Making Powerful Professional Portraits

We all have our pictures online. But do we have a picture that defines who we are as a professional and what we do? In this competitive world where your digital presence is a business card, what difference does a professional portrait make?

The Sony 70-200mm f/4 G II Takes a Huge Leap in Evolution: We Review

In a time when older cameras and lenses are getting new updated versions left and right, one of the best things to see is when the piece of gear gets an entirely new purpose. This is definitely something that no one expected from the new Sony f/4 telephoto lens.

Pan"Tone" - Sports Photography Project With a Color Twist

When a D1 collegiate athlete becomes a photographer, you should watch out. Zach Ancell is a commercial sports photographer from Portland and has been shooting for almost 10 years now. As any self-respecting creative, he does his own personal projects between the commercials he shoots. Pan"Tone," which is one of Ancell's recent shoots caught my attention, and he kindly agreed to share all we want to know about the set.

Is Sony About to Announce a 50mm f/1.2 GM Lens?

This is one that will grab many fans’ attention. Is the Japanese giant just weeks away from announcing a 50mm f/1.2 GM? How much will it cost and will you be placing an order?

PolarPro Releases Cinematic LUTs for DJI Mavic Pro and Phantom 4 Pro

As consumer-level and professional drones become more and more capable, filmmakers are increasingly turning to them for the unique perspective they offer and as a way to augment existing work. Building on this, PolarPro has just released 12 new cinematic LUTs specifically for DJI's most popular models.

Skylum Wants to Completely Reimagine Editing with Luminar AI

Luminar software from Skylum has had a tremendous impact with many photo editors, bringing a lot of Photoshop and Lightroom-esque features along with some one-of-a-kind capabilities like one-click sky replacement and AI-based features for landscape and portrait photographers.

I Just Made Three Grown Women Cry

I handed it over and Jennifer just looked at me stunned. Her lower lip trembled and then, overwhelmed with emotion, her eyes welled up before tears rolled down her cheeks and she began to cry. Smiling, she turned to Emma who was sat on her left. She grabbed her hand reassuringly and then also started crying before giving Jennifer a hug. Across the table, next to me, was sitting Lilly - with both Jennifer and Emma now in tears she also welled up and then began to cry too.

[News] Nikon D4 Specs Leaked

Being on the road in Argentina, with nothing but my iPad and nets speeds of 0.36Mbps, makes for some hard posting. But when the admins over at Nikon Rumors announced the specs for Nikon's D4, with 90% certainty, I knew it was worth the effort . Read what they have to say about Nikon's anwser to Canon's 1DX in the full post and let us know if it's all you hoped for.

Adobe Announces a Slew of Updates to Its CC Desktop and Mobile Products at Adobe MAX 2015

Every year's Adobe MAX conference marks the an obvious time to expect updates throughout Adobe's product lineup. So what's different this time? Mobile. Adobe has the monopoly in the area of creative applications for media editing, but for the first time in a while, it feels like they're competing with some unknown entity. This year's updates bring so many new features across the widest range of Adobe products ever that there's no doubt they're serious about their making customers happy with a huge concentration on mobile.

Winners of the Fstoppers Photo Colorization Contest

Last week, Patrick challenged me to colorize an image he shot during the historic snowfall in Charleston. We decided it would be great to see our readers' take on the colorization process as well. These three photographers have won their choice of an Fstoppers Tutorial! How do you think they did?

KISS Your Photography Hard Drive Today

When it comes to protecting our photography data we all know we should do it, but for a lot of us, we don’t know how to protect our data from loss. Should we use a RAID 1 or a RAID 6, striping or mirroring, NAS or DAS? I use KISS, or Keep It Simple Stupid.

The Secret to Getting Paid Work as a Photographer or Videographer

I have the best part of a decade of professional photography under my belt, with some very hard years and some good years during that time. I have learned a lot about the craft, the industry, and most of all, about running a small business. The majority of the lessons that had the most significant impact on my career were not around techniques, post-production, or even equipment; they were about running a business.

Behind The Scenes Of Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible Stunts

I'm a big fan of sci-fi and action movies but cheesy looking special effects have been destroying scenes more and more these days. Tom Cruise has become known for his incredible, self performed stunts; especially in the Mission Impossible series. This video covers all of Tom's most impressive and dangerous scenes in each of the MI movies.

Apple's iPhone Photography Tips for Shooting in Portrait Mode

Apple just released some quick tips from professional photographers for shooting in Portrait Mode on the iPhone 7 Plus. For those that thought you'd find some tricks in the Tips app on your iPhone, you thought wrong. But Apple is finally sharing a few tips online. Although fairly easy to use, these tips can help an unfamiliar user to better understand the dual-camera system and how to get the best out of Portrait Mode.

What's New in Adobe Premiere Pro

Coming this fall you’ll be able to create and collaborate faster than ever with Adobe’s latest version of Premiere Pro CC. New updates to the program will allow you to open multiple projects at the same time, collaborate with multiple editors on the same project, and work with new graphics tools in the Essential Graphics panel. Let's have a closer look.

[News] You Break It, You Bought It

Below is a selection from a New York Post article that I read earlier this week. At first I laughed at the reality of a photographer being so careless around an ancient piece of art. The laughing stopped pretty quickly though once i thought "What if I had done this and had a lawsuit hanging over my head".

Subject Matters - Kicking Technicalities For Content

I'm guilty. As a commercial and fashion editorial photographer as well as a writer for Fstoppers, I love lighting, bokeh, rigging, and all technicalities involved with cinematography and photography. For many months, content fell second to setup. From my experience, there are three types of photographers: those that confide in instinct and sunlight, those that rely on post processing, and those that excel at artificial lighting and formalities.

Seven Ways to Save $83,900 as a Photographer

We all know how expensive being a photographer can be and while there are some no-go areas for cutting costs, there are still several huge savings to be had if you look in the right places and change a few habits.

How To Get Hired By Creative Agencies - Interview With Creative Director: Scott Wallace

Most photographers looking to advance their commercial photography careers come to the realization that in order to score the big jobs, they need to work with creative agencies. The question is, how does a photographer get those agency gigs? I sat down with Associate Creative Director Scott Wallace of Magner Sanborn to discuss the creative agency/photographer relationship and what we can do as photographers to get noticed and ultimately get hired.

2018 Custom PC Guide for Photography and Video

Last week Apple introduced new MacBook Pro models and the prices already initiated discussions. Maybe it is still better to build a custom PC for getting the bang for the buck.

Other Creatives Should Never Be Your Competition

Think of the nowadays common term #squadgoals; now, turn off your Taylor Swift playlist on Spotify and really listen. Would that term have the same meaning if some of the "squad" were paranoid, bitter people? Probably not, because those kind of people don't make for very good company. Instead, you're probably picturing a team of diverse, amazingly talented powerhouses from various walks of life who all have one thing in common: eating faces and taking names.

Fstoppers Reviews the Haida CPL VND Pro II, a Variable ND Filter With Polarization

A variable neutral density filter can be very handy. You only need one filter that covers multiple strengths. Haida released the CPL VND Pro II, a variable neutral density filter that works also as a polarizing filter. Haida asked me to review this new variable ND filter with polarization abilities.