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Alex Cooke
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Articles written by Alex Cooke

The Best and Worst Cameras and Lenses of 2022

2022 has been quite the year for photo gear, with a huge range of impressive camera and lens releases. What has been your favorite? What failed to impress you? This hilarious video discusses the best and worst camera and lenses of the past year.

An Unusual but Effective One-Light Portrait Photography Setup

If you are new to working with artificial light, you might look at some of the complex multi-light setups seasoned professionals use and feel a bit overwhelmed or discouraged. However, you can absolutely make creative, compelling, and professional-level portraits with just a single light, and this neat video tutorial will show you one of the more unusual but effective ways of doing so.

Do You Really Need Photography Contracts?

When you are new to photography, you spend most of your time focusing on the image-making process, but as you start to charge for your work, there are important fundamentals of business you must learn as well, one of the most crucial being the contract. This important video discusses why you should really have a contract, even if you think you don't need one.

Can This Famous Lens Keep Up With Modern Sensors?

When it was first released, the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art was one of the most exciting and innovative lenses ever seen, being the only standard zoom with an aperture below f/2. Nonetheless, the lens is almost a decade old now, and in the meantime, sensor resolutions have increased. So, can this famous lens keep up with the demands of a modern camera? This excellent video review takes a look.

A Review of the Versatile Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Lens

In recent years, Tamron has shown that they intend on creating impressively versatile and often innovative zoom lenses that can take the place of several others in a photographer's bag. One such lens is the 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD, which covers everything from normal to supertelephoto focal lengths. This great video review takes a look at the lens and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

5 Reasons Weddings Might Be Stressing You Out

Wedding photography is notorious for being a demanding, high-stakes genre, and as such, it is natural that with that comes a fair amount of stress. Nonetheless, that does not mean you can't do certain things to reduce that stress. This excellent video tutorial features an experienced wedding shooter discussing five reasons why you might be overly stressed shooting weddings and what you can do to fix that.

How to Edit a Landscape Photo in Lightroom

While Photoshop remains the place where the most complex and intricate edits are done, Lightroom has become far more capable in recent iterations, and you can now finish many photos without ever leaving the program. This excellent video tutorial features an experienced landscape photographer sharing how to edit photos from start to finish in Lightroom.

A Long-term Review of the M2 MacBook Air

Apple's MacBook Air line features some of the most popular computers in the world, and since the move to the company's own silicon, they have become legitimate tools for creative professionals, able to tackle demanding tasks formerly left for larger and more expensive options. The new M2 model has now been on the market for about five months, giving creatives a good chunk of time with the device, and this excellent video review discusses one such user's experience with the computer in that time.

6 Photo Industry Trends We'll See in 2023

Between coming out to the worst of the pandemic, the rise of AI, and people producing and consuming more images than ever before, 2022 has been quite a year for the photography industry. What will 2023 bring to us? This interesting video discusses six trends we will see in the new year.

A Review of the Nikon NIKKOR Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S Lens

Nikon has made their way into more specialized mirrorless lenses in recent months, with the NIKKOR Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S being one such option. The 800mm f/6.3 might be one of the most competitively priced lenses in recent memory, and it offers top-shelf sharpness and portability on top of that. This great video review takes a look at the new lens and the sort of image quality and performance you can expect from it in usage.

This Camera Lets You Take Double the Number of Pictures

The beauty of digital photography is that once you have paid for the camera and storage, you can take as many images as you want at essentially no additional cost. Of course, on the other hand, when it comes to film photography, every press of the shutter incurs an additional cost. So, a film camera that promises to double the number of images you can take with every roll sounds quite intriguing. This neat video will show you one such camera.

3 Tips That Will Improve Your Landscape Photography

Landscape photography is a tricky genre that takes the confluence of multiple skills to get right, but there are some overarching philosophies that can guide you to consistently better images. This excellent video tutorial features an experienced landscape photographer sharing three helpful tips sure to improve your photos.

Fstoppers Photographer of the Month (November 2022): Karthik Subramaniam

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 2022, 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.

The Best Images Come in Bursts

The creative process is rarely one in which you move straight ahead; instead, it is often two steps forward, one back, and maybe a few to the side. When you are feeling discouraged, one of the most important things you can remember is that the best creativity often happens in bursts. This great video essay discusses the topic and offers a lot of meaningful wisdom.

A Review of the Highly Useful Canon RF 24mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM Lens

24mm lenses with wide maximum apertures are prized by many creatives for their versatility, as they are at home in a wide range of genres and applications. The Canon RF 24mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM builds on that flexibility by adding macro capabilities and image stabilization to the equation, making it quite the intriguing lens for a lot of users. This great video review takes a look at the lens and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

The Clever Technology That Is Making World Cup Officiating More Accurate

The World Cup is in full swing, and this year, technology is helping officials to make more accurate calls. This neat video takes you behind the scenes to show you the new “semi-automated AI offsides technology” that uses a combination of sensors, a multi-camera array, and machine learning to help officials to make the correct call each time.

Why Some Photographers Prefer Prime Lenses

If you are new to photography, one of the most important distinctions you should learn is the difference between prime and zoom lenses. While neither is better than the other, they each have distinct advantages and disadvantages, which is why some photographers prefer primes and some stick with zooms. This helpful video discusses why one photographer prefers primes.

A Review of the Sony a7R V Mirrorless Camera for Photography

With the highest resolution available in a full frame camera, loads of dynamic range, and a host of other advanced features, the Sony a7R V might be the ultimate 35mm camera for photographers. This excellent video review takes a look at the new camera and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in usage.

A Guide to Editing Landscape Photos in Luminar Neo

Luminar Neo offers a wide range of traditional editing tools in tandem with more innovative features meant to expand your creativity and make your post-processing workflow more efficient. One genre it excels in is landscape photography. This great video tutorial will show how to edit a landscape image in the program from start to finish.

A Review of the New TTArtisan 35mm f/0.95 Lens

TTArtisan has established themselves as a manufacturer of ultra-affordable lenses whose performance is often at a level above that dictated by their prices. Their latest lens, the 35mm f/0.95, offers APS-C shooters an ultra-wide aperture paired with a normal focal length, making it a versatile option. This excellent video review takes a look at the new lens and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in usage.