Fstoppers Original Articles

Quite often when Facebook rolls out new changes people start raising their pitchforks and torches. This time however Facebook got it right and I have a feeling it is going to be nothing but high praise. They are rolling out new fan page analytics (insights) that are quite impressive and definitely worth checking out. While many of you might not have received it just yet, I have a sneak peek and I have a feeling you will love what you'll see.

I have had the privilege of traveling all over the world as a photographer and love shooting photos of locals. They always light up seeing the images of themselves. However, I realized that while they loved seeing the images on the back of my camera, I was missing something important. Many of these people, especially those in third world countries, don't even have a single printed image of themselves. I found a way to change all that.

Since the dawn of digital cameras, the megapixel has been the one stat that camera manufacturers and uneducated consumers identified with quality. Sure, back in 2003, the difference between 1.3MP and 3MP was astounding, but in recent years, its became much more arbitrary. With phones like the Nokia Lumia 1020 sporting a 40+MP sensor, is the war back upon us? If so, how can we kill it?

Last week we saw a few news worthy announcements from a couple of the larger photography portals. Livebooks went dark from their clients until the announcement was made that they are now under Wedding Wire and PhotoShelter released their new Beam portfolio service. It seemed fitting that a post be put together to compare and contrast a handful of the larger services and find out which are best suited for photographers needs.

Whenever I take a moment and look at landscape photography it's like a tiny escape. An escape from the busy commotion of the cities that we live in and the chaos of the people in those cities. Most landscape photography is calm and serene with a beautiful array of colors acting as a canvas. Photographer, Benjamin Edelstein known for his stunning work sits down with us to talk about what it is to be a landscape photographer.

If you're like me, and you upgraded your camera body and Lightroom version before updating your RAM and Processor, you've probably experienced speed issues with your workflow. Lightroom 5 has come to the rescue with the amazing addition of Smart Previews. This is going to revolutionize your workflow!

Photographers are artists. That is one fact that the original photographers spent years convincing others to be truth. But how often do we consider the models to be artists? I would wager rarely, if ever. Model Jen Brook challenges that mentality by acting as the creative director on a group of images she calls her “Dreamcatcher Project.” She works with a group of photographers to capture her vision, and the results show that she has the “eye” as well as the unusual ability to create through others.

A single photograph from a photography session barely shows you all the planning and execution that goes into a photoshoot. Dozens of ideas, shooting styles and concepts often come into play in the pre production, not to mention the hours that can be spent in post production as well. As a result, I decided to give you all a breakdown of my recent photoshoot with good friend and model, Harmony.

Not since Matthew Brady’s work documenting the Civil War has the tintype photographic process been used on the battlefield. Staff sergeant Ed Drew, an aerial gunner in the California Air National Guard, brought tintype back to the theater of war to photograph his fellow soldiers during his deployment from April to June in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

Camp 4 Collective is an adventure film production group with clients like RedBull, The North Face, and National Geographic, so they are often found at the edge of the world, camera equipment in tow. Recently, some of the Camp 4 team traveled to Alaska to shoot some aerial footage. In this video, Anson Fogel explains the Cineflex helicopter camera system, and in the full post he and Tim Kemple answer my questions about its controls, production costs, and what it's like to play in helicopters.

Editing takes time, quite often it takes a lot of time and many of the steps can be quite repetitive and boring. The best thing I've ever done for myself to speed up this process is memorizing keyboard shortcuts, so I've put together this list of five resources (in no particular order) that I've found to practice familiarity with these shortcuts and become more comfortable with the programs themselves. In order to cater to the largest audience I will be focusing on Adobe-tailored tools, however some may crossover into other programs.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could open your inbox and not have to worry about sorting through all the spam to get to the messages that you actually want to read? About 6 months ago I learned of a tool that has been helping me do just that. The tool allows me to unsubscribe from emails with one click and combine all the other commercial emails (the ones I actually want to read) into one easy to read digest without all the clutter in my inbox. A true game changer for my email.

It's easy to overlook just how powerful the RAW processing engine can be. It's also pretty easy just throw an image into Photoshop and deal with it there, but RAW is where all the information is - and a dynamic RAW file is the most important aspect of developing your image. You will never have more information to work with than what is in your RAW, so it is important to draw every bit of tone out of it that you can - especially when it comes to maximizing the tonal range in the shadows and the highlights.

Combining her love for landscapes and risk taking, photographer Jody Macdonald is able to capture some of the worlds most gorgeous landscapes, from 20,000ft in the air. By paragliding, Jody photographs some of the worlds most beautiful places, with a perspective previously unseen, and the results are stunning.

On the Fourth of July, legions of photography enthusiasts like you will head out with their tripods to make images of firework displays. To minimize your failures on location, here is a quick primer to insure that you are in the ballpark to make successful images when the explosions begin.

There are many different surfaces that you can shoot your food photography on. You can use a table in your kitchen, a table in a restaurant, the floor, or any other flat surface that you can find. When selecting a surface, the colors, patterns, and textures of the surface will have a great effect on the look and feel of your final image. With the background playing such an important role in your image, there should be some thought put into what you shoot on. The best way to control this is to make your own backgrounds! Let me show you why wooden planks are my favorite surface to shoot on.

In this interview, I speak with Russ Turner, a photographer who is relatively new to shooting fantasy portraiture, but has already received awards and praise for the quality of his work. Russ talks about working with costumed models, how he incorporates Photoshop, and shares some of the places where an aspiring shooter can get started doing photography in this genre.

Merek Davis today announced the release of the image enhancing Mextures app for iPhone. Over the last year iPhone photographers have downloaded Mextures textures more than 200,000 times directly from Merek Davis’ store and tagged 140,000 images on Instagram; now they have an iPhone app to more easily create and share visually stunning images. I have got to say that after buying and playing with the app this morning, this is one that you don't want to miss out on.

After dating for more then 2 years and having some of the best years of my life the time came to propose to my girlfriend. I knew I wanted something intimate, original / unique and true to who we are. I had the idea to use a vintage camera and tripod as part of the proposal. Then the experimenting began to find the best way to incorporate this.

As a creative professional, your marketing tools can be one of the most important aspects of your business. Facebook has always been a great place for your social marketing strategies, but what happens when that is stolen from you? It happened just recently with the creators of The Underwater Realm. This is their story.

Finding a great retoucher (if you use one) can be a pretty daunting task. Most photographers end up doing their own - picking up techniques and tricks along the way. Ashlee Gray is a beauty and fashion photographer and [primarily a] retoucher based in New York whose clients include Tresemme, Starbucks, Rebecca Minkoff and Gatorade. As a photographer, her images are beautiful, feminine and even delicate. It's that same underlying aesthetic that she applies to her retouching- yet still managing to retain the unique style of the individual photographers she works with.

"Coty Tarr is an active lifestyle photographer based in New York City," so says the not quite so lengthy bio on his website. On initial thought, one might think the concise personal description is a little off-putting, but to anyone that has ever met Coty, it is nothing if not an apt discriptor. In a world where many photographers feel the need for shameless overpromotion (not that there's anything wrong with that), Coty takes a more subtle approach, working tirelessly and letting the caliber of his images and his work ethic speak for him.

Summer is upon us, which means fireworks. Previously, we have discussed using alternative methods to get smoke-like effects in your photographs. But using flour can make for a messy clean-up and smoke machines require electricity. Smoke balls, however, are cheap, come in a variety of colors and require nothing more than a lighter.

What is the best lens? If you shoot wildlife, a long zoom lens will bring you close to the action but allow you to keep your distance so as not to startle your subject. If you shoot architecture, a tilt shift lens will allow you to make sure all the lines of your room or building are straight. Shooting weddings? You will most likely need a lens that can zoom for a variety of wide and close shots. When photographing food there is only one way to get those close up mouthwatering shots that your clients desire! Allow me to show you how a lens with macro capabilities will change how you shoot food!

Food styling can take place in the production kitchen and in front of the camera. How do you know when and where to style your food? The answer will depend on what food you are shooting. For food with long shelf lives, like cupcakes, the dish will generally be camera ready when it leaves the kitchen. If the dish involves a sauce and a variety of garnishes, the styling will occur both in the kitchen and in front of the camera. Here is a behind the scenes look at a dish that involves styling in both locations: The Meatball Sandwich.

Whether I’m going out for a short hike, a weekend camping trip, shooting the zombie apocalypse, or assisting someone for their personal project, there are many times when I’ve needed to be light and fast in my video rig setup. Besides going with a single camera and lens, the accessories I choose enable me to be versatile and get better clips in the end. Here’s my top 8 list of items that keep me on the move while I’m shooting video.

If you are a professional, or an aspiring professional photographer, you rely on your photographic work to bring you financial rewards. Self satisfaction alone, won’t pay rent, put gas in your car, or food on the table. If you want to earn money from your pictures, then you will have to find someone to pay you for them. Here are a few strategies that you can implement to start selling your food photography!

Over the years, I have taught numerous workshops for photographers and during those classes one of the most appreciated techniques that we discuss is shooting proper white balance using Kelvin temperatures. If it is something new to you, it might at first seem a bit overwhelming but I guarantee it is actually quite simple to learn. Read on to learn just how easy it is and the benefits of shooting in Kelvin versus Auto White Balance.

Have you ever been assigned to take pictures of a chef's creations in a restaurant? Photographing food on location at a restaurant is a very common assignment for a food photographer. I have an editorial client that sends me to 4 or 5 restaurants every month to take pictures of the dishes. Through these assignments, I have discovered that most restaurants are not designed with the photography in mind.

When you hear the words cinnamon rolls, what comes to mind? Is it a roll hot out of the oven with a rich creamy icing oozing over the sides? Or do you picture a Saturday morning breakfast with a dish of rolls that have been covered in a rich thick cream cheese frosting? Neither vision of a cinnamon roll is right nor wrong. The key in turning these cinnamon roll visions into reality is the styling.

A captivating photograph often tells a story. That story is – more often than not –the story of the one taking the picture. Sometimes the story is obvious, and sometimes not so much. It’s in that delayed gratification that we are able to explore the nuances –when we have to reach into the subtleties for meaning behind a photo. Lara Jade is a classic example of this and her images are a vivid interpretation of her life.

When we announced the new 18-35mm f/1.8 lens from Sigma, the excited and joy-filled response from you all was nearly instantaneous (which was rather impressive since it was confirmed at just past 1 in the morning eastern time). I too was particularly excited because of what this lens means to the industry and the future of lens design. I want to share with you my first impressions of the lens, which arrived in my studio just a few minutes ago.