Exclusive articles and expert opinions written by Fstoppers’ talented team of creative professionals. Here we cover everything from the latest photographic techniques to advice on running a successful photography business, to first hand accounts of working in the photography industry.
When it comes to lenses, photographers who hear "ultra-wide" and "fast apertures" are usually bracing for an equally impressive price tag. The Viltrox 16mm f/1.8, however, seeks to deliver excellent optical quality and unique lens features at a reasonable price—in this review, I’ll see if Viltrox can execute a truly great ultra-wide prime.
As the season of goodwill, giving, and receiving rapidly approaches, what do you buy an established photographer if you want to spend more? Here are some big presents for those photographers nearest to us, or ideas your loved ones might consider for you.
Recently, I was flown out for the first time as a photographer, and this is everything I learned from the experience, as well as what I would change for next time.
Let’s walk through the top seven mistakes (because, let’s be honest, ten is too many, and five just feels lazy). Here’s the thing: your website is your storefront. It’s how people find you, decide if they like your work, and, ideally, hire you. But if it’s buried in search results, slow to load, or difficult to navigate, you might as well be taking those gorgeous photos and tossing them into the digital void. Whether you’re wondering why your site isn’t showing up on Google or why potential clients aren’t booking after visiting, this list will help you turn things around.
The king of kit lenses is dead. Long live the Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS!
Being a professional photographer is about more than just the exposure triangle.
When editing landscape photographs, there are many ways to get from point A to point B. In this tutorial, we'll cover using Adobe Camera Raw to get the most out of your raw files.
You’ve poured your blood, sweat, and tears into your art. Now, it’s time to make sure it is preserved.
The latest M4 MacBook Pro marks another substantial upgrade in Apple’s pro laptop lineup, bringing a blend of powerful performance and practical new features. I've used it over the past week, and here are my thoughts.
Is there a difference between a photograph and a picture? In my mind, yes! A picture is a snapshot documenting a person, place, thing, or moment without intention. A photograph is created with intention, process, and technique.
Remember the smell of film rolls and the feel of manual focus?
Modern lenses are perfectly sharp and crisp. But perfection is overrated and can be rather boring. I have a solution to add some character back into my photography and videos.
Access to photography has never been greater, yet now the risk of the family archive dying out has never been more of an issue. This article explains why the digital age has put the family archive in danger, and what we, as photographers, can do about this.
Natural light is one of the most important elements in landscape photography. It shapes the landscape, creates mood, and brings depth to a scene. However, natural light is also highly unpredictable and can either enhance or ruin your shot. For landscape photographers, understanding and ultimately mastering light is crucial, but it comes with several challenges. In this article, I want to explore the complexities of working with natural light and how you can overcome these challenges to improve your landscape photography.
It’s that time again when my brain starts to ponder the endless question: What would be my idea of a perfect camera?
Have you ever struggled to get your image from the foreground to the background in focus? As photographers, especially in the genre of landscapes, the ultimate goal is to achieve sharp focus from the foreground to infinity. Have you struggled with this in the past? You can use hyperfocal distance, double the distance method, and focus stacking techniques to achieve sharp focus from foreground to infinity. While a few of these methods can be challenging, with a little knowledge, they are more accessible than one might 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 2024, 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.
It is never easy to let go, whether it’s your favorite camera, light, or shoes that are just beyond repair. I’m the worst at letting go and don’t recall the last time I sold a light, if ever. The process seemed tedious and simply unnecessary. However, letting go can be much easier. Here’s the best way to let go of old equipment.
Every couple of years, our network access storage (NAS) gets nearly full of old photoshoots and video projects. Today, I am installing our biggest system yet, and it can hold a whopping 160 TB of data. Oh, and it's also 10 GbE, which allows us to edit video projects directly off the network.
Profoto just announced their new 500 Ws studio strobe, the D30. I've been playing with it for the last few weeks, and today I am finally able to share with you a full photoshoot using this powerful light.
Sadly, the world in which we’re living has become more polarized, with hatred splitting communities and war tearing countries apart. Many people roll their eyes when the holidays approach, but perhaps we should all be happy it’s only a few weeks away and think about what would help other photographers and brighten their days.
For any videographer, getting your equipment setup just right is key to achieving smoother workflows and better-quality shots. Recently, I upgraded my gimbal setup with a few accessories that have made a significant impact on both my shooting experience and footage quality. Looking back, I wish I had invested in these upgrades much sooner.
There is a bamboozling range of different camera bags on the market, and deciding which to buy is a veritable minefield. Here are some explanations of the various bags, their purposes, and what to look for when choosing yours.
Are squares better? Come with me as we throw a fork in the photographic microwave and investigate why you shouldn't underestimate the 1:1 image format.
If you’re creating content on your iPhone, Apple’s storage pricing can make it very difficult to justify using storage-heavy workflows like ProRes. Lexar’s Go Portable SSD, however, is specially designed to be the perfect external storage pairing for iPhones and other USB-C mobile devices.
The photography world is full of questions. Many of these questions are met with few answers and even fewer absolutes. Perhaps the biggest question of all is: “Do photographers exist today?”
Modifiers like softboxes and umbrellas serve as powerful tools for photographers to shape and control light. Whether they want to emulate natural window light with a touch of soft, diffused light or create an epic environmental portrait with darker exposures and higher flash powers, these tools provide portable and powerful means for photographers to bring their vision to life. In this article, we've gathered practical tips and techniques to help you effectively use softboxes and umbrellas to elevate the quality and mood of your wedding portraits.
Film production equipment is notoriously expensive. But some of the most helpful tools can still be had for a song.
As a professional commercial photographer, my main priority has always been to capture the perfect still image whether for client delivery or personal project.
For centuries, art was created in a physical form and limited to one original copy. If an artist wanted attribution, they could sign or carve their name into the artwork. No matter where the art traveled, the attribution traveled with it. Today, much of our work is shared digitally, where watermarks or crediting do not appear alongside the art. Widespread adoption of the new Content Credentials standard may give digital artists the recognition they deserve.
Do we even need a unique voice in our photography? Is having our own style really necessary? I have a few thoughts to share about this.
Whether you are still trying to find your footing or decades deep into a creative career, sooner or later a basic question comes for us all: Should you continue down the same path, or is it time to take a turn?
Is buying a Leica akin to strutting around with the latest ridiculously priced Louis Vuitton handbag? Is it all hype and image? Is it mandatory that Leica owners place their camera on the table in a coffee shop and spend more time taking photos of it—with their phone, I assume—than actually photographing with it?
In this article, we'll explore the ingredients for a great photo and find out which are the most important.
There are many benefits that come with teaching up-and-coming photographers, as I’ve come to learn. But some of them surprised me—namely that I would learn a lot more about photography, as well as myself, in the process. Consider this a short list of those benefits, along with some insights along the way.
One of the most challenging yet rewarding aspects of landscape photography is finding the perfect location. The right location can elevate your photo from ordinary to extraordinary. However, choosing where to shoot can be a time-consuming process, filled with challenges such as overcrowded tourist spots, difficult terrain, or simply not knowing where to go. In this article, I want to explore the difficulties we face when finding the perfect location and provide strategies that have helped me overcome them.
As photographers, we intuitively understand that color profoundly impacts our images, and there’s much more to it than meets the eye. Here are ways you can elevate your images by employing the power of color.
Are you kind? That sounds like an odd question to ask in a photographic article, but it impacts your work profoundly. However, there is one circumstance where you should be mean to other photographers.
With the current advancement of imaging technology in digital photography, the significance of format has evolved dramatically to a point where it no longer matters as much compared to the early film days. However, due to physical hardware limitations, it is still essential for us as photographers to recognize that the decision on selecting the imaging format should always align with our creative intent to help achieve the desired result.
If you'd like to try some comet photography, tonight and the next few days are for you. Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) will be in our night skies just after sunset. Happily, you likely have all the gear you need on hand. No fancy tracking mounts, telescopes, or filters are required. A DSLR will do the trick. Yes, stacking and tracking are great, but I'm trying to keep it simple here so you can just go outside and bring back a good photo.
A common misconception in landscape photography is that using the lowest ISO setting always results in the highest quality images. I frequently encounter this question and concern in my YouTube comments. Therefore, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to share a video and article discussing the importance of ISO.
For the last few weeks, I have been filming with the brand new GoPro Hero 13 Black and the new DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro action cameras. To mix things up a bit, I also tested them against and Apple iPhone. Can your older "professional" model iPhone produce video that competes with these new state of the art action cameras? Let's find out.
Diving into the fascinating world of creativity within our craft can raise people’s hackles. Many commonly accepted truths about what makes a good photo are subjective and swayed by widely held opinions. Nevertheless, breaking free from the constraints of popularism can lead to creative results that stand apart from the crowd, and that's important.
In this article, I share the photo editing workflow I use for all my photos, and if you want to achieve high-quality results, this is for you.
There are two distinct approaches to photography: reactive and proactive. The type of photography you do depends on your personality and how comfortable you are with each of those approaches. What kind of photographer are you?
Cool mornings and beautiful afternoons mean one thing: fall is knocking on our doorstep. Fall is my favorite season for photography as the possibilities are endless, from colorful trees creating reflections in the water to cool, foggy mornings. Capturing the beauty of fall doesn’t have to be hard with a few simple tips and reminders.
You are a small-town American doctor, and to your surprise, aliens have replaced your community. Plant spores have fallen from outer space, creating seed pods capable of making identical human copies. Pod people take on traits and memories along with unique personalities. Slowly, an invasion has started. Wait a minute, hold up, reverse that! Sounds scary, right?
The Fall upgrade from Skylum will have users excited, as it contains new features that add a lot to the program's many capabilities, but users will also see some long-standing requests granted. The fall update is available for download or upgrade on October 10.
Exposure is a key element in photography that greatly influences how we frame our shots. It determines the amount of light reaching the camera sensor, affecting the brightness and overall look of an image. Understanding and controlling exposure is vital for creating well-balanced photos and achieving the desired visual impact. In this article, we'll explore how exposure affects composition and why it's crucial to align your framing with the exposure settings.
5DayDeal is back with a photography bundle that's better than ever. This year, Fstoppers is including our tutorial with Elia Locardi, "Photographing the World 2." The full bundle only costs $166 and is 95% off the total value of the bundle.
