Fstoppers Original Articles

A week and a half ago we asked the community to submit their best environmental portraits to be critiqued by Lee and Patrick. We got some awesome submissions and one lucky entrant won a free Fstoppers tutorial.

Our next episode of Critique the Community will offer a slightly different take on landscape photography as we will be focusing only on shots taken over 50mm. Submit your best telephoto landscape or cityscape shot below and receive a chance to win a free Fstoppers original tutorial.

After many long months of waiting, my new D850 has finally arrived! If you read my previous article about the joy/trauma of being on backorder, you’ll probably have some inkling of how excited I am at the moment. But as this is not my first new arrival and most, if not all of you, have experienced the same situation, I thought I’d take a moment to try and describe our universal moment.

Some people are naturally very cluttered while others try to take a very minimalist approach. Does your workspace reflect your personality?

Are you thinking of designing and outfitting a portrait studio? I recently did just that, and through a little research and a lot of trial and error, I discovered some great, versatile finds that make life in a photography studio much easier.

The in-between stages of fashion photography can be knowing which ideas for stories serve best as test shoots and which are worth pushing forward as a full editorial. Do the benefits of a cohesive editorial outweigh the efforts required to make it? This article breaks down the steps required from idea to execution.

A few months ago, Fstoppers released “Photographing The World 3” with Elia Locardi. This 18-hour tutorial covers everything you could want to know about landscape and cityscape photography.

Most landscape photographers argue that scouting locations ahead of time creates the best final product. I beg to differ.

The voyage we opted to take is exactly that, an adventurous voyage and not a straight, smooth road to success. Remember that when you doubt yourself and question your potential. Unlike most occupations, the artist has no roadmap for their success. We’re not handed a list of classes to take in a preferred order created by the educational institute.

There are endless benefits to using strobes over continuous hot lights, but there is one drawback: sometimes, you may actually want to capture motion blur.

I would never have guessed that a simple prompt like "green" could have produced such amazing results this week. Our readers really showed up with arguably the best top 10 list yet.

There's much to be said about enriching the photography industry through positive and honest collaborations between professionals, but one thing I think we don't talk about enough is the benefits of shooting weddings with a trusted second shooter and how it can benefit your business and even your wellbeing.

Sometimes it’s the simplest things that help you appreciate your spare time. When you’re constantly driven to create, not having a personal project stewing can be agonizing the way nails to a chalkboard stab at more than just your ear drums.

My social media feeds are full of awesome photographs at epic locations taken by talented photographers. So, why don’t any of them want to tell the Internet where they got the shot?

Fujifilm has recently announced the X-H1, a larger APS-C mirrorless camera that leans more towards the video crowd. Although this camera is definitely an interesting one, I can't help but feel a little disappointed with the features.

There are all kinds of photographers out there. Those who shoot fashion, products, street, editorial, and all manner of other genres. There are those who trust Canon, those who worship Sony, and those who swear a Leica is the only camera you need. We all have our different gear and varied subjects, but there is one thing that unifies us all. We all make photographs. What is it that makes all these different photographers with their myriad gear make photographs? Why do they release the shutter?

One Minnesota photographer is working to dig beneath the pretty surface in an effort to show women the beauty they hold within. In the process, she is building a living legacy for her daughter, one that she only recently began to see in herself.

Ever wondered how people created those "impossible" photos of them sitting off the ground? Here I teach how to make a levitation photo in just under 10 minutes using some simple tricks in camera and finishing it off with Photoshop.

The Poynter Institute bills itself as a global leader in journalism. For decades, journalists have turned to the Florida-based organization's workshops, resources, and staff to learn about and advance journalism. For a time, that seemed to include the visuals side as well, but if a recent article and the furor around it is any indication, it looks like photojournalists are no longer welcome to the party. It's a sad development to see unfold, and it's not a good look for the storied journalism institution.

Imagine a world of no brands — no Wal-Mart, Google, HSBC, or Canon. Is that the sort of world we would want to inhabit?

For many photographers, separating your subject from the background can be a time-consuming nightmare. What if you could just click your camera's shutter once and have a perfect mask ready in your camera? Freemask by Hensel lets you do that.

“It’s like a Mercedes-Benz. You drive it off the lot, it loses half its value," says artist Peter Lik, describing his own work. This brutal article from the New York Times examines the extraordinary amounts of money that people continue to spend on Lik's work and how he has created his own speculative — and lucrative — economy.

Practicing photography as a hobby versus building a business upon your photography are two very different monsters. Running a successful photography business is what distinguishes a pro from an amateur. Without the proper preparations or knowledge, your budding photography business can quickly flounder. Here’s what you need to know if you’re thinking of turning your hobby into a professional business.

In a mobile world filled with an endless selection of preset filters, there are surprisingly few options to employ more creative color grading that is driven by specific choice rather than by simply perusing a gallery of presets. ACDSee Pro for iOS is one of the few apps that look to bridge this gap with an array of powerful color grading tools that emulate the color grading freedom of desktop editing.

When I talk to a lot of photographers, they seem to think that business and creativity are at odds with each other. Being a salesperson and an artist just don't go together, right? I think we've just been mislead on what it really means to sell.

Photographing behind the scenes at any large power producing area can be difficult not only to obtain entry but also to capture the massive scale to do the area justice. The areas are normally bustling with workers, smoke from the machines, and dust from the ground. Traveling to these destinations, however, will help show the world just what goes on behind that power that they use daily.

After receiving yet another email stating that my new camera order is still backordered, it is becoming even more difficult to fight the urge to look at other options.

We recently filmed a video on the validity of Peter Lik's newest "photograph" of the moon, and it got us thinking: how far is too far when it comes to Photoshop?

Turns out you don't always need to be an amazing photographer to create photographic art. I came across graphic designer Bashar Hjooj's work on Instagram, where he combines two to three photographs shot by complete strangers to create art full of imagination with his own take.

If you are content to remain at the same skill level, taking the same photos for the rest of your career, then please, ignore this article. If you want to become a better artist, read on, but be prepared to be uncomfortable.

The highly-anticipated Mavic Air finally landed at Fstoppers a few days ago. This tiny quadcopter comes with an impressive set of features but everything is not perfect. Here is short preview of what I like and dislike about this drone.

A photo you have taken going viral is a double-edged sword: you want it to happen, but at the same time, you relinquish control and too often, credit for your work. When Michel Klooster’s controversial wedding photo went viral, his Photologo watermark kept his name intrinsically linked with the story.

Ever since the Canon 5D Mark II, it seems as though Canon has been dragging their feet when it comes to innovating. Their new announcements and releases tend to be met with quite a strong negative response, and although this may not be an overall consensus, it's prominent enough.

Our latest series of behind the scenes episodes with Elia Locardi are almost over. In today's episode we continue to explore the rooftops of Dubai in search of the perfect cityscape photograph of the city. We then head out to a remote desert to photograph the stars only to find out our guide had other plans. This is “Photographing the World III” behind the scenes episode 12!

Rooftops hold a certain allure but it's not just urban explorers and extreme sports narcissists that are drawn to the tops of buildings to capture this alternative view of the city. Photographer and Artist Alain Cornu drags a 4x5 field camera onto the rooftops of Paris to create stunningly beautiful images that feel like portals into another world.

Life spent in the photography trenches is what so many of us openly desire. While you may not be ready to turn that page just yet, you can still get the upper hand on positioning for the future you want right now. Here are a few thoughts on how.

We often draw inspiration from several mediums; art, music, and film to name a few. These inspirations are blended together and found within our work. This article digs deeper into what may give our work moody undertones and makes us feel exactly how we feel when looking at it.

Concert photography is probably one of the most appealing genres to shoot for any photographer. When I first picked up a camera, the only thing I wanted to photograph was my favorite bands as they played live. Our good friend and Canon Explorer of Light ambassador David Bergman is launching a pretty unique live workshop called Shoot From the Pit that will not only let you work side by side with David himself but also shoot a variety of artists as they perform live.

I will speak from a perspective of a non-American here. I find lots of U.S.-based photographers who are working on projects they hate, and they admit it. I tried to dig into the reasons for that, and here are my conclusions, and my advices.

Using photography as a conservation tool isn't a new idea. Photographers like Ansel Adams utilized the medium to help protect some of our country's most beautiful land. But imagine if Adams had the power of social media to help spread his conservation message to a larger audience.

So apparently "gathering" seemed to scare away some people since we only seemed to gather about 20 percent as many entries as we have last week. Luckily, the quality of the entries was right on par with the previous themes delivering yet another great top 10 list.

We've all had times where we are constantly out shooting, coming up with new ideas, and going out to create them. There are also times where we struggle with new ideas and lose our motivation to create. Over the past few months I feel like I've been going through some stages like this but I always try to stay positive and create when I can.

How many megapixels do you need to print a billboard? Much less than you probably think.

In an ideal world, we’d have every aspect of our business set up correctly from the start, but that isn’t realistic. The future version of your photography and your business will be shaped by the lessons that you are learning now.

I have always loved shooting in ugly places such as gas stations and abandoned buildings, but it took me a while to learn how to make these places look magical in my images. You can't just put a beautiful woman in front of these places and expect it to work.

You book a commercial job and the client wants a beautiful face to grace their next ad. The client relies on you, the photographer to help with the process of hiring the model. The crew you hire rely on you to select the right candidate for their needs. That's great, right? Get the most radiant face, possibly the one with the highest social media numbers for that extra bump and you're set! Is that how it works?

It’s pretty easy to get bored with a new camera. At the end of the day, it’s doing about the same thing the old one did, but without the magic of your old camera. Or so you think. But is that really the case? Probably not.

One of the most toxic poisons to continued inspiration is the sudden belief that your own work is hated by your audience. Online criticism can be a harsh weight on motivation that all photographers must face at one point or another and is something that should almost always be completely ignored.

I'm no painter. In fact, if we ever play Pictionary together, do your best to get on the other team. So, when I wanted to make my own custom backdrops, I knew I was way out of my depth. Like many photographers, I've drooled over Sarah Oliphant's hand painted backdrops for years. When I saw Jeremy Cowart draw his own backdrop on an iPad Pro, I thought I may have something within reach. While I continued trying to decide exactly what Oliphant backdrop I want to start with, I thought maybe I could experiment with some digital painting of my own.

It's no secret that we all have to start somewhere. Usually, that place is not very good. At the very least we all start out in the “room for improvement” category. Assuming that progressing with our work and improving our images, style, brand, knowledge, and skill set is the goal, how to we go about getting better at a quicker-than-a-snail pace? The answer is straight forward, but requires deliberate action. Intelligent investment of time and money is the fastest way to get improve quickly.