Fstoppers Original Articles

What do good coffee and good images have in common? Our taste and the ability to understand their ingredients need to be trained. But we can also walk into the trap of feckless consumption.

You've photographed a commercial client, they select several images, but want all the unedited versions for a symbolic price. Obviously, you did a good job at shooting, but what about the negotiations in that case?

While the dream is to bill global giants for high-end work, the reality is that many photographers and videographers are often doing small jobs for tiny companies. Getting paid on time can be a bit of a battle, so here’s a system to try and advice to consider in order to make sure your invoices don’t disappear.

As small business owners ourselves, why do we instantly head to the internet when we need new photography gear? You would think we would understand why it is essential to support the local businesses whenever we can, yet most of us don’t. I can already envision the responses to this article, like the internet provides better prices, more prominent selection, easy purchasing, and many more reasons. Some of these may be true, but some aren’t, and there are other reasons to shop at your local photography store.

Cameras these days have almost endless customization options, and sometimes, it’s hard to know where to begin. So, I’m going to walk through the key settings that I use to make my life shooting weddings a little faster and seamless.

Is it perhaps too simplistic to assume that photography should always be approached through the age-old saying "picture is worth a thousand words"? Or is it maybe a field that is more multifaceted than that?

Can you imagine buying a gorgeous new Ferrari, then storing it in the darkness of your garage forever? Sounds pretty crazy, right? But you could be doing almost the exact equivalent when it comes to your photography.

I'm not the first photographer that ended up going through the fun life challenge of combating cancer, and I sadly won't be the last. I did, however, find that my passion for photography and sharing with others helped me through some incredibly tough times.

If Sony's Imaging Division work by movie quotes then they must be using Highlander: "There can be only one!" Are they The Kurgan to Canon's Connor McLeod? And does that make Nikon, Sunda Kastagir? Welcome to the three biggest camera manufacturers — the so-called immortals.

Every photographer would love to shoot at the lowest ISO their camera allows all the time to maintain the highest possible levels of detail and dynamic range. But sometimes, that just isn't possible; in fact, sometimes, you have to pump up the ISO quite high to get the shot. Do not be afraid to do that.

While it would be too early to say that we are in full-fledged film photography revolution, it is clear that the market for film is growing in a great way.

A new decade is only days away, so it's time to celebrate the creativity of the past and get ready for the future by sharing your favorite photo of 2019.

I’ve been exploring alternative workflows to Adobe Photoshop ever since the company forced a subscription model on its users several years ago. For all its bugginess and performance problems, I keep coming back to it, because it still spits out the highest quality images for my purposes. But some of the competition is nipping at its heels.

There are different sensor sizes in existence. This is common knowledge for most photo enthusiasts, and often it is said a full frame sensor is the professional choice. Let’s see if size makes a difference for your type of photography.

Building an insightful and inspirational library of photography books can be daunting, both from the perspective of the choices entailed in selecting works for inclusion and because of the economics involved. Pinterest boards are a great way to start a photo "book" library for free.

A great coffee table book not only makes for a thoughtful and memorable gift, it acts as a sort of cultured ornament for visitors to flick through while you fetch them drinks. Here are 10 (technically 13) of my favorites.

At the beginning of the year, I worked on a client job for York Fashion week with local agency NIMA and videographer Beetroot Box. The brief was to create a teaser campaign for the upcoming event.

For the last few weeks, Fujifilm teamed up with Fstoppers to offer a brand new X-Pro3 mirrorless camera and a XF 16mm f2.8 lens to one lucky entrant. The contest has ended and Brianna Kiser was randomly selected to win the camera, congratulations! We'll be in touch with you via email.

With the decade drawing to a close, there is a lot to review, like which camera was the best. I'm not looking for sales stats, official awards, or the general consensus. I want to know what you think the best camera of the decade is and why.

Whether you’ve shot raw or JPEG, the choice of what format to use when editing is very important. There are key differences in the capabilities inherent to PSD, PSB, DNG, TIFF, and more. Want to know which format to choose next time you open Photoshop?

There are plenty of things about Lightroom that bug me and despite being a hardened user of more than 6 years, I thought it was about time give something else a go. The newly updated Capture One caught my attention and opened my eyes.

The software that could save you time or money is here in a big way. I’ve compared the time spent retouching an image like I usually do and retouching it using Luminar’s AI, and the latter takes the cake.

If you haven’t wrapped up your holiday shopping yet, consider buying secondhand in exchange for a great deal.

Wotancraft’s new camera backpack gives you versatility and camera storage without looking like a camera bag.

No matter if you’re creating your own portfolio or taking photos for paying clients one thing you need to be able to do is create consistent and repeatable results. When looking at images next to one another you will immediately notice if there is a color shift or inconsistent lighting between photographs which can be a detriment to you developing your style or landing the perfect client. Let’s talk about the fastest and easiest way to help elevate your photography and fix those color and exposure issues quickly.

Both beginner and intermediate photographers are sometimes surprised to find out just how limited a camera meter is. Understanding how the camera meter works and how you can compensate for different lighting conditions is something that can significantly improve your photography.

If ever one day perfectly encapsulated the reasons I’ve lived in Japan for 15 years, this was it. From kindness, to kimonos, kids, and ancient culture, these images tell the story of why I love living in Japan.

Photography can be an expensive game, but there are some bits of kit that you really don’t need to spend big money on. Here are six bits of kit you can skimp on.

DNG, JPEG, TIFF, PSD, PSB, and more: photographers have more options than ever for saving their files, but not every option is a good choice. Do you know the benefits of each file type and when you should use them?

It goes without saying that every walk of life is affected by memes and photography is no different. However, instead of just sending the cutest baby Yoda, you actually get a chance to creatively add to them. So here are four of the best urban photography memes that you can get out and shoot yourself.

Lightroom's Adjustment Brush and Spot Removal Tool have improved in leaps and bounds over the past few updates, opening the door to quicker, easier portrait retouching for photographers of all editing skill levels. Here are five steps to quick and easy portrait retouching in Lightroom.

Each and every one of us is looking for appreciation. Showing our images to friends and family, most of us hope for a nice comment or feedback. Professionals are even dependent on their clients’ excitement and recommendation. How far do you tweak your images to reach that?

Most photographers, especially the big-shot professionals, are very selective and even grandiose with their gear, but here's why having a casual and compact camera for everyday use is a great idea.

As we finally draw to a close of 20 years of awkward decade names (the Noughties and the... Teenies?), it's time not only to reflect, but to look forward. So, I want you to give me your best predictions for changes to the industry over the next 10 years.

You lose information when an image is saved in JPEG format. This is acceptable, unless you save the same image more than once. Let’s have a look at how much information you really lose.

I asked Paul how he thinks his life would have been without picking up his camera that day. He said, "I'm confident I'd have killed myself sooner or later." A harrowing answer encased in an important story.

Some of these photographers are well known in the industry, and others are climbing the ladder of recognition, but all of them have something incredible to offer the genre of fantasy photography.

How much gear is too much? And is there such a thing as having too little gear on hand?

Your camera’s menus may be hiding a number of features that can have a huge impact on how you shoot and what your final image looks like. Depending on your model of camera and how you shoot, here are a number of less known settings you should double check.

The introduction of profiles in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw was a significant addition to editing for Adobe users. Not only can profiles improve your editing power, but they can also simplify your post-processing workflow.

Today, many transition or expand their career from photography to videography, relying on the advanced technology we already have in our hands. However, most of them aren't aware that they are entering a whole new universe that's vastly unknown by stills photographers.

Every year, there is a gift guide released that is supposed to help family, friends, and significant others buy something for their budding photographer. The problem is photography is an incredibly specific hobby, and most gifts given unfortunately don’t help. Here is a list of gifts that will appreciated by any photographer.

There are many ingredients you can mix and match to make amazing landscape photography. In this article, I share three of the most important ingredients I use in my landscape photography.

Photographers who already made it beyond the beginner's level sometimes have trouble getting out to shoot. Because they know what a good photograph needs, they're afraid they can't deliver that quality. If that's you, then maybe you're the Worst Photographer Ever.

Staring at a perfectly constructed histogram is like listening to an opera singer hit and hold a perfect note. But in trying to get that histogram to look like you're being told it should, you could be ruining potentially great images.

Creativity, while seemingly endless for some, is a beast we need to feed in order to have it work for us. We cannot simply expect to be running at 100% all of the time without stopping, reflecting, and spending time to nurture the force we require to make our best work. As some of you may have noticed (I’m hoping someone other than my mother did), I have just taken a one-month break from writing here at Fstoppers. This was a personal month taken to reset and bring my focus back to what’s really important. This is something I feel we all should do from time to time. Let me explain.

Over the last two years, photographer Pedro Oliveira has worked on a photo essay celebrating an underappreciated demographic, and the results are timeless.

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 2019, 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.

Podcasts are the latest hot broadcasting medium, so don't let those rapacious advertising executives (looking at you Google and Facebook) manhandle your listening habits with their grubby paws. No, here are 5 of the best photography podcasts to sink your metaphorical teeth in to!

Whether you're an amateur looking to learn how to be better in a specific area of photography or a new professional looking to dominate a market, how do you know which niche you should choose?