Fstoppers Original Articles

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.

Aruba: a wedding guest collapsed and was attended to by medics after witnesses said he spent the majority of the wedding nervously watching the photographer and mumbling things such as: "No, no, that's the wrong angle, you idiot! The D750? Seriously!?"

Everywhere I turn, I am hearing about the upcoming tax code change and who it will benefit. Until January 1, my eyes are solely on 2017 income and what advantages photographers can utilize to reduce their tax burden this year. Time is of the essence for what you can do this year to save money before the ball drops on December 31 at midnight.

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.

It’s that time of year. You have probably seen the abundance of marriage proposals on your news feeds, as I have. Before long, these newly engaged couples will be looking to hire a photographer for their weddings. Wedding expos are still an excellent place for these couples to find you, especially this time of year.

We all have a different bag setup. Some prefer to travel light and mobile while others go for a more heavy duty option. Some people want a stylish option that shows off some personal flair while others just want something practical. We each like a different layout and store our gear and accessories in a different way or in a different pocket. In spite of our different preferences when it comes to our camera bags, there is one universal truth. One item that, regardless of your specialty, you positively need to have somewhere in your bag. You must keep a few up to date business cards in your bag at all times.

Some time earlier this year, I had this idea to try and find my own approach to portraiture solely for children. It was a multi-faceted idea which came to me pretty much at random. I was reviewing some of my recent portrait work when I realized that I had only ever worked with a couple of children as my subjects throughout my entire running career as a photographer. I figured out a long time ago that family portraits really just weren't something I was interested in, but that didn't really have anything to do with my actual choice of subjects. Just because I didn't want to shoot family portraits didn't necessarily mean that I couldn't work with kids.

We asked for snow and we sure got it. I spent the week enjoying the weather with my family. We alternated between outside time in the yard throwing snowballs, building forts, and warming up by the fireplace with hot chocolate. I was too busy having fun to get any photos, but luckily for all of us, our readers were not. This week's list might make you a bit cold so I suggest grabbing a blanket.

Medium-format cameras have long been known for being able to produce incredible and vibrant colors. This is one of the main reasons behind why many professionals upgrade and spend so much on these systems. The colors that you can achieve with the 16-bit sensors are very desirable and allow much more flexibility in post. Currently, the 100MP sensor is the only CMOS sensor that is 16-bit capable based on the hardware, and most people who shoot with these cameras are very happy with the results. Phase One, however, decided it wasn't good enough and released their new Trichromatic back.

With Christmas solidly in the rearview mirror and that shiny new camera that Santa brought screaming for some action, it is all on you to shake off that excess holiday cheer and head outside to see how you and your gear performs.

As photographers, our friends, relatives, and significant others sometimes despair at trying to find what may appeal to us and be within their holiday budgets. We may casually let them know that we are super excited about this new gadget that will "really" improve our photography if we only had that one newfangled gizmo. Whether it’s a brand new piece of kit or something that’s been in our bags sitting from a few years ago, we still need to learn what that "new" tool can do.

With the holidays upon us, many photographers (including myself) will want to break out all their gear. In years past I have always planned on what cameras and lens combos to bring, lights, possible modifiers, batteries, and everything in between to photograph Christmas. This year I took on a new approach. An iPhone and a cheap stand set in the corner in time-lapse mode would be the only media I walked away with this year.

Running a successful photography business presents many challenges. When a photographer goes from hobbyist to professional they quickly learn that there is much more to master other than being technically adept at their craft. From learning how to organize a business to discovering the many hats we wear as business owners, it quickly becomes apparent that there is much more to running a successful photography business other than simply picking up a camera and snapping some great shots.

Interpreting a photo can be a difficult task. We capture a moment and those moments are not equifinal, that is they don't all lead to a known end. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The visual juxtaposition of people and objects have the potential to lead to multiple outcomes or multiverses. John Berger perceived this notion of equifinality as an inherent metric of photo quality in terms of how much of the moment a photo can inform us and what we can then say about its past and potential futures — its “quotation” as he called it.

Another year has come and gone, and as such the time has come to reflect on the road ahead. With the New Year just a few days away, now is the best time to do some soul searching and adopt some resolutions that will help improve your photography going forward. This road is often a challenging one, based on the forever hunt for ever greater photographs. With the goal of always improving our craft in mind, these New Years resolution suggestions will help get you out to an amazing start in 2018.

Two days after Donald Trump’s inauguration, I posted a tweet about his use of a low-resolution, potentially unlicensed image being used as his header image on his preferred weapon of choice, Twitter. On technical and professional levels, it was a fail (you can see it at the top of this article). I should have realized it was a sign of things to come.

Yoga balls and standing desks may have become a stereotype of the hipster office space, but there is a legitimate reason for this alteration in traditional office paraphernalia: sitting is bad for you, and photographers should take heed before their health begins to deteriorate. Aside from the musculoskeletal dangers of spending too long sitting at the computer, like neck strain and back problems, other parts of the body may be suffering in silence, such as the heart and pancreas.

No matter if you photograph headshots, weddings, portraits, or sports, one of the most important skills you can have as a photographer is picking out interesting yet non-distracting backgrounds. Many photographers prefer shooting with fast prime lenses but in today's short photography tutorial, I'm going to show you why I prefer the power and versatility of a telephoto lens.

For the longest time, I avoided shooting weddings at all costs. I personally thought they were something photographers only did to make money and that no one truly enjoyed them. But as I developed more and more as a professional I started getting the itch to just try one, just to say I could do it. Soon after, I got in touch with my contact that worked weddings and lined up a job as a secondary shooter the following week. When it was all said and done, those four hours were possibly the most fun and challenging times I’ve ever had with a camera.

I hold these truths to be self-evident. One, things don’t always go the way we’d like them to. And two, how we respond to failure is equally, if not more important than how we deal with success.

Recently Fstoppers reviewed ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018, the newest version of their all-in-one editing flagship. If you are not familiar with ACDSee’s platform, it is an editing suite similar to Capture One Pro or Photoshop, but also includes photo managing tools and quick editing capabilities similar to Lightroom. This gives ACDSee a unique combined platform that simplifies the average user’s workflow and eliminates the costly need for multiple programs.

Pripyat, once a town of 40,000 people and now a short distance from the world's single most deadly object, stands inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. As I waited to get a coffee at the tiny shop alongside the Zone's checkpoint, I cringed slightly at the array of glow-in-the-dark knickknacks on sale. Chernobyl, the site of the biggest nuclear disaster in history and now a slightly Disney-fied tourist destination, is a reminder that photography's "truth" is always a little suspect.

Given the choice, most of us would probably buy the latest and greatest camera bodies as soon as they came out, because hey, new toys are cool, right? But most of us don't have unlimited budgets, so it's important to know when you really need to upgrade and when it's just a case of gear lust. Here's what to consider when you're wondering if it's time to buy a new camera.

So, you just opened your presents, and you received that amazing camera you've been staying up late reading reviews about for the last six months. Rad! Now what? Here are the first 10 things you should do with that new camera.

We’ve had our first snowfall of the year here in the Netherlands. It’s one of those instances when most people stay indoors, while just about every landscape photographer is aching to feel the snow on their face. One of them is acclaimed British Landscape Photographer Simon Baxter, who I've asked to help me analyze the introvert mind.