And The Three Wedding Tutorial Winners Are...

The contest for our tutorial How To Become A Commercial Wedding Photographer just came to a close an hour ago, and the final 3 winners have been randomly picked. These three lucky readers will get a pre release copy of the Digital Download as well as a free copy of our new light modifier as soon as it is released sometime this year. Read on to see the winners

[Video] Need Tips On How To Light An Interview?  Watch This Video

Well it's Christmas Eve here in the US and many of you are about to have a blast opening up some cool photography gadgets (or I hope so at least). But in the meantime, Eve Hazelton created a really thorough video on how to light an interview or one person scene easily and effectively. Eve is the director of photography for the film Underwater Realm which we've feature a ton on Fstoppers (check out their great BTS videos here). Her work is so helpful that Philip Bloom featured an interesting article on this video over on his blog. Check it out if you prefer an image breakdown of lighting instead of the video format. Hopefully you guys can start using some of these techniques in your own videos especially if you ever submit to our Behind The Scenes Contests down the road.
Mirage Boardshorts' Bullet Time Ad

FS reader Luke Avery just sent this video over to us and it's a great one. Check out all the work that goes into creating this 1 minute ad. View the full post to see the finished product. <
Sigma Announces Pricing and Availability of New DP1 Merrill

Sigma Corporation of America has announced that the Sigma DP1 Merrill compact digital camera will be available in the United States in mid-September for the retail price of $999. Check the specs, read the deets, and decide if you're going to grab this nifty little beast.

Adobe Develops Guide To Move From Aperture To Lightroom

Last month, Apple announced that they were ceasing development of the beloved Apple Aperture. While the software is still usable and available for purchase and download, it has a timeline on how long it will work, as new camera profiles will no longer be supported. Fortunately, Adobe has made the transition a little easier, with a simple transition guide.

Tune Into Canon's Announcements Today

The internet and photography circles are abuzz with anticipation for Canon's big announcement today. See you there at 08:00 ET.

Fstoppers Reviews the HEX x Misshattan Ranger DSLR Sling Bag

I’ve never been one to consider style in my bag purchases, but if that style comes at no extra cost, then, why not? That’s certainly the case with the new HEX x Misshattan Ranger DSLR Sling, a different take on the company’s regular Ranger DSLR Sling.

Sound Advice Tour Review - Probably One Of The Best Workshops I’ll Attend This Year

The Sound Advice Workshop by MZed is one of those workshops that, until you go and attend it, you don’t realize just how important it is. The Sound Advice Tour does something I don’t know that anyone else is doing – offers up a wonderful, engaging in depth way to take from beginner to advanced audio practitioner and set you up to manage all your audio needs in a way that is informative, fun and rewarding

Using Historical Reenactments to Test New Equipment

Evaluating new gear is always an exciting part of any photographer's day. Here's a great approach to testing the gear, while not potentially upsetting paying customers, yet maintaining a realistic shooting scenario.

[BTS] The Wade Brothers Film "House Of Fly 53"

This is a pretty cool time lapse of the production of the Wade Brothers shoot "House Of Fly 53". It's a pretty interesting concept that incorporates both a 10 minute video and a series of images used for print and web advertising. The incredible part of all of this was that both the video and stills were shot at exactly the same time, which saved production and talent costs.

New Year, New You: Accomplish Your Photography Goals in 2018 With Skillshare

The new year is the perfect time to look back over the past 12 months and celebrate your successes, but more importantly, to start growing from your failures. When you know your weaknesses, you can make goals for overcoming them. One of the best ways to strengthen your work is to learn skills focused specifically on your goals, which is easier than ever with Skillshare. And for a limited time, they’re offering our readers a special New Year offer of three months of Skillshare for just $0.99. Keep reading to find out how Skillshare can help you accomplish your goals this year.

Zhiyun’s Crane-M3: An All-in-One Gimbal With Unique Features

Zhiyun is no stranger to interesting camera stabilization options, with past products featuring innovative designs that put a twist on the traditional “stabilized stick” form factor of gimbals. Their latest launch, the Crane-M3, brings a number of firsts to the Crane lineup and just might reinvent how content creators approach rigging up a video setup.

BTS Of Barbie's 2012 Fashion Collection Photos

Last year we posted a behind the scenes video of the 2011 Barbie fashion shoot and it was a massive hit. This year Mattel has once again teamed up with designer Robert Best and photographer/videographer Paul Jordan to create another amazing collection. The attention to detail in the clothing, set design, and lighting is staggering. Check out the full post for the images.

Smallest Stop Motion Video Ever

Nokia chose to do something pretty cool for their newest commercial. They decided to create the smallest stop motion video and record the entire thing with their new phone. Check out the BTS below and the finished product in the full post. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTbzSiwbRfg<
Fstoppers Photographer of the Month (June 2021): Nuria San Román

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 2021, 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.

Storygami: The Evolution of Online Video?

It's been 7 years since Google spent a whopping $1.65 billion on the video sharing website YouTube. Although many questioned the potential of the popular video sharing site, Google’s decision has proven to be a good one. YouTube now hosts an impressive 450,000,000 monthly visitors. To put this into perspective, Vimeo is the 8th biggest video hosting site with just under 17 million unique visitors per month. With companies like YouTube controlling the market, it’s hard to imagine much optimism for a small startup company hoping to compete with these video giants.

Photographers From the Philippines Team up to Raise Funds for Earthquake Devastated Islands

The Batanes group of Islands sit on the northern most tip of the Philippines. The archipelagic province is 408 miles away from the country's capital of Manila and 120 miles south of Taiwan. At 04:16 AM of July 27, 2019, Batanes was hit by a 5.4 magnitude earthquake followed by another 6.4 at 07:38AM. Almost 3000 people, 900 families have been rendered homeless on top of an 8-person death toll.

Why Your Zoom Lens Is More Useful Than You Think

When it comes to telephoto lenses, most people think the main use is to take photos in situations where you can't get close to the subject, things like being stuck at the back of the chapel during a wedding ceremony. And while this reason is valid, there are more uses than just that.

Behind the scenes with the "Matrix" look

George Chatzakis is an advertising and fashion photographer based out of Greece. For the last Porcelana ad campaign, George used a bunch of small point and shoot cameras to get that "matrix" style effect where multiple camera angles are capturing in the exact same moment in time. It's a really cool, and expensive, trick you have probably seen on MTV or on the big screen. The little bit of talking in this video is in another language but I think there is still a lot to be taken from watching this short video. Hope all our American readers are having a good holiday weekend!

Porcelana - Making Of from Real Creations on Vimeo.

AI-Powered Retouching With Portrait Pro 19

Retouching can take a long time, especially cleaning up skin. But Anthropics aims to fix that with their new version of Portrait Pro, with AI-powered skin retouching. Does it live up to the hype? Let's find out.

Fstoppers Photographer of the Month (October 2022): Sebastian Malinowski

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 2022, 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.

The Black and White Advantage

There’s nothing quite like the solitude of my darkroom at dawn, the hum of my enlarger in the background, and the image slowly appearing on paper in my hands. For me, photography is more than capturing a moment—it’s a meditative journey into light, shadow, and form.

Lakai Blows Up Skateboarders To Sell Shoes

You may remember a post that we did months back of Lakai shooting a video with skateboarder jumping over huge flames... Well I believe this video is actually older but I like it more. This time the shoe company used explosives to ramp up the excitment and I love it! Usually we post the BTS on the front page but the finished product is so cool I'd rather you watch it first; then you can hit the full post to see all of the "mistakes" that actually made it into the finished product.
Kandao Uses AI to Bring Super-Smooth Extreme Slow Motion to Video

Kandao, makers of the Obsidian and QooCam line of 360 and VR cameras, has just released software that enables video shooters to take normal video and slow it down by up to 10X while looking still looking smooth. The catch is that the software only works with Kandao cameras — for now.

Dave Hill Takes You INSIDE His Photographs 3D Style

We have featured a lot of Dave Hill's unbelievable photoshoots here on Fstoppers. So when I saw his Adventure Series posted over at Strobist I thought it was an older video. Oh how I was wrong....way wrong! In his latest video, Dave Hill places his composite images into an After Effects type environment and lets you see every layer and all it's photoshopped glory. The video outlines all 11 images so it's a bit long but you will probably still find yourself watching all of them in wonder. This video was also a great reminder that Dave is to work making behind the scenes videos so you will probably see a lot more of him in the near future. What do you guys think? What is your favorite image from this series?
6 Tips for Dealing With Unhappy Clients

If you are a photographer, I can guarantee you that somewhere along the line, you will have a client who is unhappy with your work. In fact, I’m sorry to say that there will be more than one, especially if you have a thriving business. When the dreaded “I’m not happy with my photos” email arrives, it can easily suck the joy out of your entire day. But not all is lost, and in this article and accompanying video, I present six tips for dealing with unhappy clients.

Vermont Student’s Yearbook Photo Rejected Over Firearm, Raising Legal Questions

The rejection of a Mill River High School student’s yearbook photo featuring a firearm has ignited debate over free speech and school safety policies. The controversy has drawn national attention, prompting discussions at school board meetings and online. Advocacy groups and legal experts have weighed in on the issue, raising questions about editorial control and students' rights.