Fstoppers Original Articles

We look at what makes a successful backup system, the components, the ideal outcome, and how we test that all is working before the inevitable happens.

In a previous article, I shared my favorite way of dealing with an overcast sky in photography. Today, we will focus on the opposite: clear skies. Those can also be a challenge for landscape photographers. But there are ways to take great photos under such conditions, and in this article, we'll explore several of them.

It's a mystery how this little one-inch wonder remained unknown to me for so long. I finally discovered it when — bemoaning my fate to spend over two thousand on a Canon tilt-shift macro — a colleague suggested trying an extension tube.

Optimize and save a ton of space, speed up your computer, and make it easy to find your files.

Sometimes, loyalty is the gift that keeps on giving. Now, before a large sector of the reading audience skips straight from the title of this essay to the comment section to tell me I’m a fanboy or being foolish for proposing the idea that committing to one brand is sometimes a good idea, let me start off with a few concessions.

This is an excellent time of year for photography. Here are some tips for getting better photos to help preserve your memories of these celebrations.

I often hear people dismissing compositional rules, especially the Rule of Thirds. However, there is an excellent reason why rejecting them can often lead to failure. Therefore, adopting them will make you a better photographer.

In photography, the term leading lines is a compositional technique used to draw a viewer's eye to the subject of the photo. These lines can be created by any object in the scene like a road or path, a fence or railing, a distant object like a mountain, and any other structure that creates a real or imaginary line in your image.

A lot has changed from the previous version of ACDSee. It has new tools and powerful AI features. If you are looking for Digital Asset Management, developing, and editing tool, the ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2023 may meet your needs. Here's a workflow introducing you to and guiding you through the main features of this dynamic software.

Adobe ruled the waves for image processing. However, evermore people are jumping that ship in favor of alternative methods. Most have similar functions, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. If you are thinking about changing, here are some alternative combined digital asset management, photo development, and editing options.

Certain tools, including lenses, are often intended to be used in specific ways. However, by working in an unintended manner, you can create something unique and unexpected.

When I was working in the photo industry in the late 90s and early 00s, Nikon was king. Canon was already a close second or even considered the leading brand, depending on which photographer one spoke with. Both companies offered a robust selection of lenses, advanced camera bodies, and excellent autofocus systems. And then there were the outlier brands, like Minolta, Olympus, and Pentax, all who made some wonderful cameras, but were not nearly as popular as tools for professionals. Minolta was, perhaps, one of the most adventurous camera makers.

There are a lot of ways for a photographer to make a composition. Although some won’t like to accept it, the rule of third often fits quite nicely. But no matter what you use as a basis for composition, we always use negative space. Most of us just don’t realize it.

With Adobe just releasing their latest iteration of Lightroom Classic, I thought now might be the time to look at how to optimize and speed up Adobe's favorite image management and editing application.

ACDSee is becoming a household name in the photography industry. The latest software from the company boasts a whole host of incredible new features.

Today, I’m taking a look at the new Sony FX30, the latest entrant in Sony’s cinema line.

Lightroom is full of powerful tools for all types of photography. None of them are as effective as radial filters to create dramatic results like these.

Here are 20 quick, essential tips on how to keep your photography business running and up to date in an age where technology changes day to day.

We cannot live without our phones. Furthermore, phone apps that access your photos can be a lot of fun. However, they have a dark side, and maybe we should start to be more cautious about using them.

A question to ask yourself before composing your landscape photos is: what's the subject? Having a clear answer to that will help you create good photographs. But there are situations where no matter how you position your camera, some elements in the frame will distract from the main subject. In this article, I share editing techniques you can use to alleviate that problem.

ChatGPT has been a breakthrough moment for some industries this past week. It can literally turn ideas into reality, but is it good enough to create motion graphics in Adobe’s After Effects?

Santa's coming! And for many photography enthusiasts, that means gear! For the luckiest amongst you, it might mean lenses and bodies. Others might be looking forward to a Loupedeck Live or Simplr Strap. That stuff is fantastic, too. For me, though, wedding photography is my job, and I don't ask Santa for gadgets because I buy them when needed. Instead, my family now usually asks: "which book do you want for Christmas?"

The rule of thirds is the first thing that is taught about composition in photography. It seems to have some similarities with the golden ratio, but in reality, it’s something completely different. Let’s have a closer look at the history of these so-called rules to get a better understanding.

High School, the new bio-series about indie-pop sensations Tegan and Sara, provides a strong example of how filmmakers can use visual language to help to tell their stories. I had a chance to talk to cinematographer Carolina Costa about her work on the series.

Heritage sites around the world are definitely worth seeing for yourself and photographing. A way to start your list is by visiting and exploring Siem Reap.

There are several timeless photography debates that are fun to engage in but will probably never be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. There’s film versus digital, zoom lenses versus primes, small compact minimalistic camera versus fully featured monster-sized pro camera, and of course, continuous lighting versus strobe lighting. This article will not seek to determine whether strobes or constant lights are better for portraiture, but we will take a deep dive into how one photographer used continuous lighting on a recent celebrity shoot.

Do you take your camera for a walk? In this second article on that topic, we will be considering why it is good for you and your photography in ways you might not think, why you could leave the telephoto lens behind, and how to improve at photographing animate subjects even with a shorter lens.

The demand for images is higher than ever, and yet, the security of many photo jobs is in more peril than ever. One of the hardest-hit genres of the last few decades has been stock photography. Is AI going to kill the genre entirely?

Walking photography should be a genre of its own; it is the most popular form. There are simple things you can do that will ensure you come home from your walk with better photos than before. This is the first of two articles looking at ways to improve those images.

Have you ever seen images and wondered how they create an editorial look that you just can't seem to recreate? It's clean, it's crisp, it may be edgy or sleek... you can't quite put your finger on it, but whatever "it" is, you want it for your work. Here are a few tips, from composition to post-production, that will upgrade your images and give you a more professional look.

After a year in my bag, it's time for a recap of the first 12 months with the best camera I’ve ever owned.

Landscape photography can become frustrating if you get too focused on results and constantly compare yourself to other photographers. While browsing the web and visiting social media sites, you see countless photos of spectacular sunrises and sunsets. But getting truly awesome conditions is rare, even for those who are pros at planning. Let me share what the reality looks like.

I’ve been making a tutorial about the Map Module in Lightroom Classic for the Dutch Photographic community. It can be a lot of work collecting and adding GPS data to your images. Does this information have any use at all, or is it just nice to have?

Since Lightroom and Photoshop introduced their automatic sky selections, changes to the sky in landscape and architecture photos have become very easy. But, how good are those automatic selections? If you edit photos for web representation alone, they are mostly good enough. But if you intend to print your photos, you might want to improve them, which is what I show in this article.

After many years of non-pro iPhones, Apple’s new 48-megapixel iPhone 14 Pro was enough to convince me to pull the trigger. I was ready to fall into the embrace of Apple’s AI-assisted ProRAW format. While it has its uses, in its current state it’s still kind of a mixed bag.

Photographers have preferences on everything ranging from their favorite camera to their best lens, how they edit their photos, and what photo paper they use to make prints. What if your own preferences aren't aligned with what your potential clients enjoy? We asked dozens of normal people which photo papers and print products they prefer, and the results were not exactly what I had expected.

The value of participating in non-commissioned projects in a photography career is very high, and photo competitions are a good example of that.

I keep on seeing the advertisements about software for reducing noise in digital photos. It gives the idea noise is always a huge problem that needs to be addressed. This is advertising, of course. Or is it indeed an issue that we have to solve with specialized software?.

Technology often follows a path where it begins life large, slow, and expensive, and then gets smaller, faster, and cheaper as time passes. Digital cameras have not followed this trend for a number of reasons, and every time I think I can predict where the industry will go, a curveball is thrown.

This one will be a subjective post, but I will not make it a praise piece for my camera brand of choice. Instead, I'm talking about the pain points that led me to a particular brand over any other.

The Fstoppers community is brimming with creative vision and talent. Every day, we comb through your work, looking for images to feature as the Photo of the Day or simply to admire your creativity and technical prowess. In 2022, we're featuring a new photographer every month, whose portfolio represents both stellar photographic achievement and a high level of involvement within the Fstoppers community.

If you have limited resources available to create your product images is there any way you can make them pop in post-production? In this step by step tutorial we walk through the editing process used to finish this image.

I had recent cataract surgery on both eyes, about a month apart for each eye. The doctor told me my vision would improve (a good thing). I was having the surgery because it was getting more difficult to see, especially close up. I knew it was time to do something when I realized I couldn't clearly read my weight on my bathroom scale, and I was sitting closer and closer to the computer when editing.

SmallRig has upped its game in the lighting department with four new affordable fixtures to take you filmmaking up a notch.

For decades, color slide film was the industry standard for commercial and editorial work, and the speed of the film was typically 64 or 100. It was standard practice for a portrait photographer to use a high-powered strobe to illuminate the subject. Today, a digital camera can produce clean images at high ISO settings and allows the photographer to forgo strobes and instead illuminate the subject using lower-power continuous light units.

One of my favorite books of all time is a little gem by British advertising legend Paul Arden “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be.” I read this little book about once a year, it’s funny, insightful, and full of advice and inspiration for creative people.

There’s nothing worse than visiting a location prior to shooting, only to miss out on important details. Avoid headaches, and make sure that you’re prepared for the shoot day.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few years, you'll probably have noticed that many social media platforms have been heading downhill. Here's how to best prepare for the social media storms ahead.

Did your university lecturer radiate an aura of excitement while crawling through a damp forest, seeking subjects that most of us would not notice? Every school and college should have a Geraint Radford. His skill and enthusiasm have just made me want to buy a macro lens and try the techniques I learned while interviewing him.

This is the best time of year to find incredible photography deals. Whether you're looking for new gear, a faster or easier way to edit your photos, or a more efficient shooting workflow, there are tools available that will help. This post lists some of our favorite Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials that are worth paying attention to.