Becoming a High End Retoucher - An Exclusive Interview With Pratik Naik
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If you're familiar with Fstoppers, you've certainly have heard of Pratik Naik before. As a contributor to Fstoppers for years now, Pratik has been able to share his own retouching secrets that help make him one of the biggest names in the retouching community. Following his recent trip to Seattle to host a Creative Live series - one of the most watched to date, I was able to meet up with him and talk about his upcoming projects and his path as a world class retoucher.

Why Are You Still Using Default Photoshop Cursors?
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There are often things that are helpful to workflow, no matter how minor they are. One of my favorite customizations to a new install of Photoshop is the cursor customization. When watching a tutorial and I see the instructor clicking through a menu instead of using a shortcut key for something as simple as duplicating a layer, I can understand the reason why. When demonstrating to people, it's valuable to slow things down and make sure they understand. It may seem subjective to flat out say that changing the cursors is the best thing to do, however I believe that once you try it you will agree.

Fstoppers Reviews the Open Air Photobooth From Photobooth Supply Co.
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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.

Use Retro Lenses on Modern Cameras for Filmic Magic
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In an age of ultra sharpness and perfect optical balance, our technically brilliant images can often lack charm. So in this tutorial, I'll show you how to use retro lenses on your modern digital camera for photographs that have a lot of character and harken back to the days of film.

About the Nokia Lumia 1020: Everybody Chill Out
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Today I figured I would try and sow a little truth into the mess that has become the camera phone market. Numbers inflated for PR rather than quality have been put front and center with today’s launch of the Nokia Lumia 1020. As a stance on this whole issue, I really don’t have much of a dog in the fight. Yes, I have spoken for Apple and like the iPhone, but this post does not find its roots in fanboyism. This is a preventive measure for the sanity of professional photographers everywhere.

The Most Important Tips To Consider When Building a Website for Photography
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Every photographer needs a good website; that's a given. What isn't so obvious is should you have a contact page? What about a photo on your bio? Is it best to have multiple galleries or everything on one landing page? Today Lee and I review a few websites to show you what does and doesn't work when displaying your work.

Lots of Exciting Canon Lenses Are Likely on the Way
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Rumors are swirling in the photography world about Canon's plans to release four new fast prime lenses in the first half of 2024. According to sources, Canon is developing four new L-series primes that will give photographers faster glass and improved performance for shooting in low light and creating beautiful bokeh.

Fstoppers Reviews: The Nero Trigger
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Have you ever wondered how photographers capture bullets flying in mid air? Or get that perfect lightning strike in the middle of the day? Well the newly redesigned Nero Trigger will help you do just that. Short of the creative jolt you get when you upgrade from pop-up flash to a full off camera flash set up, I'd say that this is one of the biggest creative boosts I've gotten in a long time. This is a piece of gear worth having if you need to get the creative juices flowing again.

New Canon Camera Body Rumors for 2013
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2013 is shaping up to be a pretty interesting year with regards to Canon bodies, even after 2012 brought us some pretty great ones. Most sources seem pretty sure that Canon will release the 7D Mark II sometime the first half of 2013, but this image that has shown up on Canon Rumors and Northlight Images is the first real visual representation of the updated bodies, one being the 7D II and another looks to replace the 60D.

Three Bad SEO Habits That Photographers Have and How to Fix Them
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Google is a beast. There’s no other good way to put it, Google is a beast of a platform with an incredible amount of free valuable content available at our fingertips. But as with any beast, there is always a dark side, and for Google a big con is that the monster search engine never forgets. In the realm of Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) there is a plethora of both good and bad information available to the masses. Because of this, business owners have formed bad habits with SEO that are outdated and harming their ranking within Google and its algorithm. Here are a few habits you may have that could be harming your photography website’s rankings, and how you can fix them.

The Rule of Thirds Is Overrated
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The rule of thirds is completely overrated. There, I said it. Nope, I am not going to take it back.

Sending Page Invites On Facebook Is Close To Useless
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If you're trying to build a fan base for your Facebook page, continually inviting people to like it most probably isn't the best way to accomplish this. What people don't realize is that using the invitation feature built into Facebook is close to useless. There is an art to making your Facebook page flourish.

Great Images Using Mirrors To Create Interesting Portraits
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Mirrors. Something each one of us owns. Most people use it to make sure they look OK, but some people use it to create awesome portraits. Using a mirror can give depth to your image, give you more detail you'll never get without it. It shows you things that are usually hidden from the camera. Portraits using a mirror as a prop also tell a stories - they make you think about the situation and the story behind it. Using mirrors is also a great way to show the surroundings - it gives you a way to see whats behind the camera as well as whats in front of it.

Do You Have to Pay to Photograph in the Faroe Islands?
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The combination of vastly increased living standards for many people around the globe, individualism and social media has created a boom in tourism never seen in the history of humanity. Towns, areas and countries such as Venice, Dubrovnik, The Isle of Skye, US national parks, Iceland, The Netherlands and The Faroe Islands are feeling it (and that is just to name a few). The Faroe Islands seem to do something different.

An Essential Landscape and Travel Tool
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One small piece of gear is an essential buy for landscape, travel, and adventure photographers. Even if you already own one, a number of recent developments may mean it is time to update.

Same Day Wedding Edits Can Be The Ultimate Stress
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I've been a full time wedding photographer for the last 7 years. I've been in some stressful situations but at this point I'm prepared for almost any situation. Simeon Quarrie, a photographer/videographer promises many of his clients a finished wedding video during the reception the very same day. These same day edits leave no room for error and you can feel the stress yourself just from watching this video.

The 'Ugly' Modeling Agency - The Agency For Atypical Models
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Featured on National Geographic's show 'Taboo', this modeling agency is unique in the sense that it doesn't represent people you would normally think of as 'models'. They represent people who specifically have interesting features about them, that make them stand out in a unique way. Amazon Eve, the world's tallest female model, is one example. The word 'Ugly', according to the owner, was used because it's a powerful word and not for the intention of disrespecting the talent.

Photographers Karl Taylor and Urs Recher Team Up For Broncolor "How To" Videos
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In a world filled with videos and tutorials featuring every yahoo with a camera telling us how-to setup, pose, light, and edit, it's hard to know what's just noise and what's worthy of our time. Fortunately, there's experienced instructors like Karl Taylor and Urs Recher who have teamed up to share their techniques in the latest How-To series from Broncolor.

The Insane Flexibility of Medium Format Raw in Capture One Pro 12
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Every now and then, it's nice to be reminded of how spoiled we are and how much information really lives inside our raw files. Whenever we capture a raw image, we have a plethora of information at our disposal. That's all well and good, but this one example really helps bring it home.

Fstoppers Reviews the Very Capable Typhoon H Drone by Yuneec
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Do you own a drone? Have you thought about picking one up this holiday season? I can almost guarantee that you have been looking at something by the world leader in drone manufacturing DJI but what if I said you had options? Yuneec exploded on the scene as a real drone competitor with the debut of the Typhoon H with object avoidance which was a game changer for drones at the time. Today, the most popular drones are within the DJI family but Yuneec continues to innovate and build an incredible product easily rivaling that of the now famous Phantom line.

Newspaper Removes All Images to Show Support for Photographers
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French newspaper, Libération, published their November 14th issue without a single photograph. The stark blanket of text is all that is left of the issue. Their reasoning for leaving out the photos? They wanted to show their support of photographers who help bring the paper to life. They decided to publish on the same day as Paris Photo's opening day, to make a stand for photojournalists who risk everything and receive very little in return.

Five Tips for Photographing January’s Lunar Eclipse
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It may seem like it was only yesterday, but the upcoming total lunar eclipse is actually the first one in nearly three years. Taking place on the morning of January 31, it will be fully or partially visible to folks living in Asia, Australia, the Pacific, and North America. If you are in the United States, the farther north and west you live, the better. Here are five tips I’ve put together to help you prepare for capturing some epic shots.

Beloved iPhoneography VSCO App Getting an Update
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VSCO teased the Instagram and mobile photography community this weekend with a promotional video for their upcoming new app called ‘VSCO Cam’. Promising huge improvements over its original program, VSCO aims to take the mobile editing community by storm with its latest update. Best part of all? It’s free.