Critique the Community: Submit Your Best Food Images Now

To celebrate the holidays and all the delicious meals that are being prepared around the world, we invite you to share your best looking food images for our next episode of "Critique the Community." We will be critiquing the pictures from a commercial standpoint so submit the pictures that you think sells the food itself. Please get in your submissions by the end of Wednesday, December 2, and you'll have the chance to have your image critiqued by the Fstoppers team. For this episode, we will be giving feedback to 20 pictures. To qualify, you must follow the submission rules below.

How I Shot Chriselle Lim for the Cover of Female Malaysia

A couple of months ago I was given the opportunity to photograph Korean-American stylist, lifestyle blogger, and digital influencer, Chriselle Lim for the cover of Female Malaysia magazine. It’s always exciting to be able to shoot a cover for a magazine, especially one that is the leading fashion and beauty magazine in Malaysia, and I particularly love photographing strong, successful women. Gotta be around these role models!

Pergear Launches Their 256 GB CFexpress Type A Card: Does Budget and Type A Make Sense?

For Sony shooters, most modern bodies offer a choice: inexpensive SD cards or the pricier Type A cards that offer far higher performance. Pergear’s latest Type A card is designed to offer much of the performance of the Type A form factor, but at a more budget-friendly price per GB. In this review, I’ll test out the 256 GB model to see if it really delivers on the value promised.

Friday Night Flash: How I Had Fun in New York City

Let’s face it: photography can be an isolated activity, and it's a part of my photography career that I don’t much care for. I don’t live in a major metropolitan area, so my regular interaction with other photographers is limited to when I’m shooting on assignments. While this is usually enjoyable, it isn’t the same as just hanging out and shooting.

iFootage Introduces New Tripods and Stabilizer

iFootage was one of the photography and video gear companies that attended IBC 2018 in Amsterdam, and they announced a new tripod range, a new fluid head, and a new stabilizer.

Peter Hurley: The Art Behind The Headshot DVD Pre-Order Begins Now

A few months ago Patrick and I flew up to NYC and filmed our first ever full length DVD (dual DVD actually) with Peter Hurley. The DVD is still being edited but we can finally see an end in sight. Initially we didn't plan on having a pre-order but when Peter Hurley decided to start teaching workshops, we decided to create a special pre-order deal. When the dual DVD is released, it will cost $300. If you purchase it before October 1st, 2011, we will give you a $300 credit towards any of Peter's workshops (and this can be used at any time) so you are actually getting the DVD for free. Peter is also going to personally sign all of the pre-ordered DVDs. Patrick and I are working as fast as we can to edit this DVD while managing Fstoppers.com and also shooting a wedding every weekend. Things are busy but we hope to have this DVD released sometime this summer. Head over to Hurley's website to sign up for "The Headshot Intensive," his new 2 day workshop. There are currently 4 slots left for his first workshop on May 21-22.
Ian Ruhter Shoots Inspiring People With an Enormous Wet Plate Setup

We've featured Ian Ruhter before: his Silver and Light series was an incredible display of talent, ingenuity and originality. I'm glad to say that he's back at it again, this time criss-crossing the country, telling the stories of inspiring people with his portable darkroom setup. Watch as Ian shoots Madison, a young girl who overcame some serious setbacks, and creates a series of incredible portraits using his custom made (very large format) camera which is built into the back of a box van.

Are You Truly 'All In'?

When you feel as if you're working hard and growth is stagnating, it might be worth asking yourself whether you're truly giving it your all, or just going through the motions.

The Future of In-person Photography Education

Photography education is a constantly fluctuating space, ever evolving from one approach to the next in an effort to differentiate from the pack. The Photo Creators Conference is the next evolution in the chain.

How to Write Treatment For a Music Video Pitch

With no audio to worry about, and just around four minutes to fill, music video production is one of the most accessible ways for cinematographers and videographers to broaden their creative horizons and be paid. To secure music video work, your prospective client will expect a summary of your idea first, which is known as a “treatment.” This is a guide to what you should include, and how to make your treatments stand out for the crowd.

The Manhattan Project – A Timelapse View Of The Different Areas Of Manhattan

Photographer/videographer, Cameron Michael, spent roughly 5 months making this timelapse view of Manhattan. It spans across the entire area and shows the stark contrast that makes the city so appealing. After months of time, the struggles of getting location access, and the manual labor of lugging around 130 pounds of equipment around the city, Cameron finally released this great video as an ode to the city and all its beauty.

Building a Magical Empire: Fstoppers Interviews Bella Kotak

Bella Kotak is an international fine art, fashion, and portrait photographer whose magical aesthetic has gained her fans all across the globe and garnered her features in industry magazines like Rangefinder and PhotoPlus, but her photography career didn’t start in the happiest place.

Chris Jordan Films Birds Filled With Plastic

I know many photographers ask themselves, "How can I use my artistic talent to give back to my community in some profound way?" Bringing awareness to a great social or ethical cause can be difficult when our culture is so bombarded with crazy images everyday. Photographer Chris Jordan, author of In Katrina's Wake, recently discovered baby albatross birds who were dying in a very unusual way. Birds inhabiting Midway Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean have been found dead in huge numbers. The cause of death appears to be from parent birds mistakenly eating plastic garbage found floating in the ocean and washing up on shore. These images are quite gruesome, and it is almost hard to believe they are real. Through this Midway Project, Chris hopes to bring awareness to the ecological problems not often seen at these remote locations. Head over to the Midway Journey's website for more videos about this cause as well as more photography.
Eric Curry Light Paints A Massive B-25 Bomber

Eric Curry is a photographer who specializes in painting with light. Unlike using strobes to exposure your photos, painting with light requires you to use long exposures and constant light sources to effectively "paint" over your subject and capture it on your sensor. The newest image in Eric's American Pride and Passion series is one of the most complex light painting images I've ever seen and the behind the scenes video shows just how much work goes into such a big project. Click the full post to see the final image and be sure to click on Eric's website to see many more examples of his layered light painting photographs.
Why You Should Sketch Your Images When Planning a Photoshoot

Whenever you are preparing for a shoot, sketching your images should be a part of your pre-planning process. The sketches don’t have to be the perfect storyboard. But it should have enough details to guide a creative vision.

[Pics] MyModernMet's Best of Sleeveface 2011

MyModernMet's Pinar: "Three years ago, we brought you the phenomenon known as Sleeveface, which involves taking the sleeve of a vinyl record and extending the image outside of its confined frame through photography. Since then the project has grown, inspiring others to create their own image... See MyModernMet's 21 Sleeveface photo picks for 2011 in the full post.
Fundy Designer Announces v7 of Its Professional Sales Suite

If you have ever tried to create an album from an event that you have photographed, you know the difficulties that can come along with the creation process. If you have experience using Adobe InDesign, you are off to a good start and most definitely have full control of your album. However, InDesign is a complex program that takes time to learn and even more time to become timely and proficient with. A ways back while listening to a podcast I heard about Fundy Designer. Fundy is an all-in-one design suite that can be used to design, sell, proof, and print with ease. The application goes beyond album design and covers many aspects of your photo business, helping you focus on providing your clients with beautiful, timeless prints, along with a variety of other options to help your brand grow.

Is This the Worst Camera Ever Made? Fstoppers Reviews the Kenko Tokina DSC Toy Camera Pieni II

If you follow my TikTok or my YouTube shorts, you’ll know I have a thing for toy cameras. Over the years, I’ve picked up quite a few cool and quirky film cameras that I love to shoot with. When I saw earlier this year that Kenko had released a tiny toy digital camera, I had to try it. Before using it, I wondered if it could create unique images. After seeing the results, I'm left wondering: is this the worst camera ever made?

[Gear] Canon EOS-C300 Cinema Camera Available for Pre-Order

The new, much-awaited, and potentially game-changing cinema camera from Canon, the EOS-C300, is now available for pre-order at B&H in either the Canon EF mount or the PL mount. Additionally, in the full post, check out a great BTS video with Vincent Laforet on his new short, Mobius, shot on the C300.
Super Telephoto Video With RED's New Canon Lens Mount

There is no doubt that the RED's Epic video camera produces some of the most crisp and surreal footage you are likely to see at a reasonably "budget" price point. Up until now, the only lenses you could use with the Epic had to have the PL lens mount found on cine lenses. Recently, photographer turned videographer Vincent Laforet was able to demo the new Canon lens adapter which allows the RED cameras to use most of the EOS mountable lenses. In the video below, Vincent shows what the RED/Canon combo can do out in the field. One particularly interesting combo is the Canon 600mm f/4 L lens mounted with the 2x Canon Teleconverter. Some estimates give this combo a 35mm equivalent of 3400mm with the crop factor but I think it's actually a bit less than that (the RED should have around a 1.2x crop factor depending on the file output). Either way, the footage is pretty amazing and super exciting if you dream of using RED gear down the road with your existing Canon lenses. Any idea how he shot the video in low light? Looks like the lens would be at least at f8 which is almost unusable in anything but bright light.

One Degree from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

Did These Guys Just Rip Off The iPhone Fashion Shoot?

Now I am not going to jump to any conclusions. Maybe these guys and gals had a VERY similar idea, and not one of them had seen the iPhone Fashion Shoot (which has been seen by about a million photographers so far). And even though this video is filmed in the exact same way and has all of the exact same information, MAYBE it is just a coincidence. And MAYBE this really is the worlds first and I am actually living in the Matrix. Still a good video though :) < The strangest part about this whole thing is that we actually used a super-clamp to mount the camera in my video but we changed it and went with the velcro because it was blocking the button on the phone and it was never actually shown in the video. It's like these guys were spying on me as I was doing it!
Fstoppers Photographer of the Month (November 2018): Alexander Khokhlov

The Fstoppers community is brimming with creative vision and talent. Every day, we comb through your work, looking for images to feature as the Photo of the Day or simply to admire your creativity and technical prowess. In 2018, we're featuring a new photographer every month, whose portfolio represents both stellar photographic achievement and a high level of involvement within the Fstoppers community.

[BTS Video] 49ers Photographer Michael Zagaris Breaks Down A Game Winning Play

A few days ago we showed you what it's like to be a Sport Illustrated Editor. The NFL Conference Championship games are about kick off in a few hours so it seems fitting to bring you San Francisco 49ers team photographer Michael Zagaris as he talks about capturing the two key plays of the '9ers Division Championship game. Enjoy!
The Best Images from GuruShots "Lit by Twilight" Challenge

Our friends over at GuruShots, "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” recently offered a challenge where particpants submitted their best images "Lit by Twilight." There were thousands of entries and 39.4 million votes throughout the contest but the top winners have been chose. See who won as well as the 100 top rated images below.