Fstoppers Originals

If you are like me, you probably get numerous emails and Facebook messages from people in India wanting you to use their services for your image editing. While these individuals may give outsourcing to India a bad reputation, I’m here to show you what it’s really like at the reputable post-production service provider that is located in Mumbai, India: Pro Image Editors. 

Have you ever felt like your photos were missing something? In this quick Photoshop tutorial, learn how to make your photos pop with this simple sharpening technique to bring your photos to life in minutes. 

There're so many stories about big brands and companies approaching photographers in the hope of getting free images to use in exchange for the popular currency that is exposure, but what happens when they exclude the photographer from the equation completely and instead head straight to your client asking for free images? 

You might have heard people talk about using leading lines to really improve your composition, but how exactly do you use them, and how do you find them? Let me show you five different examples here so you'll know what to look for next time you're shooting.  

Allan Hinton, also know by his Instagram alias Chaiwalla, just returned from a trip to Southeast Asian nation Myanmar. For the journey, he swapped his Sony a7R II for a Nikon D5600. Here’s how he found the experience.

This week, our readers were challenged to find shots containing circles. Using a shape opens up the possibilities and the results are wonderful. Be sure to share with your photography circles if you enjoy.  

At this point in time, I have lost track how many photographers I have run into who view other photographers around them as mortal enemies. Don't be that person; instead, realize that your camera-laden peers can be incredible sources of friendship and reciprocity. 

The most significant hurdle when running a photography business is booking more clients. If you feel like you’re in a “booking rut,” here are a few ways to help spread your brand awareness and book more photo clients. 

Choosing the ideal images for your portfolio can often seem as hard or harder than actually taking the photos in the first place. Most photographers tend to treat their portfolio as a dumping ground for as much work as possible with the intention that quantity is the key to building their credibility. More often than not, the opposite is true.

An image is eye catching when it's extraordinary. So why is it that the ordinary and banal can appear extraordinary? And if that really is the case, how can we go about achieving that?

Most of my food photography is lit with only one light source and after a few years of taking a special interest in shooting food and drink, I know exactly where I want the light to be and why.

Three-dimensional models are now widely used in the gaming and movie industries and one of the most common methods for creating them uses computational photography. This, the first of two articles, explains how it works.

Sometimes the best lessons in photography can come from sources far from the art world. Last week I saw an image that helped to remind me of one of the best lessons for a successful business and a successful life. 

Working day in and day out as a creative professional, I don't put a lot of stock in inspiration as a source of drive and creativity. Some days, you just have to do your job whether you're inspired or not. For me, staying motivated is far more important!

As Spring gathers steam and hits its stride, wedding photographers all over gear up for sleepless nights in front of a monitor, intoxicated Macarena dance moves, and most importantly, activity in their bank accounts once more. Feeling left out of all that fun? Here are some pointers for joining in on the fun.

In an industry that seems to grow exponentially every day, how can existing and new photographers find an outlet for their work - one that is going to pay the bills and fuel their passions? Lifestyle, sports, and adventure photographer Scott Martin may have the answers you've been looking for.  

For years photographers and YouTube commenters have been telling us that in order to get the most out of our Profoto B1 and D1 lights, we need to add the Profoto Frosted Glass Dome to our strobes. Today I test this add-on to see if it makes a difference at all, and the results are surprising.

You need different tripods for different situations, but you don’t need to spend big on them. I’ll show you three tripods I use that can cover you in almost any setting and won’t break the bank. 

The little red toy car sat on a shelf, serving no purpose. It was inanimate, nothing more than the die-cast metal pieces of which it had been constructed. But it caught the eye of photographer Felix Alejandro Hernandez Rodriguez and an idea — a character — was born. Hernandez changed the car and brought it to life, and in turn, the car changed his life.  

There are a lot of good time-lapse videos out there, but here is a personal selection of the finest ones that racked up millions of views and dozens of awards. 

Zweizwei is one of the pioneers of the hyperlapse technique. He is simply among the best in the world. This video was captured with a Canon 5D Mk II and a Canon 60D.

Personal projects often take a lot of planning and persistence to pull off. They are passion driven assignments which is a big part of why they are so important to evolve as a photographer. However, sometimes opportunity and timing don't line up so you have to make the best of a poor situation. This is when experience and determination make or break an idea. 

Composition is one of the hardest things we deal with as photographers. It is complex and can seem like a neverending pursuit. Today, we’ll look at five simple ways we can approach a scene and come away with an effective composition.  

I don't mean hanging out of a car window untethered to get a shot of another moving car (although that sounds kind of fun). What I mean is don't be afraid to take your work in a direction previously unexplored. What's the worst that can happen? 

A few months ago, I showed you  how we build out our new 10Gbps network using a Synology NAS device as our central server. This setup is protecting us from a hard drive failure, but our data still isn't 100 percent safe. In this video, I'll show you one simple step to protect your files from all types of data loss.  

Airport authorities officially say that film at or above ISO 800 may be damaged by X-ray scanning. But they really should tell you that ISO 800 film will be damaged and that less sensitive film still could be affected. I found this out the hard way.