ACDSee recently asked to sponsor a video where I use their new Photo Studio Professional software. I thought it would be fun to do an entire portrait session from start to finish.
Learning how to properly light the human face can be a challenge for many beginner and intermediate level photographers. Sure, you can grab a single light source, your significant other, and turn a Sunday afternoon into an experimental test shoot, but what happens when you want to start playing around with multiple lights? Figuring out where exactly to place your lights can be a daunting task, but luckily there are dozens of common lighting setups available for critique right on your television!
Having spent a long and exhausting, but fruitful and necessary, weekend going about the chore of reorganizing my overly cluttered garage, I found myself with time to think about a basic question. Why exactly did I become a professional photographer?
The explosion of the app development industry after the colossal growth of smartphone and tablet products in the market started out as a fantastic new tech segment worth watching. It has contributed significantly the rebirth of my beloved Bay Area and Silicon Valley. However, in recent months, this once proud and innovative space has devolved into an overcrowded, hyper competitive and absurdly redundant “look at me” marketplace. This is probably most true for apps based on taking and sharing photos and videos, and I’m getting really sick of it.
It is no secret that camera sales have been in decline for quite a few years now, mostly due to the rise of the smartphone eliminating the need for a dedicated camera for most consumers and casual photographers. 2019 was no exception, as the drop in sales continued; however, there was a small bit of good news buried within the numbers.
It’s been a long time coming for some of my gear. I hardly used it and it was worth more to someone else.
One of the biggest industries in photography is that of photography education. Photography is a very difficult craft to learn without help, and as a result, almost every aspiring photographer must invest in some sort of education source at some point. Fortunately, this demand has created a massive market of educational content that can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially to new entrants. In this article, we are going to go through the various educational options, including the pros and cons of each.
Want to start the new year with a free tutorial from Fstoppers? All you have to do is help us choose our Photographer of the Year!
There are simply no shortcuts to building a career as a freelance photographer. Making money out of something you love is really hard, but it absolutely can be done.
It's nice to see Skylum offer the powerful Luminar tools for iOS and a version that runs natively on Apple's new Vision Pro headset.
I have been following Stephen Hamilton’s work for the past couple of years. I first came across the Chicago-based food photographer’s work through his personal work and project called “The Restaurant Project.” In this project, Stephen has dined at restaurants throughout the country experiencing new dishes that chefs have to offer. While dining he takes an iPhone image. From this image, he recreates a beautiful shot of the meal back in his studio. I have enjoyed seeing Stephen's recreations and contacted him to learn more about the project. Here are 7 questions with Stephen Hamilton.
Blackmagic has promised to deliver a cinema camera like no other. Have they got it right?
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.
There's a huge variety of photography competitions, from your local camera club, to huge global awards and some big prizes if you win. So, how do you win a photography competition, and is there a special formula you can use to reap the rewards?
Has your lack of followers affected you when trying to get a model for some project work? I have not experienced this situation. Maybe I was told another reason as to way they weren’t interested, but this hasn’t been one of the reasons I received. Recently, I was in a chat group with fellow photographers, and this topic was brought up. One of the photographers asked a model about doing a TF project, and the response was he didn’t have enough followers to work with. This isn’t the first instance where I have heard of. This had me thinking for a bit: why would this be the determining factor?
Capture One 20, the newest version of the photo editing and organization software, has released today. Adopting a new, year-based naming convention, Capture One 20 boasts a number of improved features from Capture One 12, centering around refining the user experience.
The other night I was asked "what is the most frustrating thing about shoot weddings?" I thought about this question for a second and shockingly my answer had nothing to do with bridezillas, wedding planners, hot and humid weather, or even post production. Easily the most frustrating thing about shooting weddings is dealing with unreliable radio triggers during the reception. Perhaps this simple yet unreleased hotshoe adapter could make this problem obsolete if only someone would create it.
Happy New iPhone Day! Today, that small startup in Cupertino known as "Apple" released their latest and greatest iPhones, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. But with all the hype and cool new features, we were mostly concerned with the camera and boy, did they deliver.
Editorial photography is still alive and well, despite what the cynics will tell you. It no longer has the budgets it used to, and there are not as many publications to go around, but you may still get called on from time to time to shoot a series of images for a magazine. Editorial assignments can be extremely varied, and a challenge to do successfully, but they're extremely rewarding and often lead to meeting interesting people along the way. But where do you start when you get the call?
Wedding photography has evolved into a stunning genre of photography. Photographers across the globe are bringing a level of creativity to wedding photography that elevates the images into something more than just photo-documentation.
Life as a freelancer is different. People with "normal" jobs don't usually understand what we do, how we do it, when we do it, or why we do it. But, we do what we do, and it's not always easy. It's not consistent, it's not stable, but it's a great way to live your life if you do it right. Here are some small ways you can make it easier. They've helped me, and maybe they'll help you as well.
To preface all of this, I shoot film 90% of the time (if not more). I firmly believe that my work is more meaningful because of it. I also believe that we all have our own thoughts/opinion and there is no universally observed benefit to shooting film.
Over the past couple of weeks I have been given the opportunity to try out one of the widest Micro 4/3 lenses out there, the Venus LAOWA 7.5mm f/2.0. After testing it for some time, I'd like to share some of my thoughts on how it performed and what I liked and didn't like about it.
On May 13th - 17th of this year Fstoppers is once again putting on an incredible event for photographers. 10 of the top photographers in the industry today will be teaching 20 different courses in the Bahamas at Atlantis Resort. This is your chance to win a free class of your choice worth up to $1500.
For the next four days, from July 18-21, the Republican National Convention is taking over Cleveland, Ohio. There will be around 15,000 credentialed media in attendance, and according to Wired, some of the photographers will be suiting up for the worst possible scenarios.
If you aren't growing you are dying. Maybe it is pessimistic view or a harsh reality for our industry. If you and your business isn't growing and adapting with the fast pace of an ever changing market and technology, you will become irrelevant. I have read dozens of negative articles online about running a photography business- this isn't one of them.
Keeping your gadgets charged on the go is essential if you travel a lot and expect to get any work done on the road. Thanks to the millions of battery packs that are out there, charging your phone is easy enough. But what if you need to keep your laptop charged while off the grid for a day’s shoot or while on a long flight without an outlet? Omni 20 is one of the only, and most recent, solutions that will charge anything you throw at it, including that ultra-powerful new MacBook Pro.
One of the things I was most excited about when I saw the launch of the Fujifilm X100VI was the new color film simulation Reala Ace. I was keen to find out how this new film sim compares to other favorites on X Series cameras.
As a Micro Four Thirds videographer, my most used lens has become the Panasonic 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. Today I will compare this lens to the cheaper Tamron 14-150mm lens.
In a genre composed of so many different disciplines, there are a couple truths that cross all boundaries.
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