Fstoppers Original Articles

Over the past six weeks, I've photographed more sunsets than I can count along the coast. As someone who primarily shoots on land, I had a lot to learn about shooting the sea and have put together a few of the most important lessons I came away with for your next seascape location.

This article is about two traits you need as a landscape photographer if you want to take photos that stand out. And I'm not talking about a good eye for composition, love for the outdoors, or an adequate fitness level to reach the photo locations you want to photograph. Those are also important. But there are two key characteristics you need as a foundation.

As a keen photographer, whether professional or amateur, one of the best parts of traveling to unfamiliar places is being able to capture new and interesting images. Whether you’re going on a dedicated photography trip, working away, or on family vacation, I'm sure we all put aside some space for our main camera and a lens or two. What if you left your kit at home and traveled light?

Creating an even, flattering light in the studio doesn't have to be difficult. In this tutorial, I will show you three simple parallel lighting hacks to make portraits that everyone from the boardroom to Broadway will love.

The perfect camera probably doesn’t exist, but there are certainly some that come close. In this retrospective look at the classic Olympus XA, find out why I've come to love this tiny powerhouse from the past.

Today, I’ll share with you a few lessons I've learned after several years of taking cameras and other gear through their paces.

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 2022, 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.

We are used to traveling to the most beautiful places with the aim of getting outstanding photographs. But when we import our images to Lightroom, we have often to accept that our photos are no more than the same old story that was photographed there already by thousands of others before. How can we get photographs that stand out?

Have you been thinking about becoming a wedding photographer? If you’ve been toying with the idea of starting a wedding photography business, this article will help you figure out if it's the right path for you. Read on to learn a few steps to get started in the right direction.

As more and more photographers dive into motion graphics, I thought I’d mention some utilities that can help get the job done.

If you’re anything like me, you like to save as much on gear as possible. As expensive as gear is, there are some things I suggest you should not go cheap on. This list consists of stuff that is long-lasting and will not go out of date quickly.

I love trends. But what I love more is making fun of them. Be it a trend in lighting, or a trend in aperture choice, or a trend in post-processing, here are some that we should've moved on from a long time ago.

Some photographs raise potent emotions. Emotions are as much an essential element of photographs as composition. So, how do we embed them into our images?

The month of May closes out with a New Moon (moonless sky), to which deep sky astrophotographers always look forward. This month brings a potential bonus of an intense burst of meteors, perfectly timed for North American astrophotographers. In fact, it’s so perfectly timed (for U.S. residents) that it falls on a Monday evening of a U.S. three-day holiday weekend.

Why do all lenses, including the one in the human eye, flip an image upside-down? Or do they? It's far easier to understand than you might think.

Successful photographers follow one of two paths. Which route are you taking in your photographic journey, that of a conceptual genius or an experimental master?

So you’re trying to develop your wedding photography skills? Let’s talk through some of the photography skills you need to learn and develop. My advice is to pick one thing at a time to focus on, perfect that and then move on.

What did you do during the pandemic? With most of the industry at a standstill, sports photographer James Quantz started a new company, Pro Light Mods, and designed a prototype of his "Maxi Brute softbox". Not only are they super awesome, but any photographer can pick one up now!

I've been flying drones for about five years, treating them like another lens in my landscape kit. My current drone is a DJI Air 2S, which has a one-inch sensor to give me an excellent 20 MP image. I like the drone as a tool because it can get me views I otherwise would never see, so on most trips, I get an equal amount of images from my DSLR and my drone.

Some photographers still believe that it’s important to shoot in manual mode, no matter what situation they’re in. As long as the correct exposure is achieved, it isn’t important if this is done manually or partly by the camera itself. But sometimes, manual is indeed the best choice.

As someone who's been a regular Canon EOS R system user for the last few years, it's really dawned on me through teaching students how much things have changed for the better with serious mirrorless cameras.

If you already own an interchangeable lens camera, you can make a pinhole lens in five minutes.

Have you ever thought of taking a trip to the sub-Arctic or Arctic to photograph polar bears and their habitat? Ever thought it might be your destiny to come nose-to-nose with the largest predator living on land? My latest article for Bradt Guides' Travel Club is all about taking photos of polar bears and their environment. I thought I'd share some of the tips and photos here.

The claim is that NFTs got rid of gatekeeping in photography. Anyone can pick up a camera, mint a few NFTs, and make money. But what does this actually mean?

As waves of international turmoil shake the photographic world, how will the industry be affected? Additionally, are there ways we can protect ourselves from this economic mess? Here are seven options.

Today, I’m reviewing the XDynamics Evolve 2 Drone. I’ll share thoughts on build, performance, and other details as well as my favorite features. Drones, or “airplane cameras” as my kids call them, are an awesome piece of technology that can take your photos to a whole new level.

I finally received my DJI Mic after pre-ordering it more than a month ago, and at first, I was disappointed. When I did the initial test with the DJI Receiver connected to my Canon R5, the audio I recorded was much noisier than what I was used to from my old setup, for which I used a Zoom H1 with a Rode Lavalier GO. But there's a solution to this problem, and in this article, I share it with you.

Sometimes, we try hard to find a composition, but sometimes, we get distracted by too many, and it gets hard to choose the best one. At home then, we have often to accept that all our images are just average. How can we avoid situations like that and come home with a masterpiece instead?

Today, hopefully, you’ll allow me a brief break from discussing tech and technique to revel in a bit of the pure joy that is the process of photography.

Sometimes it is difficult for me to look back at the photographs I created early in my career. The shots are all technically strong, but there is something missing. That missing element can be defined as vision. In this article, I will detail my journey in understanding the need to incorporate this crucial element into my art.

A couple of months ago, I tried Final Cut Pro for the first time. Surprisingly, there were many things I liked about Final Cut, but it wasn't enough to convince me to switch from Premiere. Today, I'm giving Final Cut Pro another try.

If you love landscape photography, you probably know a lot about camera equipment, settings, and the most common composition rules and techniques. But landscape photography is not always about those things. I have six important tips that are often overlooked.

When I started photography, one of the hardest things for me was to pick the editing software I should use. Indeed, a lot of photographers face the same problem every day. Looking beyond the classic choices, there is arguably much better software you can choose: ACDSee Gemstone Photo Editor 12. It combines the functionality of several Adobe products into one affordable and intuitive software.

In part three of this series, we will discuss tips 11 through 15. These are steps you can take today to grow your photography business. If you missed the previous articles, you can read part one here, and part two here.

I have to admit it: I’ve never been on team Lightroom. This may be a bit of a low blow, but Lightroom has always seemed like the sandbox for those who couldn’t play on the big-boy playground: Photoshop, of course.

How far should you sit from your screen? How large can you print your photos? Why are stacked sensors better? There is much more to those pixels than you might think.

Building a career as a professional artist is a long journey of ups and downs. Here’s one lesson to take along to help you on your way.

This editing technique is something every landscape photographer should learn. It can be especially helpful when you're approaching an image with a few technical flaws.

Being a well-rounded photographer who can succeed in any situation is the ultimate goal for most photographers. However, what happens when you are forced to take a portrait by lighting from below? Today, I take the challenge.

Some accepted truths about photography proved wrong over the years. Just as beliefs in seemingly unassailable attitudes have been eroded by time, so too will things we believe are correct now. Are my predictions for the future uncomfortable, or will you embrace the changes?

It can be frustrating when, as a new photographer, you want to work with models. You put your little ad up on Facebook and… nothing. What do you do?

If spring has been a mixed bag of poor weather and few targets for you, as it has been for many of us, things are looking up as May rolls in. A total lunar eclipse highlights the list on May 15-16.

I recently made the switch to Mac after a lifetime of Windows. My MacBook Pro isn’t perfect, but in this video ,I discuss the top 10 things that it does better than my Windows machines.

If you haven't heard of GuruShots, it's a photography website that hosts "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” They host regular challenges and allow photographers of every level to submit and participate. Their latest challenge "Marvelous Still Life," received thousands of entries and millions of votes. You can see the three winners of the challenge as well as hundreds of top rated images below.

What do you do when you have a light that doesn't fit into the standard set of categories?

How do you make sure that your photos make a lasting impression? Is there a formula that can help you achieve better visual design?

Over the last three years, I have built out four new photography studios, and each time, I find better and better ways to streamline my spaces. In this video, I want to share with you one of the coolest ways to mount your seamless paper or Gravity backdrops.

The light is amazing. There are dozens of compositions waiting out there. But where are you? Sitting in your office, working eagerly for your boss or for your clients? I found a solution to combine my job with my landscape photography, to photograph wherever and whenever I want.

Metering and exposure are uneasy companions. Although they seem to work well together on the surface, the metering can trick you into exposing badly. Here are some experiments showing you how to take control of exposure and use it creatively, especially in aperture priority mode.

So, you’ve got two or more internet sources and you want to combine them to create one faster, more reliable connection? Here’s how to do it.