NFTs Are Terrible: 6 Reasons Why You Should Avoid Them

Given the number of big name photographers and huge brands jumping on board the NFT bandwagon, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the plethora of problems surrounding the NFT market had evaporated. You’d be wrong. NFTs are a still terrible idea, riddled with problems.

Five Ways Lightroom Is Just Better

Following up from last’s week’s article about Capture One, today, we’ll take a look at its main rival in the raw processing field, Lightroom. To keep things on a relatively level playing field, I’ll be discussing what is now called “Lightroom Classic,” the desktop version of Lightroom.

How To Create A Textured "Dodge And Burn" Look In Seconds

My buddy and Germany-based Photoshop World instructor Calvin Hollywood has created a site called Photoshop Freaks which gives countless post-production tutorials. Recently he posted a video about how to give your photo that extra textured look and feel in a matter of seconds. It like a slight "high-pass" appearance without all of the messy glowing contrast lines or over-sharpening.

Introducing The Profoto B1 Battery Powered TTL Monolight

Announced this morning by Profoto was their newest light in their lighting kit, the B1 Off-Camera Flash. Refusing it call it a speed light or a studio strobe, the completely cordless B1 Off-Camera Flash has some truly unique and interesting features not seen before in a studio strobe. Update - Now available on B&H for Preorder at $1,995.

Canon Is Working on Some Truly Insane Lenses

While their mirrorless bodies have received mixed responses, no one can accuse Canon of playing it safe when it comes to mirrorless lenses, and they're showing no signs of stopping, as patent documents have emerged showing a positively ludicrous lens design.

8 Steps to Better Milky Way Editing in Lightroom

Editing pictures of the Milky Way is difficult to get right. Which white balance do you use? How bright should the scene be? How do you remove excessive noise without stars disappearing? Well, follow these eight steps for image editing success on the galactic scale with Lightroom Classic.

Why I've Never Changed Camera Brands

There seems to be a flurry of “I’ve changed brand” going on again at the moment. I find the entire thing very alien, but mostly because I have never changed camera brands, and there is a good reason for that.

5 Tips to Radically Improve Your Headshots

Headshot photography is one of the fastest-growing segments in the industry and for good reason. With more people working from home and using technology to collaborate, our online personas have become more important than ever. Many people have started new careers and businesses due to the pandemic and need to update their branding images. This creates an excellent opportunity for aspiring headshot photographers, and in this article, I give you five tips that will radically improve your game.

Can DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite Knock Lightroom Classic Out of the Ballpark?

I tested a range of raw camera files in different development programs in a quest to find the ultimate development tool. This time it is the turn of DxO PhotoLab 6. Lightroom is good, and Capture One was better. How does Photolab 6 compare, and is it worth the investment?

Why I Will Never Hire An Art School Graduate

Why is it so hard to hire someone to fill a creative position? At this point I'm afraid that art school might be making most graduates unemployable egomaniacs. I know this because I used to be one.

Win a Canon 5D Mk III or a Nikon D500 in This Free Photo Contest!

What’s the best photograph you’ve ever taken? If it’s as good as you think it is, it could win you your choice of Canon 5D Mk III, Nikon D500, Sony a7 II, or Fujifilm X-T1. It’s all part of My Best Shot, a free photo contest presented by ViewBug, the world’s largest photo contest community.

Amazon Boudoir Wardrobe Finds for Under $20

A few months ago I wrote about the higher end luxury finds for your boudoir wardrobe closet. In those instances where a client has either brought unflattering pieces or that she is relying on your to help guide her in looks, having these backups are perfect to get more looks for bigger sales. While having a closet can be helpful, it also does not have to break the bank if you are just starting out or like to change things up constantly.

How to Remove Shadows With Frequency Separation

If you want to lift your retouching skills to the next level, you should familiarize yourself with frequency separation and how it can aid you in various photo editing tasks. One of those can come up in cityscape and architecture photography. Especially during blue hour and nighttime, you can get unwanted shadows in your photos. In this article, I explain how to remove those with frequency separation.

Tweaking Lightroom: Optimizations and New Options for Performance

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC has recently updated to 8.1. With any new software release, there are new features. This new version is no different. Some of these options can speed up your workflow or speed up performance in general.

Three Reasons Why I Hate "Posing"

There are dozens of classes, courses and books on posing and they’re all useless. Why? There’s a definitive difference between directing a subject and posing a subject; if you’re “posing" a subject, then you’re doing it wrong. Here are three reasons why I don't like posing subjects and how I’ve managed to overcome those obstacles.

Shining Light on the Lightroom Histogram

Most of the adjustment sliders in Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw are self-explanatory, for example, highlights and shadows. But do you truly understand what is happening when you move that slider?

Five Things They Never Told You About Becoming a Photographer

I don’t know about you, but I never planned to become a photographer. It kind of happened by accident. I have always considered myself more of an explorer, traveling the world in search of adventure. Shooting photographs was just my way of telling the story of the places I visited. But pretty soon, people started calling me a photographer, and that was that. Shortly after, I quit my day job and found myself trying to make my way as a full-time travel and portrait photographer. That was six years ago, and although I have learned so much over those years, these are the five things they never told me about becoming a photographer.

Using Toys To Satisfy My Client's Seemingly Impossible Request

When a client came to me and asked if I could do a composite that featured a dragon, my first response was, "Of course, no problem. This is going to be so much fun!" Immediately following the conversation, reality set in and the haunting feeling that I had bitten off more than I could chew began to overwhelm me. After a momentary panic episode, I promptly began racking my brain on how I was going to pull off this impossible feat. Luckily in the end, creativity prevailed!

How to Control Your Portrait Backgrounds With a 70-200mm Telephoto Lens

No matter if you photograph headshots, weddings, portraits, or sports, one of the most important skills you can have as a photographer is picking out interesting yet non-distracting backgrounds. Many photographers prefer shooting with fast prime lenses but in today's short photography tutorial, I'm going to show you why I prefer the power and versatility of a telephoto lens.

First Transgender Woman Cast in Victoria Secret Catalog

Victoria's Secret has cast Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio, an openly transgender woman, for a catalog photo shoot. This announcement marks the first time Victoria's Secret has cast a transgender person for a catalog or brand campaign. Does this mean the lack of diversity and inclusion in the advertising industry is finally changing?

The New Superhero That Could: The Pentax K-3 II, How Nikon and Canon Are Lagging Behind, and Why It Doesn't Matter

Do you want your sensor to shift in-body to create a higher-resolution image? Want 4.5-stop image stabilization built into the body so we can benefit from its use with any lens? Want to be able to decide for every shot exactly what level of anti-aliasing you want in order to balance moiré and sharpness? It’s all possible with the new 24-megapixel, APS-C Pentax K-3 II. And, it'll likely be possible in their rumored full-frame camera. Pentax is great, but why aren’t we seeing the “bigger” brands pony up with groundbreaking features?

How to Add a 3D Feel to Your Landscape Photos

Often, we think a landscape has to be photographed with a wide angle lens and a large depth of field. Some think it is even better to use extreme wide angles and always in combination with a maximum depth of field. But have you ever thought of photographing a landscape with a minimum depth of field?

Famed Music Producer Responds to Photography Community Backlash

A few days ago I covered a story here on Fstoppers about an online altercation between a massively popular music producer, Diplo, and a Canadian based photography collective under the name of Visualbass. Diplo has recently stepped forward and has made a statement on Fstoppers about the incident.

Nikon Announces the Nikon D810

Another famous late-night announcement brings us news of the long-awaited successor to the camera that brought medium-format resolutions to the masses. With its all-glorious 36 megapixels, improved low-light performance, and a new processing engine, the Nikon D810 is finally here... Update: Pre-orders are open at B&H.