Fstoppers Original Articles

Figuring out a fair rate for providing photography or video services can be a slippery slope, filled with pitfalls if you happen to price yourself incorrectly. But what's more complicated than setting a rate for services is how to approach setting a rate for someone who wants to license a piece of work you've already created. In this post I'll share my insight on the factors I look at, and my rationale for determining a fair fee for video and photo licensing.

How many times have you heard the saying "if you want it done right you've got to do it yourself"? Well, that is not always the best mindset. This business we are in is all about collaboration, and the sooner you embrace what others have to offer, the sooner you will put out work that is competitive. Collaboration has many benefits that can take your work to the next level.

The state of California is simply unmatched when it comes to beautiful, picturesque imagery in the United States. As the birthplace and home of timelapse photographer Hal Bergman, it was his goal to compile as much of the visual wonders California has to offer in to a tight four-minutes time. His newest video, aptly titled “California,” combines four years of filming in to a marvelous treat for the eyes that any citizen of the world can appreciate. Beyond the video, Hal also speaks to Fstoppers about the behind-the-scenes work and equipment used in the making.

When you make a photograph as part of a personal project, the likelihood is that you'll want to share it with your peers. Often the concept is as important as the final image, so the title or description must sit alongside it for the picture to be taken in context. So what happens when a picture accidentally goes viral with no credit to the artist and more specifically, no mention of the theory behind it?

As a commercial photographer, I specialize in product, food, and architecture. One of the products we've been shooting a lot of lately is jewelry, specifically jewelry for catalog use. In my opinion, jewelry is one of the hardest things to photograph, and many photographers don't know where to start. Whenever we're tasked with photographing shiny, reflective, spherical objects, our studio sounds like a group of sailors on leave with all the profanity flying around (often times strung together to make complete sentences).

Adobe Lightroom is a program full of many different little tips and tricks just waiting to be discovered. In this short video I show you one of my favorites which allows you to apply a selective focus technique to your photo without having to open it in Photoshop. This technique is especially useful if you want to draw your viewers attention somewhere specific in the photo.

You read that headline correctly. After making a huge splashes in the motion-capture industry since 2005, Red has big plans to be the only camera system you use on set for both your motion AND still photography needs, and it's closer to being a reality than you would think. Prepare to have your minds blown.

This is not a story about an amazing photographer or stunning photography. It’s about photos that are taken by non-photographers, in everyday situations, documenting a moment in time that is supposed to be filled with joy and happiness. The time after a baby - that fresh-smelling bundle of joy - came into the world. These are the faces of mothers, suffering from postpartum depression, hiding their angst behind a smile.

I thought he was crazy at the time, but my college photography professor Richard Ross had little interest in teaching us the finer points of lighting and retouching. Instead he believed, “Anyone can learn those skills, I’m going to teach you how to think.”

Ed Keating, Pulitzer Prize-winner, career photographer of over thirty years and mentee and friend of Robert Frank (the most celebrated American documentary photographer probably ever), is one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever met. I filmed and edited this exclusive Fstoppers interview, as his insight was just too good not to share. No matter what type of photographer you are, I’m sure you can all take something of value away from this video interview.

If there is one thing we learned this weekend concerning Jennifer Lawrence and others, it’s that even the most seemingly safe photos are not safe at all. We happen to be amongst two eras. One where cameras are more frequent than ever, and one where privacy is disappearing rapidly. Here are some tips to keep those two things separate.

As senior portrait photographers, we are often plagued with the decision of what to offer and what to sell to our clients. For those doing in-studio sales, the goal is to sell products that people desire and want in their homes. Below are five products that sell like hot cakes in my studio to high school seniors and their families.

As a wedding photographer I often fill up 3 or 4 memory cards at a wedding and it is important that I get those images downloaded and backed up as soon as possible. Rather than download one card at a time I like to do them all at the same time using multiple card readers. I usually use Photomechanic to do this but recently discovered that it is actually very simple to download multiple cards at the same time in Lightroom as well. I put together this quick video tip to show how.

The advantage to downloading multiple cards at the same time is so one doesn't get...

We have been sold on the biggest myth of all time; In order to succeed at anything and have a lustrous career you must spend 4 years in an overinflated educational institution and spend a small fortune, which doesn’t include costly textbooks, supplies and living expenses. All in exchange for a fancy sheet of paper we call a degree… a piece of paper that gives us instant credit and a golden ticket to the gravy train. Right?

Let’s face it. From the first moment we decide to pick up a camera, call ourselves a photographer, and try to make some money at what we do, we are constantly trying to find ways to stand out from the billion or so other photographers in our our who are trying to do that exact same thing.

One of the most fun things about being a creative individual is seeing the reaction people have when you finally publish your work. In just two days my Taser Photoshoot video and photo series has gained viral status with over 2 Million views on Youtube alone. After reading hundreds of comments, replying to an overflowing inbox, and talking on the phone to more organizations than I could imagine, tonight the Fstoppers crew took a break to watch the coverage spill over to CNN. Enjoy a laugh with us!

As many of you may know if you follow me on social media, I teach workshops and give lecture on photography and retouching all over the United States. Through prepping each workshop, I sharpen my knowledge and become fluent in the material I’m teaching. However, without fail, I always learn a million new things when teaching each workshop.

How do you achieve long term success? Whether you want to grow a huge photography or video business, or just improve your skills, it would pay to look at the dramatic failures of others rather than just the “success stories”. Why? Because long term success is the result of resilience and determination in the face of constant failure and almost insurmountable odds, and if we understand - and embrace - this philosophy, we can overcome almost anything.

If you listen to the podcast On Taking Pictures, you know that co-host of the program Bill Wadman is a New York-based portrait photographer who's worked with the likes of Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, Philip Glass, Ze Frank, and many, many others. Though his traditional portrait and conceptual work are tremendous in their own right, Bill has gotten quite a bit of attention over the years for his projects such as his critically acclaimed Dancers in Motion, cinematic Drabbles, and the 365 Portrait project that helped him to start it all.

With a saturated market for photographers, there are so many pitfalls a photographer can plunge into that can prevent them from being successful. Taking a step back to analyzing yourself and your business can be the first step to improve and guarantee chances of success for the future. Here are a number of things to look out for, these things can be what is preventing you from reaching your potential.

As a portrait photographer, I am always trying to make people feel comfortable in front of my camera so I can capture a real emotion from them. But what if I was able to make people feel so uncomfortable in front of the camera that I could guarantee an interesting portrait every time? This is the idea behind my latest series: The Stun Gun Photoshoot. I've edited two different videos as well as a behind the scenes in the full post below.

So it goes without saying that there are a ton of different ways to match skin tones across your subject or between images in Photoshop so it's often just a matter of picking the option that is most convenient or intuitive. Despite the wide array of choices, I seldom see people use the selective color adjustment layer for this task. The beauty of selective color is that it allows us to go off the numbers rather than intuition and achieve an accurate result in little time.

Turning the work you do on a personal project into something that makes you money isn't a new idea (just ask stock shooters.) However, the forethought required to concept a personally fulfilling shoot or production that will also have the chance to generate some income can be tricky to figure out. This past weekend I had three shoots, and they were all because of one personal project I created a month ago. And I actually planned for this to happen.

The Nik Collection by Google carries some of the most powerful image editing applications for photographers. One of these applications, Color Efex Pro, has the ability to dramatically enhance the stories inside your landscape images. Out of the 55 filters available in Color Efex, there are five that I come back to using time and time again. In this article, I will show you what these essential filters are and explain how they make processing my images much less draining.

Quitting gets a bad rap. There is a certain stigma attached to the quitter as if they have somehow failed. We offer them compassion instead of congratulations. We imagine they are haunted by countless "what if's" and regrets. We muse that perhaps there were circumstances beyond their control. What if I told you that quitting can be the ultimate form of regaining direction and control in your life?

One of the most overlooked, yet most used items in a photographer's arsenal, is the grip kit. A grip kit isn't something most photographers set out to buy, build, or assemble, it's generally born from necessity. Over the years we find ourselves on jobs needing certain things that we don't have readily available and we end up improvising to get the job done. Usually we make a mental note of how we can be more prepared in the future, which often times leads to adding small "grip" items to our pack list. When we collect enough of these items, they typically make their way into some sort of crate, bag, or box also known as a grip kit.

This is the second part of The Ultimate Guide to Composition. Part One can be found here.

Now that we’ve covered some of the more common rules/guidelines that are present in photography and painting, let’s move on to some of the more abstract concepts and theories including framing devices and the ways that our brain organizes how we see.

It's that time! We have the third session in the Fstoppers series over at the TogTools Podcast ready for you all to enjoy - and it's a great one! This week's guest is Staff Writer Adam Ottke. Adam shoots fine art and travel photography, but he also serves as the Art Director for a small creative agency he started called Curate the World. In this week's podcast, Adam discusses his love for gear, how he got started in photography and as a writer for Fstoppers, how to hustle in this industry and why collaboration is important for creating strong artistic ideas.

For the longest time I viewed tethered capture as a nice-to-have reserved for high budget shoots and simply shyed away from it. I tried it a few times and after constantly being plagued with technical problems, I decided I'm better off sticking to my camera's LCD screen and didn't give it a second thought. Through my ignorance, little did I know how much I was actually losing out on and how much time I wasted in the process.

The untimely passing of Robin Williams at the still-young age of 63 sent shock waves around the world last week. Based on the outpouring of love for "Mork" on social media, it was evident that no matter your age, Robin was most likely a fixture in your upbringing. His acting brilliance ranged from the side splitting comedy "Mrs. Doubtfire" to the chillingly dramatic roles in "Good Will Hunting" and "Dead Poets Society." Robin could do it all on screen, but could be even more entertaining off screen, when he wasn't tied down to a script. He would often explode into comedic rants that would include character after character, all seemingly without stopping to take a breath. There was no doubt that the man was brilliant.

Over the next couple of months, I am teaming with Jen Basford, owner of 3 girls photography and co-owner of Seniors Ignite. If you aren't familiar with Seniors Ignite, it is one of the best resources out there for senior photographers.

Note: This is Part One. For Part Two: Beyond the Basics, click here.

Composition – it’s perhaps one of the most important elements of photography. And with today’s technological marvels in lenses, it’s an even easier thing to forget – especially when bokehliciousis is so much more fun to talk about. Your composition is how you see – and that makes it infinitely more important than how out of focus the background is.

Almost a year ago I posted The Ultimate Guide To The Frequency Separation Technique article and soon after that I created our Retouching Academy community group for retouchers and photographers who retouch their own work. We have been seeing a lot of before & after images posted there by artists of all levels from complete beginners to seasoned pros.

And in there we all have been witnessing that one of the most abused and misused techniques by those who work with images of people is Frequency Separation (FS). Mainly by beginners, of course....

When it comes to diffusion panels, several companies have prefab "blades" intended for holding diffusion materials that fit nicely into grip heads and knuckles, but at nearly $100 a pop, buying several of them may not fit into everyone's budget. Earlier this week, fellow Fstopper Clay Cook put together an awesome post about building your own V-Flats. His post got me thinking about some of my own DIY projects.

Sure, you could go grab incredible live shots of an artist and post them all over the internet. Guess what? If those images aren’t in their manager’s hands when it is time to make the new round of posters or t-shirts, you’re no further along in terms of advancing your photography business than you were before you hit the shutter button.

It’s August. And if you’re anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, you’re warm - hot even. So why not sit back and relive the good old days, back when our cameras were new, the exposure triangle was confusing, and the idea that photography could be something that could to take us to the ends of the earth and make us a lot of money in the process was still a far off dream.

When I began photography I didn’t understand the importance of lighting and the difference makeup has on an image. Looking back, if I would have first understood and attempted to master the techniques behind makeup, I would have understood the proper way to light my subjects when photographing them.

In this day and age of social media we hear people rant about terrible customer service they receive all the time. Fortunately there are some good stories still out there, and after hearing about this one I just had to share. The wedding photography team of Easton and Laura Reynolds of LuRey Photography had their camera attached to a popular BlackRapid Strap used by many in the industry. Unfortunately the strap came loose causing Laura's camera to hit the concrete and damage their Nikon 24-70 lens. What happened next deserves to be heard.

Our DSLRs have confused us. We obssess over the wrong things. Sharpness at 400%; bokeh characteristics of lenses produced from what-must-surely-be prancing magical unicorns; high speed burst frame rates that make cameras sound like gatling guns; 4k resolution to shoot better cat videos; 100 auto focus points that still won’t focus on what we need them to; and noise performance at 400,000 ISO. Absolutely none of these will make your photographs better. Shooting film will though, here's why.

That’s right. You! No matter what your skill level, there is a project in this world that is perfect for you. Are you going to get paid for this project? Nope! This one is going to be a freebie.

Now I know what you are thinking. "Whoa Whoa Whoa, stop the clock! You want me to work for free?”

Yes, that’s exactly what I want you to do. And here is why.

Ever since I started diving into studio photography the term “V-Flat” has been a big mystery to me. Google and YouTube have been the quintessential resource for photography knowledge and for whatever reason there isn't much detailed information on how to construct a V-Flat or what purpose they actually serve. It took time to sift through the noise of nonsensical DIY fabrication and even more time to unfold the enigma of this studio essential.

If you’re a professional photographer, being pulled in a million directions probably feels like a daily occurrence. There seems to be a never ending stream of tasks that we should be completing, some of which are paid, some of which aren’t. Our trade-off often involves balancing paid work - be it desirable or not - with unpaid tasks that we hope will provide business in the future. The question is, how do we know what’s going to be helpful and what’s going to turn out to be a waste of time?

It’s always nice to work with a client that has as much invested in making a great image as you do. I recently had the opportunity to work with poet and academic Katie Schmid for some portraits. Outside of her own poetry, Katie writes for a few blogs and online magazines. Katie knew she needed a fairly standard image to use with those publications, but expressed interest in creating a second image that better captured her personality.

Director, photographer, and aerial cinematographer Randy Scott Slavin has created the first-ever drone film festival. The New York City Drone Film Festival, which takes place in NYC on February 21, 2015 was created to “celebrate the art of drone cinematography.” I spoke with Slavin about the process of putting together the festival which is, as of today, taking submissions.

Aerial videos that have been shot by drones have been flooding YouTube for the last few years, especially as the cost and expertise needed to get into it has come down. A birds-eye point of view can add a lot of production value to a video project, but where does one start when looking to get into aerial video? I spoke with Brent Foster who told me about the doors that shooting aerial video can open, as well as the challenges they present.

We are so excited to announce that the staff writers and contributors from Fstoppers have teamed up with TogTools to give you a new series with an in-depth look behind each of our businesses. If you aren't familiar with TogTools, it is an awesome resource for new and emerging photographers to obtain industry information from some of the best pros in the industry. Founders Stephen and Jess Robertson bring you in-depth podcasts with answers to questions you have always wanted to learn from some of your favorite photographers and videographers.

In addition to lifestyle, I have an affinity for shooting natural light portraits/beauty/headshots - whatever you want to call them. It's not something I shoot often, but when I do, I'm reminded of how much I love it. In fact, you may recall a few months ago, I wrote an article detailing my ideal natural light setup for the black and white portrait / headshot photos that I occasionally shoot. In the article,

Photographer Brigette Bloom draws from her start in documentary photography to create mystical, story-driven work. A concept photographer, Bloom works with Impossible Project Polaroid and 35mm film, which she often alters to create interesting effects (you may recognize her as “the photographer who pees on her film.”) I spoke with Bloom about her captivating “Kaya” series, and her overall process as an artist.

The largest ring light I've ever seen consists of 27 bulbs and is four feet in diameter. Six months ago, I built it. With so many questions left unanswered, I put together a short film that explains how I built it, why it was built, and why it's the most amazing light I've ever used to date.

During our 2014 Fstoppers Workshops in the Bahamas students had the privilege of watching 10 successful photographers share their top photographic techniques. Commercial and celebrity portrait photographer Michael Grecco taught classes on environmental portraiture and sexy swimwear photography, so of course we thought it would be awesome to tag along as Michael explained some of the tips that make his portraits so unique.