Fstoppers Original Articles

It's a question I asked when I first started taking my photography seriously, but the answer can, will, and probably should change over time. What's your answer to this complex query?

I’ve been pondering on how to answer a challenging question. I was first asked the question by an Fstoppers reader a few weeks ago. Since then, I’ve been asked the same question by two different potential clients. In this article, I’m going to attempt to answer, "what is my approach to architectural photography?"

If you've read my past articles on Fstoppers, you know that I love editing shortcuts. These quick tricks save you time and frustration, making your business more productive and profitable.

There a lots of differences between professionals and hobbyists at anything, but there's one thing that crops up time and again, and it appears to be particularly true of those in creative professions.

As photographers we tend to always look for the big sweeping image; one that says as much as possible. But sometimes it's the little things that say a lot. In the context of storytelling, the detail shot is often overlooked for its power and simplicity.

Last week, we looked at how to evaluate your own images before seeking critique. This week, let’s look at that process from the other side and consider how we can best offer critique to those who seek it.

Unfortunate things happen with computers all the time. I understand that. But when a recommended Dell update bricks a Dell computer, I expect Dell to fix it.

When you feel as if you're working hard and growth is stagnating, it might be worth asking yourself whether you're truly giving it your all, or just going through the motions.

With the mirrorless camera transition happening around us people have been switching camera manufacturers more than ever. I for one am staying put with the brand I've trusted for years. Am I wrong for doing so?

You can watch as many YouTube videos as you want. The only way you will ever know how to do something well is if you’ve actually done it, and repeated it a few times to make it stick.

Are you aware of Back to the Future Day? October 21, 2015: the day Marty McFly and Doc Brown came back to Hill Valley to try to correct Marty's timeline. Similarly, film and literature fans celebrate Judgement Day, or Bloomsday. The first being the day that Skynet became self-aware; the latter, the day Joyce's Bloom wandered Dublin. Well, this week is Twin Peaks week. It marks 30 years since Agent Dale Cooper drove into our lives. February 24 at 11:30 a.m., 1989 (ish).

As I've written about recently, I'm pushing incremental changes that provide compound interest. One of the most effective of which I have been tweaking for some time, and it has paid off.

Like thousands of others, I received an email last week from Kodakit asking me to sign up. “Get more photography shoots!” it promised, but what’s the truth behind this Uber-like company, and is it worth your time?

You’ve probably seen the viral video of the toddler whose father mic’ed him up during hockey practice, where he discovered that his son was thinking mostly about naps and McDonald’s. If you wanted to find out what’s on your kid’s mind instead of sports, here are tips to accomplish what Hockey Dad did.

With endless dunes stretching for hundreds of kilometers, abandoned houses, rocky mountains, and soils that look like the Martian surface, Namibia should put some wind in your photography sails. Check out the full list of the best photography locations in Namibia, as well as advice about appropriate gear and shooting times for each of them.

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 2019, 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.

When was the last time you can remember having fun with your photography? Not the joy of landing a photography job or the excitement of nailing that one photo, but rather childlike fun while shooting.

Have you missed all of the drama surrounding Tony Northrup and his ISO claims? Let's take one final look.

Fstoppers is teaming up with SLR Lounge and B&H to put a brand new Canon EOS RP Mirrorless camera in the hands of one lucky community member. All you have to do is enter the giveaway below.

It's one thing making the leap in to a photography career, but as is the case with most startups, longevity is the greatest obstacle to overcome.

In the last two years, Samyang has introduced a number of autofocus prime lenses specifically for Sony’s FE mount and, having recently bought the Sony a7 III, two in particular caught my eye: the 24mm and 35mm f/2.8. These tiny lenses have been in my bag for the last month and I think they’re fantastic value for money with unexpected performance given their size.

When processing your precious photos in Lightroom, Photoshop, or any other photo processing software, you make sure the exposure is spot on, the colors are perfect, and the contrast is pleasing. For that reason you may have a calibrated monitor, and the optimum light situation in your room. But did you think about the background shade of your photo processing software?

Continuing on our serialization of a photography themed short story, here is Part 3 of "In the Blink of an Eye." If you didn't manage to read Part 1 and Part 2, then catch up to find out what Charlie Sydcup videoed during a trip to the City of London and what his image processing revealed.

Once you find a great location, do you share it or keep it secret? If you keep it secret, why? Are you doing it to protect a fragile location or to protect your investment in searching it out? Do you have other reasons?

Tripods and light stands are found in virtually all photographer's kit bags. While most of these stands already do an excellent job, a few low-cost modifications can make them infinitely more versatile.

There are always an abundance of lists explaining misconceptions and lies about being a professional photographer, but there are almost none telling you which rumors are true.

The world of landscape photography has grown exponentially since the transition from film to digital and even more recently with a large social movement to get outdoors. What would your feed look like in 1943?

Repeatedly say something is good, loud enough and long enough, so that anyone who listening to you believes it. Raise that single voice to a chorus and then that belief becomes fact. So is fine art photography the classic con job?

There is an entire generation of memories currently trapped in VHS and unless we act to rescue them, these may continue to languish there. Years of video footage are stuck in these old tape formats that are usually relegated to a bookshelf somewhere in the house or stored in a box in the basement. They remain largely forgotten until moving time or a major spring cleaning operation.

The mirrorless versus SLR debate is the most hotly discussed topic in photography circles. One of the main reasons given for sticking to the SLR system is the superiority of the optical viewfinder (OVF). Over the past couple of years, I’ve started to question this point. In this article, I explore the areas where an electronic viewfinder (EVF) offers an advantage over on OVF.

I have no doubts there will be lots of people who are familiar with this item, but for those who aren't, this little tip could drastically improve your quality of life while traveling with your camera.

I'm sure you have a beautiful portfolio as do most professional wedding photographers, but have you ever stopped to think what may be wrong with showcasing such a filtered representation of your work to potential clients?

With the continued introduction of new lenses, bodies, and roadmapped development, do Nikon’s F and Canon’s EF-mount lenses have a future?

Up until a few months ago, I had an elitist view and was of the opinion that my editing process on my 27-inch iMac was the “best” way to edit a photo. But smartphones have changed the game dramatically. Here I've shared some reasons to help you consider including or switching to your phone for your editing workflow.

Boudoir photographers shoot in all types of lighting. Some prefer bright and airy while others tend to be more moved by the moody and darker looks. There is a creative style just in-between with harsh lighting that can be interesting to shoot and to edit.

Where once information and advice was sparse, it's now abundant. With that come sits own problems in identifying that which is worth retaining, and that which is worth discarding. This is the greatest advice for up-and-coming creatives I've ever heard.

Every once in a while an article pops up claiming a cool looking video or an image was shot on an iPhone. Often this becomes a stage for arguments between Apple and non-Apple fans. I decided to look at this film with a different mindset and hopefully you will appreciate it too from a filmmaking standpoint.

As a professional photographer, I can quickly become disenfranchised by my working life while watching Internet photographers living the Casey Neistat life. Here are eight things I didn't expect.

Photography is all about time. It's the only visual art that is able to hold a single moment and fix it for our lasting consideration. To make that happen we as photographers must be keenly aware of both the slice of time that we are capturing and the all the time which leads up to that important moment. To do this well we must look into the future.

The benefits of having your own blog are myriad, and for all intents and purposes, there is an unlimited amount of information on why. However, the main obstacle isn't "why," but "how".

In the photo industry, women don't always get the credit they deserve. So here are 12 amazing female wedding photographers that you should be following, but probably aren't.

The other day, a few guys on my team and I cooked up some new content for the 2018 Skypixel competition. Turns out we weren't able to submit them fore a silly reason that mainly took place on our end.

Fashion photographer Christopher Cavanaugh was brought on for this photo project that took place in Los Angeles by creative director Terrel Mullen as a collaboration project to expand both their portfolios. It expanded their portfolios and expanded our appreciation of what can be accomplished from behind the camera.

One type of question we see on social media and photography forums again and again is the “do you prefer this or this?” or “which image do you like best out of this set?” These sorts of questions are completely meaningless as they disregard the most important part of the decision: the photographer’s intention. What were you trying to achieve?

Photographing interesting people will forever be a love of mine. But photographing a person who is unambiguously an expert at his craft while he works was all kinds of fascinating.

While I use many different tools throughout the course of a day, there are a few that I have found to be indispensable to my business. Oddly, they don’t have a whole lot to do with photography. Yet, having them in my life allows me to be more productive and stay focused on what matters most to me: photography.

What's the point of your photography? And how do you engage viewers with your images more? I reached a stage where I struggled to clearly answer these questions but then I implemented a few very helpful techniques evident in these images that really helped me define my photography.

As photographers we often see the world through our cameras — literally. If we aren't holding a camera, we're often planning or imagining a photo. The drive to compose and take photos shapes the way we interact with the world. Has this compulsion ever ruined an experience for you?

The concept of a one image portfolio is difficult to imagine. But what if you had to only display one image? Which image best represents you as a photographer?

Continuing on our serialization of a photography themed short story, here is Part 2 of "In the Blink of an Eye." If you didn't manage to read Part 1 last week, then catch up to find out what Charlie Sydcup videoed during a trip to the City of London.