Fstoppers Originals

If you want to preserve your photos, it is a great idea to make certain you have a backup system in place. As obvious as that sounds, there are still more than a few out there who live life on the edge, and have yet to be bothered with backing up their work.

First things first, personal work is incredibly important. Client work often pays the bills but the most fundamental personal development you’re going to experience is when you take your vision and execute it. I would say that applies to just about anyone and certainly to photographers. 

In between my music and photography work, I have a lot of hard drives. But even so, I've never had one fail, until just two days ago. It went without warning: no crunching sounds, no notifications, just a red light. 

When it comes to taking a great photo, many photographers argue that it starts and ends with great composition. I’m not sure I’m so black and white in my outlook, but good composition is hugely important without a doubt. And one of the most overlooked parts of great composition is adding foreground interest.

It seems like every time you open Instagram, someone is complaining about their post exposure or the algorithm on their profiles. Whether algorithm changes or some other inexplicable event have dropped their engagement, the reason they don't have a following yet is because Instagram is always holding them back.

Photography agents are nothing new. They've been around for a long time, but since the advent of social media they seem like something we are all a lot more aware of; anyone who's anyone has an agent, right? However, there are a few misconceptions out there as to what an agent offers. 

A thick blanket of white covers falling tree limbs in a beautiful landscape just calling for you to shoot your outdoor session.

Your “About Me” page is one of the single most powerful ways to define your brand, stand out from your competition, and make potential clients feel they can’t NOT hire you. So why, then, are you neglecting it? Here’s how to write a killer “About Me” page to capture more clients.

As photographers and videographers, we tend to push our computers much harder than the average user. However, overlooking something as innocuous as household dust brought my computer to a halt. 

Do you love photography and hate numbers? Are you afraid you don’t know what you don’t know when it comes to starting a business? Here are nine critical items to consider before starting your photography business. 

The biggest hurdle faced by many budding portrait photographers is the need to find amazing subjects to collaborate with. Reaching out to and communicating with models can be intimidating, but it really shouldn't be, as it can very easily lead to a very rewarding collaborative shoot for both parties.  

This week's top 10 list is sure to bring a smile to your face. We challenged our readers to show us photos displaying happiness, and the results should help to brighten your day.  

The last five years has seen huge advances in the consumer videography market, and it’s all getting smaller. It's so much so that one can now carry a versatile, fully equipped, professional videography setup inside baggage small enough to carry onto a flight. Here’s how. 

One minute you're in the middle of photographing one of the most beautiful landscapes you've ever seen. The next minute your camera is on the ground, broken.  

I was on Instagram the other day when an ad for one of Canon’s two-lens kits popped up. The kits package together a couple of interesting options for photographers looking to step up from a kit lens, but the real question is: are the lenses a good value for photographers or should the money be spent elsewhere? 

Despite a photographer’s best efforts, there will come a time when a client is unhappy with some part of their experience, whether it’s customer service or the finished images. Since it’s bound to happen, how should a photographer handle unhappy customers? The answer is: catch them before they can be disappointed. 

On a multi-day assignment in Portland last week, I took advantage of my day off between assignments to experiment with the Sony a7R III and try it out in my normal workflow. 

A free update to ON1 Photo RAW 2018 made sweeping improvements to performance and image quality and also introduced new features. From importing and cataloging to editing, layer-based compositing, and printing, the new Photo RAW 2018.1 is a powerhouse for every photographer's workflow. 

Beauty photography can be a lot of fun to shoot, and that is what keeps me eager to keep progressing in my craft. But it does come with its own set of problems!  Every human face is flawed (except for the person reading this — you're perfect!). When an image is taken up close and personal in the way that most beauty photography is done, those flaws are magnif

Once a year over a million people head to the tidal basin area of Washington D.C. in hopes of catching a glimpse of the thousands of beautiful cherry blossoms lining the streets. This year you may need to adjust your schedule to catch the peak bloom. 

I’m a big believer that you don’t need expensive equipment and a complicated lighting set up to create beautiful images. Some of my favorite images were captured with a really simple lighting setup and with little or no lighting equipment at all. Sometimes too much emphasis is often put on equipment and we can easily get caught up in complicated lighting and expensive gear.  

March Madness is almost here! For the players, that means a lot of press and hype both on and off the court. For photographers tasked with showing them off, it means doing our best to make it all run smoothly.

You may be familiar with portrait photography, but have you ever had the pleasure of experiencing the fine art form? If you haven’t, it’s time you did. Fine art portrait photography has exploded in the luxury portraiture photography market in recent years. The results are superbly evocative and make simply stunning wall art. 

Until recently, you might expect the iPhone to be the phone of choice for product shots. However I’ve done some digging, and found that Apple’s latest and greatest is being put aside.

Have you ever had an incredible idea, but couldn't find a model to help you? Learn how to bring your vision to life through the art of self portraits.