When Does It Stop Being Photography and Start Becoming Digital Art?

There have never been more creative options available to photographers. Whether it’s in camera, in post-production with software like Photoshop, or at the touch of a button on a smartphone app, choices seem limitless. But when is it no longer actual photography?

Flickr CEO Appeals to Users to Save the Platform, Admits Huge Financial Losses

The CEO of SmugMug and Flickr has emailed users of the latter site, requesting they sign up for Pro accounts as a means of saving the platform. In the unusually candid message, he refers to Flickr as a “money-losing business” and admits some years, the loss was as great as “tens of millions of dollars.”

iPhone 4S's Response To The Original Fstoppers iPhone Photoshoot

Columbus, Ohio based photographer Nick Fancher just released a video today of his version of the Lee Morris's original iPhone photoshoot. Not a dollar was spent on location, extra lenses, MUAs, models ... all was done for trade and was shot only with the iPhone 4S and a reflector. Nick used Snapseed and Adobe Photoshop Express in phone to edit all of his images. Enjoy!

Review of OrionH: This Photoshop Panel Saves You Hours of Processing The Milky Way

You have been up all night, taking images of the Milky Way. Tomorrow, hours of editing probably lie ahead. Light pollution, noise, and a lack of contrast can make most nightscape photos feel lackluster. If you’re familiar with doing landscape astrophotography, then you’ve no doubt experienced the amount of effort needed in post-processing to make your images shine. Even with today’s digital cameras, no picture comes out of the camera the way you’ve imagined them to. Enter OrionH; a panel for Adobe Photoshop dedicated to natural night photography and meant to decrease the amount of time you sit at the computer.

10 Well Illustrated Composition Tips From The COOPH and Steve McCurry

If you've been working to improve your photography then you should already be familiar with the Golden ratio and the rule of thirds as they relate to visual compositions. Avoiding all the math we can simply say, to create a more intriguing shot we divide our composition into nine equal parts (two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines) and then we place important elements along these lines or their intersect points. This and other compositional guidelines (or tips) are nicely illustrated by this Cooperative of Photography video, using the works of Steve McCurry.

Business of Photography: Eight Tips I Wish I Had Known Earlier [Part One]

I doubt any photographers became professional because they were excited to run the business, but run it they will. Unfortunately, the importance of savvy business practices is much closer to photographic talent that most like to admit, so take a break from honing your portraiture, and hone your abilities as a small business owner.

Making a Composite Image That Is Larger Than Life

I really like the team at PLEARN because they consistently come up with great photo shoot concepts, but they don't just leave it at that. They also show you have to make those images yourself in a casual yet informative manner. This week they show you how to create a composite that takes a woman and puts her in a room that's just a little too small.

5 Tips To Reinvigorate Your Photography

Lost your photography mojo? It's something that happens to us all and not just once, it's a part of life but let's not get philosophical here, let's just look at a few ways to reinvigorate your photography.

[Pic] Side By Side Comparison Of The Nikon D700 And New D800

So as you have now seen, Nikon Rumors just received the first images of the soon to be released Nikon D800. As I studied the pictures I noticed that the command dial on the top was sitting a bit more sideways than it does on the D700. As I looked closer I noticed that Nikon seemed to have shaved down the left side of the camera a bit. You'll notice the buttons on the left side no longer have as much room. Do you guys see any other big differences?
How I Shot This With Hard Lighting

Lighting can be a major pain in the ass and that is especially the case if you're not a technical person, like me. After picking up the camera 7 years ago I am still constantly learning about the many different aspects of lighting.

Fstoppers Reviews the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Contemporary Lens

Super-telephoto lenses are essential to the craft of sports and wildlife photographers who are shooting great distances away from their subjects, as well as to other creative photographers looking to flatten or fill the frame to create unique images. Enter the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary which is a full-frame super-telephoto lens priced just under $1,000 and comes in Nikon F, Canon EF, and Sigma SA mounts.

Fstoppers Reviews ACDSee Pro for iOS, One of the Best Raw Editing and Capture Apps for Mobile

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.

A Review of Nikon From a Business Perspective

With a bevy of camera announcements (and rumored announcements) setting the internet on fire over the last couple of weeks, I thought it might be fun to offer a review of a different sort.

Photographing The World BTS ep1: Fstoppers Arrives In Iceland

This week we released our 5th photography tutorial: Photographing The World with Elia Locardi. Since this tutorial was going to be filmed over the course of 2 months in Iceland and New Zealand, we decided to turn the cameras back around on ourselves and show you how we filmed this massive video project.

Ask A Retoucher: Questions From The Industry, Answered By A Retoucher

Aside from techniques, I have noticed that there isn't much information out there on retouching and the industry. I have been asked great questions over time that I thought people would love to know the answer to. Accordingly, I wanted to make a series to showcase them for the purpose of education and knowledge.

7 Steps for Creating Powerful 70-200mm Telephoto Images

There is no doubt that the telephoto lenses are just as attractive for landscape photography as the wide-angles. In this article, I will give you seven steps to help you make powerful landscape photos with a 70-200mm telephoto lens.

I Lined Beer Cans with Photographic Paper and Here's What I Found 6 Months Later

This low-tech alternative to digital photography can produce stunning art. Last year, I've recovered five out of ten “cameras." Some are found by others and stolen, others are simply blown off by a passing storm. Yet others are removed by bomb squads... I'm sharing these pictures with you, which are scanned negatives of black and white photographic paper. The brightest parts are the sun's streaks, burnt and etched in the paper - along with bubbles, rips and sand that texturize the images in bizarre ways.

Stop the Scroll: How to Animate a Portion of Your Photo

Have you ever taken a shot that you were completely stoked to post, and when you released it to the world, you didn’t quite get the engagement you were hoping for? It can be discouraging to be excited about a photo and not get the enthusiastic engagement you expected. These days, stopping the scroll seems harder than ever, but animating a portion of your photo is an easy upgrade that can create a major boost of interest to your image.

Photographer Beth Moon Spends 14 Years Photographing the World's Oldest Trees

Beth Moon is a photographer who specializes in classic black and white imagery. Over the last 14 years she has been traveling the world documenting the oldest and largest trees on the planet. To promote her new book "Ancient Trees: Portraits in Time," Moon has shared this behind-the-scenes video of her platinum printing darkroom process which is pretty interesting to watch. Platinum printing is viewed by many to be the absolute best form of archival printing, and Moon's results are absolutely gorgeous.

Seven Tips for People Looking to Turn Their Photography Into a Career

One of my recent articles was on how developing a niche can help you make more money from photography. I received a lot of emails and questions over the next week and a strand that run through almost all of the contact was about making the transition to full-time professional. I was pleased with the interest in this question, but I wasn't overly surprised as I tackled the very same issue for several years. There's no exact formula, but there are some important tips I can give. Sadly, most of these I learned along the way, but hopefully some readers can use this to make that leap to professional feel more like a hop.

Questions From The Industry Answered By A Retoucher Part 2

Aside from techniques, I have noticed that there isn’t much information out there on retouching and the industry. I have been asked great questions over time that I thought people would love to know the answer to. Accordingly, I wanted to make a series to showcase them for the purpose of education and knowledge.

Second-Hand Photography Gear: Where to Make a Good Bargain

Not all that doesn’t glitter isn’t gold. For non-professionals and professionals alike, a second-hand camera or lens is often a cheap way to upgrade one’s own photographic toolbox. Here, you find some tips for making a good bargain.

Five Tips to Help Your Outdoor Adventure Photography Experience

Adventure, outdoor, and eco-sports photography has had a surge in popularity over the last decade. Rapidly growing social media outlets like Instagram have narrowed a spotlight across specific arenas of interest. Many photographers are making a living on the outskirts of the grid creating mesmerizing imagery of U.S. National Parks, remote foreign territory, and backcountry destinations only accessible by highly technical off-road transportation or arduous hiking. With the flux of imagery and surge of outdoor brands promoting a simpler lifestyle more closely connected to nature, more photographers are taking to the outdoors to create imagery that communicates a love for nature.

Ask Yourself These Questions When You Think It's Time to Buy a New Camera

Given the choice, most of us would probably buy the latest and greatest camera bodies as soon as they came out, because hey, new toys are cool, right? But most of us don't have unlimited budgets, so it's important to know when you really need to upgrade and when it's just a case of gear lust. Here's what to consider when you're wondering if it's time to buy a new camera.

Fstoppers Reviews the ZhongYi Mitakon Speedmaster 35mm f/0.95 for Fujifilm

Over the past few years, Zhongyi Optics have introduced several lenses in their Mitakon “Speedmaster” series of reasonably-priced, well-constructed, super-fast manual focus lenses. The 35mm f/0.95 Mark II lens falls straight into that category. We’ll be looking at the Fujifilm mount version, but this lens is also available for EOS-M and Sony E cameras. So, let’s get into it and look at sharpness, build quality, and, of course, bokeh.