5 Essentials for Long-Exposure Landscape Photography
Doing long exposures is the most fundamental trick up a landscape photographer's sleeve. But for effective use of its visual effects, there are a few essential steps that one must follow.
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Doing long exposures is the most fundamental trick up a landscape photographer's sleeve. But for effective use of its visual effects, there are a few essential steps that one must follow.
With COVID-19 impacting our world on a global scale, it has become an important part of social history that needs to be (safely) documented not just for tomorrow, but also future generations.
Details are emerging of a new patent just filed by Canon that could revolutionize one of its most exciting products: the Cripple Hammer. Brace yourselves, because the plans for this updated version look crazy.
We all live in Zoom right now. With the global pandemic, chances are your client meetings aren’t happening in person anymore. But while your photography gigs may have temporarily dried up, you still have to put your game face on, even if it’s via videoconference. Here’s some gear to help you do that.
With so much depressing news about Covid-19 circulating these days, any good news is much welcomed. The other day, I was greeted by some needed good news when I opened my email. I’m a firm believer that humanity is more good than bad, though sometimes, it is hard to keep the faith. CamRanger helped to re-enforce my belief. CamRanger is stepping up to help the medical community protect themselves from infection by Covid-19. Yes, a company that produces remote controls for your camera is fighting Covid-19.
Enjoy some online courses with a two-month trial of Skillshare Premium.
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 2020, 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.
Capture One is a great tool for processing raw files, but it lacks one key feature found in Adobe's Camera Raw: the ability to export files as Smart Objects. While that feature seems a way off, there is a cool workaround hack that lets you come close.
When Pentax released its 24-70mm f/2.8 lens back in 2016, people quickly realized that it was little more than a rehoused Tamron lens without the VC feature. More recently, Pentax has announced that it's developing a new FA* 85mm f/1.4. Although there are certain physical similarities to a Sigma lens, I doubt that it's the same lens.
Photography isn't a young person's game, though it may look it from afar. And now might be the best time there will ever be to give it a chance.
Just as literally billions of people were caught unprepared for the coronavirus outbreak, many are also unprepared for a data disaster. Sure, many professionals are prepared, but many others just think they are.
It's a very mixed feeling: you are happy they like the shot, but you are also disappointed that it's not sharp. I'm going to share my way of dealing with the situation, but I am also curious about your way of handling the problem.
By now, most of the countries around the world are under full lockdown or about to undergo lockdown. At the time of writing, my country (South Africa) would be one of the latest to undergo lockdown. Tensions seem to increase the day before the actual event, as people question what they'll be doing with themselves while locked in a house for three weeks or longer. Luckily, it doesn't need to be as scary as you think, especially if you're a photographer.
If you're like me, you just had a couple of months’ worth of work canceled and are now looking for alternative income streams. If you want to know how to start selling prints online — with no setup costs and no ongoing fees — read on.
The coronavirus has affected most of the world. In the UK, freelancers have been hit hard with no financial help until June at the earliest. Here are some brutal business lessons that we are all going to have to swallow.
It’s no secret that a ton of people are stuck at home right now. So, while there are a lot of great things to watch on Netflix, here are seven things you can do to help your business while stuck at home.
For the last couple of decades, a prime lens wasn’t professional grade if it didn’t have a maximum aperture of f/1.4. Times have changed, however, and now, you have to look past the aperture to really understand where a lens is positioned. Want to know what drove this change?
There’s a very real chance this COVID-19 pandemic could send some of the biggest camera companies under. If that happened, what would you do and how would you respond?
The COVID-19 epidemic has thrown the photography community into a financial tailspin. And while some of us are busy trying to survive, others are taking this business downturn as an opportunity to reinvent their business, do a better job of living out one’s values, and form deeper connections with our clients.
Every week I get many messages asking where I get my stock images from, so here you go.
We are quite familiar to the rule of thirds, the golden ratio, and perhaps the Fibonacci spiral. We know how to use it in photography, more or less, and we all have heard about breaking these composition rules. But perhaps you should use composition theory instead.
Lightroom presets are a great way to create quick and effective edits, but if you’re relatively new to photo editing, it might be useful to know how to make the most of them and when they should be avoided.
You might think your progression is slow, you might think you suck and will never be as good as your idols. It takes time to learn photography and here I show you my development.
Many countries around the world are now experiencing social distancing and practicing self-isolation, me (in the U.K) included. So I’m pledging to run a series of photography tutorials for those of us affected by these measures.
Okay, I get it, that’s a pretty bold statement, but hear me out. I’ve been working on this for nearly two decades.
Sitting at home, waiting out a global pandemic can lead one to do a bit of thinking. And, because I am a photographer, what better thing to think about than gear?
In many ways, digital photography is not on the same level as film photography. In many others, film cannot compete with digital.
Cameras are expensive, and you spend your hard-earned cash in the expectation that not only will your purchase be the latest and greatest, but that it works out of the box. Would you still buy it if you knew it was at least partially experimental?
If you've not used Adjustment Brushes with Range Masks to make subtle changes to colors in Lightroom, you're missing out. This is how I used both tools to finish my edit of this rock climbing photograph.
You can not go on any photography-related blog these days without seeing some kind of negative post about Adobe, or an Adobe article without a comments section of people with their pitchforks and lanterns out.
With most of us on lockdown to some degree, the number of video calls for work and pleasure have increased exponentially. So, you might as well work out how to make yourself look halfway passable, rather than the cave-dwelling ogre you might without forethought.
One area a lot of photographers can focus their quarantined free time is updating their portfolios. Unfortunately, taking new and fresh photos is probably not part of that process, but that doesn't mean you still can't find new images to add to your website or social media stream.
While we hunker down and practice social distancing, it’s important to remember that there are critical reasons to take the spread of this virus seriously. Call it what you will, Influenza, The Spanish Flu, or H1N1, the 1918 Pandemic killed upwards of 100 million people. Can images from this 100-year-old tragedy help contain the spread of COVID-19 today?
It’s amazing how a few simple insights can open up whole new vistas of possibility in your work. Here’s how a combination of camera work and composite editing were used to create an image of a cozy mountain-scape.
You don’t need a big studio, and you don’t need to travel to an exotic location to create incredible photos. All you need is a space to work in, even if it’s a small one.
Like much of the world, Lee and I have found ourselves in mandatory lockdown in our home. During this uncertain time, we thought it would be interesting to record our thoughts, experience, and predictions in a daily diary that we can reflect on years from now. We welcome you to our Coronavirus Journal.
Take simple pet portraits at home while you’re self-isolating. All you need is a pet, a window, and some pet treats to grab their attention, then set your camera to aperture priority mode and work on your composition.
Most of the world is in some form of lockdown, but it doesn’t mean that we have no way of making a difference.
If you ever entered the dark depths of Deviant Art a few years back, you would have most likely stumbled upon the name Conzpiracy at some point in your journey. Like a modern-day urban legend, his complex manipulations of the macabre made waves through the DA community.
It looks like the worldwide pandemic has finally hit the biggest sports and photography event of the year, as the international Olympic Committee is looking at rescheduling the 2020 Summer Olympics. With this news, the big camera and lens companies may be looking at their newly announced, but as yet unreleased models, and could be wondering if waiting out the economic ramifications of the COVID-19 virus is the most viable idea.
Naturally, the photography industry has greatly suffered during the pandemic, and many of us have found ourselves at home, dealing with job cancellations and empty client books. But, just because you have suddenly acquired valuable time on your hands that you normally would have spent on your business or creative endeavors, it does not mean you need to push yourself into extreme productivity.
While a $5 camera app is hardly the largest expense to many photographers, the most recent generation of phones has made it clear that it’s wasted money.
Beginning in 2013, I began to spend a lot of time photographing on a five-block street in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan called Greene Street.
A long time ago, I got to visit a friend down in the south of England. We drank (quite a lot of beer), we ate (lots of chocolate brownies), and we set up to shoot a moody portrait.
The first gig adventure photographer Curtis Jones ever had was an unsupported kite traverse of the Greenland Polar Ice Cap. Before that, he was a pharmacist on remote Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The surprising jump from pharmacist to adventure photographer actually makes sense when you hear Jones’ story and could give hope to photographers out there who want to make the leap, but aren’t sure where to start.
If you’re anything like me, you enjoy sharing your photography on Instagram, but hate the process of creating posts. Various scheduling services have emerged, but Facebook’s own Creator Studio is probably one of the best when it comes to photography.
Photojournalism is a contact sport. Or at least it used to be, before the coronavirus rolled into town. Despite the health risks with taking photographs of people in close quarters or crowds, photographers at news organizations around the country are still, more or less, on the job.
How serious are you about making this crazy photography game full time? It is an amazing feeling to get to create every day, but are you forgetting to do the other eighty percent of what is needed to survive?
"Splash on the glass" or so goes the time-worn mantra. Has the market flipped, and is that the right advice anymore?
I get it. Ansel Adams inspires you. Perhaps Bresson, and maybe Gursky too. But there's another world of creative geniuses outside the realms of photography where you can draw creative ideas and energy from. Here are two people that influence me.