Fstoppers Original Articles

Achieving soft, directional light outdoors can be difficult. Sure, you can use an overcast day for soft, natural light, but often, this will not give you the most flattering light on your subject's face. In this video, we use my largest light modifier to see how you can turn an overcast day into a professional looking catalog image.

Posing is an art and technique that must be honed. Many photographers may feel they're in a rut with posing or that their routine is lacking. Here are a few reasons why your posing may seem lackluster.

If I were shooting portraits on a desert island and could only take one lens with me, it would be hard to leave my 70-200mm behind. After picking up a Canon 16-35mm for a trip to Scotland, though, I've found myself using it more and more often when I have people in front of my lens.

I'll start by saying that I have never been a good writer. Words never came naturally to me, and this became a huge problem when I started having to reply to work emails. However, I worked on it and can now share my best email templates with you.

What does it take to win an internationally respected photography competition? A few weeks ago, the Sony World Photo Awards announced their winners, one of whom was Fstoppers community member Mikkel Beiter, who won two awards: Open Travel and Denmark National Award. We caught up with him to find out about his work and his prize-winning photograph.

For a lot of us who are chasing a career in photography, we soon come to a bit of a pinch point. We have thrown all our money into cameras, computers, lenses, and lights, so our house is a mess of kit clutter. Here's how to build your own dedicated studio.

Besides your camera, your phone is probably the most important tool for a successful photography trip. So if your laptop was stolen, could you get by with your smartphone? Would it be handicapped without a cellular connection?

Working with clients on a day-to-day basis, it can be very easy to fall into a creative rut, using the same go-to posing, styling, and scenery for the simple reason we know what will sell during a client viewing appointment. For the business aspect, this is very efficient when selling images. For the artist, many feel the need for something more by pushing the creative limits. A little adventure is all it may take to get geared back up and into the creative mindset.

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.

Planning may be one of the most important things when it comes to taking the aerial photos you want. A lot of the stuff I shoot is mapped out thoroughly so I can plan days and times to go shoot what I have in mind.

Grand Canyon National Park is nothing short of epic. With rich natural history and mind-blowing scenery, most people have at least heard of this natural wonder. But who has tried to capture the Canyon's beauty and grace (Many!)? And who has done it successfully? That's open to debate.

In the past few years, the growing number of wedding photographers and their vast range of prices have made finding your value as a photographer challenging. This series of articles will help you to navigate your prices to meet your goals and earn your worth as a wedding photographer.

Having spent years photographing the night sky from the Milky Way to exploding meteors to man-made space junk disintegrating in the atmosphere, I thought I had seen it all. Then I drove as far north into Canada as you can possibly go, and everything changed.

Well, it has been about a year since I published one of my first popular articles titled "Why Us Average Joe Photographers Suck at Instagram" and I think it's time to update some things. If you think I'm better off now with thousands of new followers and busy influencing left and right, you'll be disappointed.

Blogging has always been a sore spot for photographers. After all, we didn’t become photographers to write, but instead, we became photographers to take photos. So why, then, is blogging necessary for a successful photography business?

If you've spent 10 minutes behind the camera, chances are someone has asked you, "What do I do with my hands?" For women, the possibilities range from graceful, balletic caresses to angular, fashion-driven poses. But, what do you with with men? These are my top three tips to always have an answer.

The 2018 wedding season is quickly approaching for many of us. Long days, bridezillas, constantly on the move, all for that amazing shot the couple will look back on decades later to reminisce about their special day.

Have you ever wondered what it took to make your vision come to life? In this personal project, in the last four weeks of my senior year, I captured 365 portraits of my high school class and brought together an entire community through the portraits.

This photo is striking. Skimming through the archives at the Library of Congress, I was immediately drawn to this image. But why?

Before anything else, this is the one lens every Sony mirrorless shooter should own. And no, it’s not part of their premium and pricey G Master line.

There is a change happening in work culture. Bosses are more open to telecommuting and being a freelancer can be thought of as being the answer to a modern day working life. Here are some tools and comparisons to provide the best fit for you and the business stage you are in.

Recently a member of the Fstoppers Facebook group posted a confession with a simple question: Who else uses their left eye to look through the camera's viewfinder? I was shocked by the results.

When a client hands a portrait photographer their hard-earned money, they want to see a photograph of themselves they feel great about. Light is a key aspect in producing such a photo, but how is a photographer supposed to choose which lighting style works for their client?

So, you’ve been told time and time again that royalty free music is the way to go when it comes to selecting beats for your videos. But part of you can’t help but wonder about the alternatives.

Let's be honest, how often do we get perfect conditions where everything just simply falls in the right place?

Monitor color calibration is a desperately boring activity to undergo, let alone discuss. However, if you're a photographer who wants to get serious about their work, it's utterly paramount.

I've recently returned from Hokkaido, Japan, where I spent a week doing research for my 2019 photo tour.

You might think it’s rude, but there’s a time and a place that having a pair of buds in your ear can help you get the shot.

What does it take to document a 2,000-kilometer run deep in the scorching-hot Namibia desert for over four weeks straight? And how is it possible to edit, upload, and share videos and photographs completely off the grid? Just ask Travel, Lifestyle, and Adventure Photographer Ryan Richardson from Life Outside Studios for the answer.

There are quite a lot of complaints like: "Canon won't release a 4K video camera." At the end of the day, most photographers and filmmakers publish visuals online, and most viewers watch them on sub-2K mobile devices. Here's how much resolution you truly need.

While I'm pretty sure we said the theme was "macro" this week, I think everyone heard "bugs" instead. That's okay with me since Spring is finally here so let's check out the insanely insect-heavy list and find out this week's theme.

In the digital world it may almost seem as though selling albums or wall art would be a thing of the past. The majority of clients will want to post their session to social media and go about their day. As photographers, it is up to us to educate the client about the importance of having a physical piece of art as well as the right type of art for their home.

Let’s face it: a lot of times, when you see a kit of anything, it’s not a good deal. Often, the cost of the kit isn’t worth it. Last week, I talked about Canon’s Advanced Two Lens Kit and how I thought it wasn’t the best deal for those looking to up their photography game. This week, I’m taking a look at Canon’s other kit, the Portrait and Travel Two-lens Kit. Spoiler alert: It’s actually a pretty good deal.

Around two weeks ago, Lee and I made a bet over my image, "Atlas and the Sun." In a limited 50 print run the goal was to sell 49 in ten days and make Lee buy the last one to place above his desk.

We all have to start somewhere. Taking on that first job can be very intimidating, so here are some tips to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible.

Next time you sit down for an editing session, do your eyes and brain a favor and remember to zoom out more frequently. Don't forget that any given image is a whole piece, more than just details.

When you run a photography business, client leads are everything. However, if you can’t get potential leads to respond to you, your business can flounder. Here are a few reasons why potential clients may not be getting back to you after they initially reach out.

Here in NJ we are lucky enough to have four seasons: Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. Maybe I shouldn't say "lucky" because it would be nice to have warmer weather year-round but the seasons do make for taking great photos. Though it's the first week of spring, we were just slammed with another big snow-storm and hopefully the last.

The character of your portraits is conveyed by many different elements, but a crucial one is the eyes of your subject. In this short tutorial, I’ll show you how to make eyes pop without making them look fake.

Today I take a trip down memory lane to identify a few of the television commercials that, for me, have exceeded the level of infomercial pitch to touch the mantle of enveloping art. As with any "tops of all time list," these are thoughts are completely subjective, but I'll do my best to explain my thinking behind each choice and hopefully, my list will inspire you to start thinking of your own.

Photographers get your resumes and portfolios updated. A recent search lead to some interesting opportunities for the right people with varying degrees of experience.

There are simply no shortcuts to building a career as a freelance photographer. Making money out of something you love is really hard, but it absolutely can be done.

Photographers always find themselves obsessed with exciting toys like camera bodies and lenses but it is often the overlooked items that can make the biggest impact on a shoot. When packing your camera bag always try to find space for a few invaluable tools to common challenges during any shoot. Below you will find some of my favorite little lifesavers that join me every time I shoot.

The sky usually plays an important role in shaping the mood and tone of the pictures you make while photographing outdoors. If mother nature doesn't want to cooperate and give you a desirable sky while shooting, a stock image could help save the day.

Does true love really exist? In this heartwarming photo series, photos capture a 90-year-old couple who have just celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary together.

The internet and social media are littered with photographs of guitars. Some awe-inspiring, others not so much. So how does one breath life into a stringed instrument without strumming or picking the strings?

When it comes to shooting portraits, photographers almost always reach for an 85mm lens or even the 70 - 200 mm lens. As great as these two lenses are for portraits, they often fall short when trying to capture an environmental style photograph. In this video, I'm going to show you the most widely used lens in my camera bag and how shooting wide angle can sometimes create a better photograph than shooting telephoto.

If you want to preserve your photos, it is a great idea to make certain you have a backup system in place. As obvious as that sounds, there are still more than a few out there who live life on the edge, and have yet to be bothered with backing up their work. For those of you I offer this inexpensive, and mostly automated, Apple specific backup option you can put in place today.

First things first, personal work is incredibly important. Client work often pays the bills but the most fundamental personal development you’re going to experience is when you take your vision and execute it. I would say that applies to just about anyone and certainly to photographers.

In between my music and photography work, I have a lot of hard drives. But even so, I've never had one fail, until just two days ago. It went without warning: no crunching sounds, no notifications, just a red light.