Fstoppers Original Articles

One of the most important underlying themes in being a successful photographer is streamlining your workflow. That may be in how to edit photos quickly, how to organize video files, how to quickly produce invoices, or any number of tasks that you have to perform over and over again. One aspect of my business where I found myself wasting a lot of time was in my battery charging. In today's video, I'm going to outline how Fstoppers created our battery charging station and how you too can make your life a lot easier as you prepare for the next day's photoshoot.

Almost every hobbyist photographer has considered making the transition to full-time professional. Similarly, almost every professional photographer has made that transition from hobbyist to professional. There are myriad factors why that career move isn't always possible and a great deal of them stem from the central notion of money, or lack thereof. Whether you want to organically build your photography from hobby to side-hustle and then to a career or you merely want to improve you earnings in any of those categories, developing a niche can make a crucial difference.

Having Canon post one of your images to social media is a worthy accolade for any photographer. However, if they do so without crediting the artist, it devalues it somewhat. It's devalued further when your work only comprises half of the image in a re-edited composite. Any value left at this point is then stripped away when the image in question wasn't even taken with a Canon.

Angle is everything. It's often the difference between a mediocre shot and a legendary one. Ansel Adams once said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” It turns out he was actually pretty off because it's actually all about where you kneel, lay, and hang.

For the next episode of Critique the Community, we would like to invite Fstoppers members to send over their best Family Portraits for feedback. Your submission can include families, kids, or babies. We will keep submissions open through Friday, January 12th, at midnight and will release the feedback from Lee and Patrick early next week. Make sure to check out the guidelines below to make sure the picture you provide is eligible to be chosen.

Recording clean audio is extremely important but can also be infuriating. Finally, after seven years, we've found a system that seems to work... most of the time.

Kodak made a number of surprising announcements Tuesday regarding its involvement in cryptocurrency, including the creation of its own, KodakCoin. But nothing risks its name more than the actual Bitcoin mining operation that is rather misleading to likely unwitting consumers, and all at a potential benefit to the company that’s rather uncertain.

Social media recently blew up over H&M's controversial hoodie ad, which features a black boy modeling a sweatshirt stating "Coolest monkey in the jungle." Other sweatshirts from the same line, stating "Survival expert," were modeled by white children. Clearly the images of the young models are filled with racist undertones. But is it realistic to think that H&M didn't even think of a possible issue? How does this reflect the photographers who took the image? And why have we yet to learn from our mistakes in the industry?

So you received a fancy new DSLR or mirrorless camera for Christmas, or immediately went to the local electronics store with your wallet resembling George Costanzas’ from “Seinfeld,” filled to the brim with holiday gift cards, and picked yourself a kit that has everything you need to conqueror the photography trenches, including not one but two lenses. You may be asking yourself, why would people not buy this? Buying just a camera body when this is such a good deal, makes little sense when you're first starting out. If this is sounding anything remotely close to recent thoughts you’ve had, stick around. In all honesty, I wish I would have had a few of these pointers when I got started in photography.

I’ve written extensively about it before, but, like most business lessons, the message bears repeating. In a marketplace simply inundated with competition from around the globe, it has never been more important for photographers to find their specific niche in the marketplace.

The votes are in, and you've helped to choose our Fstoppers Photographer of the Year! We've also randomly selected one member who voted to receive a free Fstoppers tutorial of their choice!

Every change that Instagram has introduced since it went mainstream has been a step backwards for photographers. It's reached the point that, although I still post a few times a week, my love for the platform died a long time ago, and watching it stumble towards nothing but selfies and adverts is heartbreaking. Here are my biggest gripes, in no particular order.

As you all know, we are currently pushing ourselves here at Fstoppers HQ to produce 30 videos for the month of January. Patrick Hall didn't want me to miss out on the fun, so he challenged me to recolor an image. Not an old black and white one, but an image he took with our new Nikon D850. Want to give it a try too? You could win a free tutorial if you've got what it takes to colorize an image.

Photographing children can be a fun and rewarding experience, or it can be a stressful and daunting one. Ultimately, the type of experience and success you have photographing children is on you. In no particular order, here are a few tips that can help make working with children a little more rewarding.

GoPro is trading at a dismal 6.5 percent of its $98.47 all-time high. It had dropped even more following a disappointing earnings call that announced lower-than-expected performance and upcoming layoffs, but before an unnamed source shared news with CNBC of GoPro's request to JP Morgan to help it find a buyer several months ago. With its inability to turn sales around, it's not a surprise GoPro is looking for a way out. But who would want the company? GoPro CEO Nick Woodman seems to think Facebook might.

A tenth of a second is all it takes - yes, the blink is a marvel of human physiology that clears dust away from the eye and helps lubricate the eyeball. We have learned to cope with momentary blackout by suppressing those parts of the brain that monitor visual change, in a manner similar to the way we are able to ignore our blindspot caused by the optic nerve entering the eye. So why the hell do I often end up photographing people with their eyes closed?!

It's been a while since we've sat down to critique of the Fstoppers images but we're back with the series for our 30 videos in 30 days challenge. To commemorate our recent tutorial with Monte Isom, we filmed a new episode of Critique the Community which will focus on commercial images. A few days ago, we asked the community to submit their work for us to choose from. Since the definition of commercial imagery encompasses a wide variety of subject matters, we chose 20 varied images to give some feedback to. Do you agree with Chelsey and Lee's commentary on the images below?

Wider was always better when I first began photographing landscapes. As an amateur photographer and outdoor enthusiast, all I wanted to do was cut down on weight in my pack when heading off on long, adventure-filled days in the mountains. But slowly my focus shifted from going out to hike, while maybe capturing beautiful moments, to fully focusing my time and attention on capturing beautiful landscapes. Hiking became the mode of transportation while photography became the reason for heading to the mountains.

Want to start the new year with a free tutorial from Fstoppers? All you have to do is help us choose our Photographer of the Year!

One of the most common complaints among Adobe Lightroom’s users is the issue of it restricting your catalog access to a single computer. Photographers who travel often or studios with multiple editors have continually looked for options that would allow them to sync their edits across several computers conveniently. If you search the web, you can find a few workarounds for this problem, but none that are as simple most photographers would like. However, the creation of the new Lightroom CC has opened up several new possibilities, including a simple option to easily edit your images from multiple computers.

Fstoppers has created an entire tutorial on the basics of photography, Photography 101. Today, we are releasing a free excerpt from the tutorial that shows the inner workings of a DSLR camera and how it is you actually take a picture with it. In addition to our free excerpt, we are offering a discount on the full tutorial, simply use code "INTRO" at checkout to save $50. This discount will expire on January 22nd.

Earlier this week, Fstoppers creators Patrick Hall and Lee Morris posted a tongue-in-cheek video that mocked photographers’ very real lust for the perfect bag. I hope you all got a great laugh out of that just like I did. We’ve all been in Hall's position, watching a seemingly endless pile of gear come out of someone else’s bag. Today, I thought I’d go through the five bags I use on a regular basis for both my work in Seoul and my travel work.

It's a phrase I've heard countless times, and I doubt I'm the only photographer to hear it: "Wow! Right place at the right time, huh?" Whether it's a photo of my children, a wildlife shot capturing a decisive moment, or a seemingly once-in-a-lifetime landscape, viewers often think we just got lucky to capture an incredible photo. In their minds, they only see how they would have gone about capturing that shot, which often is the simple three-step process of raise camera, point, shoot.

Today the behind-the-scenes series of “Photographing The World 3” continues with Episode 7. In the last three episodes, things have not been going very well for us. The food has been bad, the weather has been worse, and we've been struggling to finish lessons for the tutorial. Luckily, in Episode 7, things start to look up.

If you've ever wondered where photographers are getting this gorgeous colored powder for portraits, stock imagery, and dance photos, it turns out it's very easy and affordable to make at home. This powder can be used in endlessly creative ways to add an eye-catching unique and fine art element to your studio or outdoor photography. Clients and followers love seeing these fun images, and it's an absolute blast to photograph.

The long-running battle between camera companies is something that will always exist. Forums and article comment sections will always have some type of argument about who has the better high ISO or dynamic range, how Canon has better color than Nikon or why full frame is better than a crop sensor. But when it comes to how a camera company treats the end user, I think everyone could learn a lesson from Fujifilm.

Every time I post a story on Instagram of me flying in the snow, I tend to get a couple of people reaching out to me with questions. “You can fly in the snow?” “Does the cold weather affect the drone?” “Is the drone waterproof?” and so on. When I first flew in the snow, I was definitely worried about how the drone would do up there, but after a few flights in it, I now know that I can trust it as long as I take the right steps while flying.

Photography gear keeps getting better and better, with 2017 bringing us some great products. The Fstoppers team has been working on a list of our favorite gear of the past year, and we're happy to present it now. Here's the top photography gear of 2017.

Here we are on day five of our 30 for 30 where we are releasing 30 videos to the Fstoppers YouTube Channel the entire month of January. Yesterday Charleston, South Carolina was hit with the biggest snowstorm in over 25 years. I decided to team up with my crazy friend Bryan Young and take ski portraits around town. The resulting images are pretty hilarious and are definitely once in a lifetime photographs.

The new year is the perfect time to look back over the past 12 months and celebrate your successes, but more importantly, to start growing from your failures. When you know your weaknesses, you can make goals for overcoming them. One of the best ways to strengthen your work is to learn skills focused specifically on your goals, which is easier than ever with Skillshare. And for a limited time, they’re offering our readers a special New Year offer of three months of Skillshare for just $0.99. Keep reading to find out how Skillshare can help you accomplish your goals this year.

When it comes to landscape photography, preparation and using the right tools go a long way to get that perfect shot. Tripods, filters, or even drones can all take your image to that next level. However, many photographers don’t give enough importance or time to the editing process of their images. With software that combines multiple tools into one program and simplified non-destructive editing, ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 can make it easier to experiment with new edits on overlooked images and even save some of those over or underexposed captures.

The art in hands placement has been a tough subject for many photographers. Letting the client rest a hand rarely ends in an image filled with emotion or story. Knowing the simple techniques behind how to guide your client in where to place the hand, how to move them during the session, and how to convey emotion through the soft touch of the hand will take your session to a new level.

For this week's list of "frozen," I would recommend gloves or mittens and possibly a nice cup of hot chocolate. Just looking at some of these frigid shots has a tenancy to induce shivering. Wait until you see the winner, I would venture to say the shot was 100 percent meant to land on our list.

Our video lighting of choice has become the Flex lights by Westcott. They are portable and extremely bright, but they certainly aren't cheap. Now, there is a cheaper option, but should you buy it?

Just when you thought that your camera has all of the resolving power you will ever need with a 50- or even a 100-megapixel sensor, a new king of the hill has arrived on the scene and the comparison to what you have isn’t even close. With 1.5 billion pixels of CCD goodness, this camera smashes the ceiling on resolution and is sure to be the envy of anyone who cares about such things.

Sharp has released an 8K television. It should wonderfully compliment their 8K ENG camcorder. Now that 4K is so 2017, why don’t we look at how much an upgrade will cost?

So it’s January and you still haven’t taken the Christmas tree down yet? Perfect. Now’s a great time to play with one of the little-used but most fun modes of that new camera you got for the holidays. And if you didn’t get a camera, you can use the mode to breathe some new life into your old camera and photograph the things you (or in this case, my son) got as gifts. Friends, I’m talking about multiple exposure mode.

Whether you know it or not, psychology plays a big role in successful pricing strategies for both products and services. Our brains are wired to pick up on subtle cues when it comes to weighing the value of something. So how do we successfully price our photography services? Here are a few tips to help you restructure your pricing for a successful year.

Somehow, every three months, a new bag manufacturer figures out a way to bend the laws of physics to make a smaller bag that holds even more gear.

Welcome to the new year. As a new set of days arrives, I wanted to share a quick thought on one thing all photographers should remember, but can be easy to forget.

Fstoppers is happy to announce we're bringing back Critique the Community in 2018. We invite everyone to submit your best commercial image to be critiqued by the Fstoppers team. We are keeping this first critique of 2018 pretty vague and broad, so if you think your image is "commercial" then submit in the comments below! Please follow the guidelines for submissions below to ensure eligibility for your image to be chosen. We will be accepting submissions through Thursday night, January 4, and will be offering feedback to a total of 20 pictures.

Stefano Carnelli is an Italian photographer living in London and Berlin, shooting socially-engaged, documentary images on medium-format film with a particular interest in the relationship between people and landscapes. His recent project, “Transumanza,” explores the lives of shepherds and their flocks in the Po Valley of northern Italy, examining how their historic traditions have changed in response to globalization and an ever-shifting landscape.

At the onset of a portrait shoot it is important to come packing the usual garden variety of a few safe jokes to lighten the mood, some fail-proof poses to keep things moving, and direction for the model to play off of. It is easy to forget, with all the headspace that pours into reflecting the images from inside of our heads, towards reality, that when the time comes to start working with our subject, we are not just setting a tone visually, but also emotionally. One simple way personally for me to connect and as well bring additional personality out of a model is via the universal power of music, which has long played a predominant role in my life.

Recently, Nikon released the D850, which is the latest upgrade to their high-megapixel DSLR line of cameras. Like the models that preceded it, the D850 stands as one of the most groundbreaking cameras in terms of image quality, speed, and resolution. I wanted to take this new camera for a test drive and see just how significant these upgrades actually are. Welcome to Ireland, everybody; this is my personal D850 review!

I'm a very technical guy, probably to the point of being a little obsessive. Today I wanted to talk about technical skill and quality versus emotion.

It's the time of the year in which rankings appear all around the Internet spotlighting the best performers of the past 12 months. But what about the worst? As the French writer Beaumarchais once said, “Without Freedom to blame, there is no flatterer's praise.” Here is my take at the worst 2017 camera, the Canon 6D Mark II.

I believe that upon our journey in whatever craft you choose, we encounter people who not only inspire, but assist in pushing us to grow more, and photographer Lucas Passmore has been exactly that for me. Initially, from the Midwest, Lucas is a fashion photographer living in Los Angeles. His regards for the history of photography, ability to capture a moment, and willingness to give back to those new to the photography community made him the perfect person to highlight in my first interview.

Clichéd new year resolutions are as much of a tradition of the holidays as building snowmen and eggnog. Why not change things up a bit this year and set yourself a resolution which is related to helping you grow as a photographer. Here are 10 promises worth trying to keep in 2018.

By the time you're reading this, it may already be or soon will be 2018. So first of all, I hope that you have or had a great New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I hope that creatively, its been a great year for everyone out there and I hope that 2018 has only the best in store for us. This is a fun time of year that offers us a chance to relax a bit and reflect on the year that has past. We create, we grow, we change, and we get better. This is the time to look back over our work and simply enjoy what we've done in the year 2017.

We all know the term, and as cringe-worthy as it can sound, it doesn't negate it's importance: networking. Along with "entrepreneur," the word "networking" gets thrown around a lot in today's millennial-run world full of social media highlight reels and "try-hard" antics. But networking, in the purest sense of the word, is an absolute necessity in our industry of creative entrepreneurship. There are opportunities around you that you will never be privy to unless you start cultivating genuine relationships with the creators in your extended circles. Not only that, but there is a vast pool of resources and knowledge that you could be tapping into.