Fstoppers Original Articles

A recent trip to Disneyland had me stressing about the photos I’d capture. The experience taught me that leaving my professional cameras at home is possibly the only way I can truly enjoy myself.

For many photographers, taking portraits of celebrities, athletes, and government officials seems like the pinnacle of a successful business. Sometimes, however, those jobs require an insane amount of work, risk, and safety precautions to pull off the shot. In today's Story Time With Monte Isom, we look at how Gregory Heisler captured Time's Man of the Year cover with NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani.

I love my Mavic. Having flown with drones for a couple of years I have to admit that little machine made photography even more fun. It also improved my photography, my vision, my ability to pre-visualize scenes and it increased the production value of my videos tremendously.

The repeated process of exporting images from Lightroom is something you most likely have done many times over. With that being said, if you have not already, save yourself some steps, and set up quick and easy presets.

Sunrise and sunset are often beautiful times for photography and we go out of our way to make shoots happen at those times. Once we get there, however, how is it that we best make use of that light?

If you think this is a sci-fi horror thriller film with Transformers-style VFX you'll be disappointed. In fact, the action takes place in the 50s as a young man turns unfortunate obstacles into a romantic outcome.

Photographers and videographers both tread water in a crowded pool of competition, and often we feel in danger of drowning in that pool. In this week’s and next week’s articles, I will present the most common reasons we lose out on work we otherwise might have won.

I bet that I'm not the only photographer to at least think about the idea of diving into wildlife photography while standing in the middle of wilderness. It couldn't be that much different, could it?

To grow as a photographer you have to get out there and challenge yourself. Consider joining in on the weeklyFstop as a great way to try new things and enhance your photography skills.

Taking inspiration from cinema can lead to evocative images that also strike a nostalgic chord with movie lovers. Take full advantage of that power to create cinematic photographs that will charm viewers.

Do you always resort to the same poses time and time again during your couples shoots? Need new poses for your arsenal? Check out these five ideas for your next couples session.

Our video camera of choice is currently the Panasonic GH5 but we also occasionally shoot with our Nikon D850, and our iPhones. We happen to have gimbals for each of these cameras and so today, we compared them.

Sometimes you might not have time to take every photo you’re editing into Photoshop but you still need to make significant changes to make an image look great. This tip can make your photos stand out without spending a lot of extra time in your editing suite.

Silhouettes have been a source of artistic inspiration for as long as there has been art. But why is that? And have you recently exploited this genre in your photography?

Sometimes, there isn’t a whole lot to a photo: nothing’s moving, or it’s a scene without a strong subject. How do you — the photographer — make it interesting? Here are two tips to make that uninteresting photo just a bit more lively.

When it comes to video editing software many of us may swear by one of the two popular options available from Adobe and Apple. Although they are great, they can be quite convoluted in some sense and the learning curve is extremely steep. Movavi have a fantastic alternative available with their Video Editor 14 Plus software.

“What kind of camera should I get?” is probably one of the questions I get asked the most often. So, I’ve become pretty quick at coming up with recommendations, and I figured it might be nice to share how I come up with them.

The thrill of traveling to a new place and striking out to document it on our is the reason why many of us travel. But travel can include more than the rush of capturing images, it can have a payout.

Today, I conclude my two part essay about a difficult two months of negotiation over a commercial photography shoot that may not have ultimately come to fruition, but taught very valuable lessons along the way.

If anyone knows how to put together an incredible fantasy ensemble, it's creative portrait artist Laura Sheridan. Want to know where you can source amazing pieces like her for fantasy photo shoots? She's got a list for you.

As photographers, we have a responsibility not to misrepresent the history and culture of our subjects. An exchange on Instagram gave me a stark reminder of how easily this responsibility is forgotten and abused, especially in the world of urban exploration.

One of my biggest problems when using Lightroom is just how long it takes to start viewing my images. Thankfully, ON1 Photo RAW does things a bit different.

We own two Canon PIXMA Pro 100 printers at the Fstoppers office and love them. They print fantastic looking prints, are dependable, and for a limited time they are being sold for only $60.

There's so much we photographers can learn from watching what others in our industry do, whether we watch a tutorial or start an online photography course. But have you thought about improving your business by looking beyond photography industry?

Brands big and small, new and established, are heavily investing in Instagram influencers to market their products. This has opened up a relatively new market for the working videographer, and here are my top seven tips to the production of Instagram-friendly video ads.

Adding to or accentuating the color tones in an image is a very effective way of telling a story, eliciting an emotion, or strengthening the aesthetic. In this short walkthrough, I'll explain how I can speedily color grade my images.

The theme play was a perfect follow up to last week's work. Fstoppers readers delivered another diverse batch of photos worthy of some love.

Creating drama with your edits can be challenging, especially if you are short on time and don’t have the resources to sit in Photoshop all day editing a single photo. Using this technique has simplified my workflow and enabled me to make images stand out with very little effort.

If a client has ever laughed at your quote, you know it’s hurtful and embarrassing. But there are ways to respond so that you can keep the client and get a price that’s good for you.

Your work is greater than a Graham cracker sized cell phone screen and you know it. When it comes time to select which paper you print on, you've got a lot of options. Let's take a closer look at a few things to consider when making your choice and examine one example up close.

You probably use Lightroom because of the efficiency in processing batches of images, which in turn frees up more of your valuable time. But why use the software without the convenience of its many shortcuts, which save you time and make your work easier?

Want to easily create a 3D model from a set of photos? Find out how to do it in this tutorial.

Most photographers believe that larger sensor sizes produce images with shallower depth of field, but that's not exactly true.

Underwater photography has become extremely popular with the increase of mermaid models. Getting the shot for a breathtaking underwater image is not as tricky as you may think.

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 2017, 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.

We love our GH5 cameras, but they aren't the best in low light. Luckily, Panasonic recently released the GH5S, which has almost two stops better ISO performance, and with the right lens, we are finally able to shoot astrophotography.

After a lengthy and involved negotiation for a large commercial project came to an unfortunate conclusion, I wanted to share some of the lessons I learned that may help you in your future business.

When I was starting in photography, I kept hearing peers and educators talking about their photographic style. I was totally lost. I had no idea what my style was, because as desperate as I was to define it, I hadn't yet discovered it. Discovered is the wrong word. My style wasn't yet.

Photographing toys can be a lot of fun, but they don’t always look like the most realistic subjects. Here are a couple of quick and dirty ways to add an aged, eroded look to your composited playthings to up the realism of your toy photographs.

Therukoothu is an ancient folk dance art form, almost 2,000 years old, which originated in South India. Documenting Koothu has always been my dream, and there are so many aspects to it. I wanted to start with the artist, the one who carries the soul of this art.

Being a working commercial photographer requires consistent self-marketing and, according to award-winning commercial sports and portrait photographer Alexis Cuarezma — whose work can be seen on the cover of Sports Illustrated — portfolio reviews are a great way to do just that.

As photographers, we all get annoyed when our images are being used without permission, and taking legal action is, for most of us, simply not a viable option. However, that might be changing as one law firm has discovered a means of making companies pay for even the smallest infringements.

Regardless whether you are just starting out as a photographer, or you if you have decades of experience under your belt, chances are you hit a point when you wondered where this whole photography thing was headed. Am I right?

VirtualRig Studio is the only software that allows realistic motion blur simulation, and it has many advantages over Photoshop's path blur. In this article, I will walk through the software and explain how to use it.

Are you struggling to find work? Are you ready to bring your business to the next level? Are you confident in your artistic ability but lack clients? Well, I may have the answers you're looking for.

If you're failing to get hired as a photographer, then maybe your first impression and initial communication could be the things that are letting you down.

An agency I work with for product photography hired me to photograph not one, but two race cars. I had already photographed motorbikes, but cars was going to be the first time. With cars the problems are almost always bigger: the surfaces are bigger, the reflections are bigger, the areas to be illuminated are bigger. Everything is bigger.

Of the basic settings that our cameras have, potentially the easiest to get creative with is the aperture of your lens. Today, let’s take a look at five simple ways you can make creative images using your aperture.

All work and no play makes people crazy. I think there was a movie about that once. Luckily looking at these photos of people doing work requires very little effort at all and will help you ease into your weekend properly.

Some things in photography take years to master, while others take just a few seconds. Here are three tips that take less than a minute but can have a massive impact on your photo results.