Exclusive articles and expert opinions written by Fstoppers’ talented team of creative professionals. Here we cover everything from the latest photographic techniques to advice on running a successful photography business, to first hand accounts of working in the photography industry.
For those of us trying to expand our social media presence, Instagram has been the king for quite some time. So what happens when you put a little money into promoting yourself on Instagram? I tried it and here are the results.
My studio has become a second home, and I invest a lot of time and money into it. Recently, I have been restocking a few essentials I can’t live without while trying to make my shooting more efficient.
Flickr has been acquired by SmugMug, and the official date for the switchover is looming. Here is why now might be the time to back up everything, reach out to all your followers, and maybe think about deleting your account forever.
If you could speak to your camera, your tripod, and drone, what would you say? Would you use this feature? The use of our voices to command our gear is going to become even more important in the future.
Chances are you've seen this type of composition before. Well fortunately for you it's easy enough to do, so here's how to set it up.
Tourism in Japan is growing, and fast. According to JNTO, the estimated number of international travelers to Japan in March 2018 was about 2.6 million (+18.2 percent from the previous year), making it the biggest March ever. In 2020 the Summer Olympics will be hosted in Tokyo, and the city and country will have to cope with the resulting huge influx of tourists.
On May 8th, Fujifilm released their updated firmware for the X-T2 mirrorless camera. This takes the current firmware to version 4.0 and embodies Fujifilm’s Kaizen philosophy by making enormous changes to what the camera is able to do. Let’s take a look at it here.
Taking pictures of people or things that are old is a wonderful way to get your photos to tell more of a story. Check out the great finds our readers came up with this week and be sure grab the new theme to join in yourself.
This past February I had the great privilege of meeting Allan Henry, general manager and the main driving force behind the up-and-coming camera bag company Atlas Packs. After our first interaction, I knew that this product and company were doing something special.
One of the biggest questions photographers have when starting their business is if they’re pricing themselves correctly. Even seasoned professionals sometimes question whether their pricing is correct. Here are a few tips to ensure you’re pricing realistically and accurately for your services.
Sometimes, just sometimes, you have the head-slapping moment where you utter the immortal words "Why didn't I think of that?" When it comes to camera systems you might modify that to "Why didn't my camera manufacturer think of that?"
A few months ago I wrote about the higher end luxury finds for your boudoir wardrobe closet. In those instances where a client has either brought unflattering pieces or that she is relying on your to help guide her in looks, having these backups are perfect to get more looks for bigger sales. While having a closet can be helpful, it also does not have to break the bank if you are just starting out or like to change things up constantly.
It's always frustrating as a photographer to spend time shooting, editing, and printing an image only to see different results throughout various steps of your workflow.
As you begin to get bigger and bigger jobs, it will soon be increasingly obvious that much of your success will be derived from the team members you choose to surround yourself with. No matter how good you may be, having an equally if not more qualified team surrounding you can make the difference between an average photograph and a great one.
Through editing photos, many people aim to produce work that remains grounded in truth while still adding a bit of themselves and their personal vision to it. Using ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1 software, a fully featured all-in-one image editor, here’s how to leverage a few of its most powerful tools to tell your story.
As professional photographers, there's no doubt in our minds that making photography into a career should be considered "a real job." However, the path you take to become a professional may make or break your career choice.
Seascapes has always fascinated me!.I do not have a preferred vision for seascapes; I love both minimalistic and simple versions, as well as those highly dramatic ones full of action and movement. Here, I will share some of my tips on creating the latter.
Unless you live in the big metropolitan cities like New York or Los Angeles, photographing models is easier said than done. That's because any chance of success in the industry, and the models move to the bigger hubs. That will not change, but there are opportunities to photograph models in generally any location and that's what I did with this tutorial.
Working in studio presents a ton of lighting options, so how do you choose? Here are some examples of different light set ups that will give you variety in your work.
You’ve probably captured some stunning travel photography from your last couple trips. But months later, your library is still full of unfinished photos. Nothing seems to bring out the potential that’s hiding in plain sight: curves, drastic white balance changes, various crops, random techniques on YouTube. So, they remain in post-production purgatory.
I live in a small city far from popular landscape photography locations and seemingly devoid of fellow photographers. I oftentimes find myself feeling a bit alone in the creative process. To remedy this, I went online to find peers and look for resources to get constructive feedback on my work. I ended up meeting someone who helped me improve my work and whose generosity took me completely by surprise.
When looking at lighting, you have a lot of choices with companies like Profoto, Broncolor, Elinchrom, Paul C. Buff, Godox, and others. Have you asked yourself if the lights from those companies fit how and where you shoot? Does it makes sense to buy that $2,000 strobe or would a couple cheap speedlites achieve your vision?
We are all addicted to tutorials; at least, I know I am. I'm also addicted to food, so I need to double up my free time. My goal was to come up with an easy way to watch all the tutorials on my iPad. Sure, you could copy the tutorial files onto your iPad, but if you are like me and have a lot more content than would fit on the iPad and don't want to keep putting on and taking it off, there is a better way!
If you're trying to build a profitable business, you've probably heard people say you need to build an email list and do email marketing. But is that really so? And what kind of time and resources does it take to actually create an email list? Let’s go through it all and see why I don’t think email marketing is really worth it.
You've used your inkjet to print edge-to-edge A4s and A3s, then wanted to upsize, so you went to an online printer for a canvas or a poster. They get pretty big at 45" by 30". Wanting to go bigger? Try a wall covering!
There is something to be said about social media for photography. Apps and sites like Instagram, 500px, and Flickr have way of tapping into our innate drive to create work that satisfy others. When treated right, social media can keep you motivated to produce. This week's article is about how keeping up the production rate is no measure for creating from the heart. Photography should, at least in the first place, be for you.
No, I don't mean car chases, transforming CG robots, and explosions. I'm talking about small budget videos and films that sometimes require a lot more investment than you or your clients might think.
There's no such thing as too many (photography) podcasts.
Photography can be split into two different categories. On the one side, photography is used to document something for your memories, like the photos your parents took of you when you were a baby. On the other, photography is used to document something for the purpose of sharing and for others to see.
Some of the strongest photographs utilize shadows to enhance the mood of a photo as well as sculpt the light. Mastering the art of seeing shadows and learning how to capture them in an interesting way can greatly improve your photography.
As creatives, many times it is hard to place focus on organization rather than creating images. Without organization your life can become chaotic and disruptive to your workflow. A few tips to help take back your space and your sanity could mean the difference between booking or losing your next client.
One feature of our digital cameras that evolves with every single generation of sensors and processors is ISO performance. With astronomical ISO numbers now available, just how high should you push your ISO?
I don’t get to shoot landscapes as often as I’d like, but when I do, I try to maximize the time I have in a place to the fullest extent. Many times, that’s just waking up for sunrise while my relatives snooze their alarms on a family trip, but eventually, when I started planning my own adventures, I had a hard time figuring out where to start until I discovered an incredible tool.
Running a photography business and gaining new clients is exciting, but sometimes clients have unreasonable requests. Here’s how to respond to a client when you have to tell them “no.”
Ever felt bad for photographing an iconic location? I have been part of the landscape photography community for some years now and I have heard many different opinions; some very strong and even demeaning, such as “photographing iconic locations makes you a bad photographer”.
Today marks 10 years since I first filed paperwork to start my photography business. It's been quite the roller coaster, and I've learned a lot of things about photography, business, and myself that I didn't expect. Here are some of the highlights from my first 10 years.
I always wanted to shoot the portraits of a classic Bharatanatyam dancer, but by adding a modern touch to the 2000-year-old traditional dance form. Here is how we created dramatic dancer portraits with a little technique and lots of imagination.
I was never really into photo series but over the summer that kind of changed with my island series. Today, I find myself shooting similar things over and over again. In the end, I think that photo series can be a really cool way to showcase your work and interests over time.
Color gels are a lot of fun to work with and when done well can add a certain oomph to your photo. It can also be intimidating and hard to get just right. And when I say just right, even that itself is very subjective. Some people prefer it to be subtle while others want the color to dominate in the image. There are also photographers who only use it for color balancing.
A recent trip down memory lane reminded me that sometimes the best place to look for something new, is a to remember something old.
Surprisingly often, simple courtesy is overlooked by photographers when hired to perform work as a peer. These principles sure seem like common sense, so what could be the problem? Take a look at these basic standards of professionalism.
Last week, Sony announced the overall winner of the 2018 World Photo Awards. British photographer Alys Tomlinson was awarded the €25,000 prize for her project documenting pilgrimage sites in France, Ireland and Poland.
Composite photography can seem overwhelming, particularly when trying to tell a story and using photographic elements from different locations. Let me break down how I created this narrative piece to provide some helpful insight.
Do you ever feel like you are swimming upstream, trying to keep all of the facets of your busy schedule together as a freelance photographer? There are countless articles, blogs, and books about how to separate your work and free time to improve job satisfaction and productivity, but the secret is not about improving your work-life balance, it’s about ignoring the perception of a work-life balance altogether.
There's nothing quite like holding a high-quality print of your own work in your hands. Except, maybe when it's something that you've printed yourself.
Breathing new life into your studio space shoot after shoot doesn't have to be difficult and it doesn't have to be expensive. With just a few simple DIY tricks, it's actually pretty easy to transform a plain white studio space into a stunning set.
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 2017, 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.
Creative pursuits are inherently two-headed beasts. We are all too familiar with being passionate about photography, so much so that we can sink all of our spare time and a good portion of our money in it. Especially when you travel with photography in mind, landscape photography can start to become a trophy hunt. And I can’t blame you. Travel is expensive enough, so you want to make your shots count, right? In this article, I want to present a new way of looking for meaningful shots that may be more interesting to you in the long run.
I’m going to come right out and say it. Instagram saved my photography life. Today, I’ll show you how Instagram changed everything for me and how it can really help you too.
You'd be surprised how just a few extra items packed in your camera bag could help you to steer away from many problems that may arise while out on a shoot. Consider adding these 16 objects to your photographic arsenal.
