Fstoppers Original Articles

Choosing which lenses to bring on an assignment is a constant back and forth between weight and versatility for me. As an adventure and travel photographer, I’m either hiking all my gear into a remote location or flying abroad for long periods with limited bag space. So when I got the opportunity to test out the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens I was pretty excited.

Rapidly advancing photo and video technology gives us a seemingly endless glut of new ways to create our visions. As creatives, it's tempting to explore every advancement in pursuit of our ultimate vision. The question is, should you?

Weather conditions aren’t always perfect when shooting landscape photography; let's be honest they are usually not ideal. One way to turn poor weather into something special is by using a 10-stop neutral density filter which allows you to take very long exposures during the day resulting in some unique images.

When I started food photography I was in awe of the beautiful backdrops. It took me a good 6 months to work out where to get them from.

Teamwork makes the dream work, but all good things must come to an end. Check out the final installment of our top 10 list series submitted by our loyal readers.

Movies are one of my favorite things, so of course, movies about photography are even better. Here are 10 movies every photographer should watch.

Godox has been disrupting the lighting industry for several years now with their budget-friendly options for studio strobes and on location lighting. The Godox system is growing even larger with the addition of their newest on-location light, but does this new light make sense to those budget-conscious photographers that have adopted the system?

During that important pre-consultation with a client, most likely, she will ask to see an entire session. They have seen your amazing images on social media, but usually just one or two from a session. If you only show a few images from each set, how does your client know if those just weren't the best of the best?

The New York Daily News, once called “New York’s Picture Newspaper,” has nobody left on staff to take pictures after its parent company, Chicago-based Tronc, cut the editorial staff in half on Monday.

Time for a completely non-scientific, wholly subjective, not even remotely precise, but undeniably fun thought experiment for all to participate in.

Although I've been shooting weddings for years, I've always done bridal portraits as a "day of" service. In Colorado, there wasn't much of a market for bridal portraits before the big day. Now that I've moved to North Carolina, it's an entirely different ballgame! Pre-wedding portraits are big business down South. So, how can you separate yourself from the pack? Well for starters, take advantage of the fact that you now have one resource that isn't on your side on the actual wedding day: time.

Building a skilled team is a sure way to up the production value of your shoot and improve the quality of your work, but if you’re collaborating with other artists, you’d better give them what they need.

In any random sample of photographers, you can bet that Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop will be up there vying for honors as image viewers. But what alternatives do you have? Here's my vote.

It's not easy shooting for a giant brand. Here's how I pulled off this shoot for Lancôme.

The city is full of surprises, and street sports are a great reminder that urban space can be full of play and creativity — sometimes completely unexpected, driven by people's desire to make a city their own. Photography is a fantastic way to capture the playful, sometimes anarchic means of engaging with the built environment.

If you're tired of scouring Google images and Pinterest for model posing ideas, read this article for three tips on how to do so.

Last week, after receiving the Sigma ART 85mm f/1.4, I decided to put it to the test by making a video of my cat with my business partner. A few days later, this is our finished product.

You don't need to become a certified teacher to help a child cultivate passion for photography, because there is so much you already know that could transform a young person's life for the better!

It is always hard to gauge what photos in your portfolio might interest people. What do you do if someone likes a shot but wants the crop rotated?

Wide-angle lenses are among the most difficult lenses to use in photography and videography. The wider you go, the more difficult they become to handle. Let’s talk today about how to make the best use of wide and ultra-wide lenses.

What do you do when you get bored with photography? How do you funnel your creative energy when photography leaves your creative soul empty? Do you move on to something new or do you combine photography with something else?

Wedding season is in full swing in the UK. It can be a tiring and stressful time, so here are five tips to help you get through.

The photography industry and it’s consumers would both benefit from introducing the predominant mobile phone sales model.

When you’re looking for something to shoot, sometimes the answer is right in front of your eyes, or perhaps your house: your street. Here’s how to make an everyday street more interesting with long exposures.

If you know anything about SEO (search engine optimization), then you know that finding good keywords is, well, key. Here are a few ways to find new keyword ideas and how to implement them on your website.

There are times when the kind of image you want to create just isn't possible on the day of a shoot. Don't let practicalities get in the way of your imagination; take advantage of stock images.

Today, I state the obvious. But sometimes even the most obvious things can be easy to forget.

Last week Apple introduced new MacBook Pro models and the prices already initiated discussions. Maybe it is still better to build a custom PC for getting the bang for the buck.

We all dream of a premium quality lens that is suitable for every situation (maybe a pancake 14-400mm f/2.8), but of course this is not exactly realistic. My dream, however, is infinitely more reasonable and completely feasible, yet despite this, no lens manufacturer will ever create it.

Black Friday has returned in the middle of July! That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, Prime Day is upon us. Starting today, Monday, July 16 at 3 p.m. EST (12 p.m. PST), Amazon will have exclusive deals for their Prime members.

Since the beginning of my adventure into photography, Photoshop has been the go-to tool for cutting out a subject and creating complex masks. With ON1 Photo RAW, this process has become so much simpler.

The most stressful part of a photography trip starts before takeoff: booking and travel logistics. Since my first international trip 4 years ago, I’ve learned several booking strategies to minimize stress and maximize bang for buck.

While the idea of having the best available studio and equipment remains, well, an idea or dream for many of us, creating great images in the comfort of your own home does not have to be.

Leigh Campbell served in the military for six years as a photographer, documenting the war in Iraq. Learn how his time in the service shaped his commercial photography career.

The other day, I had my first real accident with my Inspire 2 and I learned a lot from it. After flying her for about two years, I ended up making a really stupid mistake and crashing into a tree.

Once you learn how to make Parkinson's law work for you as a photographer, you'll be taking your career to a whole new level in no time.

There's yet another short film in your feed. You play it, and a few minutes later, you wonder why it ended in such a meaningless and abrupt way. Sound familiar?

Some of us can't afford or can't justify buying a full macro lens but still want to try out the mysterious macro photography world. So, what's a cheap and easy way to do it?

Get your eyes ready for some truly beautiful shots of the sky shared to our ongoing weekly photo theme by talented Fstoppers readers.

Last week, I asked Fstoppers readers what their plans were for the inevitable moment when Canon and Nikon release professional-level full frame mirrorless cameras. I was genuinely surprised not only by how many readers responded, but where their opinions fell. Here are the results.

Light trails are a perennial favorite for long exposure shooters, and a right of passage for any budding photographer. So why restrict yourself to cars in a street scene when the sky's your limit?

Straight to the point today: is photography, or the pursuit of anything creative or artistic as a legitimate profession, a thankless pursuit and vocation?

As with land-based photography, patience and planning can go a long way underwater. And while some aspects of topside image composition are the same below the surface, there are other elements at play underwater that you should keep in mind when composing your shots.

Legally, the first amendment of the US Constitution guarantees freedom of speech. Given the current trend of hysteria on social media towards just about everything, is it right being censored by political activists and guardians of moral hygiene in the artistic world?

Light can easily make or break a photograph. While there is truly no such thing as bad light, there is a good and bad way to use light.

When it comes to protecting our photography data we all know we should do it, but for a lot of us, we don’t know how to protect our data from loss. Should we use a RAID 1 or a RAID 6, striping or mirroring, NAS or DAS? I use KISS, or Keep It Simple Stupid.

Sometimes it pays to appreciate the one you’re with.

Monte Isom is a super successful commercial photographer based out of New York City. However, before he made a career of his own, he assisted some of the biggest names in the photography world. In this video he recaps his experience shooting the president of the United States of America.

Retouching is one of the main reasons most photographers use Photoshop. Understanding how and when to use the specialized tools can be trial and error until you find which works best for your workflow. A few tips on what each tool is doing behind the scenes can help with these choices.

When making Stories for Instagram, it's not always ideal to chat straight into the camera, and speaking while presenting a single photograph or a webpage that you've created can be fiddly. These simple tricks make the process a lot easier, and simplifying the workflow, making it more enjoyable.