How to Become a Commercial Photographer

Have you ever walked by a beauty image on the shelf at ULTA or scrolled by a brilliant shot on Instagram and thought: “I want to make images like that”? Or perhaps you are a photographer who saw a picture and thought: “I could have shot that better!” You have the skills, but you don’t know how to break into the commercial market. In this article, I’ll share about how to break into the market and disclose tips and tricks to succeed in the commercial photography space.

[Video] How To Take A Photograph On A 4x5 Camera

10 years ago shooting on a 4x5 camera was pretty common among professional photographers. Today, many young photographers not only haven't seen a 4x5 camera but they have probably have never even heard of one. In this video Simon Roberts takes us through the steps of using the camera, editing the images, and the printing the final file. How do you guys feel about shooting on film and then processing the images digitally? Does that defeat the whole purpose?
Don't Make a New Year's Resolution...

New Year's resolutions have a bad rap — it starts with a well-meaning desire to lose a few pounds in weight, drink less, or quit smoking. Sure enough, a couple of weeks later those "promises to self" lie in tatters and you discard any further well-meaning thoughts. So don't think about making one, instead, go the whole hog and make three!

[Contest] Black Rapid Facebook Group Contest Results

As expected, this was an awesome contest. As we have tried to prove time and again (starting with the original iPhone Fashion Shoot), it's not about the camera. With our Black Rapid contest, we wanted you to help us prove that point, and prove it you did. Of all the stunning entries, I had to narrow it down to my top six (seen in full post), and finally my overall favorite. To be honest, there has been one entry that struck me from the moment I saw it. And that was... [read full post]
Giving Back with the Ronald McDonald House

If you've never heard of the Ronald McDonald House, it's not a house full of fast food novelties. AJ Parker takes us behind the scenes with a video showing how this string of houses helps families going through tough medical circumstances.

South Carolina State Representative Sues Instagram After Son's Suicide

A legislator from South Carolina is taking legal action against Instagram following the tragic suicide of his son. Roughly two weeks post the memorial service of his eldest child, State Representative Brandon Guffey was confronted with a private message on Instagram containing a mockery emoji.

Catching Up With Concert Photographer David Bergman

This time last year Lee and I were profiling concert photographer David Bergman as he was shooting a series of Bon Jovi concerts in their New Jersey hometown. A lot has happened since then with David, and he is now currently traveling the world and seeing some pretty amazing venues. Mark Wallace recently caught up with the rockstar photographer and asked him some specific questions about both his photography and his concert website TourPhotographer.com. If you follow David on facebook, be prepared to be blown away and extremely jealous of his news feed - he's always up to something interesting.
A to Z of Photography: Family of Man (Part 2)

The Family of Man is the second of our two monumental Fs in the A to Z of Photography. Can it usurp the 77,000 strong workforce and $22 billion turnover of Fujifilm in the last post? Surely there is nothing more all encompassing than humankind.

The iPhone 4 Fashion Shoot?

Cris Matthews just sent this video over to me. He did a few tests with the iPhone 4 and a ring light. He also used his iPad to review and edit the images. I have gota say, if I can easily and instantly view my shots on an iPad like they seem to be doing I will buy one tomorrow.

VideoJunkie.co.uk - iPhone Fashion Shoot from Cris Matthews on Vimeo.

Dissecting How Social Media Algorithms Diminish Our Creativity as Photographers

Social media has undeniably dominated a major part of our lifestyle and played an even more irreplaceable role for us to express our opinions on the net. This social media domination has somewhat become both a blessing and a curse for photographers where most of their work is held hostage under the power of the scrolling algorithm. While some photographers may have taken the opportunity to market and broadcast their work to the world, it is still pretty challenging to maintain the utmost creativity and artistic integrity under the influence of the constantly evolving algorithm.

Why I Needed to Pimp My Gear Cart: LaVa Cart Moti Review

Being mostly a studio photographer, I work as much with my camera as I do with the camera trolley. I have an excellent camera, but my trolley was always lacking a bunch of pro features. While investing in a new cart was never an option, upgrading my current one seemed like the way forward. I looked into the LaVa cart system to see if it was able to pimp my cart.

The Power of Social Media: National Gallery Allows Mobile and Amateur Photos of Art

After years of seeing "Please, No Photos of the Art" signs in every museum across the country over the years, you might find it interesting to hear that the bans have finally started disapearing, and even photo-taking promoted for the sake of social media advertising. The National Gallery has finally opened the floor to promoting photos by mobile and amateur photographers and encourage the idea to take photos of the art and post those images to social media platforms. This is a pretty big deal considering the stance on the issue for so long was very anti-photographs.

Photoshelter & Agency Access Webinar: Ad Agencies’ Selection & Hiring Processes

On Tuesday June 4th, starting at 4pm ET, Photoshelter and Agency Access are teaming up to bring a behind-the-scenes look at what ad agencies are looking for from photographers. The webinar will feature former art producer and Agency Access creative consultant Kristina Hicks, who will discuss tips for getting noticed, how to craft email promos, details on direct mail pieces and creating leave behinds

The Life And Career Of Photographer Albert Watson

RETV, a new video based website started by Resource Magazine recently filmed a quick interview with Albert Watson. During the interview Watson talks about his humble beginnings and walks us through a few of his famous shoots. Watson claims that many photographers get into the field simply because they enjoy the technical aspects of the gear. He also says that these are the same people the continue to ask him the same "stupid question" when he shows his work; "What camera was this shot on?"
All the Winners of Last Week's Fstoppers Workshops Contests

Last week we had a ton of contests for our first ever Fstoppers Workshops in the Bahamas. Each of the 10 instructors gave away free classes to their workshops through a ton of different platforms. Every winner is listed in this full post. If you missed out, don't worry. LensRentals and four of the instructors are currently giving away an ALL PAID EXPENSE TRIP to our workshop in the Bahamas and it ends in less than 12 hours. Less than 14 entries have been made so your chances of winning are extremely high!

Weekly Contest: Win a Canon Rebel T5i, 18-55mm Lens & 32GB EyeFi Mobi!

Fstoppers has partnered with the awesome folks at ViewBug to bring you sweet, sweet contests weekly! This week we want you to win a Canon Rebel T5i, 18-55mm Lens and 32GB EyeFi Mobi as well as 3 months free Eyefi Cloud membership and the opportunity to be featured in an Eyefi advertising campaign or on their website! This is easily one of the best prizes we have been able to offer, so don't miss out!

Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe: Locations

Once you find a great location, do you share it or keep it secret? If you keep it secret, why? Are you doing it to protect a fragile location or to protect your investment in searching it out? Do you have other reasons?

Fstoppers Photographer of the Month (March 2024): Sandeep Mathur

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 2023, 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.

Nikon 1 V2 Announced and Available for Pre-Order!

Just after my 1 V1 review this week, Nikon has their replacement 1 V2 ready for pre-order after an announcement last night. The V2 builds even further on what was already a fantastic, solidly built camera.

Know Your Canon HDSLRs?  Win A Copy of Adobe CS5!

One of the first early adapters of DSLR video for professional use was Shane Hurlbut of Terminator Salvation, The Guardian, The Last 3 Minutes fame. A few days ago he released a really well shot commercial for the US Marines and decided to make a short contest out of it. The video has over 27 frames shot on various Canon 5D, 7D, and 1D cameras as they do every cinemagraphic move possible. I'm thinking we might get a BTS video of the filming of this commercial after the contest is done but in the meantime Shane is going to give away a free copy of Adobe's CS5 Production Premium Suite to whoever correctly guesses what camera shot what footage. You can head over to the contest page for more details and the entries will be accepted until the end of Jan 26th, 2011.
Freshen Up Your Adobe InDesign Skills

Today and tomorrow only, creativeLIVE will be hosting Adobe certified expert, Erica Gamet as she teaches everything you need to know about Adobe InDesign. This class takes you from the basics, getting familiar with the Adobe workspace, color basics, and working with pages and layers, to advanced type, graphics and table manipulation and working with long documents! This class is designed for those with a firm knowledge of page layout, such as those migrating from QuarkXPress, PageMaker, or Word, and those who want to get past the basics of InDesign.

Marketing 101: How to Get Your Next Job With a Strong Email Campaign

Email marketing is one of the most commonly used tools when trying to land a new job. However, knowing what to write, who to write to, and how to follow up can make or break your campaign. In this article, we will take a look at some dos and don'ts of email marketing.

B&H Shares the Story Behind Stacy Pearsall's Portraits of US Veterans

Every once in a while I come across a photographer or project that blows me away in terms of content, just in time for Independence Day weekend, B&H released this video of Stacy Pearsall, US Airforce Veteran and combat photojournalist, telling the story behind one of her latest and largest project, photographing veterans. Take a look.

Official Share Woman’s Intimate Images but Receive No Consequences

In 2019, Haley Olson’s private images were exposed when officials in Grant County, Oregon, accessed her cell phone data without a warrant. Olson, who operated a legal marijuana dispensary in Oregon, became the center of a controversy after her intimate images stored on her phone were shared among local law enforcement personnel.