Fstoppers Original Articles

Exclusive articles and expert opinions written by Fstoppers’ talented team of creative professionals. Here we cover everything from the latest photographic techniques to advice on running a successful photography business, to first hand accounts of working in the photography industry.

Hey Photographers! Cataracts Are Messing Up Your Color Vision

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.

3 Reasons Why Continuous Lighting Is a Good Choice for Portraiture

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.

8 Inspiring Ways To Think Differently About Your Photography

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.

How I’ve Perfected Location Scouting Before Shoots

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.

The Death of Social Media: A Warning to Photographers

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.

A Masterclass in Macro Wildlife Photography With Geraint Radford

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.

2022 Black Friday Deals for Photographers

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.

Sell Your Prints for The Holidays The Easy Way!

I always wanted to sell my photography as fine art but always felt like it would take too much time to do it myself or that the quality of online platforms would be too low. That was until I found a solution that meant very little work for me with no compromises on quality, pricing, or customer support. If this sounds too good to be true, then keep reading for an in-depth look at the new Darkroom.com storefront that is now offering you more tools and features to sell your prints online during the holidays, the easy way.

Photographic Criticasters: Why You Should Not Be One and What to Be Instead

Criticism of photography is commonplace. Sometimes, it is invited and genuine, other times, not. How you decide to give or receive it can affect your self-esteem as a photographer. Moreover, it says much about your own creative abilities. Here's how to appreciate criticism and avoid being a criticaster.

Post-pandemic: The State of Creatives in 2022

We are quickly approaching the three-year mark since the pandemic, and most creatives have found their new normal. Our new "normals" are all unique, but the common thread is a re-evaluation of our goals, priorities, and non-negotiables as working artists. WeTransfer and TRIPTK polled over 6,500 artists from 180 countries about success, fulfillment, and happiness. The 57-page report was released as The 2022 Ideas Report, and I'm here to share the results. First, let's start with a quiz. Grab a pen, and let's see how on target you are with the state of the industry.

iPhone Versus DSLR: The Ultimate Real-world Test

Every year, mobile camera technology improves, and every year, I see more articles comparing phones to professional cameras. I decided to carry out my own comprehensive test to finally decide which device is better, the phone or the DSLR.

Camera Companies Are Really Bad at Promoting Why Their Cameras Are Better Than Phones

There’s a lot of press about how phones are hanging right in there with “real” cameras. And while sometimes this is true, for the most part, a Canon EOS R5 is still going to be much more capable than a cell phone. It’s just a shame that major camera brands’ marketing departments haven’t figured out how to show that.

Why I Hired a Photographer Instead of Taking the Pictures Myself

I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but, I think it's a good idea to hire a professional photographer that specializes in what you need. It's for this reason that I hired a professional photographer, despite the fact that I too work as a professional photographer. In this article, I'm going to discuss why.

The Best Photography Purchases I Have Made So Far

Some time ago, I wrote an article about the worst photography purchases I ever made. These were some specific things, as well as some categories of items. In this article, I will talk about some of the best purchases I was fortunate enough to make. Again, specific items.

All Fstoppers Tutorials up to 60% Off

The Holidays are here and we are celebrating with our best sale of the year! Right now, all Fstoppers photography and video tutorials on sale. Every Fstoppers photography or video course is automatically 30% off but when you add additional products to your cart, you can get up to 60% off each tutorial.

Is Tumblr Poised for a Return?

I have a photographer friend who consistently gets flagged on Instagram for posting images which violate Instagram’s terms of usage. The reasoning: he photographs mostly nudes.

An Easy Way to Afford New Gear This Peak Season

With Black Friday approaching day by day, we are all excited about the massive rebates on photo gear this 2022 peak season. Indeed, there were exciting new releases by a lot of camera brands that make this season like no other. If you want to learn how you can afford all the cool purchases, this article is for you.

4 Unconventional Locations to Photograph in Bad Weather

For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s now coming into the cozier and colder time of year. Fall is great with all its colors, but the dead of winter can leave photographers feeling drab and uninspired. Check out my four spots to photograph when the weather turns inclement to keep you photographing all through the seasons.

Is Stop Motion the Revamp Your Images Have Been Missing?

If you've ever found yourself posting a photo in which you've masterfully designed your shadows, created asymmetrical balance, and selected a brilliant color palette just to see it wildly out-performed by a reel of a 20-year-old aimlessly walking down a sidewalk and spiraled into complete despair, then this is for you. In this article, I will walk you through how to shoot skillfully crafted images and easily stitch them into a stop-motion. The artist strikes a treaty with the Insta.

Super Fast Editing With Lightrooms New Masks

If you are a Lightroom user I'm sure by now you have experimented with most of the newly updated features. One feature, in particular, I was very interested in is the AI-powered Person Mask Option and how it actually performed.

Useful Tips for Planning Your First Headshot

Photographing headshots can be a great entry point into a career as a professional photographer. Or if you have a few years under your belt, they can be an excellent source of additional income alongside your main field in photography.

My 5 Favorite Light Modifiers as a Professional Photographer

As you can see, recently, I have been doing an evaluation of all the gear I have in the studio. This time, I looked at a dozen or so light modifiers that I own and selected my top five favorites. Rather surprisingly, they are far from what “conventional” light-shaping tools are.

What Cameras and Lenses Do I Use for Professional Photography?

As a professional photographer, I use quite a lot of different gear to make my photographs, from cameras to lenses, to tethering stations and solid state drives, and lights. In this series of articles, I will tell you exactly what gear I use and why, starting off with cameras and lenses.

Discovering the Secret World of Wedding Albums

For the most part, I have total control over my client's experience with me. I know and understand every aspect because that's my livelihood and passion. I research my equipment, control my backups, work from calibrated monitors and meticulously set up how I deliver images to my clients. However, I've always been in the dark about one aspect of the process, wedding albums.

Nifty Fifty: The Most Overrated Lens

There isn’t a camera brand that doesn’t make a nifty fifty. There also almost isn’t a camera blog or advice resource that hasn’t recommended the nifty fifty. Thousands of photographers are led to believe that they absolutely must have this lens. I was one of them. Here is why I think that the nifty fifty is vastly overrated and why you probably don’t need one.

Fujifilm Finally Figures It Out With Its Latest X-Mount Camera: The X-T5

Fujifilm recently announced the X-T5 camera, which is the latest camera in the X Mount series. Despite the fact that the X-T5 is not the most feature-filled camera Fujifilm has ever produced, it does send a big message to its audience and customer base. Fujifilm has finally figured out its camera lineup for the X Mount.

10 Things Photographers Don't Really Need

It will probably come as no surprise to you that there are certain "must-have" items that photographers don't really need in their lives. Before making your next purchase or business decision, check out this list.

4 Photography Pricing Tips to Charge More Per Client

Most photographers focus their business growth strategies on booking more clients. However, the most financially savvy photographers understand the full revenue equation, i.e. revenues equals the number of clients multiplied by the average revenue per client. So, for example, if you want to double your revenue next year, you can either double the amount of bookings or you can double the revenue you make for each booking. In this article, we’ll teach you photography pricing tips to help you charge more for each client that you book.

Is Twitter Poised to Become the Go-to App for Photographers?

Twitter has been at the top of the news cycle since Elon Musk completed his purchase of the company for $44 billion. And although the mere mention of his name stirs a variety of emotions, political opinions, and other reactions, for the sake of this piece, I want to focus not on the political ramifications of his acquisition of Twitter, but rather on how it will impact us as photographers. I am greatly interested, in fact, in some of his proposed changes to the platform and how they may affect photographers and content creators, especially if the change is positive.

Travel Photography With a Different Perspective

Travel photography is perhaps one of the broadest genres of photography because of how it overlaps with almost every other kind. It encompasses a wide range of shooting styles and shooting scenarios to fulfill a simple goal, which is to illustrate and tell stories about a place. Because a particular place is always made up of various intersecting dimensions, there is no single approach or style that encapsulates travel photography.

Five Different Light Modifiers Compared With Natural Light

Controlling light is one of the most difficult challenges a photographer must master. Even if you have years of experience under your belt, it can still be difficult to decide which light modifier to use with your strobes or if you should even be using strobes at all. In this video and article, I'm going to share with you five of my favorite light modifiers and how they can produce drastically different results.

Landscape Photography in Extremely Wet Conditions

I've always been a fan of seascape and waterfall photography. I love these dynamic environments and don't shy away from getting myself wet while closing in on the subject matter. The only thing that could hold me back was the intense spray I had to face while getting close to a stormy sea or a thundering waterfall. But no longer. I found a solution against the limitations it imposed on my photography, and I share it with you in this article.

Two Essential Lenses for Shooting Interiors

Photographing architecture, real estate, and interiors requires significant planning and preparation. There are some essential pieces of gear that will cover most of what you will need for most shoots, and having them can make or break the task.

Are LED Lights or Panels Better?

There are two kinds of light sources for video: LED lights and panels. Both have advantages and drawbacks. Which is the best choice when you’re on a budget? Should you choose an LED light or an LED panel? I made my choice, but now, I have my doubts.

How to Style and Photograph Soup

As we head deeper into autumn, it’s officially soup season! I love to make and eat soups in the cold weather months, but they can be pretty challenging to style and photograph. In this post, I’m sharing my tips on how to transform a blob of beige soup into a dynamic and interesting image.

Fstoppers Photographer of the Month (October 2022): Sebastian Malinowski

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.

The Future of Drone Development

Many of us associate DJI with their dominance in the drone market for photo and video; however, there is an entire world of enterprise solutions that you might know about. These are innovations that could even show up in the next drone you purchase.

Why Photography Is a Never-ending Journey

Today, I’d like to take a charitable break from discussing gear, to chat about something I’ve found to be far more important to understand about photography.