Fstoppers Original Articles

It’s imperative for a photographer to love their own work. You wouldn’t ever progress in the craft if you didn’t.

If you want to get serious about video editing, I highly suggest learning to use Adobe Premiere, but if you want to edit a video as cheaply and as quickly as possible, this is the video for you. I'm going to teach you how to edit a video in 15 minutes. 

Sometimes it’s fun to set yourself a challenge, maybe shooting with limited gear or with a very quick turnaround. On this occasion, I had no choice. The shoot was conceived and captured in under fifteen minutes, and the images were edited and submitted less than half an hour later. Here’s how it came about.

In the world of professional photography, the value of our work doesn’t always line up with our client’s budgets. But as tempting as it is to take the money and run, holding firm can often be more profitable in the end.

We are now four parts into the art of composite series, and this week we touch upon style and influence.

We've all bought things impulsively, and on occasion it works out. But often it doesn't, and a few times for me those purchases have been an unambiguous waste of money.

Photoshop's days are seriously numbered thanks to the likes of AI, machine learning, and neural networks. The question is, what should photographers be doing to prepare for this big change?

Your computer's graphics card isn't just for games anymore — with recent updates to essential core products, including Lightroom and Photoshop, there are a number of reasons why you should start paying attention to your GPU.

It’s time for something different. Ever have that great idea, but you may just let it fizzle away? Me too. But this one wasn't getting away. 

Have you always wished you gathered the courage to dive deep into travel photography? It can be an unforgettable experience, but be cautious because you are highly likely to contract a "travel bug" for the rest of your life!

As always, I get comfortable in my workflow then something new comes along that I didn't know I needed. This can of course be a good thing as long as we aren't closed minded to change. Today I'm going over an awesome new feature of the new NBP Freqsep Control update version 2.1.

In an industry dominated by budgets in the millions, or even hundreds of millions, how can an independent filmmaker get their vision to market? YouTube, VIMEO, luck? The festival circuit? Making a movie is expensive, so how does a rising artist find enough financial support to break into the business of film?

When I purchased my first large zoom lens it came equipped with a tripod foot. I quickly learned that a standard ball-head wasn't the best way to use one of these beasts on a tripod. This started my venture into the gimbal games and actually helped in ways that I didn't anticipate.

It seems each recent camera announcement has brought a higher megapixel count — including Sony's latest 60mp+ release. But whether you're shooting on 24mp APS-C, 50mp full frame, or 100mp medium format, you might not be getting all the resolution you paid for. Check out this list for 3 clarity-robbing problems and their fixes.

I recently outlined seven reasons why I was excited to go to Sony Kando 3.0, but now that I’ve been, there was so much more to it than I initially thought. 

Louis Daguerre is one of the founding fathers of photography, but little did he know, his invention opened a secret door down a street in Victorian-era London. Needless to say, this article is NSFW.

This week we turn to a train wreck of an image — yes the iconic photo "Train Wreck at Montparnasse Station"! But before we get to that, step back to the dawn of photography and understand the principles behind tilting and shifting the lens relative to the sensor. Some of the highest profile photographers use tilt-shift lenses in their day-to-day work, so find out why that is.

At the start of the new year, Netflix released the cultural hit show, "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo". No show has made me change my lifestyle around more than this one was able to. But I didn’t just use it to clean my room, I used her methods to clean my portfolio.

Robert Ascroft is known worldwide for his celebrity, sports, and fashion photographs. His client list includes Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Showtime, A&E, Puma, Vanity Fair, and Rolex. So, basically his client list includes some of the biggest names in his industries of focus! Not bad, right? Go big or go home I guess! 

My business is about 90 percent dealing with individuals, and about 10 percent working with brands. I just moved into a new live/work studio and, to help break it in, I decided to hold a "Pay What You Can" sale and the results made me change my entire business model.

Instagram appears to be in the process of rolling out a surprising change to its platform: hiding the number of times that a post has been liked. While the internet giant claims that it’s making the change in to help us focus on the thing we love, the truth is different. If it really wants to improve things, it should go one step further and hide follower counts too. You can be sure, however, that it never will.

There is an abundance of books on making business. They cover a lot of ground, mostly emphasizing marketing and selling, especially the latter. How practical is their advice to you as an artist?

Drones are great tools for photography and video, but with technology changing at such a rapid pace, racing drones (FPV) are becoming much more popular and in demand for commercial work. It can be a little overwhelming to learn this technology all at once, so I am here to help you with your first setup.

The shoot done by photographer Ana Dias is a Playmate of the Month pictorial for Playboy US (Miss March 2019). The model is named Miki Hamano, and she comes from Japan. The whole photoshoot was done in a modern villa in Malibu, California.

Recently, a special delivery unexpectedly arrived for me. It was a trophy from the Telly Awards for a Cape Town guide that I filmed for Expedia. Winning awards has never been a motivation for me, but this one felt really good. It made me consider all the different forms of payment we can get from photography.