Exclusive articles and expert opinions written by Fstoppers’ talented team of creative professionals. Here we cover everything from the latest photographic techniques to advice on running a successful photography business, to first hand accounts of working in the photography industry.
Last week I showed you how you can use just a DSLR and a few accessories to digitize your negatives. However, that article wouldn’t have been complete without explaining how to convert the scanned analog picture to a positive image. The process is quite easy and only a few steps are required to achieve a great result. Let’s dive in!
It is said that Instagram killed the personal photography portfolio websites, but having an online portfolio still matters. Even if your Instagram account or your Facebook page draws their attention first, serious art buyers or potential clients usually head to your website afterwards, and at that point, having an online presence with a decent portfolio makes a great difference.
I get it. You can’t pay the bills by photographing clients for free, or in most cases for exposure. There are definitely ways of turning exposure into monetary compensation however, that most creatives gloss over. Here are three ways of turning exposure into dollars, just by asking some simple questions to your client.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." It's no secret that many of my clients belong to the LGBTQ community. I've worked hard to build a following in a demographic that should consider me an outsider; there is a real fear of being judged by anyone who doesn't routinely walk in their shoes. However, my client base hasn't always looked like this, and the road to building trust has been interesting to say the least. Why go through trouble? The simple answer is, “Because I love doing it!”
With the recent flooding of the market with battery-powered monolights, it might seem as if the humble speedlight will only ever be found on top of the photojournalist's camera from now on. The Profoto B1 and B2, the Broncolor Siros, and offerings from various small brands have given us options for high-powered flashes in much smaller packages than before. But sometimes, it is still more convenient to use speedlights than to lug around heavier and bulkier offerings.
From the majestic remote landscape of the Lofoten Islands comes this impressive aerial video created by Theo Gove-Humphries. Having just purchased a brand new DJI Phantom 4, he didn’t waste any time putting it to good use in a week-long outdoor excursion across the Islands in June 2016. There were several challenges that were faced in the filming of this project, and after you enjoy the video, Gove-Humphries shares with Fstoppers what he learned through it all.
Last week's article touched on a minimal approach to editing. While I am quite the control freak in my own work, sometimes, I am overwhelmed by the amount of tasks being thrown my way. I look to professional retouchers and virtual assistants to help me through the busy seasons.
Nearly every day I am hearing about some pseudo-horror story from a model or client about a shoot that went missing because of some technical problem after the photos had been created. Nothing is more frustrating than working hard to create the images that your client wanted only to be unable to deliver on time (or at all) because of some unforeseen technological problem that derails your entire process. As a professional you need to be prepared for these sorts of surprises before they happen so that you can always be ready to pivot and still deliver on your promise.
I have way too much fun with my drone. And while it's great for landscape shots, I wanted to try something a bit different, so I put a call out for musicians, told them to lay on the ground, and put a camera in the air. However, using a drone to take portraits is far different from having your camera at eye level.
There’s a handful of people on the Pacific Island group of Pingelap who can skip this episode. But if you don’t have achromatic vision like them, I suggest giving this bountiful reference a read, because California-based USA Landscape Photographer of the Year 2015 Ted Gore wrote all about color landscape photography.
Shooting time-lapses can be a good skill to have as a photographer and as a video producer. I like shooting nighttime traffic. It gives me an urban energy, with the lights dragging over the shot to give an indication of motion, power, and electricity.
The perfect black and white conversion technique will vary from photographer to photographer and rightfully so, because there’s truly no perfect technique. it’s subjective. However, there are three key areas that many photographers will overlook before exporting their files that directly influence how their final image will look.
You may have the best camera and lenses, but the images you create as a photographer or videographer, may not look good, unless you don’t have a good monitor. Therefore, when it comes to preview and editing images; the resolution, color space and panel technology matters. So, it is vital to get a decent monitor that meets your requirements within an affordable price range.
A while back, Instagram announced they were going to release a new feature called "Insights.” This new addition is designed to give users a look at how their followers interact with their content. It seems that this is slowly rolling, but as of today, I have access to this new feature, so I thought it would be helpful for everyone to see exactly what they can expect to learn.
Whether you are shooting film or have a large collection of negatives, chances are you will want to scan them one day. The process to digitize your analog pictures can be expensive and sometimes even disappointing regarding image quality. When I started playing with my Mamiya RB67, I wished there was a cheap and quick scanning method that would offer me a good amount of detail and decent colors. I found it using gear I already owned and that most of you actually also have at home. It even surpassed my expectations to the point that I decided to share the technique with you in this article.
I remember, way back when I first started trying my hand at portrait photography, the cold realization that I didn't really know how to direct a shoot. I wasn't horrible at it, but I lacked confidence due to a lack of experience and I made a mental note to work on it. It's now years later and I'm still working on it and I will keep working on it until I stop picking up a camera. If you haven't already, you will quickly realize that how you act during a shoot is of the same importance as your technical ability.
Learning how to properly light the human face can be a challenge for many beginner and intermediate level photographers. Sure, you can grab a single light source, your significant other, and turn a Sunday afternoon into an experimental test shoot, but what happens when you want to start playing around with multiple lights? Figuring out where exactly to place your lights can be a daunting task, but luckily there are dozens of common lighting setups available for critique right on your television!
Takashi Aizu is based in Japan and makes mouthwatering time-lapses of his baking. He sets up his iPhone 6s, and documents the process and reaction of the specific dough to become breads, croissants, or baguettes. We often take the beauty of the croissant we get at Starbucks for granted, but here we can actually see how much knowledge, patience, and effort goes into baking and what the process looks like when you get it fresh and hot out of the oven. It’s a simple process concept, but he has over 25,000 followers on Instagram, and his baking is obviously rated as very good in Japan.
"I can't take a shot like that. My camera isn't good enough. Oh sure, you can talk all you want, but you have thousands of dollars in expensive equipment! Yeah, I know it's the photographer, not the camera, but let's get real: my beginner gear can't do that!" Excuses, excuses, excuses. A lot of people, especially those just starting out, use their lack of pro gear as a tether, holding them back from getting the shots they are capable of. Here are some reasons to push past your budget concerns and make the most of what you have.
A few months back, I explored the idea of asking for what you want, and the worst that can come from that. We talked about your desire to shoot, and the only thing really stopping you being yourself. The power of letting go of your insecurities, and stepping up to the plate is liberating and will drive changes in your photography that no shiny new piece of equipment can give you. Today, I would like to take that one step further, and explore what it takes to create a significantly large body of work.
After finally taking my first flight with all my gear, Vin and I made it to where we needed to go. Having the gear and keeping your eye on it is probably the biggest concern when it comes to traveling. I want to give some fellow travelers some advice on gear and transporting it when needed.
Today, video is everywhere. Whether it be an iPhone shooting super-slow-motion footage, or a RED Weapon eating away at hard drive space in 8K resolution, capable cameras are available to almost everyone who wants them. And while we can’t all shoot on RED, it’s possible to get amazing production quality out of consumer-level cameras. Here are a few things to look out for and keep in mind when purchasing gear.
Whether you're a travel photographer or you specialize in portraits, there are different filters for different clickers. I find that using filters helps your overall mood for your photos. From protective filters all the way to UV filters, I myself have problems identifying which is which. Going to the store is simple, but when you're waiting for help and not knowing how to ask the questions about filters, that's a whole different story. Here's a quick guide on different filters and how they work.
Some days, I have such a short amount of time with the bride and groom alone that I have to decide if I should take the time to better that hand placement or get four more shots that will help fill a wedding album and tell a story. Even though the hand placement will bug me for months afterwards, I choose the story, every time.
As an entertainment and tour photographer, Susannah Brittany primarily shoot stills and video shots for some of the world’s top pop and country music artists. This basically involves shooting all day long: while they are doing media interviews or meet and greets, of/during travel on the bus, behind the scenes content of the artists getting ready or in-between shows, and then of course, while they are performing. Her work ends up being used used for new media distribution, including YouTube, social media, and sizzle reels.
Portrait photography is very diverse. While some enjoy the comfort of studio portraits and the flexibility it brings, others prefer the variety of backdrops the outdoors provides. While it is totally realistic to create all kinds of weather moods in the studio, it often involves a bigger budget, whereas one can achieve similar results for free by relying on the weather forecast and proper equipment choices.
Retouching in photography has many forms. Everything from skin work to background manipulation. With the latest software abilities to retouch and manipulate an image, there is an endless source of possibilities to create. Even with all the tools available, there is a fine line and perhaps sometimes too much is too much.
I have a lot of respect for photographers who solely focus on beauty imagery. It’s definitely a skillset that I’ve been honing over the past few years, but ultimately one that I’ve come to develop an appreciation for. However, beauty photography does not have to be terribly difficult. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create beautiful beauty lighting with a single studio strobe and a reflector.
Recently, Ted Forbes over at The Art of Photography posted a rather interesting video that challenges the pervasive axiom of the artistic world that the action of making art will inevitably translate to an audience valuing and appreciating your work. Forbes asserts that our society is so saturated with creative content makers that it is nearly impossible to create photography that people care about unless you are pushing beyond the normal limits and expectations of what is already present in the world. I agree with this on the surface; however, I also feel that it doesn't tell the entire story.
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 2016, we'll be featuring a new photographer every month, whose portfolio represents both stellar photographic achievement and a high level of involvement within the Fstoppers community.
Last week, fellow Fstoppers Writer Ty Poland wrote an article called "The Power of Overshooting." Ty is a great photographer, and he made some very valid points, but I must respectfully disagree. To me, undershooting is what advances your skills as a photographer.
There are plenty of sources that will give you photogenic hard light. The sun comes to mind, obviously. Even a bare bulb strobe. But there’s something magic about the light that pours out of a traditional style tungsten Fresnel.
We pride ourselves on being professionals who work incessantly to constantly become better photographers here at Fstoppers. Still though, we're human, and sometimes, we make mistakes. Here are some of the most memorable mistakes Fstoppers writers have made.
As photographers and retouchers, we are often required to travel. But travel eats up a lot of time and thus it is crucial to optimize one’s workflow. While gear is not everything in our industry, it still maintains a critical place, especially to help save time. Spending more and more time on the road, I recently had to take a look at my editing workflow and find new solutions to make it better and faster. In this article, I’ll share with you some of the accessories I use or have since discovered to cut my retouching and keep me sane.
The UK voted to leave the EU and the British Pound plummeted, meaning this week might be the perfect opportunity to order equipment from the UK if you live within the European Union.
Any seasoned filmmaker or photographer will tell you that it’s not the size of your camera, sensor, or lens that matters, but how you use it (or craft your supporting elements like lighting, composition, etc.). But what I’ve come to realize is that size does matter– because impressing a client on set is just as important as impressing them with the final product.
I love color. Black and white photography holds a special place in my heart, but 90 percent of the time I gravitate toward color imagery in my own work. When I started shooting film again, I decided that I would most definitely learn to develop my own black and white film. From choosing your film stock to mixing super-secret developer cocktails guaranteed to make your images sing, there are tons of resources out there for the aspiring hobbyist. When it comes to color, however, I had always heard that the machines needed were expensive, the process complicated, and the chemicals harmful. Not so!
The debate surrounding the relevancy of film cameras is an ongoing one; the opinions about which vary from photographer to photographer. The resurgence of digital camera technology in recent years has meant DSLRs are now widely used by the masses, pulling the future of film photography into question somewhat. Is it now just a novelty? I chatted with Howard, one of the owners of a North England-based camera shop that shunned digital cameras in favour of film... and found that business is very much booming.
As someone who has spent a life in mathematics, I see a lot of attempts to ascribe mathematical concepts to real-world ideas in an overly simplistic way. The media misinterpreting a single medical study and reporting that a glass of red wine is equivalent to an hour at the gym does not mean you should forget the treadmill and buy more Malbec. Weathermen in Kansas do not expect the flapping of butterfly wings to cause tornadoes. But in photography, there's one incessantly perpetuated myth that drives me crazy.
Learning is a process that takes time. Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule applies to the so-called mastery of anything. By working hard on our craft, we are able to become proficient in the tools and techniques required to make the end product we desire. We go through stages of understanding and breaking our understanding. These are natural parts of our learning cycle, and the end goal should be to learn not how to do things, but how to ask the right questions to get where we want to go.
I'm not sure how many more times I can read the repugnant merging of two disparate words without writing a furious letter to someone, but I'll do my best to soldier on through. For any sentient being, the last few days have been filled with the word "Brexit," more so if you live on this little angry island I inhabit. The reach of the impact of this momentous event is both wide and largely unknown. That said, there's a very real chance it will affect many of us camera folk.
On April 29 we launched our first ever weekend hashtag project over on the @officialfstoppers Instagram. The theme for the inaugural shooting event was black and white photography. Many photographers contributed wonderful photos and here I’m sharing a selection of images that I enjoyed. We welcome you to join in on the second weekend hashtag project that was just launched and you too can have your photo published on Fstoppers. This weekend’s theme is "pattern" and I have all the details for you at the end of this article.
Several months ago, Fstoppers and ViewBug teamed up to host a landscape photo contest with Elia Locardi as the judge. Thousands of images were submitted with some heavy competition but the best have surfaced to the top. Check out the winning images below and get a little inspiration from the Grand Jury Winner below.
Overshooting may sound like it's a dumb thing to do, but over my time doing photography, I’ve learned how important it really is. Here, I will go over a few reasons why you should shoot more than you need to. They apply to almost any sort of shooting situation.
In 1987, Canon made a widely criticized move and introduced the EF mount. This was mostly to create a mount that was easier to build auto focus and stabilization mechanisms into. The EF lenses are among some of the best in the world, so there's no complaint now. Back in the 80s, however, there was a massive outcry against Canon's decision to abandon an entire system and force their shooters into new cameras and lenses with no backwards compatibility. As time passed, no one really cared. Canon's legacy is often forgotten, but Canon left behind a solid system of lenses. Those lenses are the Canon FD series.
There was a time I used to live on a paradise island called Mauritius and the summer lasted almost the whole year round. The sun was not an issue back then, as the sun protection was a ritual. The times have changed and I relocated back to my motherland Armenia, which has very severe cold winters and really hot summers. As the summer lasts only limited time we usually forget to protect ourselves from sun when it suddenly starts burning like hell.
Partnership success stories are everywhere. From business innovators like Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google or Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple, to less formal partnerships like authors JRR Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. There is a trend in the creative world to tout either big collaborative teams or solo introverted lone-wolf style work. I’m here today to tell you that the magic number is actually two, and why having a business partner is the best choice I ever made.
Mental images, dynamic range, luminosity masking... This week's article in this series is chock-full of terms that will send your head spinning. But when we want to communicate through landscape photography, it is best to speak the language first. I'll show you a big part of my processing workflow, introduce you to a great alternative to HDR photography, and tell you why Ansel Adams' invention is still applicable in digital photography.
Over the years as a boudoir photographer, I have noticed a theme when it comes to new shooters about the "restrictions" they come across. Countless times I hear or read, "I wish I could upgrade my gear," "I just do not have a commercial space," or my favorite, "I just cannot afford to have all those set ups." Well quite frankly, that is a load of bull.
3D printers have recently become cheaper, more reliable, and more capable at the consumer level. On the same token, photographers constantly need all sorts of miscellaneous parts: adapters, clamps, rings, etc. It seems like now is the time for at-home 3D printing to take hold.
