Fstoppers Original Articles

I'm not one to get caught up in hype. The camera world is constantly inundated with new, interesting products and technologies, many of which scream of excitement before their release, but arrive with nary a whimper. The Sony a7RII is a rare product that has caught my attention before its release.

This week we released our 5th photography tutorial: Photographing The World with Elia Locardi. Since this tutorial was going to be filmed over the course of 2 months in Iceland and New Zealand, we decided to turn the cameras back around on ourselves and show you how we filmed this massive video project.

For over two weeks in late March and early April, digital director and photographer Oliver Astrologo traveled through Vietnam exploring its best treasures. His 1,650 kilometer north-to-south journey takes the form of “Reverie of Vietnam,” a beautiful short video that places you inside the country face-to-face with the residents and the historic and natural wonders that surround you. Read on to learn more about the production as well as see many great images captured during the expedition.

Model Mayhem has long been the double edged sword that many of us starting in fashion photography have to deal with. How do you find talent and put together your team when you first start? Finding those resources and assets is difficult and the idea of having a database of people looking to do the same thing you are is brilliant, but the go to source for that is slightly less than brilliant. Model Mayhem requires that you put together and add a portfolio before getting started, but the vetting process is very much lacking. Those of you, especially photographers know the often agonizing process of finding good talent through MM. Especially for those of you, like myself, who live outside of the major fashion markets. We now – finally – have an alternative in the new service, Portbox. I have been fortunate enough to take a look at the new site and speak with its inceptor, Joseph Evans.

Most photographers are constantly on the hunt for great new locations. From graffiti-adorned alleyways to vast blooming meadows, the search for new backdrops is an endless challenge.

In September of 2014 Patrick and I met Elia Locardi totally by chance in the basement of a German beer house during Photokina. That night we learned that Elia had sold all of his possessions and had been traveling the world nonstop for 3 years taking landscape & travel photographs. Soon thereafter we decided to team up on the biggest project any of us had ever worked on.

Sometimes you just need to slow down. Last year, I shot just north of 95,000 digital photographs. That may not seem like a lot to some of you wedding photographers out there, but it was enough to make me take a step back and want something else. How many did I throw away? How many were made without thought or conviction? This was enough to trigger the impulse to try something new, and that something new was large format photography.

“Expect the unexpected” is great advice for anyone, especially for a photographer. Making the necessary preparations for a photoshoot is essential to success, but what about matters that are beyond your control? We will review three of the most common obstacles that can potentially derail your next session, and how to best handle them both preemptively and after the fact.

Rob Hammer knows all about stories, adventure, and experience. He is a San Diego-based commercial shooter. He has worked for many clients such as Nike, Adidas, Foot Locker, and Under Armour. If you have a chance to follow his Instagram feed, you'll probably find images of him backpacking in a foreign country, photographing old barbershops in the Midwest, or hiking up a mountain with his friends enjoying a cold beer. He lives the life that he photographs. I believe that shooting what you love will ensure you to always have a steady stream of good clients. But when you are photographing your own lifestyle, the possibilities are endless.

In dealing with bigger paid jobs lately, I've had to find ways to refine my retouching workflow. I used to do most of my skin cleaning by dodging and burning problem areas. It then had to be color-corrected of course. Negative dodge and burn gives you excellent results when mastered, but it eats up a lot of time. For some clients or projects, justifying 1-3 hours of postproduction per image is simply not possible. Being confronted more and more with this real-world issue, I have taken the time to look into my workflow and see how I could spend less time in front of my computer. Here are some of the things I have changed as well as a few tips I could give anyone facing similar issues.

When shooting digitally, more information is almost always better. Here’s an exposure technique that maximizes the available information your camera can gather in a photograph.

In today's age of digital manipulation and overabundance of imagery, it is quite common to turn on your computer or phone, hop on the internet, and instantly become bombarded with dozens of images. From soccer moms to Insta-famous teenagers, just about everyone seems to be a photographer these days. With easy-to-use website and portfolio templates, affordable DSLRs, and tutorials all over the web, becoming a “professional” photographer is easier than ever. While I am all for following your dreams, here are some basic guidelines for your journey to becoming a pro.

Photography is crazy hard to master. That difficulty becomes impossible when you start locking yourself behind walls of your own creation. Stop deluding yourself, those little restrictions that you keep using as crutches to excuse your lack of progress are only inhibiting your ability to grow. Shatter those internal lies so you can keep pushing your photography forward and become the photographer you dream of.

Sometimes you need to get rid of that frizzy wind-blown hair but you don’t have the time to mess with cloning and blending. This can be even more difficult and time consuming with more complicated backgrounds that have gradients in them. I’m here to show you my quick and dirty way to get rid of those flyaways.

Adding hyperlinks to your descriptions on 500px can be extremely helpful if you'd like to grow on other social media platforms. For example, my natural light tutorial, Facebook page and many more links are all shared in every one of my posts on 500px. In this short article you will learn exactly how to create these links easily.

What do you do to continually push yourself and develop your work? Often it can be tricky to figure out how best to push ourselves, as well as keep the momentum up to continually do so. The best photographers I know are constantly pushing, challenging themselves a little each day and now one of them has given us the chance to up our game - welcome to the next 10 days of the 'Stay Out There' Lindsay Adler challenge.

Instagram is a fantastic tool for photographers. It has almost single-handedly ushered in the age of the mobile photographer, and has served as a creative platform for millions of people who want to share their images with the world. Unfortunately, there has never really been an easy and intuitive way to get your non-mobile photos onto Instagram; until now.

It's no secret that Instagram, and its parent company, Facebook, have some pretty old-school ToS in terms of censorship. Their policy, inconsistently policed at best, has given the boot to many otherwise tasteful images including, notably, an image by artist Ruki Kaur of a woman on her period. Now a trend is taking Instagram by storm wherein people are photoshopping male nipples over a females' nipples to stick it to the man and hopefully result in a meaningful dialog on Internet censorship.

Changing makeup color or the color of anything in Photoshop for the matter doesn't have to be a challenging task, although it can be very easy to mess up. In this tutorial I will show you three different ways of changing makeup color in Photoshop.

However, these techniques can be used to change the color of any portion of your image portrait or otherwise. The techniques in the video will range from quick methods that beginner Photoshopers users can use to the more advanced techniques retouchers can make use of.

Much can be said about preparing yourself for photographing a wedding, not the least of which is picking out your kicks. That’s right, finding adequate and stylish footwear to last an 8 to 15-hour workday should be a paramount decision for the successful wedding shooter. For some it's simply about price, fit, or orthopedics. But if we are honest with ourselves (and our egos), some of us also want to make a shoe decision as memorable as Jeff Spicolli’s checkerboard Vans slip-ons. Myself, I’m a Rockport man. The comfort for a wide-footed Michigan swamp-stomper such as myself is unparalleled in a formal shoe. I’m far from an authority on below-the-ankle style, however. Just ask my wife! Let’s see what some of the best guys and gals in the business are putting on their feet, shall we?

Now that wedding season is in full swing, I’d like to reflect on a few ways that you can take your current performance and boost it to the next level. I always hear people say that the wedding photography market is too saturated. True, there are a lot of photographers these days, but it’s possible to stand out if you can find ways to be creative, hustle, and connect with the right people.

With the advent of self-publishing and digital magazines, the landscape of print media has evolved. With many fashion magazines and communities that feature the work of many involved in the industry, the debate over the value of being published has been a hot topic in fashion circles. So what exactly is the value of being a published photographer in the digital age?

The Fourth of July is upon us and with this comes cookouts, family parties, booze, and way too much food. Depending on what your day job is, maybe you have a few days off to enjoy or maybe your grinding through the holiday weekend. Whatever you may be doing this weekend, chances are if you are reading this then you will probably have a camera by your side or at least looking to shoot some photos over the next couple of days. While holidays can be a chance to put down your camera and just relax, they can also be a great opportunity to spend some time shooting what you love or fine tuning your skills. No matter what you are doing this weekend, here are some tips to help you make the best out of your weekend and help improve your photography.

Addicted to Canon gear, but not to Canon prices? Canon has a long history of producing some extremely impressive products. If you find yourself looking for some new gear, but trying to stay within a budget, consider these gems of Canon yesteryear.

The morning of a shoot has arrived and you are running around frantically loading gear trying to make sure that you haven’t forgotten a lens, power cable, or battery that will be the key to making the shoot a success. In the haste of focusing on gear, it can be too easy to forget to load a few simple tools that can come to your rescue and make sure everyone is as happy as possible throughout the shoot.

It’s officially hot outside in my neck of the woods, but that doesn't mean I can to take a break from shooting outside! I still have to sweat it out, hauling my gear around from location to location and that means my clients have to feel the sting of the summer heat as well. Although it’s steaming out, I don’t want my images to look like they were taken inside the nearest oven set to broil. Thankfully, there is a super quick and easy way to fix those heat flushed skin tones.

Smell that? It's the once yearly aroma of cut grass, processed meats and the aftermath of a lit firecracker. And as the sun sets on July 4th, you're probably gearing up for an evening of fireworks to celebrate America's independence (unless you a reading this in one of the hundreds of other countries around the globe and then it's just 7/4 and a regular weekend).

As photographic professionals, we spend a lot of time just getting work done. There are emails, phone calls, retouching, shoots, gear maintenance, backups, portfolio management, and all the other things you've heard listed by anyone giving you the sermon on photography as a business as opposed to photography for the love of the craft. The reality is, for many of us, that some of this stuff just isn't all that inspiring. Below are a few things I recommend if you start feeling that strain.

So a few weeks ago I found sometime to shoot a personal project, a summer inspired beauty shoot. The idea behind the shoot was to focus on summer and to play with bright and vibrant colors. Prior to the shoot a spent days experimenting with new techniques and different ways of introducing color into my shoot. In this article I want to share a couple of techniques I used to create colorful effects in camera and also how I recreated one of those effects in Photoshop.

While there’s never been a sure fire way to win work and sustain a living as a photographer or film maker, and particularly not today given how much change we are seeing, having your own unique vision can help set you apart from the crowd. Young film maker Paul Trillo has shown time and again how an interesting perspective can separate him and his work from the pack. After watching his recent innovative short, you'll likely never be able to look at your phone in the same way again.

When I was just eight years old I would flip through the pages of National Geographic and imagine being a photographer in Africa. I was captivated by the faces and places that seemed worlds apart from my typical Middle American hometown. Fast forward years later, and I'm living the dream as a travel photographer working throughout Africa and Europe. If you've ever wanted to travel the world with your camera, here's my advice to help you get started and thrive in professional travel photography.

The other week, I wrote that I was excited about Phase One's newest gear announcements for a multitude of reasons. Well, thanks to my friends at Digital Transitions and Phase One, I was lucky enough to do a photoshoot with the BRAND NEW Phase One XF body, the updated IQ350 50 megapixel CMOS medium format back, and their newest 35mm leaf shutter lens. As an owner of their previous generation 645DF+ body and IQ140 back, I was incredibly impressed by the notable technology advancements in their newest gear. Read below to see why.

Assisting for a photographer or videographer can be a rewarding experience filled with knowledge and new perspectives. An assistant often receives an insider's view into how a photographer runs a production, and gains networking opportunities that may not have been accessible before. However, being an effective assistant requires more than holding light stands or reflectors. Great attention to detail and a humble can-do attitude can ensure your return to set, and solidify your reputation as a reliable assistant. While every photographer varies, we will review some of my tips for proper etiquette for assistants, from a photographer's perspective.

I have an iPhone 6 Plus. It’s amazing. It has a backside illuminated sensor, an f/2.2 lens, and optical image stabilization. Yes, I have optical image stabilization in my phone. Would I ever use it for work? Not a chance.

Where do you get your inspiration from? The outdoors? The city? Or maybe human beauty? Wherever it comes from, it drives us as creatives. As visual artists, we translate this inspiration into images or videos but the process of getting there isn't always easy. Long hours, little sleep, and the added stress of paying the bills can leave us losing focus. Maybe your original passion isn’t as strong as it use to be or all the family photo sessions you have taken on leave you feeling like all the fun is gone? So what do you do when you feeling like you're loosing your creative edge? Crank up the tunes and start jammin' out because here are three ways music can transform your photography.

Great retouching is all about small details. They often make the difference between a well-retouched image and a world-class retouched image. However, seeing some of the details can be tricky. Especially when you are on the go and retouching on a laptop screen that doesn't offer the precision of a well-calibrated screen with a large color gamut. A couple of months ago I showed you a trick to see more details than what your eyes might see on an image by using a solar curve. In today's article, I am going to show you another technique that I often use to clean up small details. It is so easy you might end up wondering why you did not think of it before.

You read that right: shouldn't. Wedding photography is a field that many photographers work within at least once or twice in their budding careers. Is it for you, though? Do you have what it takes? Even some of the most seasoned professional wedding photographers have thrown in the towel and moved on to other forms of work. Why is this, you inquire? I asked several of my colleagues – wedding photographers and other professional shutterbugs alike – their thoughts on why they think shooting weddings for a living sucks. These are the top five responses I received.

Like many of you, I have a very small marketing budget. I personally cannot justify spending a ton of money to run long campaigns on Facebook or Google Ad Sense in order to promote my work. Facebook also regularly changes their algorithm for organic posts, so it’s just not always wise to throw money at them and hope for qualified leads. In this video, I’m going to share five ways that I’m marketing my photography business for under $50.

Shooting with two cameras seems to be a growing trend in the wedding industry. When I first started shooting, I saw people doing this and I just didn’t see the point. I figured I could always change lenses, and then I would be good to go. Once I gave it try I completely fell in love. Here is my “how and why” I shoot with two cameras.

Recently I was sent a YouTube video of an artist who spent a huge amount of time creating drawings using MS Paint. The end product was decent enough, even impressive if you consider the tool he was using, but if you were to eliminate knowledge of his method it would merely be a mediocre, unimpressive digital painting. How amazing could this guy’s work be if he didn’t arbitrarily limit himself? This is clearly an extremely talented artist that is limiting the quality of his work by stubbornly insisting on using an inefficient tool. Which, of course, got me to thinking about how as photographers, we have a tendency to do the exact same thing.

St. Louis Wedding Photographer Sal Cincotta shares his strategies for pricing wedding photography packages, how to use "pull through" and when to adjust to fit the market.

In the final part of the Dramatic Beauty Portrait Tutorial, we will look at how I do my Black and White conversion. This image is a dramatic image so it calls for a punchy and high-contrast black and white conversion. In this tutorial, I will show you how I stack blending modes and adjustment layers to get my image exactly where I want it. You can follow these steps in your own images or use the techniques and customize them for your own use. In the video you will also see how to use layer masks to create targeted adjustments for your high-contrast black and white portraits.

The ever popular Loka and Loka UL were favorites among many outdoor adventure photographers and filmmakers I know, including myself. With F-Stop Gear's recently updated line of Mountain Series packs, the Loka has been reborn and is now known as the Ajna. I've been using it for the last few weeks and discovered some surprising details about it.

Working with models can be an exciting part of photography, as each model can lend a different look and unique perspective to your vision. Casting a model appropriately for each project is an important part of a photographer’s job, as it speaks to their ability to manage their ideas and make them a reality. Just as a casting director will carefully select the best actors for appropriate roles, the same is true for casting the right model for the right photoshoot. Below we will review some guidelines for making the most out of working with models, in order to produce the best photographs...

Recently I felt a bit let down when looking at my work. It seemed to me like I had not improved much during the last year and that I had hit a plateau. Then when asking friends, fellow photographers, and other people from the industry, everyone told me it was just in my head. Creating new things day in and day out is quite difficult, but creating new things that are better each time you shoot is even harder! Sounds familiar? I know for a fact that most photographers have felt like that at some point in their career. We all have periods in our lives where we feel disappointed with our work. That same time when we also start looking at others work and wonder why we are not better. But all we really should be doing is looking at our work to see how far we have come and how we could get even better.

When I first heard about the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4 L USM, I couldn’t help but think of the famous “Spinal Tap” scene: “these go to 11!” It’s a hefty lens with a hefty price tag, so I had high expectations of it when it came time to review. It has risen to the occasion.

My favorite part of the wedding day is the reception. After the traditional first dances, and speeches are done, and the wedding party starts to let loose. The party is in full swing and the best man is giving “The Dougie” his best attempt in an effort to win a dance battle against the bride. While capturing these images I want the viewer to feel like they were in there, in the moment. My goal is to not light up the entire room like a Christmas tree. I want to see the light from the DJ and the motion on the dance floor. This is how I do just that.

As beauty/fashion/glamour photographers the quality of our work is often largely driven by how well we can tell the story of an intimate moment within the frame. A big part of being able to do this is by building trust with the model to ensure that she feels safe throughout the entire shoot.

Since Lee and I first started Fstoppers 5 years ago, we have always wanted it to be a place for inspiration, news, reviews, and of course educational behind the scenes material. One thing has always been missing though, and that is the voice of you our readers. Today we are expanding the Fstoppers Community by opening Groups to the public. Anyone with an Fstoppers account can now create and moderate their own photography community directly on Fstoppers.com