Fstoppers Originals

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.

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.

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? 

There’s a certain safety in giving up. There’s a certain calm in knowing that this is as far as you’re ever going to go. A feeling of peace.

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.

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.