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There's a new Mobile Sync app available for all three 2018 ACDSee Photo Studio products and it makes life much easier. ACDSee Mobile Sync lets you send all your images and videos wirelessly from any mobile device to any computer running a Photo Studio 2018 product.

Building a stock photography portfolio and generating passive income can be one of the easiest ways a photographer can make money. However, creating a sizable portfolio that generates a worthwhile income month after month doesn't just happen overnight. Chances are you have already been shooting images suitable for stock without realizing it. With just a little planning and adjustment to how you see and approach assignments, you can turn your existing and future work into a growing stock catalog. Additionally, with stock sites like Adobe Stock built right into your Creative Cloud, submitting, tracking, and learning what sells is a relatively easy task. 

The new year is the perfect time to look back over the past 12 months and celebrate your successes, but more importantly, to start growing from your failures. When you know your weaknesses, you can make goals for overcoming them. One of the best ways to strengthen your work is to learn skills focused specifically on your goals, which is easier than ever with Skillshare. And for a limited time, they’re offering our readers a special New Year offer of three months of Skillshare for just $0.99. Keep reading to find out how Skillshare can help you accomplish your goals this year.

When it comes to landscape photography, preparation and using the right tools go a long way to get that perfect shot. Tripods, filters, or even drones can all take your image to that next level. However, many photographers don’t give enough importance or time to the editing process of their images. With software that combines multiple tools into one program and simplified non-destructive editing, ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 can make it easier to experiment with new edits on overlooked images and even save some of those over or underexposed captures.

Recently Fstoppers reviewed ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018, the newest version of their all-in-one editing flagship. If you are not familiar with ACDSee’s platform, it is an editing suite similar to Capture One Pro or Photoshop, but also includes photo managing tools and quick editing capabilities similar to Lightroom. This gives ACDSee a unique combined platform that simplifies the average user’s workflow and eliminates the costly need for multiple programs.

We’ve noticed the trend. Video is becoming the way most people communicate online these days. How can you as photographer use video as a tool to influence the personal brand you are constantly building, and how can you expand your product offering to clients? There are various types of videos you can focus on to produce, and the aim should be to make videos that you would like to make for a client. Therefore, it needs to be professional, and something clients might actually use as their marketing and advertising materials. 

Most people are a fan of the film look, but actually shooting, developing, and scanning it can be a bit more hassle and money than many of us are willing to undertake. The Rocket Rooster Analog Film Bundle gives you Lightroom presets for many popular film stocks as well as a range of local adjustment brushes for avoiding the need to go into Photoshop. Check out our review of the full system here.

Our friends at ViewBug are proud to give away a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV in the creative landscapes photo contest. ViewBug is launching a new contest series called the Newly Shot Series; everybody wants to see your new photos. Only images uploaded recently are eligible for this contest, so keep uploading great new stuff. Increase your chances for awesome prizes and bragging rights doled out. Moral of the story - upload awesome images every month!

Buying a new camera can be a very exciting thing, and most of us probably can't wait to see how good images from the new camera are compared to the old. The problem is whether or not your current raw editing software supports your new camera. Fortunately, ACD systems have released a great new update to their photo managing and raw editing software, ACDSee Photo Studio. The new Ultimate 2018 software is a fantastic alternative to some of the other raw editing platforms, and provides some very intuitive and useful file managing features. The latest update to this software further improves it and makes it a very viable option for working professionals.

Let's chat about stock photography. I've used stock sites for nearly a decade while working as a designer and commercial photographer with great success. Most of the options I used in the past left a lot to be desired, which is why last year, I switched over to Adobe Stock. I made the change for many reasons, but the most important was their integration into Adobe Creative Cloud. 

Picking the right music for your next video project can elevate your final cut or destroy it. The soundtrack is the beating heart of any video project, and you can direct your viewer toward an emotion or message based on your selection. Here are some tips to choosing the right music.

Where do you think most photographers struggle: being a creative or running their business? Making awesome imagery or establishing a pricing strategy? For many, it's the latter and that just sucks. For these reasons, PRO EDU has curated six photography management and workflow tools to create the “Photographer's Toolkit.” The toolkit is free from November 23–26 with the purchase of any PRO tutorial over $1. Included are essential software services from brands we trust with a total value over $1,200. You won't find this deal anywhere else.

With the holiday sales starting this week it's the perfect time to start calibrating your monitor or upgrade your old device to a new one. Datacolor is offering some great deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So pick up a new device and read through my walkthrough on how to use your new toy.

Finding ways to earn passive income as a photographer is invaluable. In this field of work, our businesses often require a large amount of direct hands-on time. Selling stock photography, especially when you have the ability to simply upload images you have already taken in a minimal out of time, can add a great deal of value. The online tools that are available today allow you to turn photos that would otherwise have been worthless, or stored hidden on your hard drive, into pieces of art that have real monetary value.

In a previous article, we discovered how we could transition from Lightroom to ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 by importing old catalogs. We also discovered the different files management options and tools ACDSee Ultimate 2018 has to offer. With this second and last part, we are going to go through the main photo editing tools you’d use in Lightroom and see their counterpart in ACDSee. If you are making the switch from the Adobe solution to ACDSee Ultimate 2018, be sure to read this article.

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed ACDSee's latest photo editing software release and even said it could replace Adobe products in many ways for Windows users. It was only wise to back that statement up with two complementary articles, this one being the first, showing to Adobe users how they could switch from Lightroom to ACDSee. In today’s write-up, I’ll concentrate on bringing files from previous Lightroom catalogs into ACDSee and also on how to manage your pictures in ACDSee Ultimate 2018.

The photography world is veritably inundated with learning options, and it can be nigh impossible to wade through them all to find what's worthwhile. So, when Skillshare offered me the chance review their platform, I jumped at the opportunity. Here's what I found.

If you shoot photos on a professional level, there’s a chance you also shoot video. If you shoot video, there’s a chance you edit. And if you edit, there’s a good chance you have to work with audio at some point. But, it may not be something you know a lot about, especially if you are just getting started with editing video.

Earlier this year I reviewed ACDSee Ultimate 10. However, ACDSee just released the 2018 version of their flagship photo editing software and thus it’s time for an update. The brand new iteration promises to offer a more efficient workflow, layered editing for advanced retouching, vastly improved performances, and new tools for photographers to edit their pictures better than ever. Let’s see how this translates in the real world!

Our friends at ViewBug are proud to present the Earth First contest series. These contests awards top-end gear that was lovingly used by another creative individual. Providing high-quality, pre-owned prizes puts less strain on the planet, and allows ViewBug to offer even bigger prizes. Classic win-win!

If there is one type of photograph that you could call universally appreciated, I would say a properly executed cityscape ranks right up there at the top. While New York City often comes to mind when you think of skyscrapers and iconic views, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates now makes a very strong case for being the most amazing city to photograph in the world. Of all the photos coming out of Dubai on a regular basis, I'd say Daniel Cheong's are hands down the best of the best. He is ready to share his skills in an upcoming class on September 8 put on by 500px called "Shooting and Stitching Vertical Panoramas." Best of all, the class is free for 500px premium members.

An updated version of the Biotar 58mm f2 will join the already announced Biotar 75mm f1.5, as the first two pieces in Oprema Jena’s lineup of modern remakes of classic lenses, the company announced today. Oprema is offering 58 people the chance to get the Biotar 75 and Biotar 58 – both originally produced by Carl Zeiss -- as part of a special rewards bundle in the current Kickstarter campaign for the Biotar 75. The 58 Biotar 58s will be pre-production models with serial numbers between 1 and 58. A pledge of $1,999 USD would allow someone to get both lenses at $2,500 less than the combined projected retail price for the lenses. The Biotar 75 is expected to go on the market next summer at a projected retail price of $2,499, with the Biotar 58 following by the end of 2018 at a projected retail price of $1,999.

The eclipse is coming. You know the one — it’s been the topic on most photographers’ lips for weeks. Have you thought about how you’re going to shoot it yet? On August 21, 2017 (this coming Monday), North America and some parts of South America, Africa, and Europe will get to experience one of the most spectacular sights available to us down here on earth: a solar eclipse.

You may have heard Morten Rustad’s name being bandied about alongside words like “time-lapse,” “Norway,” and “that’s-so-fricken-cool.” That last one might not be an actual word, but you catch my drift. Morten’s pretty good at what he does, and he’s teamed up with film equipment company Syrp to let you in on how he does it.

Datacolor’s Spyder5 series of products is their latest in calibration tools to help digital artists make sure they are always seeing the most accurate colors on any monitor display. There are three models to choose from: Express, Pro, and Elite+, with the Spyder5Elite+ version receiving a large software update last year. Now Datacolor is making it even easier to get a better calibration for your workflow by offering discounted prices when you upgrade to their Spyder5Elite+ model from any of their previous models or competitors products.

Many Windows users have been looking for an alternative to ScreenFlow and there might well be one available on the market. It’s called Video Studio 2 and it’s designed by ACDSee. Whether you are an online educator, a workshop teacher, or you’re simply looking for a way to record your screen and quickly edit your videos, this solution is without a doubt one you should be looking at.

If you're a full-time photographer, or have been in the game for a while and are making consistent money with your camera, there's a good chance you've got a pretty solid invoice system set up (if you don't then you need to!). But, if you're one of the hundreds of thousands of photographers out there that are still doing this part time, as a paid hobbyist, or even only getting paid for the occasional gig, then invoicing can be a real irritation. InvoiceHome.com is actively addressing that issue with their online invoice template service.

I’ve been making money from stock photography for about 10 years now. I very rarely set up a shoot, or go on a trip thinking “I can’t wait to take stock images and make money from this,” but I've managed to recoup some money I've spent on trips over the years. Although I don't shoot stock full time, there are a few things that I do to make sure that every shoot I do gets me at least a few nice stock-style images that I can try and sell.

Did you ever play those "hot or not" games, where you were given images of two people and you clicked on the one you were more attracted too? Well, GuruShots is not really like that, but it is a photography community that's based around a similar concept of voting for images you like. Currently, you even have a chance to have your work exhibited at the Usagi Gallery in New York City. 

A little earlier this month we published a review of ACDSee Pro for iOS. Some people seem not to understand fully the purpose of being able to edit pictures on a smartphone, so to make it clearer, I decided to follow up with a tutorial. The goal is to show you the possibilities offered by ACDSee Pro but also give you some ideas on how to use such an app while on the go.

I recently wrote about how photographers should be seriously looking at the medium of video as a skill that should be in their repertoire. Hopefully, some of you were inspired enough to start capturing your own moving images and now you're ready to edit the footage. VSDC Free Video Editor could be just the piece of software you've been looking for.

Outsourcing is quickly becoming a standard practice. More and more photographers are using outsourcing services full time, while others are using them during the busy part of their season. While outsourcing has become more common in the industry, there are still some questions as to it’s worth. Photographers not familiar with the service see ups and downs to incorporating this type of service, and sometimes it can be hard to see which side wins. After my last article reviewing ProImageEditors, people wanted to know if it was worth it.  

The traditional workflow to edit a portrait from start to finish usually  requires a few different apps. But why complicate things and not just try and rely on one single software to get to the final result? Last month I reviewed ACDSee Ultimate 10 and thought it’d be a good idea to follow up with a tutorial showing how far you can go by using exclusively this photo editing solution to retouch a portrait. Discover all my steps and see how this alternative could perhaps suits your workflow better than your current one.

With the importance that social networks now take, our work as photographers has evolved into something entirely different over the past few years. Nowadays, images must be edited faster than ever, and, sometimes, that means not being able to use our computers, but having to rely on mobile solutions. One of such solutions is ACDSee Pro for iOS, which will allow you to edit your pictures on the go with a straightforward and easy-to-use interface. In this review, discover how it could improve your workflow, whether you are a photographer or an Instagrammer.

Our friends at ViewBug teamed up with Trey Ratcliff to celebrate his 80 Stays Around the World tour where he'll be holding free Photo Walks across 10 great European cities! Unfortunately, not everyone can join us in Europe for one of these fun events, so we brought the party to you! Get involved by sharing your favorite vacation or travel photo.

In the image editing market, there is a clear separation between the assets management, editing, and retouching solutions. Most photographers rely on multiple apps to fulfill their workflow. Although we have grown accustomed to working with a few different software to get to the final result, it would be fantastic to have everything in one place. I didn’t think it existed until I stumbled upon ACDSee Ultimate 10. I’ve been trying it out for the past few weeks and wanted to share my impressions with you.

Stock photography has been a main or side income for many photographers throughout the years. Contrary to general belief, stock photography is not dead, but rather stronger than ever due to the rise of the digital media. Rapid movement in social media urges companies to create new content on daily or even hourly basis, and the need of new imagery is unavoidable. This is just one of the reasons why stock photography still matters.

Outsourcing for me has always been one of those things I just never thought to be possible. How could someone who doesn't know what I’m thinking know how I want an image to look? Sometimes I don't even know what I want an image to look like and some of my favorite images have come from playing around while editing. So when I was contacted by Pro Image Editors, one of the largest postproduction companies around with 400-plus employees, and offered the chance to try their services, I was a bit skeptical.

All films start with a small seed. An idea. It’s something we as filmmakers all have in common — we want to turn a thought into something tangible, a place where we can meet someone and share a thought. These ideas change with the season, but there’s always something there. It’s what makes us filmmakers.

We live in a world of excessive options, often leading to crippling cases of “analysis paralysis.” This reality is particularly prevalent in the world of online learning. I can’t even count the number of YouTube videos I have to search when I want to learn a particular skill, before I finally find a half decent one or give up and teach myself. So when the folks over at Skillshare reached out to see if I was interested in checking out their library of classes, the answer was obviously yes. Spoiler Alert: Skillshare is offering our readers two free months of Premium classes. Read the review below then check out Skillshare for yourself.

Ever since I got my drone, I basically keep it in my car at all times in case I happen upon some cool spot while driving. It turns out that all these random excursions have become something very useful to me: profitable stock photography. 

If you are a shooter or video producer, you know that there are many things that go into creating great video. Sure, using the right gear is key. Composition and lighting are key. But after the video is shot, shot selection, pacing, and color correction have to be considered for the edit. Then there are graphics. Titles, lower thirds, transitions, and the like have to be designed and animated. There are tons of parts that go into making one complete, great-looking video. And it’s hard to master every aspect of video production – not to mention the fact that time and budget constraints make things even harder.

For many photographers, the holy grail of “making it,” as a photographer is a sponsorship. The truth is that it’s really not as difficult as it sounds, but to make it easier, I’ll give you three tips to landing your first sponsorship.

Our friends at ViewBug teamed up with Discovery Photo Tours to offer an unforgettable Italy photo adventure to one lucky photographer. Submit your image to the completely free “Around the World” photo contest and you could win a seat on Discovery Photo Tours' Spring 2017 Italy Photo Tour! This all-inclusive, eight-day tour will be an incredible journey through the heart of Italy. Start in Rome and wind through the Tuscan countryside, into Florence, and end in Cinque Terre.

Motion Array has been hard at work adding new features recently. For example, they recently came out with a video portfolio site builder. With this feature, any paid subscriber can create a custom site to show their video work, complete with text, images, and contact information (all editable). Users can even use their own custom domain or have one supplied by Motion Array. But now, Motion Array is at it again with Requests. Essentially, any paid member of the Motion Array community can put in a request for any type of creative asset that Motion Array offers.

Modernity has brought increased convenience and comfort to countless lives, but there have been unintended consequences as well. Increasing urbanization has caused more and more people worldwide to lose their primal connection with nature, something that is almost impossible to replace by technology alone. The brilliant river of stars known as the Milky Way that has dominated the night sky and human imaginations since time immemorial is no longer visible to one third of the Earth’s population, and 80 percent of Americans. This is especially tragic for photographers.

The entire Fstoppers office and many of the Fstoppers writers are at PPE this year. Today we will be wandering around the convention center and we hope you'll come say hello. Tonight at 8pm we're throwing a small get-together with a few big names in the industry.

One of the biggest hits at a wedding reception (or any event) is the photobooth. It’s an area where guests can gather around and make ridiculous faces, dress in silly props, and have an overall great time. When running a photography business that shoots events, we are always asked if we offer photobooth services, so I think it's a natural evolution to want to incorporate one into your packages. When I first found the booth from Photobooth Supply Co, it instantly stood out from all the other options.

It's about time for a new approach. There are a few online stores and stock libraries where you can get templates, videos, and music that help you save time when creating professional videos. Some of them can get really tricky when dealing with prices and licensing.  

[UPDATE] The winners have been announced! Check out the winners page to see some incredible video editing.

Filmsupply and Musicbed have partnered up to bring you a film competition that could change your life. Without having to shoot one frame of footage, you could win up to $100,000 in cash, prizes, and incredible experiences. Although you're not restricted to only using their content, this competition allows you to tap into the huge libraries of both Musicbed and Filmsupply to create and submit your 60-second film. Check out the submission guidelines below.