Fstoppers Original Articles

Finding clients to hire you can be a complicated and expensive process. This article explores a free and simple marketing technique that has proven to be extremely effective.

Are you taking full advantage of every single tax break you can get in your photography business? This upcoming tax season, follow these tips to make sure you keep as much of those hard-earned dollars as you can.

We all know how a histogram has to be read, or at least we should know. It is a handy tool to check if the exposure of the image is correct, or as correct as possible. If the image is not exposed correctly we can read the luminance histogram on our camera LCD screen and know exactly how much the exposure needs to be corrected. Well, perhaps not exactly, but enough to prevent us from guessing.

One of the things I have always loved about ON1 Photo RAW is its ability to do everything I needed within a single program. From a photo browser to a raw editor and then even working with layers. But their recent interface update has made things better then I could have imagined.

Rain during a couple’s portrait session can be hugely annoying for a wedding photographer. A dramatic rain shot can be the silver lining, but only if you’re fully prepared, especially on the lighting front.

If you've explored the world of fine art paper and printing even the tiniest bit, then you've no doubt heard the name Hahnemühle. Today, I'll be taking a hands-on look at one of their newest papers in the FineArt line, the Photo Rag® Metallic.

In a typical wedding, dozens of vendors come together to make the bride's day special. All these vendors have one thing in common: the photographer doesn't owe them a single picture.

With the wealth of options out there for lens-adapting and DIY modifications, many industrious photographers are taking things to the next level. The process of adapting anamorphic projection lenses to a take-up lens has been well-established for years now.

If you're based in the U.S., you know that the day after Thanksgiving is a day where everyone around you is extremely prone to gas. Photographers in particular are particularly prone to it, so here are some tips on how to avoid it.

Peter Hurley is a master of headshot photography with his ability to connect with clients and draw out the most flattering poses from his subjects. This Black Friday, Fstoppers is discounting all of Peter Hurley's tutorials. See the details below or visit the Fstoppers Store to see every deal being offered during the holiday season.

With many of my fellow Americans preparing to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, let’s take a moment away from turkey and dodging awkward conversations about politics to give thanks to those who provide us the motivation to persevere.

Earlier this year, I released an in-depth tutorial on product photography with Fstoppers called "The Hero Shot: How to Light and Composite Product Photography." As I started publishing images from this tutorial on Instagram, I found it extremely interesting that the most liked image was the cordless drill. It was the most simple image that I created for the series, and I used very basic inexpensive continuous lighting to create it. So, if I were to have photographed this drill using strobes instead of continuous light, would you have been able to tell the difference? I’ll...

At first, black and white photography was a necessity due to limitations with technology, but even now in our digital age, we still enjoy creating without color. So, what really gives the relevancy, intrigue, and desire for black and white photographs?

We at Fstoppers do our best to keep the photography community informed of noteworthy holiday deals. Since Black Friday week is here, we wanted to let you know about some deals we've heard of from various photography and video companies. Some of these deals are only available for a very limited timeframe, so if there's something that piques your interest, make sure to act on it now!

If you are thinking of taking a full-time photography position, you should read this first.

Selling your images online can be seriously complicated. You can try to submit images to some of the larger stock image marketplaces, but getting approved is tough. Even if you do get some of your images through, the marketplaces will take up to 85% of your royalties away from you.

Commercial photographer Geoff Ang was approached by one of the top CGI companies in Singapore “CUM Creative” to create an entire series of images for Razer’s newest line of gaming headphones.

Everywhere I look, professional photographers are calling for people to put their portfolios on an extreme diet. Well, I'm here to defend my curvier portfolio and why this decision is entirely intentional.

A few months ago, we released our first impressions of the new Profoto B10 portable flash unit, and many of our readers claimed that we didn't give it an honest review because it was wildly overpriced. Today, we are giving the critics what they asked for: we are going to compare it to the Godox AD400Pro.

When you look at the work of William Allard, David Harvey, or especially Alex Webb, you quickly notice what makes their photos so amazing is not just the lovely compositions and stunning moments, but an often dazzling use of natural light. What do they all have in common and how can we learn from them?

It’s ironic, really. Instagram is the world’s largest social photo platform, yet photographers are constantly subjected to their photos being posted and re-grammed without a credit or tag in sight. Here’s why.

Photography trends and the demand for types of images are ever evolving. Staying up to date on current trends and looking to the future is a great way to stay relevant.

You find priceless photography or filmmaking knowledge in online material. You start digesting it, but together with the precious free information, the author mentions a product or a service, which they obviously try to sell you. Do you feel you have been tricked?

Gabriel Isak’s evocative fine art photography is simple and clean in its style, yet it draws the viewer inward, precipitating a contemplative mood with bold surrealist imagery and cool color tones. Fstoppers had the opportunity to interview the artist recently. Delve deeper into his work here.

As fall draws to a close and we head into the colder winter months, the scenery around us shifts for the season. If there is something that you'll miss the most from the warmer weather, what would it be?

Have you ever gone to the top of a mountain covered by a glacier during the night to fly a drone? That is just one of the personal projects by Ozzo Photography. Here, you can read an interview and see how the fantastic experience turned out.

We have all made the classic gaffe of remembering everything except the crucial memory card. With flash storage cheaper than ever and features being pushed to the max, why have we not seen internal memory added to cameras?

Thomas Stewart made headlines back in 2015 when he posted a rant about wedding guests and their mobile phones. Fast forward 3 years and things don't seem to be getting any better. So should we put the cameras away?

Currently, one of the most discussed topics in our photographic community is if DSLR cameras are already dead. The Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras were indisputably the preferred ones until the mirrorless cameras step ahead into the game and showed how good they could be.

We have all heard it before: shoot more, do a 365-day challenge, or attend a workshop. This advice is fine, and it can improve your photographs, but how about putting your camera away to improve your photography?

I’ve always subscribed to the practice of “paying it forward” however you can, and this article is my way of doing so for the intrepid photographers out there fixin’ to fashion a career in this space.

Every coin has two sides, and today, we're going to take a look at the natural light side of the lighting conversation. Here are seven different reasons why I think that natural lighting for portraits is pretty damn rad when compared with using flash.

Photography is a challenging career. So, what pulls us through when it all gets so overwhelming?

Sometimes, it can feel really daunting to try to create original images like no one has ever seen before. With social media oversaturated with photography, it often seems like we have captured it all. So, when I came across surf photographer Ben Thouard’s tropical landscape images captured through the back of a breaking wave, I was a little jealous, but more so inspired and hopeful.

After reading an article from a fellow Fstoppers writer on following the herd, I realized the power one person actually has when it comes to sharing a photo. Here is my story on discovering a location that doesn’t exist.

Merrell, an outdoor footwear brand, wanted a photography concept that would celebrate diversity on trails, but in a way that felt genuine and reflected reality. While outdoor brands usually look towards more of a traditional commercial photography approach, Tim Kemple had something else in mind to achieve their goals.

Most people do not understand lighting, frequency separation, or color grading. Here are some things to consider to make your next image even more engaging.

Winter is almost upon us, and that also means the opportunity for beautiful photos of falling snow is about to happen.

If you're an aspiring professional landscape and outdoor photographer, it might be time to stop capturing those iconic landscape scenes.

Photography can become ridiculously expensive with gear and props and all the other necessities. So when there is a chance to save, I save!

Welcome to "Photographing The World 4" Behind the Scenes episode 2. In this episode, we visit one of the most crowded photography locations in the world, Antelope Canyon.

Do you crave the look of a high-end, hand-painted portrait backdrop for your studio, but don't want to shell out the bucks for such a luxury? Why not grab your favorite roll of seamless paper and fake it ‘til you make it?

Asking for feedback on your own images is a healthy practice and can help improve your work. Learning how to give quality feedback to other photographers not only contributes to the community and helps fellow image makers, but it can also improve your own photography.

When you own a photography company, there are multiple ways to make money. Unfortunately, most things that make money require quite a bit of work. Thankfully, this is one of the ways you can make money without doing too much work.

It has been ten years since I started work as a professional photographer and I had the chance to survive in this crowded business over these years. Let me share some of my experiences throughout this journey.

Every landscape photographer will someday run into a situation when the bright light of the sun causes flares. Especially when using filters; the extra glass can increase reflections that results in the dreaded spots in a picture. However, there is a way to get rid of them, in most occasions.

With famous locations getting so crowded, working photographers often fall by the wayside. So should there be a pecking order?

Yes, photographers can and do have bad days. Following your favorite photographers on Instagram, it might seem that all the photographers in the world are cruising along while you alone battle horrible days. And guess what, bad days are more common than you might think. So, it is important that we as a community learn and help each other survive bad days. I’ve created an action plan for myself that has helped me overcome difficult days and I hope this will help you as well.

Adobe Portfolio is an excellent option for creating your first website or even as a replacement for photographers that don’t want to focus on web development, but not everyone knows how to get all the value out of it. With some simple customizations, Portfolio can become a powerful and easy to maintain site for photographers of all levels.