Fstoppers Original Articles

Over the last decade, we've had lots of new wide aperture lenses hit the market. Lenses like the Nikon 58mm f/0.95 make producing images with super shallow depth of field relatively easy. Even significantly less expensive lenses like an 85mm f/1.8 can produce beautiful, shallow depth in an image, but what if you want more depth?

When an idea goes beyond what is possible, sometimes you need to create your own reality. Learn how the photographer for and NHL team got below the ice for a fresh perspective and created some very cool portraits.

If you’re the parent of small children in this global pandemic, stop right now and order a drone. It will keep you (photographically) sane during what is most definitely a trying time. It certainly has helped me.

Contemporary landscape photography is dominated by the same 20-50 locations. We have all seen specific locations being reproduced and reinterpreted repeatedly, and only a few stand out from the crowd. The key to making unique landscape photos is very simple: find something new to photograph.

Nikon has led the way in designing exotic glass for its mirrorless Z mount, but is this just a precursor to offering a medium format camera?

In a world of hundreds of film cameras to choose from, there is a continuum of value for cameras. In this article I list out cameras ranging from most overrated to most underrated.

His photographic journey developed much the same as most photographers, a slow burn of learning and exploration, but his destination has turned out to be anything but typical.

One of the most used cards in our newfound world of quarantine Bingo is the “clean out the garage” card. After doing my third round of this particular task yesterday afternoon, I found something new.

Close-up and high-magnification photography is like turning everything up to 11. Depth of field is minimal, shutter speeds must be fast, and ISO has to be perfectly balanced to even get a clear shot. So, does this incredibly hard discipline make you a better photographer? Or will it just leave you confused and frustrated with your kit?

The rule of thirds is often considered the first and most basic compositional rule to learn. However, I strongly disagree with this, as following this rule might end up both destroying your compositions and contaminating your thinking for years to come.

Is it safe to re-open your photography business once the lockdown in your area is lifted? How are you going to make it safe?

Last week, I sat down to do four portrait retouching courses from Chris Orwig. This enormous bundle of informative and accessible tutorials is packed with easily digested information. My confidence when it comes to editing portraits is now significantly higher.

It happens to all of us: you take some fantastic photographs, get home, and realize a camera setting was insane. Use these five checks every time you start a shoot, and you'll avoid making those mistakes.

Have you ever seen your own plant grow in a time-lapse? You can, and it’s a great exercise to learn something new about your camera and post-processing.

In August last year, IG Audit — a free web app that allows you to check the authenticity of an Instagram user’s followers — went viral on a wave of press centered around Instagram’s fake follower problem. Just one month later, Facebook’s lawyers abruptly forced the website offline, and IG Audit’s Instagram account of 20,000 followers was deleted. These aggressive moves might be hints of a scandal that Instagram is trying to keep quiet.

Photography can be expensive, it can be cheap, and it's usually somewhere in-between. So, which genres are the hardest to shoot if you don't have much money for equipment?

Sometimes even the widest wide angle lens is not enough. In those cases you have to shoot multiple images and stitch it together into one extreme wide angle shot. You can go as far as 360° around, if you want. But you have to avoid parallax errors.

There’s been lots of (digital) ink spilled about how great Fujifilm cameras feel to use. While I share many of those sentiments, there’s another seemingly oddball camera brand that I find myself reaching for, even when I have (ostensibly) much better options available: Olympus. Here’s a look at why I often find myself reaching for the company’s pint-size powerhouses.

Most of my working life was spent at jobs in factories, in classrooms, behind a bar, and in offices. Being a freelance photographer means that I began spending a lot of time working from home. Now, given recent events, I’m spending all of my time working from home. How does working from home affect your mental health? Do you have any strategies for wellbeing?

We've seen Elon Musk's company SpaceX in the news consistently since their launch of the Starlink satellites, and with 12,000 set to be released into low earth orbit in the future, it might mean some pretty cool light trails for astro photos. Follow the steps below on how to take photos of the Starlink satellites from your backyard.

It was the year that Osama Bin Laden was killed, Barack Obama was President, the Space Shuttle was retired, and "Game of Thrones" was premiered. Meanwhile 2011 turned out to be one of the most pivotal years in camera history, putting us on the path to where we are today. Here's what happened.

Whether as an alternative or as an add-on, a friction arm has so many uses for any photographer inside and out of the studio.

If you struggle with getting sharp photos, this is for you, and even if you are experienced, there might be a tip or two to pick up.

There's no denying that the Coronavirus has changed the world as we know it. The way companies and individuals act towards photography going forward is about to shift dramatically. Are you ready for this?

For months and months I was looking into buying a large format camera and really thought the Intrepid MK4 was the best option. I looked all over for a review on the camera without any luck. It’s starting to become clear why.

As tempting as it might be to allow the current work stoppage to push you off track, now is the time to focus even more on reaching your goals.

Our friends over at GuruShots, "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” recently offered a challenge where particpants submitted their best images "Lit by Twilight." There were thousands of entries and 39.4 million votes throughout the contest but the top winners have been chose. See who won as well as the 100 top rated images below.

Birds are notoriously difficult to photograph, because they're flighty (pun intended) and far away. Fixed focal length telephoto lenses are great at cropping in close to your feathered friends, but the decent, sharp lenses are incredibly expensive. They also restrict your composition, which is why the Nikkor 80-400mm lens may just be the best bird photography lens in the world.

Fujifilm's X and GFX cameras and lenses are on sale at B&H. With dozens of items receiving some sort of special pricing, it's a great time to check out the product lines. Want to know my picks for the best deals?

Scotiabank’s Contact Photography Festival is one of the biggest photography festivals in the world. This year, in the wake of COVID-19, it’s going to be run online. If you’re looking for inspiration, this is where to go.

The writing is on the wall for film photography. It is a zero-sum game with only one end result – the extinction of film photography. Perhaps something will happen to change that but I doubt it.

I decided to compile a list of the best cameras outside of the "big three" manufacturers for all budgets that are currently purchasable brand new.

If you are new to photography, you are probably realizing you can quickly sink a lot of money into this pursuit, often unnecessarily. Here are five things you should actually spend your money on.

Although the current situation is far from what we used to know as "normal," I believe we will still have a chance to get to our daily routines. This time, we have to be more careful about a number of habits we may have been ignoring.

I recently picked up a Mint RF70, a fully manual camera designed to accept Fuji’s Instax Wide film. After capturing a few images with it over the past few days, I’m reminded of why I love instant film so much. Yes, it’s magical watching a print develop right in front of you, but that has nothing to do with why instant film is so exceptional.

We might be instructed to stay at home for now but it doesn't mean that the outside world has stopped turning. It has, actually, continued to thrive and has given one artist an idea for extracting and collating brief digital sceneries from web cameras all over the world to tell stories of isolation.

Even before the economic disaster of COVID, the camera industry was contracting. The software industry has adopted SaaS pricing, with Adobe Creative Cloud being the most recognizable example. That pricing model, or one like it, might be the next big change coming to camera hardware.

Whether you’re working remotely or recording videos for YouTube, producing a high-quality video can require some smart gear decisions. Your Macbook’s built-in webcam and mic are fine, but spending just a small amount can translate to a huge improvement in quality. Here are the essentials, along with recommendations at a variety of price points, to set up your perfect streaming and recording setup.

I think it is always wise to shoot in raw. The raw file format will store the maximum amount of image information. This can even be optimized when shooting with exposure to the right to make full use of the dynamic range of the camera. Although intended for JPEG photographers, a flat picture profile can have a benefit or raw shooters also.

No, you can't have the raw files. Go away.

Do you ever think that some approaches to creating landscape photographs go too far? At what point do we stop and say it's too much?

Have you ever gotten asked if your photos are high resolution or if your photos are a specific DPI? What do you say when you get a request that doesn't make sense?

Digital photo frames were hailed as a leap forward for presenting your images, a technology to go hand in hand with digital cameras. So, what happened?

Strange times provoke strange projects. I’ve become somewhat obsessed with my neighbors’ doors in our tiny French village. It's far from groundbreaking, but it's proving a lot of fun.

While most of us are sitting at home as non-essential personnel, many have come up with ways to keep the creativity flowing. Some are learning how to photograph wildlife, some leaning on their new love for macro, and some even testing out product photography for the first time. One photographer decided to test out some DIY options for products saving herself some money while she had the time on her hands.

We've started the new Youtube Channel "Fstoppers Live" and our first video is being filmed live today at 1pm eastern time. Please join us and don't forget to subscribe to our new channel.

If you haven’t been keeping up with your photography Instagram marketing, now’s the time to revisit. Instagram marketing can be incredibly fruitful for photography businesses. To make it work for yours, you must understand how to use Instagram productively. Let’s start off with some statistics…

Like most of you, I'm cooped up at home other than occasional forage for groceries. As a landscape photographer in Arizona, there's plenty of landscape, but I'm doing my best to abide by the stay at home rules. So basically, the landscapes are in one place, I'm looking at 4 walls.

This week I spoke with professional motorsports photographer Drew Gibson to find out what 10 things he couldn't live without in his camera bag. With clients such as Aston Martin and Top Gear, Drew certainly knows his way around motorsports photography.

What do you do when all of your contracts for the year are canceled in a matter of weeks? Regardless of how well-drafted your contract is, do you consider damage to your reputation when you think about holding clients to dates and payment schedules?