Fstoppers Original Articles

Last year I profited nearly half what I made at my day job in freelance photography using nothing more than my iPhone. I've spent the last 4+ years on Instagram building a following and client base that has allowed me to vie for projects and relationships with clients to make money. That has slowly grown to allow me full creative freedom to shoot with nothing more than an iPhone and get paid for it. Now, before you go and sell off all your Canon or Nikon gear hear me out, this is not as easy as it sounds, but I'll lay it out for you.

[UPDATE: The contest has closed and a winner has been randomly selected. Congratulations to Patricia Schwenk for being selected as the winner of a new Tamron lens!]

Fstoppers wants to thank our readers during this holiday season and is partnering up with Tamron for a giveaway! All entrants in the contest will be eligible to win their choice of Tamron's new 35mm or 45mm prime lens which were just released this year. The lens will also come with your choice of a Canon or Nikon mount. The winner will be selected randomly from the entries we receive. There are many options to increase your chances of being selected so check them out below!

No stranger to unique and challenging photography pursuits, Ben VonWong's latest adventure sent him across the Western United States in search of summer thunderstorms, with an entourage of assistants, filmmakers, and models helping along the way. VonWong shared this behind-the-scenes video, but also some insightful information as to the conversation he hopes to start– one about the seriousness of climate change.

It can be a real creative challenge to try and concept, as well as execute, something that has never been done before, especially in photography. Adventure photographer Craig Kolesky accepted that challenge and ended up in the desert of Namibia, with two unlikely athletes for such a location. I asked Craig a few questions about this project that he shot for Red Bull Photography.

In many of the world's cultures, the coming of a new year is celebrated as a time of renewal and reflection. It is a time to share with family and friends, a time to celebrate, and for some, a time of contemplation. Although it can be a hectic time for many of us, with so many preparations and celebrations, it is also a great time to look back. I encourage each of you to use this month to reflect on your art from the year to date.

Portrait and Wedding Photographer Jordan Voth joins me for this month's exclusive chat, in which I ask him about his signature move of taking clients out into some of the most beautifully scenic backdrops I've ever seen.

There are a zillion photographers out there, but there aren’t a zillion clients. How do you make your work stand out? Success comes when a client will book you because it's you and not because you are just another good photographer. In the process, having a recognizable style might also make you a happier photographer. But how can you get there?

Gnarly Bay, who I wrote about a few months back, have just released their latest film, “SPACE.” It's a film that explorers the idea of space, but not in the conventional sense. I spoke with Dan over at Gnarly Bay who talked about the inspiration for “SPACE” and how it took almost six years to complete this video, using footage that was shot back in 2009 when he first traveled with a DSLR through New Zealand with his then girlfriend, now wife.

Shopping season is upon us, but let’s not kid ourselves. This isn’t entirely about giving to family and friends. It’s also about the sweet savings that are about to fall upon all of that gear. You can practically smell the stench of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) wafting off of the photography masses. Our greed for new stuff reeks like the belly of a ship hauling squid legs from Tokyo to New York in mid-August. Long after the turkey legs are wrapped in tin foil and the gelatinous blobs of cranberry sauce are sealed up in the freezer, the deals will emerge. It might be a new lens or a camera upgrade that has you breaking down the door of Best Buy or your local camera shop like some geeky, sweaty villager storming over the moat of his local lord’s keep, but just make sure you don’t waste your time on a new bag.

The world’s best photographers are defined by their styles. For example, you can instantly look at an image by Martin Schoeller or Annie Leibovitz and recognize what you’re seeing. Their work is distinctly theirs. I believe that a big part of a photographer's success lies in finding this style. It may not come easily to everyone, however.

Happy Thanksgiving! Of course, the die-hard dealmakers are busy planning for their Black Friday shopping lists, trying to find the best last-minute deals that less money can buy. From deals on prominent gear and photography business services, to those on accessories and computer equipment, we have a few deals rounded up from around the Internet for you. Take it or leave it, this is some of the best stuff you'll find tomorrow (and in some cases, through the weekend and Cyber Monday).

Every photographer wants to be creating their best work each time that they touch their camera, but the reality is that inspiration ebbs and flows. No photographer can consistently create their best work every time they shoot. As photographers, our goal is often to steadily improve by continually expanding our body of work. Sometimes, however, a shoot becomes magical as creativity and motivation climax into one of those images that you know will sit proudly in your portfolio for years to come.

The much sought-after and elusive Vimeo Staff Pick is a badge of honor and a surefire sign you are about to get a lot more views. There is no specific type of video that is chosen by Vimeo as a Staff Pick and trying to become one can seem overwhelming and almost impossible. There is no secret sauce to guarantee you will be featured as arguably one of the best videos on Vimeo, but there are a few areas to focus on to ensure you have the best chance.

Ok, the average Fstoppers.com reader probably could use a new DSLR (digital single lens reflex camera) for Christmas, but I'm not writing this for them. I'm writing this for the average husband, wife, high school, or college student who wants a DSLR for Christmas to "take better pictures." You people do not need a giant digital camera for Christmas.

Last week we had the Fstoppers community submit their best composite images for the latest episode of "Critique the Community." There were some awesome composite submissions, including a wide range of genres. We chose a total of 20 pictures for Lee and Patrick to give feedback on. Add your comments and ratings to the pictures below. If we selected your picture, we'd love to hear about how you did it.

Are you struggling to make it as a professional photographer? Here are the top five warning signs that your career is headed for failure, and how to overcome your own self-defeating habits.

Back in October I posted a portrait of myself that quickly became the most popular photo on my entire Facebook feed for 2015. The image was never meant to be anything other than a test shot for a few lenses we were reviewing but people kept asking how I created it. In this Fstoppers video, I will show you a common lighting setup every photographer should know and how you too can achieve this simple look with your clients.

As mirrorless cameras get better and better, the temptation to lose the weight and bulk of the DSLR is becoming very large for many photographers. Wedding photographers like V Opoku are opting for the smaller footprint of the Fujifilm X-Series, as is famed Music and Editorial Photographer Zack Arias. Humanitarian Photographer David DuChemin also has them in the mix, and much of his beautiful work in northern Kenya was shot on these small and light cameras. I have had a slightly tumultuous relationship with these cameras, but have come to love using them so much that I have found ways to work them from a toy for personal work into business.

Today we are launching a great deal on our Flash Disc light modifiers for those of you living in the European Union. If you add 3 Flash Discs to your Amazon Cart, you will get a special sale price for only 2 (basically buy 2 get 1 free). The Fstoppers Flash Disc is basically a small softbox that folds up and fits into your pocket. It's perfect for photographers on the go who need soft light without the hassle that comes with using a large softbox. As we mentioned before, selling the Flash Disc in Europe has been a huge pain in the butt and once our current inventory is sold out we will not be replenishing any more in the Amazon.co.uk store.

Today, anyone may call themselves a professional photographer and practice photography. There is no degree that validates the use of the term "pro." So, why do we feel the need to specify that? What does it show about the way we see our work and our competition? Let’s put things in perspective.

Social networks are a good way to advertise a photographer's work. Sometimes, with all the different platforms available, it becomes difficult to keep track of everything. Tools such as Hootsuite are great to make that easier. However, when it comes to Instagram, there aren't many solutions for scheduling and uploading photos from a computer. But there is at least one, and it works great.

To celebrate our newest video tutorial with Elia Locardi, “Photographing the World,” Fstoppers has teamed up with our friends at ViewBug to host a landscape photo contest for your most epic images. The contest will run until January 5 and one of the judges will be Elia himself. Whether you win or not, all participants will receive complimentary access to the first lesson of “Photographing the World” for free! See the contest details below.

Over the years, camera companies have been going head to head in the battle for the best camera sensor. This battle has always focused around the amount of megapixels a camera has to offer, and as of lately, how high the ISO can go. Because of this most consumers, including a significant amount of photography veterans, think that megapixel count is the end-all be-all of sensor technology, with ISO following up as a close second. At this point in the game though, I wish the sensor battle would switch gears and focus more on the dynamic range.

Tis the season to go splurge on fantastic photography odds and ends that you can stuff into colorfully wrapped boxes and give them out to all your favorite photographer friends! So get ready to whip out that credit card, even if you end up getting a few of the gifts for yourself!

[UPDATE: A winner has been chosen. Congratulations to Verginiya Yancheva for getting 48 upvotes for her image! Check out her winning image below.]

We are teaming up with Moleskine and MILK to give away one of their new Leather Albums (valued at $795), and YOU are all judges! Submit your images, and the Fstoppers Community will upvote their favorite image which they believe "belongs in an album." There are just two simple steps to enter!

Facebook has recently made it easy for users to create Instagram ads through their platform. For some time, Instagram has been one of the best avenues for photographers to reach potential clients and vendors that they would like to work with. With the ability for anyone - small and large businesses alike - to create sponsored Instagram posts directly through Facebook, it is now easier to reach a wider scope of potential clients.

I'll be the first to admit it: As a videographer, I'm a sucker for a prime lens. While I love the versatility of zooms, nothing has forced me to learn more about what I'm doing in the heat of the moment than using primes. However, I always find myself going back to the 28mm prime. It is my go-to lens in many situations and when it's not it's still in my kit always ready to go. There are a few reasons I love my 28mm and I think they may persuade you to give one a go.

If, like me, you've found your niche within photography and now shoot a lot of similar projects, it's easy to fall into the trap of sticking with what you know. Here are some of the things I find helpful in staying inspired when shooting portraits.

There is an innumerable amount of articles and tutorials teaching parts and pieces of retouching portraits. However, finding the ones with quality techniques and information can take days. Furthermore, there is no singular tutorial that teaches a complete set of methods to retouch portraits free of charge. Finding the right tutorials for each aspect of editing can become very time consuming. This article contains 5 years of research for achieving the greatest methods to retouch a portrait.

As creatives, we have to stay inspired, focused, and always be moving forward. Aside from focusing on creating beautiful, desirable work, if you want to survive doing what you love, you have to have a good business sense. For some of us, this comes naturally, for others it is a learning process. No matter what your experience with business is, you can always learn more. Between books, classes, and mentors, the options for learning are endless but between our personal lives, creating artwork, and what our budgets allow, the option aren't always as broad. Podcasts are an awesome, free way to learn about the business side of your craft. They can be informative, inspiring, and allow you to learn while you work. While there are tons of podcasts out there here are my top three favorite when it comes to the business side of photography.

A couple weeks ago, we asked the Fstoppers Community to submit their swimwear images for a special episode of "Critique the Community" with Dixie Dixon. Patrick met up with Dixie and went through 20 images of the submissions to give their thoughts on the quality of each image according to the Fstoppers rating system and how the images could be improved. Check out the image selection below and add your thoughts and ratings to the comments below.

Photoshop is a veritable spell book of amazing and seemingly mystical tools that empower any digital sorcerer with the potential for creating visual magic. Adobe has done a pretty great job over the years at adding in tons of optimization and shortcutting that can make for a more pleasant workflow. Unfortunately, they often treat these workflow enhancements like Easter eggs by not making them obvious at all. In this article we will go through a few hidden spells to help you optimize your Photoshop workflow.

I love taking ring shots. I usually take them during a slow time on the wedding day when there isn’t a lot going on. I have full control of where I put the ring, how I light it, how I pose it, and how I frame it. This leaves a ton of options to really get creative. So it confuses me when people just place the ring on a bouquet of flowers and call it done. These shots are not bad, but they are average. I already did an article on how to get away from the average ring shot, but I didn’t explain how to take one of my favorite ring shots. The ring silhouette.

Once in a while, despite our due diligence and training, we all end up in circumstances where we must handle a difficult situation. As a model with a wide range of experience, I have a large network of professional photographer friends and have seen first-hand how unprofessional my fellow models can be. Here are a few ways to handle a variety of sticky situations without compromising your reputation as a respectable industry professional.

Our next episode of "Critique the Community" will feature images that have included some sort of composite. Take our featured image for example, the background was composited behind the beer bottle. (Check out this post for details of how it was done). Your composite image can come from any genre of photography but it must include elements from multiple images. Please get in your submissions by Saturday, November 14th and you'll have the chance to have your image critiqued by the Fstoppers team. For this episode, we will be giving feedback to 20 pictures. To qualify, you must follow the submission rules below.

Want to see your travel photography on Fstoppers? Start using the #FstoppersTravel hashtag on Instagram for a chance to have your work featured! Read more to find out why we're featuring this wonderful genre.

A few weeks ago we offered to critique a handful of head shot photographs from the Fstoppers Community. Patrick Hall and Peter Hurley sat and gave their feedback for 18 images. Since there were so many submissions for this genre of photography, Lee and I decided to add on an extra round of critique for the photos that were submitted. Check out the images we chose below and add your own thoughts and critique to the comments.

With some lengthy upcoming trips for personal work, I have been doing some research into ways to keep my photographs and video footage backed up in the field. One of these trips involves a three-week stint in remote villages. A particular concern on this trip is data loss; so, I have been working to create a backup system that is durable and can run without access to mains power. Today, I will share my solution with you.

Hey, friends! I recently shot in a natural light studio and thought I would share some tips on indoor natural light for those of you who are interested. Enjoy!

Ahhh…..rejection! Everyone has experienced rejection many times in their life, but it is especially prevalent in the fashion and photography industries. I’m sure you have been rejected as a photographer before, whether it was by a gallery, publication, or model you have wanted to work with. I can safely say that if I had a dollar for every time I experienced rejection as a model, well, you get the picture. I have been rejected by some of the sweetest photographers, who unintentionally made me feel like I should never have reached out. Similarly, some photographer’s rejection tactics needed some major fine tuning and left me feeling fed up with how some people in the industry tend to act. As a model, I 100% understand that I will be rejected 9 times out of 10. It is completely okay to say no! Saying no is healthy! But it should be done with professionalism, tact, and respect.

When I was younger, my dad took a class on photography at a local community college. To this day, he says that the biggest thing he learned from the class was that to take interesting pictures, you have to go to interesting places. I suppose that if you are a travel, landscape, or nature photographer, that is true. What a lot of people don’t realize is that interesting places are all around us. Having grown up in Ohio, I always thought that I was stuck in a dreary, featureless landscape of corn and soybeans.

Last month we had the three highest megapixel cameras by Nikon, Sony, and Canon in our office, and we filmed a pretty polarizing review pitting them against each other. Many viewers pointed out an unfair bias in our studio test so we redid the test again using the same lens on all three cameras. We then asked our readers to pick the best looking image from the 3 cameras without telling them which camera took which photo. The results from this test were pretty alarming.

Leroy Bellet is a 16-year-old freelance surf photographer from Australia who has recently been featured in several major surf publications because of his experimentation with artificial lighting in the water. Using a flash in the water allows the subject to still be illuminated while taking advantage of times when the natural light is most unique, like early morning, sunset, and night. We recently got the chance to talk to Leroy and learn a little bit about him and his technique.

Each week, we get contacted by a range of different companies asking us to review their products. Normally, we don't accept the majority of these products, but for your entertainment, we've decided to review every single one of these products in some sort of entertaining (and unfair) way. Today, I got the BOOMR camera strap in the mail and put it through a stress test.

A few weeks ago we offered to critique a handful of headshot photographs from the Fstoppers Community. I was able to sit down with professional headshot photographer Peter Hurley for his advice on how you guys can help improve your own headshot photos. Since there were so many submissions we were only able to get to about 18 images, but don't worry because next week Lee and David will tackle many of the images that did not make this episode of Critique the Community.

Like it or not, 2016 is going to be a huge year for virtual reality content and technology. It seems like every major brand is dipping their toe in one way or another. Even Pixar is creating their own movie studio in order to create 360-degree films. Magazines are no exception for desiring and creating this content. It's a perfect way to immerse their readers into their content. Recently Hearst Publishing's Car and Driver Magazine hired my company, 8112 Studios, to help create their first ever virtual reality car reviews.

Having the right gear for the job is essential in being able to handle the barrage of lighting scenarios that a wedding photographer will encounter on each outing. I, like many others, am constantly thinking about the next piece of gear. What lens, what camera, or what lighting system will allow me to take higher quality images and provide a better experience to my client? This led me to think, what do I really need to shoot a wedding? I mean in reality, to walk out my door and provide my bride with the images she expects, what are the bare essentials I really need?

While some photographers stay close to home, others travel quite regularly. I’ve been traveling my entire life for one reason or another. And whether it was for a newspaper job I was essentially commuting to (living four days in Southern California and three days in Northern California every week) or a short trip on a personal photographic exploration, I quickly learned that it’s great to have some creature comforts to keep you company along the ride once whatever glamour of traveling that’s left these days fades away.

While all photographers are unique and differentiate through their style and specialty, there is one constant throughout: client experience. All photographers must provide an excellent client experience in order to stay in business. When clients choose us to document their lives, they may love our style and even like the final product, but if they have a poor experience, they will not recommend us to others or refer us new business. Particularly in the boudoir genre, because we provide such an intimate service, the client experience must be a priority for a photographer to be successful and have a lasting career.

Due to the incredible amount of submissions, we decided to film a second edition of Natural Light Portraits! This time, Lee and I sat down in the Fstoppers studio and critiqued an additional 20 Natural Light Portraits. Check out the pictures we selected and feel free to add your thoughts in the comments!