Fstoppers Originals

Raised in a small farming community in Saskatchewan, Canada, Chad Carpenter found himself far from the idea of ever being a boudoir retoucher. Boudoir in a small conservative town can be considered taboo and Carpenter never imaged he would be leaving his job in order to work as the main retoucher for his wife's boudoir company. 

Nude photography is a very complex subject, one that can be viewed from thousands and thousands of points of view. The final product can range from what most would consider straight-up porn to what many would think to be fine art. But why do people on both sides of the camera do it? 

I have found a few different times in the past that some features of Adobe Bridge randomly go missing, namely the Photoshop menu. 

The moderation of social media platforms has fallen under intense scrutiny in recent months. A recent study suggests that while some content on Instagram is removed almost as soon as it is reported, other violations are allowed to stay online indefinitely, raising difficult questions about how the company is dealing with a growing problem. 

"Are you going to bring your camera?" I get asked this question any time I travel, and it creates an internal struggle every time. Chances are that I've probably already asked myself before anyone else gets the chance and fought with myself over the answer. Why does something as simple as taking my camera on a trip cause such internal strife? 

The Christmas holiday brings to mind images of children in their home, opening the gifts Santa left the night before. One pictures the entire family in their pajamas sitting around the living room as wrapping paper flies and the children’s faces light up with surprise. However, for too many children, this image is replaced with the hard, cold reality of celebrating Christmas in a hospital.

Although some of us either slept through the night or couldn't see the stars due to weather, a lot of photographers set up their rigs and captured the spectacle known as the Geminids Meteor Shower. Check out some of the highlights we found around the web. 

In the vast majority of my photos, I aim for one specific thing during editing. 

A lot of landscape photographers prefer a maximum depth of field when photographing wide landscapes. They love to use small apertures in combination ultra-wide angle lenses, making use of hyper focal distances or even focus stacking to achieve their goal. But not many have ever considered using a camera with a crop sensor for that goal.

Wedding photography has changed vastly over the years. And as much as there is a growing potential for newcomers, there is also an amassing amount of challenges that one has to encounter. It is wise to have a clear understanding of the industry before taking the plunge.  

Have you ever been casually scrolling through your social media feeds, not really paying attention when suddenly an image arrests you? If you’re anything like me, this is a daily occurrence and one of the reasons to use social media. I can’t say the same thing for video.

Every well-rounded photographer needs to be able to tell a story in three images or less. This is particularly important when shooting editorial content for online publications and in print magazines. On today's assignment, I explore three different focal lengths to capture a well-rounded story of a local musician.  

Photoshop is an amazing, complex tool. When it works, everything is great. When something isn’t working or even worse, works intermittently, nothing is worse. Recently, in dealing with a problem I had, I learned an essential troubleshooting tip, which I’ll definitely make use of in the future. 

Photographing a thing for what it is, is the premise of photography — Fox Talbot called it "nature's pencil." It's therefore natural for us to see an object and visually record it. So how do we go about recording something that we can't see?

After injuring my back a couple of months ago, I’ve been on a quest to downsize, and part of that was rediscovering the mirrorless cameras and lenses I already owned. Along the way, I discovered that I had acquired not one or two, but three wide angle prime lenses, leading me to the question: which wide angle is the best, but also not too heavy? 

New York, New York: A natural light portrait photographer had a scary moment when he accidentally bumped a dial on his camera, changing his lens’ aperture to f/5.6.  

Ross Watkins, who dubs himself a natural light Instagram photographer, says the incident happened when he was out shooting portraits with an Instagram model:

Photographer Randal Ford has photographed over 100 animals up close and in person and has no plans on stopping. Why would he? These are some fascinating creatures that we share this planet with and so anytime we can interact with them, its probably a good thing. They are also super cute!

When asked why he wanted to photograph animals, he quoted from his book

In our first two segments of building a business plan, we’ve talked about defining your product and forming a long term vision. In this final section we will talk about some of the practical steps you need to take to take those hypothetical concepts and put them into action. 

It's that time of year again when you've suddenly realized there are less than two weeks to Christmas and Santa's stocking is looking sadly lackluster. So, what can you do to rectify the situation? Here are 20 ideas. 

In this episode of PTW 4 BTS, we knock out three different lessons with Elia, but the highlight of this episode and our entire trip out west is our hike up Angels Landing.  

You've probably read how you can make your own foldable v-flats, but finding high-quality foam can be difficult and you're lazy, so you're never going to get around to it anyway. Luckily, you can buy them prebuilt and have them shipped right to your door.  

Joe McNally — the name alone brings up so many thoughts of photography-related topics that could be written about. So, where does one begin when having a coffee with this world-famous photographer and storyteller? This is the thought that kept running through my mind on my 90-minute drive to have coffee with McNally and to talk about his work and life in the photography industry. 

Photoshop is a complex program that takes years to master. And even after you've spent countless hours learning the ins and outs, surprising new shortcuts are a pleasure to discover. 

For years, I considered myself purely a stills photographer. I resisted video like the plague. Little did I know that creating a YouTube channel to document an unrelated project would promote my creativity in ways I couldn't predict.  

As cameras get better and more capable, it has become easier than ever to capture an amazing photo. But for some photographers, pushing possibilities beyond comprehension is the only way to roll. Check out the amazing results produced by combining over 2,000 carefully focus stacked images of butterfly wings.