Fstoppers Original Articles

One of the great benefits of using modern digital cameras is the high degree of customization options available. Menus, button configuration, touchscreens, and more can be customized for specific scenarios. In addition to programmable buttons and menus, all modern cameras include a feature called Custom Shooting Modes, which allow the user to save and recall personalized user profiles. In this article and video, I explain CSMs and how using them can greatly improve your photography and user experience.

We don’t talk enough about how relationships, or the lack thereof, will either make or break your career as a photographer. I’m not talking about the relationships with your clients. I’m talking about the needed strong relationships with all the supporting people that allow you to deliver the goods. These relationships are to be cultivated and nurtured.

Forget technology updates, larger sensor capacity, and more dynamic range. If you could only choose one camera to shoot with for the rest of your photographic life, what would it be?

The overall layout and the placement of subjects within the frame can make or break your photographs. You may know the rule of thirds and the golden section, but composition goes way beyond that, and most of it is about simple geometry.

Is getting criticism necessarily a bad thing? How does it affect who you are as an artist?

This is a brief overview of why you need filters for landscape photography, comparing the different types of systems you may encounter, and breaking down which setup is right for you.

If you have considered diving into the world of art festivals, here's a little glimpse of what to expect based on personal experience. Spoiler alert, it's not an easy road to travel.

Wanted: Photographers to shoot in exotic, sometimes inaccessible locales. Needed: Photographer to set up shop and work with clients among the icebergs and penguins of Antarctica, the bears and icy tundra of Hudson Bay, the apex predators on the wide-open veldts of the Serengeti or Maasai Mara. If this sounds like something you yearn for, how does the position of photography guide sound?

The new Nikon Z 9 is nearly a perfect camera for my needs. So how could it get even more perfect?

Recently, two photography friends visited the Fstoppers studio on the same day. Of course, this meant I needed to plan a friendly photography competition to see once and for all who is the best photographer in the land! This challenge video comes with lots of twists and turns, but at the core, we ask the question: "can an iPhone beat an expensive $12,000 medium format mirrorless camera?" Today, we find out.

In digital photography, chimping is when you take a photograph, look at the LCD screen, and then adjust your exposure settings (ISO, aperture, shutter speed) if they are a bit off. In this article, I will tell you why you shouldn’t be doing this.

Creating a 360 VR panorama (also referred to as 360x180 degree panorama) has been an interesting side-challenge to take on for photographers, but in the past few years, it has been simplified to the point where phones, such as the Google Pixel series, make taking a VR panorama practically a point-and-shoot affair. But shooting one of the night sky remains a worthy challenge.

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 2021, 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.

Seattle, Washington: A local photographer swears final_image_version_8_USE_THIS_ONE_edit_edit_edit_edit_copy.TIFF is the last edit of this image. No really. Promise.

We are constantly pressured into buying the latest cameras. As the bottom has fallen out of the camera market, maybe it’s time that camera manufacturers had a rethink about what they offer us. Nevertheless, there are good reasons for and against both upgrading and changing your system.

Do you struggle with finding compositions in woodland? Over the years, I have developed a strategy that helped me to succeed. Sometimes, I even see one composition beside the other without even looking.

If you are a beginning photographer who has only worked with amateur models, it may be your dream to work with a professional model one day. Is there a noticeable difference between working with a professional model and an amateur model?

I am as big a fan of Canon's lenses as anyone; I resisted the temptation to switch brands for years simply because they offer certain lenses that I can't imagine not having. When it comes to the new RF 800mm f/5.6 L IS USM and RF 1200mm f/8 L IS USM lenses, however, you should really think twice before you buy them.

The Nikon Z 9 is built for speed. Here are the first customizations I’ve chosen to make mine even faster.

While it’s always fun to window-shop $14,000 lenses, the best value for the dollar can be had from some simple $30 or less accessories. Over the last year, I’ve found 4 pieces of gear that have earned a permanent place in my bag — here are my favorite cheap and functional accessories that can all fulfill a variety of roles.

Innovators and philosophers like Elon Musk and Sam Harris have been theorizing what our world will look like once artificial intelligence completely takes over our everyday lives. We aren't quite there, but if you've ever dreamed of a day when all your skin retouching might be completed using AI and neural networks, well, the future is a lot closer than you might think.

A few years ago, Richmond, Virginia-based visual artists Jada and David Parrish found themselves stuck in a creative rut. The daily grind of their photography business combined with the global pandemic had taken a toll, and their passion-turned-business started to lack a bit in the passion department as they found themselves consumed with projects that didn't challenge or inspire.

Panasonic has used its GH series to push boundaries, and I worry that the limit may have already been reached.

Whenever you are preparing for a shoot, sketching your images should be a part of your pre-planning process. The sketches don’t have to be the perfect storyboard. But it should have enough details to guide a creative vision.

So, you’ve gone out and bought an iOptron SkyGuider Pro. You’ve assembled it, read the instructions, maybe even watched a YouTube video on how to use it, and you’ve got the basics down. But you find yourself wondering if it could be better. Yes, it can be heaps better.

Headshot photography is one of the fastest-growing segments in the industry and for good reason. With more people working from home and using technology to collaborate, our online personas have become more important than ever. Many people have started new careers and businesses due to the pandemic and need to update their branding images. This creates an excellent opportunity for aspiring headshot photographers, and in this article, I give you five tips that will radically improve your game.

Sometimes the best camera is the one you have with you and at times it's not your DSLR or mirrorless one. This is difficult because there are pros and cons to both options. If you have a mobile phone with you, then that can be the best option. However, if you need a more professional or reliable camera, then your DSLR or mirrorless will of course be the better choice.

Landscape photography brings us to the most beautiful places all over the world and there are so many of them out there, that it is impossible to visit them all in one lifetime. There is no obvious reason to return to places we have visited already, but as a pro landscape photographer with more than 30 years of experience, I do it again and again, returning to places for photography.

Fujifilm cameras have long been praised for the colors they produce. Lightroom has often been criticized for being incapable of processing Fujifilm raw files effectively. Capture One is generally recommended. Therefore, in this article, we will be comparing Lightroom and Capture One to see which is best for Fujifilm raw files.

Separation is a powerful tool we can use in compositions, and there is much more to it than preventing subjects from touching.

Are you a creative photographer? If so, there are pitfalls that we can avoid. Some are of our own making, while more are set by others to deliberately ensnare us.

I’ve been in the game for a little while, and along the way, there have been a few "new" things. New flashes, diffusers, scrims, softboxes, continuous light panels, LED wands, animated photos, cinemagraphs, mirrorless cameras, the list goes on and on, not to mention Photoshop and Lightroom, which update more often than I wash my sheets. But the one "new" I was not expecting to face was a new photography usage that has made me have to think anew about composition: Instagram.

Time flies by. We’re already into February. Have you got your astrophotography planned out for the year? For astrophotographers, knowing what’s up in the sky and planning is the key to getting an interesting shot.

Kodak has a history of being a leader in the market of film and then seeing to its demise. I would argue this graph tells us Kodak is back on the path of self-destruction and (some) other film manufacturers are following them.

Many of us spend hours of our lives reading gear reviews, checking rumor sites, getting excited about a new camera or computer releases, and generally keeping up to date with the technology behind modern photography. Some believe that by staying up to date with new technology we can make better-informed buying decisions and potentially get better at our craft. Some are simply interested in new technology. But how important is it for photographers to stay up to date with the bleeding edge of new technology?

Is it possible that gear that costs you more can end up costing you less? Let’s explore.

Fifty years since the radical Olympus OM-1 SLR first appeared, the new OM System OM-1 is announced. It looks like another giant leap forward for photography.

Trying to capture a perfectly balanced shot during blue hour has its challenges. These three tips will have you capturing more successful images for your portfolio.

Often, I read about natural light photographers who prefer a high-ISO setting above the use of flash. The latter is considered unnatural and unflattering light. Perhaps that photographer should consider the benefits flash can offer without the sacrifice of a natural-looking photo.

How many megapixels do we need? What do we have to consider already out on location, that we are able to print big afterward? How do we choose the right printing material, and how can we be sure to get the best possible printing result in the end?

If you look at your camera, you will find a button to change the white balance. You can choose either auto white balance or one of the other predefined settings. But it is also possible to set the color temperature itself. Is there a difference between color temperature and white balance?

If you are first starting in photography, this quote by the famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson might seem outrageous or overly harsh. But as someone who has taken at least 10,000 photos, I can tell you that there is a lot of truth to this, and more importantly, this idea can be freeing.

I've been editing exclusively with Adobe Premiere for over 12 years now, but today, I decided to give Final Cut Pro a try on a real project. Final Cut impressed me.

Warning: although Photoshop was used to identify the guitar, this isn't really photography-related, but this story is too good not to share.

Amid a busy week, I figured I’d share a few brief thoughts on why it’s important to keep moving forward and why it’s just as important to sometimes remain still long enough to see where you stand.

When it comes to portrait photography, it is not uncommon for photographers to have a focus on the technical aspects of their craft. However, what if the secret ingredient of portraiture is more than just nailing a technically perfect photograph? Portraiture is all about the human subject and displaying their authenticity with each photo taken. The hidden ingredient that can take an average portrait to an exceptional piece of work has everything to do with the human connection to the subject.

An industrial photographer is someone who photographs the people and the products associated with multi-million dollar companies that make machines and tools for industries such as power and electric, trucking, and construction. As an industrial photographer, you will photograph everything from a two-ton drill used underground to a two-inch screw that secures a safety harness used by workers from a state electric company.

My first camera was a Minolta SRT-101. I loved that camera. It was an excellent tool for learning about photography and manual exposure. As it was completely manual in operation, the internal meter was my only guide for achieving correct exposure, outside of using an external source or just guessing. Fast forward 20-plus years and the way I use an internal light meter has remained largely unchanged. That all changed recently.

Have you ever been out for landscape photography and didn’t get weather conditions that would support your compositions? Here are a couple of ideas you can try.

When we shoot photographs, we may or may not want to increase the appearance of depth in the image. Many more tools than depth of field are available to us. Here are some things we can do to add or decrease perspective.