Fstoppers Original Articles

It’s been a long time coming for some of my gear. I hardly used it and it was worth more to someone else.

Whether you're looking to hire a photographer yourself, are looking to work with another photographer, or are being given advice or criticism from another photographer, what are some red flags that put you on high alert?

Do you often return from a photography session or trip to upload your photos and immediately delete the bad photos from the set? While getting rid of the obvious blurry image can save you disk space, I find that deleting can sometimes do more harm than good. Had I culled my images right away I never would have created this photograph.

GuruShots is a website that hosts "The World’s Greatest Photo Game,” and it's latest challenge has drawn some attention. Participants were invited to submit their best images of "Minimalist Shots." Thousands of people entered and millions of votes were cast for their favorites. Check out the three winners of the challenge as well as hundreds of top rated images below.

An important part of growing as a photographer is shooting personal projects. If you are a food photographer, it can be extremely easy to get stuck in a rut because you are shooting the same modern images over and over. An easy and important way to combat this is to shoot food as fine art.

Are your photos beautiful? Consequently, do they attract lots of likes online? If you are serious about your photography, then there are arguments to shun beauty and embrace less appealing aesthetics. But those arguments are flawed. Here's why.

Ever find your distant objects such as mountains appearing much smaller than they should in your landscape photos? Perspective blending is a great solution that is actually quite easy to do.

When we think of family portraits, we often picture the traditional looks: everyone lined up, smiling, and well dressed. Family lifestyle photography, on the other hand, shines a new light on family portraiture. Rather than posing everybody perfectly, lifestyle captures the personality and dynamics of the family. The spontaneity is a great addition to a complete family album. Let's begin by seeing how the two styles differ.

This video is a sneak peek into SLR Lounge Premium Library with a chapter from our new course, Family Photography 101. This is a complete course on capturing memorable and unique family portraits. In this video, I had Shivani with me as we compared family lifestyle photography with traditional portraits.

Recently I got a friendly comment about the images of a camera review I did. It was all about how the results should be presented. Straight out of the camera, or edited? I want to have a closer look at this question and what could be the answer.

Waiting to take an image until the culmination of an action or moment is a common theme in photography. But sometimes, the in-between moments are even better for telling a story or building a narrative.

There are endless apps and web services available for small business owners to build a CRM database. For those not familiar with CRM, it stands for Customer Relationship Management. Basically, it's where you store, categorize, and update your customer’s information.

I love everything about shooting film. I love the feel of it, I love the cameras, I love the surprise of seeing the images, I love the community. I love it so much I set up my own film photography podcast called Matt Loves Cameras.

There are a few key specs that camera manufacturers and users gravitate toward and that capture headlines when new products are released. However, some of these specs can be misleading, and it is important that you understand what you are really purchasing before you pull out your credit card. Here are four specs to research a bit further before you buy that shiny new camera.

Every technical and compositional skill you have in your toolbox cannot give your images meaning. Of all the considerations, putting meaning into an image is probably the hardest to achieve. It’s an esoteric thing, but it can help lift your photographs from the mundane to extraordinary.

With the news that Instagram's focus has shifted to be far less centered around images, many photographers who have spent years building their following and brand on the app are left out in the cold. This isn't the first, nor will it be the last time you are reminded of the dangers of building a large part of your business on someone else's platform.

From modern-day yogis like Kelly Slater to Tim Ferriss, all have one piece of advice that I will paraphrase here: if you want to excel at your craft, you must always be the student, not a master, and immerse yourself into your discipline at all times.

Tamron recently announced the development of a new 18-300 mm zoom lens which is notable for two claimed firsts: its first X-mount model and the first APS-C model produced as a superzoom. Why is this an important development for Fuji?

Canon Canada has opened its first-ever mentorship incubator. If you're a creator looking for a helping hand up to the next level, applications are being accepted until August 16.

Photojournalism is ostensibly about capturing the world as we see it, as close to reality as we saw it. That reality often includes color, and the question is: does black and white photography have a place in modern photojournalism?

As you’re probably aware from the level of hype in your news feed, the Perseid meteor shower is approaching and you should get outside to see it now! Technically in late July, it is already active in our skies, but the reality is that there is a fairly narrow window of high activity only around the peak time. My own experience is that the number of meteors drops off dramatically a day before or after the peak evening.

An overabundance of junk email this morning reminded me that turning a passion into profit sometimes means returning to one very basic concept.

Gear acquisition syndrome, or G.A.S, is a name for those of us that like to accumulate tech gear, and in this case specifically, photographic equipment, normally in detriment to the learning process. If you struggle with G.A.S, then here are 10 ways to cure yourself.

If you were inspired by the majestic beauty of Washington State’s North Cascades in the first leg of our Pacific Northwest Escape (you can read all about the adventure here), wait until you see the magic of Oregon’s coastline through our lens.

He is one of the most revered photographers in the world. Having captured iconic images that became staples of modern culture, Albert Watson is a person that doesn’t need a long introduction. Recently, Fstoppers arranged an exclusive interview with Mr. Watson, where we asked the questions any beginner would want to have answers to. Read on to see what he had to say.

A location can make or break a photograph, so don't get caught in a bad spot. Fortunately, you don't need to go heading out for hours on end to learn how to do this. In this article, I've put together five of the most powerful techniques you can use to make the best of a bad location.

When I look at product photography and video in the fashion and beauty product industry, many of the shots are now computer-generated. It might be at a steep cost initially to get the team to create the products in 3D space, but once that’s done, the product can be used in any scene you need for the client. Are we beyond photography?

Self-devised projects may seem like a waste of time. But are they really?

Landscape photography is somewhat synonymous with shooting large scenes with a wide angle lens, but what about more intimate landscapes? On a recent trip through Colorado, I found myself using a telephoto lens almost exclusively and came up with five tips that might help your try one out for yourself.

As photographers, it is easy to get caught up on what is in the middle of the frame and ignore what may fall on the edges. But, the edges can actually have a surprising impact on how successful your compositions are, and being more purposeful about that part of the image can really improve your photographs!

The film community is a pretty friendly place. I've made a lot of good mates all over the world since launching my film photography podcast, "Matt Loves Cameras," three years ago.

Landscape photography is not my thing. I use it to exercise the fundamentals and have something to do when I need a break from the family on camping trips, but that's the extent of it for me personally. But I feel for landscape photographers. It's a crowded field in an already crowded profession. It's hard to make your images not look like everyone else's, especially when everyone has access to the same subject matter you do.

Lighting can make or break a fitness portrait. Our goal is to highlight the form and definition of your subject as well as the movement if the intended photo involves action. In this tutorial, I'm going to walk through a few basic fitness photography lighting techniques.

Want to improve your images? Here are seven rarely talked-about approaches, not involving the camera settings or composition, that may help you take your photography to the next level.

One of the Holy Grail quests for astrophotographers is the search for dark skies. Few of us are fortunate enough to live in ideal dark skies, but most of us are mobile enough to get to somewhere better than the center of an urban area.

Street photography is one of the most popular genres of photography, both for professional and amateur photographers. Done well, it can produce art that not only tells a story about a particular moment in time but also provides us with a window onto the human condition. Questions have been asked, however, about the ethics of street photography, and whether photographers ought to be doing it at all.

A photographer has built his own DIY ultra-large format digital camera from scratch. The rig uses a 600mm f/9 lens and has a projection area of one meter, making for some crazy images.

Fujifilm — the clue is in the name, except it isn't. Fuji was a behemoth in the film world, with Kodak its only rival. And then film went bust, and Kodak rapidly followed suit. Meanwhile, Fuji evaluated its business position and refocused principally around the healthcare sector and document management divisions. The architect of this remarkable turnaround was Chairman and CEO Shigetaka Komori. His retirement in March 2021 has precipitated changes that could have repercussions for its Imaging Solutions division.

If there is one type of news story that is a recurring theme in journalism it is the protest. Think "Tank Man", "The Burning Monk", or "Taking a Stand in Baton Rouge" (with Ieshia Evans). They stick in the memory, their iconographic status forming a peg from which we hang related memories. So why then are we more interested in riots as opposed to protests?

The huge forest on my doorstep is stunning, so why were we six months into the global pandemic before I started photographing it? For someone who never liked landscape photography, I certainly take a lot of landscape photos.

There's a lot of time-wasting traps you'll encounter when editing images in Lightroom, things that'll send you down a rabbit hole for hours on end. Find out how to avoid them and what to do instead.

Just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington, sits one of America’s most majestic spots — and every photographer’s dream. Often called the American Alps, North Cascades National Park features endless opportunities to capture America in all its striking glory. But before you point and shoot, you need to know where to look.

Known for combining functionality with aesthetics, Olympus is also synonymous with innovation. Their unique features, great design, and ergonomics result in an increasing flow of photographers, both young and old, from other brands to their stable.

This week, I got a chance to connect with Blackmagic Design to discuss some best practices when approaching color grading video footage through DaVinci Resolve Studio.

The Great British Photography Challenge ended with a twist: Rankin picked joint winners. Although each and every participant of the series will have a chance to take advantage of the doors that only someone like Rankin can open for them, Tyrone Williams and Jackson Moyles were named co-winners of the inaugural season. I had the chance to speak with Tyrone and Jackson to find out what their participation in BBC's series was like.

Profoto sent us a couple of newly released softboxes. Let's test them out.

Having a photographic style is something you discover through creating a lot of work. It’s retrospective! To be honest, I’m still figuring out my own personal style, even though I’ve been shooting for over a decade now. There are some small tricks to nudge the process along though, but photographing kittens is not one of them.

If you are new to the studio or want to practice your lighting techniques plus save time when in the studio, you should check out this 3D software by Ellixxier.

There’s so much more to black and white than the simple removal of color. We must understand both color and tone, plus their relationship with the world of monochrome. Here are 10 tips to help you become a better black and white photographer.

Photographers often write to me to share their portfolios and websites. I am not often impressed. Today's photography is repetitive and derivative in a way that I find immensely underwhelming. Yet, every so often, I am surprised. Susanne Otterberg is one such surprise.

What ultra-wide angle prime lens makes a compelling case to you? Here are six worth looking at.