Fstoppers Original Articles

Today, I’d like to have a brief word with all the newbie photographers out there.

Did you know that Adobe Photoshop has a great selection of very helpful in-app tutorials for all levels that you can access for free? Here's a run-through of you can get your hands on them all.

Becoming a professional photographer is easy — all you have to do is charge money. With cheaper alternatives for gear and education, here is how the industry has been affected by the lower barrier of entry.

Standing out from your competition can be daunting. One easy way to do this is to make sure your business shows you are inclusive and welcoming. A lot of photographers say they are inclusive, but they are not projecting that. Here are 10 questions to ask yourself to help you figure out where you can improve your business.

One of the photographers that shapes the future of portrait, fashion, and advertising photography is Rankin. His portfolio includes the portrait of HM Queen Elisabeth II and countless images of Kate Moss, Heidi Klum, and A-List celebrities. As a fashion photographer, he has photographed commercially for some of the biggest clients, while his editorial work has been displayed on the covers of most major magazines over and over again.

Do you have a photo that you found totally amazing until you noticed something in the background that ruined everything? If you do, you’re not the only one. When shooting a subject, always keep an eye on your background.

Adding props is a simple and effective way of adding production value to your photographs. Not only do they add additional points of interest, they also can add to the story you're trying to tell. In this video and article, I'll be walking through the creative process of how an image evolves to the final version. To do this, I'll begin with a basic "walk-up" shot. From there, I'll be walking through the step-by-step changes to the shot until we get to the final image using various props.

Wildlife photography can be incredibly rewarding when things go right, but it's incredibly difficult to master. That's why when you have a good photo that's let down by a few of the camera settings, you should use Lightroom to transform that drab shot into something much more beautiful.

Whether you’re using your iPhone or regular camera, shooting through windows and transparent surfaces can be one of the trickiest situations you’ll encounter. With just a few simple tricks, you can greatly improve the results next time you try photographing through a window.

Henri Cartier-Bresson is hailed in the pantheon of photographers as one of the leading lights of his time. He is also inextricably linked with Leica. If he were shooting today, what brand would he choose and how would he shoot? It would of course be Panasonic and 6K Burst Mode.

My favorite season is about to hit the Northern hemisphere, autumn. With its riotous color and vibrancy, the forests of autumn transform into a landscape and nature photographers' playground. Here are my tips for planning your ultimate fall color adventure.

Filing a DMCA takedown notice to have Instagram remove a photo that has been used without permission is a frustrating process. Now, evidence is emerging that Instagram’s handling of these notices could put the social media giant in a tricky legal situation.

Follow along with this tutorial to discover how to transform lifeless color photographs into black and white fine art photos in just nine simple steps with Photoshop CC.

There are some photographers whose work you can learn from. Tesni is one of those whose wildlife photography is worth following not only because of her eye for a great shot, but her enthusiasm and knowledge of the natural world that also shine through in her images.

For the past decade modern cinema has opted for the orange and teal color grade to provide a wonderfully cinematic feel, and thanks to the new tools in Lightroom you can turn your shots into cinematic masterpieces, too.

Some people shoot full frame lenses on crop sensor cameras. More people should shoot medium format lenses on full frame cameras.

If you're looking into hiring a wedding photographer, you may not have much experience with the profession. Although you can pick photographers you like, there is more to the story than just that. So, how can you make sure you're hiring the right photographer? Here are seven tips that can help ensure you aren't disappointed.

Here's a quick look at a few of the less-heralded and far less expensive items in my daily camera kit.

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.

There are two types of opinionated photographers: those who love Godox lights and those who feel Godox lights are not for professional use. Here are some considerations for whether the Godox system is for you.

If you're new to flying a drone, there is a lot to learn. I wanted to share my practical advice that can save you time and money. This is the advice I would give myself if I were to go back in time. I would hopefully have helped prevent some frustration and improved my ability to create!

Last week, the model who appeared as a naked infant on the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 album "Nevermind" filed a lawsuit claiming damages on the grounds that the photograph constitutes child pornography. This claim is problematic on a number of levels.

Sony fans had to be very patient ahead of the arrival of the a7S III, and they’ve had to do the same for the greatly anticipated a7 IV. Might we finally see an announcement in October?

Last week, we walked through How to Capture an Environmental Shutter Drag Portrait. A shutter drag portrait is a portrait that captures movement around a subject using slower shutter speeds. Following the steps in the video, we wound up at a final raw image. In this video and article, I'll be walking through the editing process from start to finish in both color as well as black and white to get to our final images!

Replaces skies in minutes with Photoshop CC's replace sky feature and these useful tips to get perfect results every time.

I have no doubts that we have all forked out some of our hard-earned Benjamins on something completely regrettable, as I certainly have. Over the years, I have made some questionable purchases, and here are the worst.

Perfecting skin in portraits is one of the hardest edits to do well, as it involves an interplay between removing unwanted blemishes and retaining skin texture. That's why in this tutorial, I'll show you how to make simple, well-balanced edits using Lightroom.

The mirrorless camera was an innocuous enough invention that stemmed from Olympus' early innovation, but is it Sony that has managed to change the camera market for good and upset the CaNikon apple cart?

We usually see a photograph as a solitary work, a passing moment in time captured to be examined on its own. However, creating a coherent story through a body of work can lift your photography up to a new level.

When photographers hear overcast skies, we immediately think of flat light. What this usually means is an overall lack of detail and contrast, especially in the sky. It might be easy to assume that the sky during overcast days is uninteresting, but I want to show you the opposite, that overcast days are some of the best times to get deep and dramatic images. In this video and article, I'll be walking through how to shoot and edit dramatic clouds during overcast conditions in Adobe Lightroom Mobile.

Today, I’d like to discuss a camera that I’ve talked about once before. After my initial glowing review, how has the Canon EOS R5 held up after six months of operation in the real world?

Photos often lack a real punch when we import them for editing, this is especially apparent when importing raw files to Lightroom because it strips the shot of the overriding camera settings making them seem lackluster. Luckily, there are 10 simple ways you can make your colors pop once again.

Many camera companies have tried and failed to introduce new, innovative technology to the camera market, but since the jump to mirrorless, have they finally figured out where things are heading?

When it comes to landscape photography, there is always some room for improvement, but without new approaches, you may feel as though you've plateaued. These five tips can help you approach your landscape photography in new ways.

The last 18 months have been a brutal procession of adversity and change, to the point where I have to limit how much news I read for my own mental health. In a similar vein to the Reddit sub, /r/eyebleach, here are seven reasons why photography is a great hobby to have.

As a landscape photographer, what is my impact upon the very thing that I love to photograph and how can I reduce that impact? This was the overarching theme of the conversation when I recently sat down with Scott Bacon, Managing Director for a group called Nature First, the Alliance for Responsible Nature Photography, to ponder this question. Scott’s passion for the subject was immediately evident, and I found him to be an engaging and committed ambassador for what Nature First is all about.

Chances are, you can't afford the latest and greatest thousand-dollar smartphone, and you'll have to make some compromises when it comes to the smartphone camera and features. Learn from my mistakes. Here are four modern features smartphone cameras have.

This month, I’ve gotten a chance to spend some time shooting with one of Nikon’s two new macro lenses, the NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 Macro.

Capturing a great landscape photograph is extremely rewarding because a lot of things have to come together in order to nail it. But sometimes no matter how hard you try there's just a little something missing. In this walkthrough, I'll show you how to enhance your landscape images with a composite in Photoshop CC.

The Perseid Meteor Shower peak has come and gone for 2021. This year the Moon’s interference was minimal, setting early in the evening around the predicted peak days, but luck always plays a major role in anyone’s success.

Lens filters are useful for achieving a variety of photographic effects in camera, such as long exposures of moving subjects. But did you know you can achieve the same great results with Photoshop CC?

We call this the "environmental shutter drag portrait." A shutter drag portrait is a portrait that uses slow shutter speeds to capture the motion around the subject. This technique is best done in a big grand scene full of action and detail. The eye-catching nature of these shutter drag portraits makes them perfect for impressing clients and serving as the highlight photo for every album and event. Today, I'll be walking through 10 easy steps on how to photograph your own shutter drag portrait.

This week, it’s been reported from several news outlets that OnlyFans, the popular premium subscription service known mostly for explicit content will be banning explicit content from October 1, 2021 forward. Why would they do this? What are they planning for the future? Could OnlyFans now become a better option for artists and photographers?

Nikkei recent published a synopsis of Techno System Research's Market Share Survey for 2020, a detailed paywalled survey of camera shipment data from major manufacturers. The headline is a 5.0% drop for Nikon, decreasing its total market share. This isn't great news for Nikon, but is it all it seems?

Focus and sharp images are always at the top of the photographer's priority list. But you shouldn't just toss out a photo because it's not pin-sharp exactly where you want it to be. In fact, there are many reasons why you should covet that soft shot over the others.

With COVID-19 basically celebrating its 1.5-year reign of terror with new strain variants, how have you been holding up? How have all the restrictions kept you from pursuing the craft?

As a photojournalist, I often have subconscious blocks against excessive editing that seep even into other genres of photography. That’s why I often try my hand at toy photography when I want to flex my editing muscles.

There’s more to focusing than half-pressing the shutter release. Focus is one of the three most important technical variables in photography; it can make or break a photograph. Here are ten things, some basic, some more advanced, to help you shoot better photos.

Ask 100 photographers what started them to pursue the medium, and you will hear 100 different answers. Follow up that question with what drives each of them to keep pursuing photography, and you again will find 100 different responses.

Like many small businesses, I decided to use the very popular restaurant recommendation site Yelp to advertise my business after seeing they automatically created a page for me. Here’s how you can avoid the disasters that come with making that same mistake.