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Articles written by Patrick Hall

Cheap and Easy DIY Alternative For A Vinyl Seamless Backdrop
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If you work out of a studio, you know how annoying paper seamless backdrops can be...they always wrinkle and warp. We recently changed over to the Savage Vinyl backdrops and they seem to last a lot longer. The guys over at OKstrobist have an even cheaper alternative for those looking for a DIY approach and it's pretty clever. Even though this can still cost as much as $170, you aren't stuck

Free Photography Advice From Google+ Photographer's Conference
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Right now some of the biggest names in the photography world are gathered in San Francisco for the Google+ Photographer's Conference. Scott Kelby is the brain child of this event and you can keep up with a lot of the free video content here on the Google+ Page. Photographers like Trey Ratcliff, Peter Hurley, Jeremy Cowart, Alex Koloskov, and Lindsay Adler are giving advice about marketing, social media, growing your business, and creating "shabanging" images.

[Plagiarism] How To Protect Your Copyright With A Video Camera
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Last year we told the story of how Noam Galai's self portrait image had been stolen and reprinted hundreds of times around the world without his permission. What people were shocked to find out was Noam did not threaten or take legal action of any kind (instead he used the momentum to propel his career). Duane Lester of All American Blogger decided to go a different route and film his confrontation with the paper who plagiarized his work.

[Free Education] Sign Up For Mark Wallace's Free CreativeLIVE Workshop
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Update: Mark's is going LIVE tomorrow. Sign up for an email notification in the full post: Photography educator Mark Wallace has been featured on Fstoppers probably more than any other photographer. His easy to understand approach to lighting and tech talk has made Mark one of the top teachers in the field. On May 18-20th, Mark is hosting a FREE Speedlights 101 Workshop on CreativeLIVE. If you aren't familiar with CreativeLIVE, they stream full photography workshops for free but also allow you to download full copies for future reference. Enroll for the free online workshop in the full post

[BTS] How To Create HDR Images Using Bracketing With Trey Ratcliff
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Trey Ratcliff is perhaps one of the most well known and adored HDR photographers today. The High Dynamic Range images he creates are not subtle by any means and he takes no apologies when it comes to creating images he personally enjoys. In this video, Trey talks about his gear (mainly Nikkor 12-24 and Really Right Stuff Tripods) and how he thinks through his compositions as he visits the beautiful Gorda in the Virgin Islands. Watch the 2nd video in the full post

[Fstoppers Review] The Best Portable Audio Recorder For DSLR Video
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You often hear film makers say, "Your video is only as good as your audio". Obviously video production goes a long way too but poor audio can completely ruin an otherwise great video. Until recently, DSLR cameras have been anything but great at recording audio. The on board microphones are noisy and prone to record camera noise. Plugging an external microphone into the line-in has also left a lot to be desired. So how should someone

[Behind The Scenes] How To Photograph Birds of Prey In The Studio
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Photographing birds out in the wild seems pretty tough. Oregon photographer Jon Myers wanted to make the challenge even tougher by bringing the birds into his studio. Using large softboxes to create a space for the birds to fly, Jon was able to photograph eagles, ospreys, and hawks perfectly while in flight. The shots are spectacular, and if you click the full post you can see them shot against grey as well.

[Rare Lens] $160,000 Nikkor 6mm 2.8 Fisheye Can See Behind You
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It's not everyday that you get to see a rare 1970s Nikkor 6mm Fisheye lens. It's even more unlikely that you get to see one mounted to the rare Nikon D800 DSLR body! The guys at Grays of Westinster mounted the two elusive beasts to show how insane it is to have a 220º angle of view. If you have $160,000 saved up, and need to see behind you as you shoot, it might be worth picking up one of these rare lenses. Now where are those full res D800 files so everyone can complain about purple fringing?

[Cheap Deal] Godox Battery Pack For Camera Flash
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It's 3pm. Outside it is humid, blazing hot, the ambient light is reading f32, and your bride wants portraits taken now....all you have on you are your speedlights. If you are a wedding photographer, you probably have found yourself in a familiar situation. Even if you have enough power to balance your shots with 1 or 2 speedlights, your flash's refresh rate becomes a major kink in getting photos taken quickly. Having one of these power packs might just save your day.

[Contest] This Fstoppers Reader Just Won Three New Pocketwizard Plus IIIs
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About three weeks ago we announced an easy Twitter contest where a random follower would win three of the unreleased Pocket Wizard Plus III radio triggers and a free copy of Peter Hurley's The Art Behind The Headshot. One lucky follower has been randomly chosen and we are ready to announce the big winner. Keep your fingers crossed as you read on

[Interview] SLR Lounge Sits Down With Superstar Jeremy Cowart
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Jeremy Cowart is a photographer after my own heart. He started out in one of my favorite cities Nashville, TN, befriend a bunch of rockstars, shot their album covers, moved into celebrity portraiture, and continues to give back with projects like Help Portrait. Our good friend Pye Jirsa with SLR Lounge recently sat down with the nomadic photographer and picked his brain a little about creativity, post production, a new LifeFinder Tour, and a new iPhone App. If you get worn out listening

[Contest] The Winner Of A Nikon D800 Or Canon 5D Mark III Is
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A few weeks ago Fstoppers teamed up with SLR Lounge for a contest giveaway. The contest wasn't just any contest though; we wanted to give one of our lucky readers either a brand new Canon 5D Mark III or Nikon D800 camera of their choosing. All the entries were in by April 30th, and yesterday we picked our lucky winner. Cross your fingers and say a little prayer before you hit the full post...

[Deals] Sandisk Strikes Again! 16GB Memory Cards From $17!
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Hopefully this post isn't as exciting to you because you already took advantage of the HUGE Sandisk 32GB sale we posted last week. But if you missed it or for some reason thought 32GB was overkill, Sandisk 16GB Memory Cards are on Sale today only. Even if you don't need more memory for your DSLR cameras, at these prices it's a good time to snag up a few for other devices.

[Behind The Scenes] Fashion Photographer Melissa Rodwell's Kurv Magazine Shoot
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Fashion photographer Melissa Rodwell has become a good friend of ours over the years. The New York based photographer lives and breathes fashion photography, and as you can see with her images it really shows. The self proclaimed "photographer who does not own a digital camera" teamed up with Kurv magazine to produce some very exotic fashion images. As with most fashion images, the retouching is pretty important with interesting

[Crazy Deals] Sandisk 32GB Memory Cards On Sale Today Only
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What's that? You need twice as much memory now for your crazy large Nikon D800 RAW files? But those 32GB Memory Cards are so expensive you say. Well today only 32GB SD and Compact Flash Cards are on sale at some of the lowest prices I've ever seen (and no rebate forms to deal with). This is great news after shooting my first wedding with the Nikon D4 and D800 and realizing single 32 gig cards aren't cutting it anymore. Don't say we didn't warn you if you miss out on this deal!

[Last Chance] Win Pocket Wizard Plus IIIs And The Art Behind The Headshot
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Earlier this month we announced a contest where we are giving away 3 Pocketwizard Plus III units and a copy of Peter Hurley's The Art Behind The Headshot ($700 value). We are entering in the final week of the contest so be sure to hit the full post to read how you can enter. We will pick a random winner May 1st and make the announcement here on Fstoppers. Good luck to everyone who enters; someone is going to be pretty excited next week!

[Fstoppers Original] What Is Lens Diffraction And When Does Diffraction Happen?
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If you are like me then you might not always get caught up in some of the super technical aspects of photography. One aspect of photography I recently investigated was the loss of sharpness caused by Diffraction. Last night while playing with the new Nikon D800 camera I examined lens diffraction and how diffraction can seriously affect the sharpness of your photography.

[FStoppers Review] Atomos Ninja External Recorder With Nikon D800
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There is no doubt that Nikon and Canon are putting a lot of effort in creating better video features in their flagship DSLR cameras. One of the most talked about new features has been Nikon's clean, uncompressed 1080p output from the camera's HDMI connector. Both the Nikon D800 and Nikon D4 DSLR cameras allow for this feature, but we've wondered just how useful are these new uncompressed files? We decided to test the new Atomos Ninja 1080p external recorder to see if these 12x larger files gave us better image quality for our own video projects.

[Travel] How To Make A Viral Video With Someone Else's Money
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Casey Neistat is a great film maker that you may remember for his Peanut Butter Lid Lens Hack. Recently he was hired by Nike to create something interesting for their Nike + Fuel Band. The story goes that instead of making a traditional commercial, Casey took Nike's budget and traveled around the world until it was all spent. He filmed his 10 day escapade and produced the following video. Even if the Nike story was staged, it's still a pretty inspiring video made by an incredible budget film maker.

[Education] Mark Wallace Is Coming To A City Near You
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Most of you know Mark Wallace as the face behind Adorama TV. He's a very accomplished photographer based out of Phoenix, Arizona and we recently were able to share some drinks with him when we filmed Blair Bunting's Aventador video. Mark gave us a little glimpse about his 2012 Workshop Tour and now the details are finally able to be revealed. If you are a fan of Mark, which we hope you are, click the full post to hear about his new 7 city tour!