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Alex Cooke
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Articles written by Alex Cooke

5 Common Portrait Retouching Mistakes

The vast majority of portraits you shoot will involve at least a small degree of retouching to create a finished image, and there are a lot of places where things can go awry. This excellent video tutorial will show you five retouching mistakes portrait photographers make and how you can either fix them or avoid them completely.

An Advanced Headshot Lighting Setup

Once you have mastered the basic properties of light by working with a single source, you can begin to explore your creativity with more advanced lighting setups. This fantastic video tutorial will show you an advanced four-light headshot setup for creating an eye-catching image and everything you need to know to replicate it in your own work.

6 Different Ways to Get Out of Using Your Camera's Auto Mode

When you are new to photography, you probably use your camera in auto mode. And that is a great place to start, especially since modern cameras are remarkably competent at creating balanced images. Nonetheless, if you want to advance your photography, you will need to eventually embrace semi-automatic and manual modes, and this great video tutorial will show you six ways to start taking more control of your camera and your photos.

How to Photograph Beer Using Basic Equipment

There is no better reminder that strong technique and knowledge of how to shape light are what create good images than seeing a professional make compelling photos use basic equipment. This fantastic video tutorial will show you how to create a professional-level product image of beer using entry-level equipment and also walk you through the retouching process in Photoshop.

How to Know the Perfect Moment to Take a Picture

Cameras are more advanced than ever, but at the end of the day, nothing can replace the sort of experience, technique, and intuition that all go into knowing exactly when to press the shutter to capture that perfect moment. So, how exactly do you know when to press the shutter release? This fantastic video essay discusses the topic and how to improve your own sense of timing.

Long Exposure Photography of Clouds

Long exposures are highly popular in landscape photography, normally used for turning turbulent, violent water into silky smooth flows. However, they are fantastic for creating motion in the sky as well. This great video tutorial will show you how to create such images, including the gear, settings, and compositions that go into making compelling results.

A Year With the Canon EOS R5: Is It One of the Best Cameras for Video?

The Sony a1 and Canon EOS R5 hold the distinction of being the only two consumer cameras currently on the market that offer 8K raw video. And while the video specs of the EOS R5 certainly are mightily impressive, you might wonder how it performs in the real world, particularly with issues like overheating. This excellent video review discusses the camera's video performance over the course of a year, including 8K, 4K 120p, overheating, and more.

What to Do When You Hit a Wall With Your Photography

Whether you are an amateur or professional, it is something that we will all struggle with at one point or another: hitting a wall with our work. So, what can you do when things just are not going well? This insightful video discusses the topic and offers some great advice for getting out of a rut.

It's Confirmed: The Canon EOS R3 Will Be 24 Megapixels

The Canon EOS R3 is getting closer to a full announcement and release and is currently in use by photographers at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. After a lot of rumors and speculation, we now have firm confirmation that the camera will indeed feature a 24-megapixel sensor.

Shooting Golden Hour Portraits With the Remarkable Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM Lens

Canon's EF 85mm f/1.2L lens was well known for being a superlative portrait lens with a boundary-pushing design that was popular with many photographers. However, it was not without flaws, particularly a notoriously finicky autofocus system and soft image quality at wide apertures. The RF 85mm f/1.2L improves on both those issues and brings modern refinements to the classic version, and this awesome video shows the kind of images you can get from it.

Is This the Ultimate Portrait Lens?

Portrait lenses are some of the most widely used optics on the market, and so, photographers have plenty of options available, with something out there at just about any price point. At the top end, there is the Fujifilm GF 110mm f/2 R LM WR, and this excellent video review takes a look at the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

Why a 50mm Lens Is So Useful for Portrait Photography

When it comes to portrait lenses, 85mm tends to be the focal length that gets the majority of the attention from gearheads and is often where manufacturers put some of their flagship designs. That being said, 50mm lenses are an excellent choice and often the choice of top portrait photographers, and this excellent video will show you why they are so useful.

How to Post-Process an Astro Image

Some genres almost require post-processing of images to fully finish them, astrophotography being one of them. The post-processing techniques involved are rather particular, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how to edit an image with the Milky Way combined with a light-painted landscape, all using Photoshop.

It Takes More Than Talent to Be a Successful Photographer

The sad and often frustrating truth is that many times, there are very talented photographers who do not find success as professionals, no matter how good they are with a camera and how many interesting creative ideas they have. So, what, if not only talent, does it take to find success as a photographer? This important video essay discusses the traits of successful photographers.

Common Wide Angle Lens Mistakes in Landscape Photography

When it comes to landscape photography lens choices, the default choice is almost always a wide angle lens. Making successful photographs with one is tricky, however. This great video tutorial discusses some of the challenges and pitfalls of shooting with them and what you can do to improve your work when using one.

Four Habits You Should Change to Become a Better Landscape Photographer

We all develop bad habits no matter what genre we shoot in, and landscape photography is no different. Learning how to recognize those habits and rewire ourselves to break them can improve our images and make the process more enjoyable. This fantastic video tutorial discusses four common habits of landscape photographers and how tweaking them a bit can lead to better photos.

Is This the Craziest Camera Lens Ever Made?

There are a lot of crazy lenses out there, whether by design or price (some by both), and the Sigma APO 200-500mm f/2.8 EX DG sits near the top of both those categories. Not many photographers ever get the privilege to shoot with one, but this camera reviewer did, and this awesome video takes a look at his experience with this ridiculous lens.

Fstoppers Photographer of the Month (July 2021): John Kimwell Laluma

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.

This Crazy Camera Shoots Between 24mm and 600mm

Most of us would love a lens that could literally cover every focal length we would ever need, and the Sony RX10 series actually offers that, with a range of 24-600mm. This neat video shows you its versatility and creative potential shooting street photography.

How To Get the Most Out of the iPhone Camera App

Apple's iPhones have some fantastic built-in cameras that can handle a wide variety of situations with ease, making them a great option for a camera that is always in your pocket. While the stock camera app is designed to provide a simple process that ensures you always get a great shot, there are more powerful options hiding within that interface, and this great video tutorial will show you how to get the most out of them.