Education

Sensor size is one of the most fundamental and influential aspects of a camera, and often, when you buy into a certain camera system, you are committing yourself to a certain sensor size unless you spend a lot of money to switch systems again. So, what is the right sensor size for your work? This excellent video discusses why sensor size matters and what the right choice for your wants and needs is.

Kit lenses frequently get a bad reputation as it is, but one photography instructor took things to the next level and banned them from her course. As is typical on the internet, outrage ensued.

Composition and camera settings reign above all in landscape photography, and a good image is made in the choices you make at that stage. This fantastic video tutorial follows a seasoned landscape photographer as he visits four different locations and discusses the light, his composition, lens choices, settings, and more that lead to his final images.

In landscape photography, a single scene can yield vastly different images simply by how you choose your camera settings. As such, this is a place where a lot of things can go awry. If you are new to landscape work, this helpful video tutorial will show you some common mistakes beginner landscape photographers make with their camera settings and how to fix them to create more effective images.

I love using reflections for my landscape photography. A nice sunrise or sunset with a reflection of the colored sky in a pond or lake is very rewarding. But you can find reflections everywhere. I tell you about it in this article.

Chromatic aberration is by far one of the most common lens issues you will have to deal with, particularly with cheaper lenses or wide-aperture primes, and it can be quite distracting if not addressed. Thankfully, most post-processing programs can handle it quite easily nowadays. This awesome video tutorial will show you how to quickly and easily remove chromatic aberrations with just a few clicks using Lightroom.

Once you have the basics of using artificial lighting down, you can start to really explore your creativity and develop a recognizable personal style by exploring more unique ways of using lighting. This quick and to-the-point video tutorial will give a few helpful tips and ideas for creative lighting for portraits.

How do you go about choosing lenses for what you're going to shoot? In this video, Roger Deakins shares his methods. The rules aren't made up by filmmakers. It's about how you want your audience to experience the shot.

A photography workshop is a fantastic way to fast-track your learning, but going into it completely blind might cost you time and money, so it's essential you do these eight things before attending.

Photoshop offers a huge range of ways to make selections for extracting parts of a frame or creating layers masks, each appropriate for different situations. The Select and Mask workspace offers a very straightforward and powerful method for tackling a variety of tricky selection scenarios, and this helpful video tutorial will show you everything you need to know to get the most out of it.

Macro photography has many challenges that are unique to it, but when you can overcome them, you can produce entrancing photos of seemingly mundane things right around you. The learning curve can be a bit steep, though, so if you are new to macro work, be sure to check out this fantastic video tutorial that shows eight mistakes beginners commonly make and how to fix them or avoid them altogether.

In landscape photography, some locations are just tricky to shoot, even if their photographic potential is plainly obvious. And while it is tempting to just pack it up and move to the next location, before you do that, try returning to the basic principles and working the scene to get as many compositions as possible. This great video tutorial discusses getting the most out of a location.

Depending on what genre you shoot in, you can often come home with literally thousands of images from a shoot, and culling them can be a tremendously tedious and annoying process. While you can cull in Lightroom, it is not always the fastest, particularly when it comes to rendering previews. Photo Mechanic is built with one purpose: to make culling large image sets and adding necessary info as efficient as possible. This excellent video tutorial will show you everything you need to get the most out of it.

We live in a world where most of our images are intended for an audience. In this article, I’ll share some ways to circumvent that way of thinking to create simply to create.

When you're a new photographer, there is an abundance of information to take in, some of it useful, much of it not. The question is, what is white noise? Here are six things that one photographer believes people new to craft ought to ignore.

Printing professional-quality images can be an intimidating task if you are new to it. However, it doesn't need to be overly complicated. By following a few simple steps you can easily create high-end prints ready for your walls or print sales.

Astrophotography is by far one of the most specialized genres out there, requiring quite a bit of specific equipment, software, and technique, but capturing things that are unfathomable distances away can be really rewarding. If you are new to the genre or looking to improve your work, check out this awesome video tutorial that answers 10 of the most common questions people have about astrophotography.

Bird photography is a very challenging genre that requires a lot of specialized knowledge, top-tier technique, and patience, but when it all comes together, it can reward you with stunning photos. If you are looking to improve your own bird photography, this awesome video tutorial features two seasoned professionals discussing their background and a range of lessons and ways to improve your work.

Photography is something we all choose to do willingly, and as such, it should be something that makes us happy. Nonetheless, a lot of photographers are not particularly happy, which is a shame. Why is that, though? This insightful video essay discusses some of the possible reasons.

You could spend a lifetime out in nature with your camera and still barely scratch the surface of what is out there to photograph. If you would like to improve your landscape and nature photography, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features five helpful tips that will improve your work and expand your creative palette.

Doing photography professionally will change the way you shoot and operate. If you are planning to go professional or have recently done so, these might be of help.

Fstoppers is celebrating July 4th with our biggest sale this year. Buy any tutorial and you'll automatically save 20%. Bundle them together and you'll get up to 50% off everything in our store. This sale will expire next week, so be sure to act fast.

The easiest way to decide on which digital camera is right for you is to consider budget, size, features, and a few more things. Follow this guide on what to look out for and help make a decision for your first digital camera purchase.

Portraiture is a challenging genre that requires sharp skills with the camera, in lighting, post-processing, and your ability to work with and pose a subject. If you have been feeling a little unsure of your work lately and need something to get you back on track, check out this great video tutorial that will give you five helpful tips to improve your portraits.

Today, a short story about how forcing yourself to look at art from a different perspective can sometimes help you see the whole picture.

Photo gear tends to be quite expensive, and when you are outfitting your camera bag, the costs can add up rather quickly. However, the used market is always bustling, and you can save significant amounts of money by buying what you need there. This helpful video essay discusses what to look for when buying used equipment to make sure you get a good deal on equipment that will last you a long time.

Have you ever wondered what photography is? Often, we are all busy with figuring out the practicalities of it, and we never stop to ask ourselves what the heck it even is. In this article, I will define photography in the simplest way possible.

When you think of retouching skin, you likely think of using Photoshop over Lightroom, and for deep or intricate work, that is definitely where you should be working. However, Lightroom offers some built-in tools for this, and they can often be all you need to produce a finished photo. This great video tutorial will show you how to use them to produce naturally retouched portraits that still retain detail in the skin.

Most of us simply take our photographs, pop the memory card out of the camera, put it in our computer, and download the photos. But many professional studio photographers tether their cameras to their computers, and it can do a lot to improve both your workflow and the quality of your images. This excellent video tutorial discusses 10 reasons why tethering is worth trying in your own work.

Photography is quite full of rules on pretty much every topic, and they can be a bit of a double-edged sword in that they can guide you and help you to realize technically apt images, but they can also be creatively restrictive. So, what should your relationship with photography rules be? This excellent video essay discusses the topic and how to incorporate rules into your photography in a beneficial way.

Landscape photography is a challenging genre that demands a combination of a wide variety of skills to bring a finished photo to fruition. There are a lot of places where a mistake can derail things, and this excellent video tutorial discusses seven such mistakes and what you can do to fix them or avoid them altogether.

Starting out in photography can offer some harsh lessons, but here are six useful insights and hints that will give you a sense of perspective and potentially improve your images.

There are many bad photographers who think they are good. The topic of why has been discussed on countless occasions. But, is it a bad thing? Is it really wrong to be bad and think you’re good? Let’s find out.

For some, having a wide variety of poses can be challenging. The model is limited by what they are wearing, what they have to hold or interact with, or even the vision or mood of the shoot. Beauty headshots provide their own limitations, here are some posing tips for your next beauty shoot.

When starting out as a photographer, understanding how colors work together can be confusing, with color theory feeling daunting and sometimes a bit pointless. This short video gives you a fantastic introduction that will give you an insight into how to harmonize the colors in your photographs.

In this article, you will discover the best video settings for editing on your iMac or Macbook Pro when you are color grading your footage in Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve 17.

Photography is tech-reliant. With cameras coming out so often, it’s easy to get lost in constantly upgrading your camera, lens, light, and so on. However, there is one thing that I am always upgrading as a professional photographer.

Composition is one of the trickiest parts of landscape photography, particularly since unlike most other genres, you do not get control over the elements in the frame. If you are having a bit of trouble with your compositions, check out this great video tutorial that will show you some ways to improve them and show you some helpful examples as well.

A good medium telephoto macro lens is one of the most versatile a photographer can have, useful not just for macro shots, but for sharp portraits, wedding ring shots, and much more. For Nikon mirrorless shooters, there is the NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S Macro, and this excellent video review takes a look at the kind of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

Fashion photography is a team effort. You just can’t be the photographer, makeup artist, stylist, retoucher, assistant, and a whole crew by yourself. But how much should you outsource? Most photographers are happy to leave makeup to a dedicated specialist, but when it comes to retouching opinions differ. Some claim that retouching is solely the photographer's job as no one can convey the exact vision, while others choose to trust a professional.

Travel photography can be a tremendously fun and rewarding genre, but it comes with its own unique challenges, particularly with regards to time pressure and the need to be able to familiarize yourself with an environment and produce good images efficiently. This excellent video tutorial features National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson giving five tips that will improve your travel photographs.

I listen to podcasts every day on all sorts of topics, including photography. Thus, I began thinking about how you start a podcast from scratch and whether, ultimately, you can turn them into money. I asked a veteran podcaster these questions and more.

Handmade selling is on the rise and with it comes an increasing number of new product photographers. Quality product photography is essential for marketing your goods, but it doesn't need to be expensive or overly technical. In fact, there are some easy things that you can adjust that will help elevate your product photographs to the next level!

Creating successful portrait photos takes the confluence of a wide range of skills and as such, it can be quite challenging. If you are looking to improve your portrait photos, check out this great video tutorial that offers a range of tips in just five minutes.

With the rise in photographers choosing film over digital, large format film cameras are becoming more sought after. But can this look be recreated with a digital camera? Here’s how one photographer did it.

The majority of landscape photos are shot with a maximum or almost maximum depth of field. Everything is sharp, from front to infinity and beyond. But have you ever considered shooting a landscape with a shallow depth of field?

If you shoot a genre in which you have to deliver a lot of similar images, you can save significant amounts of time and ensure greater consistency in your images by using Lightroom's batch-editing functions. This helpful video tutorial will show you a batch-editing workflow that will help you quickly get through large sets of photos.

A portrait with a dramatic golden sky behind the subject is a highly popular and timeless look, and it is also a fantastic way to learn how to balance artificial and ambient light. If you are new to the technique, this helpful video tutorial will show you how to set up and shoot such a portrait, including a lesson in using high-speed sync.

If you’ve viewed deep-sky astrophotos (not landscape astrophotos), you may have noticed that extremely long exposures (not counting mosaics) are used. In extreme cases, exposures may run over 12 hours. Unless you have a space telescope, it should be obvious that multiple exposures have been used.

It is highly tempting to pull out your credit card and grab some expensive new piece of gear when you are feeling creatively stuck or like your technique just is not good enough. And while new gear can certainly be a lot of fun, if you spend money every time you feel stuck, you are going to quickly end up hurting. This awesome video tutorial discusses ways to improve your photography without spending a dime.