing techniques that probably aren't too original and should be avoided. If I had known this when I started photography, I probably would have found a signature look sooner.

Once you have decided who you’re going to sell to and have worked on your portfolio enough to be confident with it, as discussed in Chapter 1, it’s time to get started in the game of marketing. Like any other part of the process, selling your product or service is something that requires planning. Marketing plans for big companies can get really complex, sometimes they can be extensive as a 100 page document, but I’ll try to break it down to the basics. In this chapter you will learn how to think with a marketing mindset, focusing on objectives and organizing tasks that will eventually fulfill your goal.

A teacher once told me that filmmakers need to fully utilize the frame within their scenes and move the camera in ways that help drive the story forward; otherwise they're just filming a play. That always stuck with me and it's a point I still take note of in movies. Tony Zhou from Every Frame a Painting does a great job of explaining why the camera frame is so important in comedic cinema along with a slew of other techniques that few people other than Edgar Wright are making use of in today's comedies. This is eight minutes of insight you're not going to want to miss!

Being a family photographer is hard. Ask anyone who does it or who has tried it. But it's also one of the most rewarding fields of photography - in my opinion at least. Family photos are a treasure in most families. They showcase who your loved ones were at the time they were taken, they show off your kids' personalities, and most importantly, they bring to life memories of loved ones that have passed. These tips I've explained within will help elevate your family photography to a new level.

6 months ago Dylan Patrick flew to Charleston SC for a week to film our latest tutorial; The Cinematic Headshot. As always, editing this 6 hour tutorial was much more difficult than we expect but I'm excited to announce that it is finally available.

What’s wrong with our industry that we are so quick to belittle formal education? Whenever the topic of an art degree arises, there’s an angry mob that amasses, collectively chanting how “useless” a degree is in photography and that the best school to learn from is the University of Hard Knocks. To really understand this issue, we have to first step back and look at the value of art and why photographers are so polarized on the term. Then, we have to recognize that “art school graduates” are not the real problem; it’s the dismissive attitudes toward them that are.

It seems as if the film edit is getting more popular every day. A lot of beginner photographers out there will do anything to achieve this look. The easiest way to do that is to buy presets but I want to show you how to create the look yourself. I believe once you understand how to create the look yourself you can begin to find your own style. I know too many photographers that take an image, slap a preset on it, and call it good. All the editing on these images was done in Lightroom 5.

While a great image of the Milky Way can be awe inspiring in and of itself, it becomes something else entirely when you add some motion. In just 20 minutes, you will have all the information needed to go out and shoot a time-lapse yourself. Whether or not you are willing to spend countless hours alone in the darkness however...

The holiday season is right around the corner, and for many photographers it’s one of the most lucrative times for print sales. If you’re selling framed prints of your work, it’s imperative that you package your products correctly in order save yourself a lot of money from damages, and to avoid having disappointed customers. Let’s take a look at how to do packaging the right way and earn yourself repeat customers that will come back year after year.

Freelance photographer is a term widely used inside our craft. Yet what does it truly mean to be a freelancer? And more importantly, what aspects should you take in consideration in order to make freelance photography work to your advantage?

You may have the newest DSLR or the fastest lenses known to man, but without even a basic understanding of light, it is going to be an uphill battle to create the images you envision. While this tutorial is directed primarily toward animators, the ideas and concepts within it are applicable to anyone who wants a better understanding of some basic lighting fundamentals.

Many people will avoid picking up a camera because they think they don’t have an eye for photography. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t take talent to capture a solid portrait. It takes skill and the motivation necessary to master those skills. Portrait photography can be dealt with as an equation; with just a set of rules and guidelines, it’s possible to take jaw dropping, natural light portraits tomorrow. Here are seven steps to master portraits using natural light only.

When I first attempted to retouch the photographs I took in 2006, I had no idea what I needed to do and how. Today there are thousands of video tutorials on the web on how to retouch, but nobody explains what it is that needs to be retouched to make a female face look more youthful, healthy and beautiful. It took me some time to figure out what the common problems that I needed to remove from my subjects' faces and bodies were, and what I had to alter to make them look more attractive.

As Director of Photography for Sports Illustrated, Brad Smith is witness to a lot of freelance photographers trying to get their foot in the door. Albert Ayzenberg of A.A. Productions sits down with Brad to talk about what freelancers should be doing to get noticed, and ultimately be hired, by photo editors. Whether you’re new to the industry or a seasoned professional, it’s worth taking a look at this interview to get a better sense of what employers such as Sports Illustrated are looking for and how best to show it to them.

I’ll never forget the email; I was on a plane somewhere over the Florida coast, on my way to the Bahamas for the Fstoppers Workshops 2014. Just before I left the States, I had signed on with the artist consulting firm Wonderful Machine. The first step in preparation for a press release was to tear my website apart. The critique was tough and they slashed it hard… here I am in one of the most beautiful places in the world, feeling a truck load of anxiety. For years, I had thought I had a clean and straight to the point website, but it turns out I needed to strip it down even more.

When learning a new photographic technique, it typically takes quite a bit of practice time before you achieve pleasing results. With long-exposure photography, that learning time is extended because every frame can take minutes to complete. In this video from B&H, photographer Deborah Sandidge does an excellent job of accelerating the learning process thanks to in-depth explanations of strategy and set-up behind each photo presented.

I’m a big proponent of outsourcing editing in my wedding photography business. There’s probably nothing more painful to me than the thought of trudging through 800-1000 images from each wedding I photograph. However, when it comes to my favorite few images from each job, the ones that I’ll share on social media or use to update my website, I take a dive into Lightroom and Photoshop and enjoy every second of it.

Why is it so hard to hire someone to fill a creative position? At this point I'm afraid that art school might be making most graduates unemployable egomaniacs. I know this because I used to be one.

As photographers, we are all subject to the “I saw this photo on Pinterest” or “I love this photo of my friend” requests. Below are three tips on how to handle these requests without killing your creativity and keeping your client happy.

I spent this last year doing a photographic cleanse, It’s kind of like spring cleaning. You focus on what you need most in your photography, in terms of lighting, editing and education, and you throw everything else out. It was not only extremely important for my growth both professionally and personally, but also for my sanity.

Taking portraits at wide apertures and consistently nailing focus is is not an easy task. In fact, it’s a skill that must be practiced in order to master it. However, an aspect not often discussed in regards to capturing sharp images has nothing to do with the lens used or the f-stop. Here is the ultimate guide to capturing tack sharp images at wide apertures.

San Francisco based photographer, Jeff Cable, is perhaps best known for his work with the US Olympic Committee, photographing the last four Olympic Games though his list of offered services includes Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, weddings, nature, sports, and senior portraits. In this video produced by B&H Photo's learning studio Jeff walks you through getting started in the senior portrait game from location scouting and preproduction to shooting and workflow.

The guys over at DigitalRev TV love doing things just for the hell of it and never seem to backdown from a challenge. Their latest of which is to take the actual food from a popular fast food chain and make it look like the advertisements. As an added challange they use nothing but Apple gadgets.

When I first met Anna Rowley while filming Peter Hurley's Illuminating the Face tutorial, it was obviously clear that she had discovered the psychological power behind Peter's headshot directing skills. That day she shared with me her belief that there might be a direct correlation between how a person reacts in front of an intimating camera and how they perform in their workplace. Everything she told me was extremely interesting, so I was pleasantly surprised when Peter texted me this TEDx talk yesterday. I'm curious to hear what you guys think.

In the years I've been in this industry, one of the more pervasive problems I have seen talented people deal with is personal fear: Fear of failure, fear of uncertainty, even fear of success. I think a misconception is that successful people do not experience these fears. They certainly do, but they have learned to overcome them, harness them, and succeed in spite of them.

Going to the upcoming PDN Photo Plus Expo in New York City or just looking for a great photo workshop in the near future? Well here is a chance to see the Fstoppers team in action! Below is a list of classes, presentations, and general shenanigans you will find us hosting in the near future. Make sure to at least come out and say hello.