Fstoppers Original Articles

There is a reason people say that your price range usually determines what kind of clients you attract, and this also often holds true for photography workshops, not just for weddings or photoshoots. I found this out in the hard way; I burned out, made hardly any profit, sometimes even loss. So, how did I end up in this situation and why did I keep going instead of learning from my mistakes early on?

Everyone in the industry must know who Pratik Naik is by now. And if you don't, then you should. In ten years Pratik has become one of the most famous retouchers on the planet.

As is the case with most photographers, I have my usual go-to light modifiers that I know are a safe choice and can guarantee usable shots. However, sometimes, you need to step out side the box.

I love all types of documentaries, and I think it's very important that artists and photographers educate themselves on the past greats and present ones working today. I watch documentaries on photography, fashion, art, and anything else I find interesting. It’s an education coming from a very successful person in that field that everyone can learn from, and I find them to be very inspirational. When I don’t feel inspired or I'm frustrated with things not working out for me, I put on a photography or artist doc and learn about their past struggles and their process that they go through. It’s always a great way to remind myself that everything is going to workout and to create that crazy idea.

Prepare to dive headfirst into the world of waterfall photography! In this article, we'll uncover the five secrets that will make your waterfall shots as majestic as possible. So, grab your camera, put on your raincoat, and let's embark on this adventure.

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.

Having been an active member of the photography community for the past few years, I started to notice some toxic traits. In a community this small, how can everyone seem to hate each other this much sometimes? Let’s dive deep and see just how bad it gets here.

There's something special about taking a picture on film. That said, film also lent itself to a lot of error: a botched exposure, missed focus and light leaks could all serve to ruin an otherwise lovely image. There are few things more frustrating then getting a roll back from the lab with an error note on the envelope. Occasionally the results were a novelty, perhaps adding interest to an otherwise boring image but all too often light leak was nothing but a bother. So why would anyone want to replicate it in Lightroom?

As a photographer with a decent following on both YouTube and Instagram, you start to see certain patterns in the comments and direct messages. One question I see repeatedly is about camera settings. “What is the EXIF data of X or Y photo?”. I always wonder why people want that information.

Growing up in the family's studios and labs, I learned a thing or two about mounting and framing prints, and I also ruined a lot of them in the process. In this video, I'll demonstrate a version of my process so you can skip the lab and mount your own prints, fresh from your home or studio printer.

Looking for a photo-editing alternative to Adobe's Lightroom CC that won't break the bank? Today, I test-drive Alien Skin's new Exposure X4 editing suite for the first time.

Learn how to become better at landscape photography fast by following these 10 simple steps.

Today, I’ll share with you a few lessons I've learned after several years of taking cameras and other gear through their paces.

Instagram is the most popular platform for photographers to display their work and reach an audience. If you know how, you can even turn it into a business and make a living off it. Imagine now, you wake up and Instagram has deleted all your family photos, favorite memories, connections, friends, and portfolio work?

Lightroom is about 13 years old now, and over the last few major releases, Adobe has added a number of tools you’d previously need Photoshop for. While it’s great to see new features like color grading, luminosity masking, and more make their way to the program, their implementation still leaves them falling far short of just using Photoshop. Here’s why I couldn't ever use Lightroom without Photoshop.

Everyone wants to win the lottery. In this day and age winning the lottery can mean many things, one of which is hitting it big on social media. Creating a body of work, an brand image, and a following so massive it creates clout behind your name so high, it is easily seen by everyone as the best in the business. For photographers and creative alike, achieving something like that can easily be seen as difficult, but in reality for some it was outrageously easy and can still be done thanks to Instagram.

Seascapes have always been one of my favorite subjects to photograph. For most of my travels, I visit and photograph at least one spectacular coastline, and in this article, I share the five most photogenic beaches I have photographed so far.

The drive south from Akureyri had been eventful, to say the least, but the snow subsided and we managed to stop briefly and get some minimal shots every now and again. As color began once again to show in the landscape we began to feel more hopeful as we headed towards Vestrahorn.

Recently Lee published a comparison between the images from several different-sized cameras and there was no apparent difference. What's the point of buying a camera with a larger sensor then?

Photographing waterfalls is more tedious than it looks. In this instance, physical aspects of the gear you use heavily impact the success of each shot. Here are some important and helpful tools to have out in the field.

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.

There are many people out there who call themselves photographers. Probably most of them are able to take decent images, a few are professionals, and hardly anyone is a master of the art. Where do you put yourself?

Dodging and burning for cleaning skin is very common amongst high-end retouchers and for a reason: when mastered, it gives you natural, yet almost perfect results. The downside of the technique is that it can eat up a lot of time. When I say a lot of time, I mean up to a couple of hours for a single image, depending on the problems that need corrections. While spending this much time on big projects or perhaps on personal projects is conceivable, for someone that shoots portraits every day and has to retouch quickly, this is simply not viable. A couple of tricks exist to help you go faster, while retaining a high quality and natural-looking image. I have listed four of them here with the hope that they will save you as much time as they do for me.

Math is awesome: it can help you uncover hidden trends and weaknesses that might be present in your work. With this free online tool, you can get a great breakdown of your camera and lens usage, your favorite apertures, and much more. Here's what I learned.

A few months ago, I showed you how we build out our new 10Gbps network using a Synology NAS device as our central server. This setup is protecting us from a hard drive failure, but our data still isn't 100 percent safe. In this video, I'll show you one simple step to protect your files from all types of data loss.

It should be that it goes without saying not to be a creepy photographer. Sadly, there are creeps out there and our profession is a "good fit" for a pervert trying to look at young women. That being said, we need to be extra careful to make sure we maintain our good reputation.

Lightroom offers us many powerful tools to adjust the brightness of some regions of a photograph. In this article, we will find out what the Basic Adjustments and the Tone Curve have in common – and what’s the difference between them.

In the last decade, drones have created a completely new genre of photography for the average consumer. Their biggest hurdle has been poor resolution and dynamic range but with these few tips, you can get a lot more detail out of your drone photography.

These are six of the most common mistakes I see photographers make in their editing regardless of skill level. This part will cover white balance, getting caught up in your histogram, and not spending enough time cropping.

Canon has just announced their brand new mirrorless cameras, the EOS R5 and EOS R6 (Thursday, July 9th, 2020), and the R5 especially seems to blur the lines between mirrorless and cinema quality thanks to its huge specs.

When I first began shooting headshots, it was a daunting task. Figuring out a rhythm for how a headshot session should go felt like an overwhelming problem. I slowly began to solve the problem through trial and error. It was when I began to realize that we have no control over almost anything in life that I began to find my own rhythm in this crazy photography business.

Ariana Grande may be everywhere at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped the chart-topper becoming the latest in an ever-expanding line of celebrities to face copyright laws. She is now being sued after posting paparazzi photos of herself to her Instagram page, so we ask, should photographers be paid for their usage of such images on Instagram?

Have you ever bought a piece of gear that promised to revolutionize your work or be the exact tool you needed just to find that it was a total dud? We all have those pieces sitting at the bottom of our gear closet that irk us every time they come in view. Alternately, we also all have pieces that have become our indispensable go-to’s that we can’t image shooting without. I asked five photographers to share their best and worst purchases. These juicy gear confessions are sure to land some pieces on your blacklist and others in your B&H cart.

Recently, I took a trip to Wichita, Kansas to see my sister get married. I packed up my camera, a few flashes, and my tripod for this trip with hopes of doing some photoshoots while in town. My two kids came out with me for this journey, and we ventured around the city.

When you are first starting with photography and developing your skills, it can be hard to know when and if to start pursuing selling your work as art prints. Is this the year you give it a try?

Although its business practices have shifted more than once since the Facebook takeover, most of us still love Instagram for its ease of use, reach, and simplicity. But today's app update makes little sense... today. On one hand, the new pinch-to-zoom update is extremely late. The iPhone had this feature since inception (granted, cell phone photos were hardly a thing prior to 2007). On the other hand however, Instagram’s linear photo resolution of 1,200 pixels already comes rather close to the native horizontal resolution of larger phones like the iPhone 6 Plus. Zooming into these photos optimized (read: downsized) for these displays looks absolutely dreadful. What are they thinking?

One of the biggest questions I get when photographers consult with me about managing their brand on Instagram is: "Should I create a business page separate from my personal page?" This discussion was started on the Instagram for Business group by Martin Bonden, who asked what I thought about creating a business page on top of a personal page, as opposed to having just the one. Here are a few reasons why I like to keep mine all in one page as a professional photographer.

Fujifilm is known for many things: great cameras at better prices, gorgeous film simulations, and having a lot of very similar but distinct cameras. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming about what is similar or different between models, so I thought I would put together this resource to break it down so you can be sure to get the best camera for your own personal use.

Tonight will be the first of three "supermoons" that will occur this summer. Supermoons are full moons that appear bigger and brighter than the other full moons throughout the year. As you probably suspect, this means that some of the best moon photographic opportunities await for those who come prepared. Here’s a helpful guide that will have you shootin’ for the [super]moon in no time.

The new year is upon us. In 2016, many of us will take on resolutions related to our photography. There’s probably not a more common resolution than the 365 project, where a photographer commits to publicly post one photo every day. Projects range in scope, theme, and popularity, but one thing is for sure: Most of us never complete it.

About 5 years ago, when I was still in my Photography college in Australia, our teachers would regularly introduce us to the new and noteworthy Australian photographers' and digital artists' work. Among others there was one artist, whose work really grabbed my attention and I have been watching her growth and success ever since.

I’ve been exploring alternative workflows to Adobe Photoshop ever since the company forced a subscription model on its users several years ago. For all its bugginess and performance problems, I keep coming back to it, because it still spits out the highest quality images for my purposes. But some of the competition is nipping at its heels.

It was big news when Adobe introduced a super-resolution function in Adobe Camera Raw. Although this kind of enlargement is not new, many photographers were excited. I know four ways to get super-resolution. Which method do you prefer?

Of the basic settings that our cameras have, potentially the easiest to get creative with is the aperture of your lens. Today, let’s take a look at five simple ways you can make creative images using your aperture.

All of your Lightroom development settings might be in your exported images. That's right, all of your adjustments, spot healings, tone curve adjustments, sharpening, etc. might all be in your exported files for all the world to see.

Some time ago, I wrote an article about the worst photography purchases I ever made. These were some specific things, as well as some categories of items. In this article, I will talk about some of the best purchases I was fortunate enough to make. Again, specific items.

I do mostly outdoor photography and anyone who does this can get bitten by the night sky bug. All those beautiful stars and the dramatic Milky Way beckon, but for many beginners it seems an impossible task. They think of needing tracking mounts, ultra-long exposures, and complicated processing. The good news is, it's not all that hard to get started with a fairly modest investment.

Until recently, my experience with Instagram was becoming increasingly lackluster, and I finally decided to take a step to fix that. I actually enjoy using the app again now.

One of the biggest challenges I hear from new boudoir photographers is how to move successfully and fluidly from one pose to the next during a session. Posing should not be stiff and rigid, or the end result will reflect the forced feeling. The last portion of all my boudoir sessions is on the floor. Quite frankly, that is where all the upsale images come from by maximizing the use of one pose into multiple selections.

Dirty backgrounds are something that most of us have had to deal with at some point. Sometimes, all we need to do is clean the background. Other times, it's actually better to do a full background replacement. The full replacement can be as subtle as eliminating shadows and sensor dust or something as drastic as changing the background color. In this tutorial, we go over an easy, but precise, way to do this.