Fstoppers Original Articles

Our first Kid’s Photo Walk actually happened, and it was a success! Over 35 people showed up to participate in a nonprofit community event for children which encouraged kids to spend time with nature and whatever camera they have access to.

Whether it’s all a gimmick or not, photos in virtual reality are amazing. They’re easy to create, and throw your audience into a straightforward, immersive experience. If you haven’t tried making one yet, you should.

Instagram is known as the consensus favorite app by photographers in today's age, but even with its name implying posting photos instantly, it's still a pain sometimes to post photos on-the-go at times. For Part Three of my Instagram series, I'll be sharing the absolute fastest method any user can adopt to spend less time posting Instagram photos and more time shooting!

If you are a shooter or video producer, you know that there are many things that go into creating great video. Sure, using the right gear is key. Composition and lighting are key. But after the video is shot, shot selection, pacing, and color correction have to be considered for the edit. Then there are graphics. Titles, lower thirds, transitions, and the like have to be designed and animated. There are tons of parts that go into making one complete, great-looking video. And it’s hard to master every aspect of video production – not to mention the fact that time and budget constraints make things even harder.

We've planned for the aurora and captured a ton of images in the previous episode. We've left the arctic and are back at home under the soft glow of our calibrated screen. It's time to process these babies. Be aware that there's advanced editing stuff ahead. If this goes straight above your head, I recommend that you stick with processing in Lightroom until you've got that under control. We have a lot to cover, so let's get started.

I began my journey as a portrait photographer quite obsessed with the premise of blasting large studio strobes through giant modifiers. It was my workflow for years. In studio, I'd usually be washing my model with giant waves of light and on location I'd lug big, powerful strobes along with huge lengths of extension cords so that I could plug in and not bother with heavy battery packs. About a year and a half ago I stopped using my big strobes completely and eventually ended up selling them in favor of completely switching to small flash.

A while back, while on a shoot for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art here in Northwest Arkansas, I was asked to get a shot of the museum’s executive chef and the Director of Culinary for their members magazine. Time was short, the kitchen was starting to prep for dinner service, and every second I was there I was inconveniencing someone. I had to get in and out quickly and create a dynamic image in the process. Here’s how it happened.

While it certainly wasn't my first time using one, a recent shoot I did for TEDx at the Ohio State University made me realize how much easier life is with a light meter. For almost all the time I've spent behind cameras, I've been creating portraits. And for most of that time, I've been using flash. Starting out, I would just shoot and tweak power settings and my aperture and the light placement until I got what I wanted. As an amateur, it worked. But once I decided that photography was a career for me and as I began picking up client work, this method became quite ineffective, forcing me to get the one tool I never realized I needed.

I remember when I first started photography, I'd try and find out what lens and camera had been used for every photograph I liked. I was convinced that if I had that combination of glass and mirrors I would be creating masterpieces. Unfortunately, that train of thought is closer to smoke and mirrors, and I soon knew better. Curiously, however, I now think there's some truth to it, and that truth was revealed to me by a lens that is now my secret weapon.

If you reside anywhere that’s similar to the sleepy little town I live in, you’re aware that there aren’t many opportunities for children to get hands-on with art; especially photography. In light of this fact, my wife and I decided to create an opportunity for youngsters living in our home town to spend a morning with us expanding their knowledge of photography.

Have you ever seen those amazing shots that show a subject holding its place in the frame while the background falls away or becomes extremely compressed? This is called a "dolly-zoom," and you've likely seen an example in films such as "Jaws" and "Goodfellas." While we don't typically use a dolly-zoom when filming interviews, we can learn a lot from studying what happens to an image at different focal lengths. In this video and article, I'll discuss the visual effects created when choosing a wide versus telephoto lens for documentary-style interview productions.

It’s that time of year again, and no, I don’t mean last night's Super Bowl. Tax season is upon us and for many creative professionals it can either be a joyous occasion or one filled with dread.

Creating stunning portraits of our canine companions requires so much more than technical knowledge of photography. Understanding how to coax a dog into just the right spot while keeping them relaxed and happy is crucial to capturing genuine expressions with perfectly composed surroundings. Adding a few special items to your gear bag for those times when you venture out to photograph someone’s four-legged friend can have a much larger impact on your photos than choosing the perfect lens.

Is LinkedIn one of the most overlooked social media networks for photographers? With over 460 million users and growing, it’s not something you can just ignore. Yet, that's exactly what a lot of photographers do, myself included. We joined Facebook because everyone was already there, and Instagram just makes sense for visual professionals. LinkedIn started out as a tool for building a resume and finding a new job. As self-employed freelance individuals, do we really have a need for that?

Shooting portraits in large format film is extremely rewarding. There's a simplicity of the process, from the posing to the static camera position, that helps ground both the photographer and the subject in the moment. Beautiful images may be your reward for such patience, but it's not without its challenges. For me, the biggest challenge shooting portraiture is not working with the camera, but the insane amount of light you need to throw at it. For the uninitiated, here are some facts about the format and its light-eating characteristics that you may need to consider.

The thought process of skin retouching seems to vary between photographers. Many favor a smooth, glossy effect, some like it natural, and others don’t retouch at all. So, where do we draw the line? There’s no right or wrong answer, but what do most people prefer?

San Francisco, CA: A local man who recently brought his newly acquired DSLR to the Golden Gate Bridge has announced the founding of his photography business.

Ah, the crown of the (Ant)arctic. Known in the northern hemisphere as the Aurora Borealis (northern lights), and as the Aurora Australis in the southern hemisphere, these brightly colored bands of moving and waving light are a majestic display in the night sky. Who doesn't want to take a picture of this otherworldly phenomenon? Here's exactly how to do it.

I just picked up my Inspire 2 Monday and couldn't be happier to have it. After working with a Phantom 3 Advanced and Professional for about a year and a half, this new drone makes all the difference in the world.

Lately I've cottoned to the film beat quite a bit here. I've written about Super 8 and about film stock options for analog photography, about the revival of Ektachrome, and about instant photography. I love it all, but I'm also aware of the fact that we very much live in the twenty-first century. We live on computers and we live online, and if photos don't exist in these spaces, they may as well not exist at all. So what can be done about getting photos taken on film, old or new, into a form fit for such a universe? Let's talk about film scanning.

This past summer I dove deep into an article on the long time debate: does a photographer's gender alter the way in which he or she photographs a subject. Is there really a difference in how one gender sees the final image, or is it just artistic preference? Two artists decided to test this theory during a creative shootout to see if all the variables stayed the same, would the image turn out differently. Does the gender of the photographer really influence the final image, or simply the approach in which is taken during the shoot?

As a photographer who happens to live in Canada, shooting in the winter for me often means braving the snow. The problem with snow is that it means facing the cold. As the photographer you are more that free to bundle up in order to stay warm. However, the model often is much more limited by wardrobe which is an excellent recipe for hypothermia. Goose bumps are an utter pain to retouch so my best advice for you is to come prepared to keep your model reasonably warm.

Fstoppers is starting a new bi-weekly contest in our Community! Every two weeks, we will announce a new contest within a specific group. The newest contest can be found in the Wedding Photography Group.

Last year I got a chance to work with UNICEF on a maternity project where I had to work with a lot of moms-to-be and kids. I have been surrounded with kids all my life and was a new mom myself, so I instantly agreed to be part of it. This was a challenge I was happy to embrace. It is not hard to photograph your own child, a sibling, or someone you already know. Kid photography is probably one of the most difficult genres in the industry if you don’t have a proper approach. In this article I will share my knowledge and experience I gained during years of working with kids.

For many photographers, the holy grail of “making it,” as a photographer is a sponsorship. The truth is that it’s really not as difficult as it sounds, but to make it easier, I’ll give you three tips to landing your first sponsorship.

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.

In the past few years, flash manufacturers have put a lot of efforts to let cameras’ x-sync fade into obsolescence. However, the current solutions are not perfect and aren’t always intuitive to use for non-tech-savvy photographers. In 2016, I made a comparison between Hi-Sync and HSS. Since then, I have had the chance to play with a Phase One XF and give the beautiful Schneider Kreuznach leaf shutter lenses a try. With more experience using Hi-Sync as well, I thought a follow-up article was well overdue. So let’s dive in and see what solutions are currently available to go past the x-sync limitation.

Aside from being a catchy acronym, Digital Asset Management is an incredibly important concept in the world of digital photography that is too often overlooked.

In a previous article, I shared some tips on scouting locations for a documentary video shoot where interviews would be captured. The next step is to decide on a frame that complements your talent, topic, and tone. In this video, we discuss background elements we see in potential frames, any why one “look” might work better than another.

It sits there on your shelf, looking at you: that old camera that you were so excited about a few years back. Now, it's not even worth the trouble of listing it on eBay or Craigslist. Or is it? Recently I picked up my old Fuji X-E1 and put it through its paces. I was surprised to find out that it's still an enjoyable camera, but not for the reasons that it originally was. Sometimes, a camera's flaws hold a certain charm that can only be appreciated with some distance.

For the majority of my life, I was a soldier in the United States Army. As a part of military life, I learned how valuable it was to be prepared for all the things that could go wrong. Many soldiers will build a bug-out bag, also known as a go-bag. A bug-out bag is essentially a bag full of items one might need when in a pinch. Now as a photographer, my bug-out bag is full of all the little items I often am asked if I have or things that can make any shoot go easier. These things have often meant the difference between success and failure on a shoot. Here is the list of stuff I put in my bag.

The tradition of the White House photographers, now officially known as the Chief Official White House Photographer, was started by John F. Kennedy in January of 1961. A free press is responsible for accurate reportage and is essential to a democracy, though access can provide certain limitations. Having unprecedented access, where the press are typically held at a greater distance, the President’s photographer adds a level of transparency for the American public to engage and see the President working for the country within the context of current events.

In October, my friend Corey Berse and I somehow convinced our wives to let us go to Iceland for a week without them (neither of us are professional photographers, so a week-long vacation that did not include them was not the easiest sell). Our plan was to drive the entire Ring Road in six days and shoot as much as possible. Here are the highlights, some pictures, and a video of our trip.

Landscape photography brings with it its own special set of challenges and risks. But beyond your filters and spare batteries, you're going to want to carry some extra non-photography gear to make sure you're in tip-top shape to capture those beautiful shots.

In Part 1 of my Instagram Tips series, three sure-fire tips were shared to grow the right following, the right way on Instagram. One of the methods was to use the correct hashtags for your audience. This week we're diving a little deeper into what specific hashtags will work best for you based on specific genre. Get your notes out and lets go!

One of the most overlooked aspects during the jump from amateur to professional photographer is the business end of contracts. You may be excited for this new adventure of creating art, but if you are asking for payment for your services, your contract is the last place you want to skimp on the details.

As photographers, many of us are obsessive gear heads always on the hunt for the holy grail of glass. No lens is good enough, we have this mysterious idea of a perfect lens in our imagination that no company could possibly ever actually create. There are, however, a ton of fantastic lenses out there that many photographer would never give a second thought that are more than capable of bringing magic to your next shoot. In this post I'm going to cover three of my favorites.

Orlando recently passed an ordinance that will now require drone users to pay to fly in many public spaces. The ordinance itself is very problematic and shows a serious lack of understanding of drones.

In the days when film reigned, most people thought that once you took a photo, the image was completed. They thought that clicking the shutter was the end of the process (They obviously didn’t know much about darkroom manipulation). But, as photographers know, that “click” is only a small part of the photographic process. The rest lies in forethought before taking the image, and the way in which it’s processed after it’s taken.

Taking photos at night can be an incredibly creative and rewarding experience. Unfortunately, increasing levels of light pollution in cities and urban areas makes it virtually impossible to include any detail in your sky which is often a major aspect of your composition. Adding stars is an easy and effective answer to this problem. With simple masking and blending techniques you can add interest to your background and give the impression of being in a secluded, faraway place. The most common error is overdoing it by adding too many stars or trying to integrate them into a scene that simply does not look natural. Here are two quick techniques which aim to avoid these pitfalls.

At the time I was a 31-year-old N.J. and N.Y.C. luxury wedding photographer that had been married for 5 years and had over 6 years of stable business ownership. You’d think getting pregnant would’ve been no big deal — but it was for me.

As I read another report this week of a photographer losing his life’s work to petty theft, I started to question if I was doing enough to back up my own images. How many copies of your work do you currently keep? Are you doing enough to protect your photos? It’s easy to get complacent, but ask yourself: are you prepared for a thief to strike?

This week I had the pleasure of visiting Adorama in NYC, for a deeper look at Panasonic’s groundbreaking camera. While there, I discovered some interesting specs that aren’t being talked about. Let’s take a look at the innovations and pitfalls of the camera at a deeper level.

When doing a documentary-style video production, an interview or series of interviews is often at the heart of the content. Uncontrollable lighting, background noise, and the size of the space you have to work in all play a significant role in capturing a quality testimonial, so location scouting to check on these is an important facet of our production process. In this short video, Joshua Pardon and I explore two rooms at a location and discuss what we look for when making a decision on where to set up for a shoot.

We've briefly covered the release of this very special filter before. It blocks out the artificial light of our modern world, light pollution. STC's Astro-Multispectra Filter is designed to block out the orange and green hues from sodium and mercury street lamps. But what's really intriguing for any Nikon full-frame shooter is that this is the first and only option when you shoot wide-angle landscape shots.

A key factor in the success of any photography business is the ability to produce technically sound images that stand out and differentiate your style from that of other photographers. As a pet photographer, one way to generate bold and professional-looking images from your outdoor sessions is to light your subjects with off-camera flash.

Towards the last half of 2016 many people, especially photographers, began to write off Instagram as a lost cause. So much frustration over lost engagement and dropped followers lead many to leave the platform or simply lose interest in posting more. The algorithm that began with a Facebook style feed that did away with chronological order and brought you "what you wanted to see" was the main cause for all of this. Though, with that comes new techniques to grow a following and hack the system if you will; enter "Instagram pods."

I've heard stories of clients who said that. They feel the service of a certain photographer is way too expensive, as to them, it's merely clicking of a button. I tend to agree with many who say that.

There is a theory that the best creative people have to live in a world that is chaotic and unstructured. Whilst there may be some great examples to cite such as Amy Winehouse and Janis Joplin, imagine what they would have created with clear minds. Being organized, having effective systems, and achieving mindfulness creates more time for creatives to do what they do best; Think with clarity. Here are three great apps that will help you achieve this.

"It's a vulnerable thing being photographed," says the photographer sitting across from me, "It's not abnormal for me to sit and chat with people for 20 minutes before I photograph them. I'm timing myself; I am watching for a look in their eye... Once I see it, I know we are ready to start photographing." Sitting down in Michael Schacht's studio, nestled in the heart of Chicago's meatpacking district, I have come to realize he is all about human connection.