Sponsored Content

This section contains sponsored content and partner features produced in collaboration with brands in the photography and imaging industry. All sponsored content is clearly labeled. Fstoppers is selective about the partners we work with, focusing on brands and products relevant to our community.

AI-Powered Retouching With Portrait Pro 19

Retouching can take a long time, especially cleaning up skin. But Anthropics aims to fix that with their new version of Portrait Pro, with AI-powered skin retouching. Does it live up to the hype? Let's find out.

Underpromise and Overdeliver: The Best Way to Grow Your Photography Business

Creating imagery that’s “brandable” is part of many working photographer's bag of skills but still takes some know how with lighting, posing, and while creating a human connection to excel at a high level with consistent results. Let’s dive into how we can make our commercial and branding imagery simply while also growing our network and earning new clients in the process.

How to Make Your Puppy Portraits Pop

Making great portraits isn't only for people, and with our pets being live-in models, we can get a little more practice perfecting our lighting and post-processing even at home.

Increase the Depth of Your Images With ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2020

Over the last decade, we've had lots of new wide aperture lenses hit the market. Lenses like the Nikon 58mm f/0.95 make producing images with super shallow depth of field relatively easy. Even significantly less expensive lenses like an 85mm f/1.8 can produce beautiful, shallow depth in an image, but what if you want more depth? 

The Best Images from GuruShots "Lit by Twilight" Challenge

Our friends over at GuruShots, "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” recently offered a challenge where particpants submitted their best images "Lit by Twilight." There were thousands of entries and 39.4 million votes throughout the contest but the top winners have been chose. See who won as well as the 100 top rated images below.

Editing Challenging Lighting in Landscape Shots

With landscape and travel photography, you might only have one chance at the shot, regardless of the quality of light. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through how I edited a blue hour shot of the Virgin River in Zion National Park, using ACDSee Photo Studio and targeted adjustments.

An Introduction to Previews and Working Offline in Capture One

Capture One is multifaceted image processing and asset management software. As a raw processor, it is considered the gold standard, supporting over 500+ cameras, and with it comes a uniquely powerful tool-set for developing, color grading, and tethering. But that is just the tip of the technological iceberg that is Capture One. With a focus on user experience, its mountain of capability and complexity is hidden under a veneer of simplicity so as to make working with your images fast, focused, and easy. What we'll address today should help in understanding how the software works and how to bend it to your liking, hopefully resulting in an even better experience.

Six Editing Tips for Cleaner Nature Photos

In this tutorial, we’re going to make some quick and simple adjustments to a close-up flower photograph using ACDSee Photo Studio Professional 2020 and its powerful Develop Mode. 

The Top Images From GuruShots' 'Nightfall' Challenge

Our friends over at GuruShots, "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” hosted a challenge recently where participants were asked to submit their best nightfall Image. There were thousands of entries and 37.6 million votes throughout the contest. Check out the three winners of the challenge as well as the 100 top rated images below.

What to Do When Landscape Photography Goes Wrong

What does it take to create an amazing landscape photograph? So many photographers, me included, have been guilty of creating beautiful content that portrays only the successes of landscape photography. In today's free landscape tutorial, I'm going to share some of the failures. 

Here's Why It's a Great Idea to Invest in Digital Asset Management

When I first started out in photography I didn't have any specific process to manage any of my images and files. This is one of the primary reasons I don't have many of my early images anymore. It's a shame because I was quite proud of some of the images I had produced. 

Wondershare Recoverit Adds an Important New Update to Help Better Recover Video Files

When it comes to data recovery software, there are plenty of options currently on the market. In my experience it's been super useful to have a recovery software on hand because I have had SD cards fail on me. The issue is that many available options tend not to do a great job at recovering video. Wondershare might have the answer with its latest update. 

Using a 35mm Lens for Environmental Portraits

While you can use almost any lens to make an environmental portrait, there are a combination of features that make the 35mm a great choice for this style of portraiture.

How to Make Your Photographs Resonate: Tell Untold Stories

Photographers understand the potential of imagery to change people’s lives, but sometimes this can work in very subtle ways. The most inspiring images can come from discovering a niche and, in the words of one photographer, creating what you want to see in the world. What happens when your own passion combines with something that deserves greater visibility?

Luminar 4 for Beauty Retouching

The software that could save you time or money is here in a big way. I’ve compared the time spent retouching an image like I usually do and retouching it using Luminar’s AI, and the latter takes the cake.

Improving Your Photography Workflow for the Best Images Possible With Color Management

No matter if you’re creating your own portfolio or taking photos for paying clients one thing you need to be able to do is create consistent and repeatable results. When looking at images next to one another you will immediately notice if there is a color shift or inconsistent lighting between photographs which can be a detriment to you developing your style or landing the perfect client. Let’s talk about the fastest and easiest way to help elevate your photography and fix those color and exposure issues quickly. 

10 Common Questions on Switching to Capture One From Lightroom and Capture One Black Friday Sale!

If you're looking for a raw processor that does more and are not currently using Capture One, it's likely that in your quest for a solution, Capture One has crossed your mind. Making the switch to Capture One from Lightroom, for example, is easier and quicker than you think, and right now, with Capture One's Black Friday sale, it's the perfect time to buy.

Will Artificial Intelligent Software Hurt or Help Your Photography?

We are living in an exciting time, where software and machine learning are rapidly changing the way we approach work. For some industries, artificial intelligence will destroy job opportunities, but for other industries, it will revolutionize productivity. How will photography and the retouching world fare as editing software begins using this exciting technology?

Quick Tips With Luminar 4: Night Sky Replacements

We photographers don’t always get the perfect sunset or clear starry night sky every time we head out to photograph desolate areas or national parks. This is when we can take a little post production know-how and can still create other worldly and dreamy images that capture the viewer’s eye. Skylum Software's Luminar 4 has just made that scenario easier and faster to do with its all-in-one software and very powerful artificial intelligence.

What Are the Best Ways to Send Traffic to Your Photography Website?

For the last month, we've teamed up with Wix for a series called "How to Build a Website." In this series, Lee and I talk about some of the advantages and mistakes photographers make when creating their own website. Today, we are releasing the last video in the series, and it might be the most important information in making sure your photography business becomes a success financially.

The Best Images from GuruShots "Amazing Men" Challenge

GuruShots is a website that hosts, "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” in which it invites participants to submit their best photos to various challenges. They have receive thousands of entries and millions of votes and recently hosted the "Amazing Men" challenge. Check out the three winners of the challenge below as well as the 100 top rated images below.

Capture One Offers Unique and Powerful Benefits For Portrait Photography

The landscape of the portrait photographer has certainly been in flux over the last decade, in which time we’ve seen photos of people go from unreal alabaster-like skin to something much more real, color grading become prominent, and image resolution grow, even though the consumption of images has moved largely to smaller screens.

Start Introducing Video Into Your Photography Business Today: With Filmora9

As a photographer you may not have had any experience in creating or editing video material, but maybe you should consider opening yourself up to learning new skills to not just enhance your marketing materials, but perhaps also start offering something different to your clients that can make you stand out in the crowd?

A Look at YouPic Pro

With an ever-expanding selection of community-based services and subscriptions to choose from, it can be difficult to find a platform that feels like your own and where your rights as a photographer are respected and protected. Let's dig into dig into why YouPic has grown into one of the most trusted home for photographers, and why celebrated and respected names such as Steve McCurry, Joel Meyerowitz, Adam Hinton, and David Yarrow utilize YouPic Pro's subscription in their photography work.

Free Tutorial: How to Photograph an Engagement Session

For many photographers, the first type of photoshoot they will ever book is an engagement session. In this extended tutorial, I will walk you through four different setups that you can use regardless of your location or skill level.

Why Are Photographers so Scared of Their Own Portrait?

Today we are releasing the second video in our How to Make a Website series with Wix. After reflecting on the content in this new video, it made me wonder, "why are photographers so intimidated by photos of themselves?" Could your view on this question be dramatically affecting your business?

Is Your Photography Name Actually Hurting Your Business?

What to name your photography business is one of the first questions any entrepreneur has to answer before venturing out into the freelance world. Many photographers simply use their full name as their business name, but could that be the worst decision ever? Today, we discuss some of the most important things to consider before making the jump into being a full-time photographer.

A Review of Shimoda Designs New Action X Series of Adventure Backpacks

Shimoda Designs made a big entrance into the adventure outdoor camera bag market with its original Explore series. Since then there has been a lot of competition from both new designers and industry leaders. Not to be outdone Shimoda is back with a new evolution of their previous bag with the Action X series. 

Four Reasons Why a Fast 35mm Prime Lens Should Be in Your Bag

I’ve always passed on 35mm prime lenses. On paper, they always seemed too close to what I could already capture with my phones or what’s duplicated in my 24-70mm professional zoom lenses. It turns out, I didn’t know what I was missing until I tried out the Tamron SP 35mm f/1.4 Di USD lens.

The Best Images from GuruShots "Tell A Story" Challenge

GuruShots, "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” recently hosted a challenge asking participants to submit their best photo that tells a story. With thousands of entries 60.5 million votes, the top images were selected. Check out the three winners of the challenge below as well as the 100 top rated images below.

3 Ways to Control Natural Light for Portraits

I usually use natural light as my go-to for quick group photos or for portraits that need to be done very quickly or with very little gear. That doesn’t mean you can’t shape or control natural light to create studio quality images wherever you are. Here’s three easy ways to shape natural light for your next portrait shoot.

Refreshingly Simple Video Editing With ACDSee Video Studio 4

The most common complaint with nearly all video editing software available on the market is the learning curve. Most programs lack a certain degree of intuitiveness, so any attempt to tinker leads to exasperation. That was certainly my number one frustration with past attempts to teach myself to use some of the heftier video editing suites. Enter ACDSee Video Studio 4, the answer to exacting and irritating video editing sessions.

Motion Array Introduces Final Cut Pro X Templates

The demands for video production have increased exponentially as online content has boomed in recent years. The team at Motion Array understands that this puts added pressure on overworked video editors. That’s why we’re always trying to come up with tools and templates to help post-production professionals stay ahead of the curve.

Good Photography Decisions Start With Pre-Visualization

One percent of great photographs are simple luck, being at the right place and time with a camera... the other 99% are the result of good decisions. One could even argue that a large number of the one percenters made the right decision to be in that place at that time and carry their camera. Good decisions start with pre-visualization.