The Life of a Super Bowl Sports Photographer

For sports photographers everywhere, tonight is the night that you someday hope to be working. Super Bowl Sunday has basically became a national holiday for Americans. Whether you’re watching for the commercials, or the game, photographers everywhere want to see that lineup of camera bodies and lenses on the sidelines.

Light Painting with 1,871 Slices of a Corpse

Joseph Paul Jernigan was a Texas murderer who was executed by lethal injection. His body was then sliced into 1,871, 1mm cross sections, digitized and has now been used to create eerily stunning photographs.

Click to see the images and the story behind them.

Bangladeshi Photographer Fired and Attacked for Photo of Couple Kissing

A well-known Bangladeshi photographer has spoken out to insist he is the victim of “unwanted cruelty” after he was sacked and had violent force used against him, for taking a picture of a couple kissing. The image has been heavily condemned in the conservative Muslim-majority country and caused a social media backlash.

What Is the Best Position of the Horizon in a Landscape Photo?

Most of the time, a landscape photo will show the horizon. The best position of that horizon depends on what's important in the photo. Do you place the horizon at the top, the bottom, or somewhere else in the frame? If you struggle with that decision, this article may give a helping hand.

The World's Largest Film Camera Redefines Mobile Photography

The phrase “go big or go home” seems to take on a special significance with photographer Dennis Manarchy. Obsessed with the concept of scale and the possibilities of working with massive negatives to create portrait images more than two stories high, he and his team have created a 35-foot view camera, the world’s largest film camera. The project, nicknamed “Butterflies and Buffalo”, aims to use the traveling view camera as a conduit for documenting more than 50 of the unique cultures in America.

Liquifying Your Boudoir Images: Less Is More

When it comes to liquify, less is usually best. Unless you have a model or client who specifically asks for heavy shaping, chances are you are going to have an unhappy client if this tool is overly used.

What It's Really Like to Be a Female Photographer

Nikon's recent choice to promote the new D850 with a pro team of 32 men has started waves of conversation of gender inequality in the arts. During the uproar, I received a few messages requesting for me to share my own experiences that are unique to being a female photographer. Whether we like to admit it or not, America is pretty far from complete gender equality. Many are surprised to learn that the accepting arts industry isn't an exception to the current gender norms. As to not a let male-dominated industry intimidate me, I try to ignore the upsetting gender-specific challenges I face. But there are a few too hard to ignore as they're present in my life daily.

My Thought Process When Photographing on Location

When photographing on location, be it a campaign for a clothing company, lifestyle images for a client, or just making portraits of someone outdoors, I always go through four steps before I actually take a photo.

An Introduction to Outdoor Food Photography

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, Summer is officially here! This means plenty of picnics, outdoor barbecues, and many more occasions where you can take pictures of food outside! When outside, you won't have control of the weather conditions. To be able to have nice, soft, diffused light in any weather, there is one piece of equipment that I always bring with me. It is small, light-weight, and essential to creating mouthwatering pictures of food on a bright sunny day. Can you guess what it is?

The One Question Every Photographer Should Ask Themselves Everyday

There's one question photographers should ask themselves everyday, and that is: What did you do today to build your business? Emphasis on the word “today.” Simple words I first heard while taking a business of photography class a few years back from a noted photographer. And while the class itself droned on a bit and may not have been as compelling as I’d initially hoped for, those simple words stuck with me then as they do today.

How to Affordably Create Very Soft Light

Creating soft light can become an expensive pursuit. A large, indirect softbox will cost around $2,000 and the cheaper ones are often badly built, are small, or generally lack good light quality. Being a tight git, I set about finding a way to create high quality, soft light for my food photography, although this set up will work for pretty much all genres.

Pricing and Availability Released for Sigma's Upcoming 24-105mm f/4

Tonight from the PhotoPlus Expo, Sigma has announced the pricing and availability of its new 24-105mm F4 DG OS HSM Art lens. It will be on shelves next month, starting with Canon mounts, for the MSRP of $899. That's quite a bit less than the Canon equivalent that, for many, leaves a lot to be desired. If Sigma's past lenses have been any indication of quality, we can expect it to be worth it.

Fstoppers' Stills Review of the Canon 1D X Mark II

Canon released the 1D X Mark II last year, representing the next generation of its flagship model, a camera meant to be without compromise — top of the line capabilities, durability, and performance. As even consumer-level cameras reach sometimes stratospheric heights, the truly professional models have had to reach for even greater heights to continue to distinguish themselves. Read on to see where the 1D X Mark II fits in.

Create Your Own Time-Lapse Templates for Lightroom Classic

Five years ago, I made a video about creating time-lapses solely in Lightroom Classic using the Slideshow Module. It was an experiment in pushing the boundaries of what Lightroom could feasibly do, and over the years it has garnered over 175K views, which was completely unintentional, but a very welcome surprise.

The Longest Route To Avoiding Photoshop

Part of the appeal of doing something the long way is exactly that: proving you have the guts to reinvent the wheel. When Stephen Doyle was asked to help with the New York Times story What If The Secret To Success Is Failure? he decided to try something that would have been rather easy to produce in post production. Instead of relying on Photoshop, Stephen used forced perspective to physically write out words within different scenes. The final images appear to have words written on top of the images but infact they are embedded into each photograph directly. Click the full post to check out a second video and see a few examples of the final published images.
[Fstoppers Review] The Best Portable Audio Recorder For DSLR Video

You often hear film makers say, "Your video is only as good as your audio". Obviously video production goes a long way too but poor audio can completely ruin an otherwise great video. Until recently, DSLR cameras have been anything but great at recording audio. The on board microphones are noisy and prone to record camera noise. Plugging an external microphone into the line-in has also left a lot to be desired. So how should someone

[News] Photoshopping the Truth (scandalous)

There are questions regarding the church’s wealth in Russian which have recently received a lot of press due to a scandal over photographs of it's leader wearing an enormously expensive watch. The Russian Orthodox Church seemingly had editors doctor a photograph, on their site, of the leader Patriarch Kirill I, in attempt to obscure a $30,000 watch that he has claimed to not exist. The amateur shop job extended a black sleeve where there once appeared to be a Breguet timepiece but somehow managed to forget to remove the reflection of the watch.

Useful Tips for Saving a Photo Shoot

There is no perfect shoot, but here are some useful tips that could save you and your final images against possible mishaps. It is better to be prepared against various external factors.

Stock Photography Is a Scam

There is a lot of bad advice online on how to make money as a photographer. Truth be told, I followed much of it and made a big fat zero. This is not because such advice is wrong, but rather because it is out of touch with what the market is in 2024. In this article, I will shed light on one of the worst ways to make money with your work.

Is Your Photography Suffering From the Region-Beta Paradox?

Has your improvement trajectory in photography begun to level off? Do you find yourself feeling a little jaded and uninspired? There is a paradox that might resonate with your current situation and if it does, it holds the keys to propelling yourself forward.
Macro Gone Mobile: We Review SANDMARC Macro 100mm for iPhone

If you've wanted to try macro photography but didn't want to outlay on all the special equipment necessary, you're in luck. If you're an iPhone user, SANDMARC has a 100mm Macro lens you can screw onto your phone, and I put it through its paces.

Fstoppers Community Critiques:  Show Us Your Best Photos

Last week Lee Morris wrote an article outlining the community rating system and we have been flooded with emails. The most common question has been "now that I have a rating associated with my images, how can I get honest critiques and suggestions about my work?" Well today is your lucky day because this weekend Lee and I are going to examine 15 images submitted to us and break down what makes each image great and not so great.

Tips for Printing Your Work

Printing your photos is one of the best things any photographer can do for themselves. There are lots of reasons why you should be printing and it gets brought up here on Fstoppers all the time.

11 Ways to Improve the Sharpness of Your Images (Part 3)

Ever pulled the images off your camera, zoomed in to 100%, and been a little disappointed with the results? Ever had a hard time figuring out what went wrong? In this series, we’re looking at 11 common causes of poor clarity and how to address each. With a little practice, you’ll be able to glance at an image and know how to fix it.

How to Edit Pictures on Your iPhone Using ACDSee Pro for iOS

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.

Using the Rule of Odds in Landscape Compositions

If there are multiple objects that make up the subject in your photo, it can be wise to consider the rule of odds. An odd number of objects makes the image more interesting compared to an even number. As always, there are exceptions to this rule.