Fstoppers Original Articles

You can't do a project on a zero budget. If you actually spent a zero amount, that means you never did anything.

When it comes to photographing models, a comfortable subject can make for exceptional photos. Making your subjects feel like they are in a safe and welcoming environment will make your photoshoot a successful photo set for both your portfolio and the models. As a photographer, it is your responsibility to make the subject of your images feel comfortable and in a safe space.

In order to be a great portrait photographer you need a set of decent tools in order to do your job. Whether you work in the studio or out in the field we take a look at five top lenses for portrait photography.

Episodic television budgets are on the rise, but more money is never enough. Award-winning cinematographer, Jeffery Waldron, tells how overcoming creative challenges onset can lead to beautiful solutions.

This may be something that is obvious for some, but I noticed how many starting photographers struggle when it comes to understanding the relationship between resolution, detail and shutter speed, and how these things effect each other. This article is for those photographers.

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.

Canon’s RF mount has opened up new avenues when it comes to lens design, but the ludicrous prices of its premium glass close it off from huge swathes of potential customers. All of that might be about to change thanks to one tiny lens manufacturer.

Taking images of your family every day for 50 days is a challenge all on its own. Pair that with being stuck at home in quarantine for all 50 of those days, and things get downright interesting. This is how I approached it and what I learned.

While it's important to get things right at the source, if you've made that age-old mistake of not changing your camera settings before taking the shot, is it possible to recover the photo? Or is it destined for the recycling bin?

Shutterstock sent an email to its contributors recently and informed them about their new earning structure. As you might guess, it was shocking and disappointing for the vast majority of contributors.

Nikon has just released its 2020 financial results alongside its medium-term management plan. How does the manufacturer see its future in the wake of last year's financial results?

Pratik Naik is one of the more recognizable people in the photography industry, with tutorials across numerous educational platforms. But what most people don't know about Pratik Naik is that he was never supposed to be a retoucher.

How do you photograph extremists without giving them the publicity they desperately crave?

The world of macro photography can become endless once you venture down that path. There are so many new textures, creatures, and plants to discover. You can quickly lose hours by photographing the miniature world, but how do you get started?

By 2018 Apple was worth $1 trillion, the US-China trade war had intensified, LeBron James reached 30,000 NBA points, and Black Panther starred in the box office. Camera manufacturers finally stopped flogging the dead horse of DSLRs, with 2018 truly the year of mirrorless. But what happened?

Taking photographs of cities at night can be a veritable feast of colors, reflections, and light, but it can also be tricky. Here are my five best tips for taking shots of cities at night.

Today on our new Fstoppers Live channel, we had the chance to interview Vasyl Nykolyshyn, the owner of Raycrown accessories, about a brand new shoot-through octabox concept he has designed. Not only is this light modifier wind-resistant and easy to build and break down, but it can also be used off-axis as a large soft light and on-axis as a massive ring light. Let us know what you think!

I will be the first to admit that I’ve found myself to be in a love hate relationship with the platform that at times leaves me discouraged. More often than not, however, I find my inspired to photograph more.

Now the camera market has gone full swing into the new mirrorless market, does an old DSLR keep up with the new tech on the block? Can it still produce professional quality images that rival even the latest cameras, or does it fall short?

I know a lot of wedding photographers that buy a photo booth in order to make a little more money from each client. While this is definitely a great reason to buy one, there are a few ways to use a photo booth that can help you book more clients instead of just making a little more money.

Many parallels can be drawn between being in the military and being a photographer. Both have their high pressured moments and require extreme concentration at times. Here's one technique that the Navy SEALs have adopted that photographers should too.

Da Vinci Resolve is a complete video editor with a full set of tools for editors of any level, which means you can build your videos for YouTube, or a feature film, right here in Resolve.

An impractical and thoroughly illogical reflection on our emotional connection to our favorite inanimate objects.

A few years ago, Adobe introduced an alternate way of processing images that could help reduce artifacts. In the intervening years, much of the benefits have faded away, until now. Can this technique find a new use in processing images from non-Bayer sensors?

Long exposure photography is a fascinating discipline. It can be used in many ways and to great effect if you want to bring some mood and mystery into your photography.

The wedding photography and videography industry, just like many others, has taken a massive hit during the pandemic. Are you going to persist through this, or are you thinking of giving yourself a change of direction?

The world has never been more uncertain in our lifetimes. However, now is a perfect time to start up as a professional photographer. And as a pro who started in the last recession, let me explain why.

Polarizing filters are one of the last camera filters that cannot be replicated by software. But is a polarizing filter better to reduce haze in landscapes than Adobe Lightroom's Dehaze tool?

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I should clarify that the title of this article is a suggestion and not a claim.

I know, you're tired of reading about coronavirus and its colossal impact on both people and industry alike. Well, this article isn't really about coronavirus, but rather what it has served to highlight.

Let's face it: photography is expensive. So, it's always good when you can do it yourself and make something at home for free. Save $100 and learn how to make this simple light hack from the comfort of your own home.

Adventure photography has taken its place as a component of the broader commercial market. Characterized by stunning, hard-to-reach locations and demanding conditions, gear can be critical to getting the shot. These days, mirrorless’ features make it the format of choice.

Jeff Rhode has the highly unusual role as a full-time hospital photographer. In this interview, he shares his heart-rending photographs of COVID-19 patients and the staff supporting them and talks about the experience of photographing history as it happens.

When the dynamic range of a scenery is very large, it might be necessary to use some kind of trick in order to keep it inside the histogram. At least, if you want to prevent pure white or black in the picture. Some use filters, others use bracketing. But why not use both?

Over the last decade, we've had lots of new wide aperture lenses hit the market. Lenses like the Nikon 58mm f/0.95 make producing images with super shallow depth of field relatively easy. Even significantly less expensive lenses like an 85mm f/1.8 can produce beautiful, shallow depth in an image, but what if you want more depth?

When an idea goes beyond what is possible, sometimes you need to create your own reality. Learn how the photographer for and NHL team got below the ice for a fresh perspective and created some very cool portraits.

If you’re the parent of small children in this global pandemic, stop right now and order a drone. It will keep you (photographically) sane during what is most definitely a trying time. It certainly has helped me.

Contemporary landscape photography is dominated by the same 20-50 locations. We have all seen specific locations being reproduced and reinterpreted repeatedly, and only a few stand out from the crowd. The key to making unique landscape photos is very simple: find something new to photograph.

Nikon has led the way in designing exotic glass for its mirrorless Z mount, but is this just a precursor to offering a medium format camera?

In a world of hundreds of film cameras to choose from, there is a continuum of value for cameras. In this article I list out cameras ranging from most overrated to most underrated.

His photographic journey developed much the same as most photographers, a slow burn of learning and exploration, but his destination has turned out to be anything but typical.

One of the most used cards in our newfound world of quarantine Bingo is the “clean out the garage” card. After doing my third round of this particular task yesterday afternoon, I found something new.

Close-up and high-magnification photography is like turning everything up to 11. Depth of field is minimal, shutter speeds must be fast, and ISO has to be perfectly balanced to even get a clear shot. So, does this incredibly hard discipline make you a better photographer? Or will it just leave you confused and frustrated with your kit?

The rule of thirds is often considered the first and most basic compositional rule to learn. However, I strongly disagree with this, as following this rule might end up both destroying your compositions and contaminating your thinking for years to come.

Is it safe to re-open your photography business once the lockdown in your area is lifted? How are you going to make it safe?

Last week, I sat down to do four portrait retouching courses from Chris Orwig. This enormous bundle of informative and accessible tutorials is packed with easily digested information. My confidence when it comes to editing portraits is now significantly higher.

It happens to all of us: you take some fantastic photographs, get home, and realize a camera setting was insane. Use these five checks every time you start a shoot, and you'll avoid making those mistakes.

Have you ever seen your own plant grow in a time-lapse? You can, and it’s a great exercise to learn something new about your camera and post-processing.

In August last year, IG Audit — a free web app that allows you to check the authenticity of an Instagram user’s followers — went viral on a wave of press centered around Instagram’s fake follower problem. Just one month later, Facebook’s lawyers abruptly forced the website offline, and IG Audit’s Instagram account of 20,000 followers was deleted. These aggressive moves might be hints of a scandal that Instagram is trying to keep quiet.

Photography can be expensive, it can be cheap, and it's usually somewhere in-between. So, which genres are the hardest to shoot if you don't have much money for equipment?