Articles written by Austin Rogers

If you listen to the podcast On Taking Pictures, you know that co-host of the program Bill Wadman is a New York-based portrait photographer who's worked with the likes of Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, Philip Glass, Ze Frank, and many, many others. Though his traditional portrait and conceptual work are tremendous in their own right, Bill has gotten quite a bit of attention over the years for his projects such as his critically acclaimed Dancers in Motion, cinematic Drabbles, and the 365 Portrait project that helped him to start it all.

Photographer and educator, Tony Northrup, was inspired by Fstoppers' own Dani Diamond's awesome larger-than-life ring light and put together his own tutorial video showing you how to build a light source in just about any shape you set your mind to with supplies picked up at a hardware store. This nifty little tutorial will get you up and running in an afternoon with catch lights that'll make your buddies green with envy and left scratching their heads.

There are few things I see photographers skimp on more frequently than a good camera strap. While the default manufacturer straps can certainly get the job done under most circumstances they're pretty limiting in terms of style and functionality and can serve as a un-needed advertisement for the gear you're packing. The guys over at Cecilia Gallery want to give you an alternative to the stock strap that provides a similar minimalistic design with high-quality materials and some cool little nuanced touches.

Zack Arias has always been an avid Fuji shooter (starting off with the fabulous X100) and was one of the biggest influences in my decision to finally take the plunge and co-purchase an X-Pro 1 this summer. In this video Zack knocks some sense into you about how silly the full frame / crop debate really is by reviewing the progression of different formats from eight by ten through 4:3. Take a look.

There are few things we, as photographers, are more OCD about than tack-sharp focus. We invest so many of our hard-earned dollars into nice glass, painstakingly focus, then spend hours in post afterwards pulling our hair out when the eyes aren’t sharp. While of course sometimes OOF images are due to user error, small variations in the lens and camera can result in less-than-sharp images. These discrepancies in camera / lens combination can be dialed in to get perfectly sharp images more consistently. Enter FoCal, a [semi]automated focus calibration software.

Last year, photographer duo Dylan Howell and Sara Byrne (of Dylan and Sara Photography) posted an awesome video showing you how to create beautiful double-exposure photos in-camera, a technique popular in fine art, portrait, and wedding photography. I just stumbled across this awesome tutorial by event and wedding photographer Andrew Klokow showing you how to replicate this cool look quickly and fairly easily in Photoshop.

The guys over at Ledicia Audio Visual recently shared this beautiful video that shows process behind large format 8x10 film photography from start to finish. The film folows large format photographer, Luis Plácido López Caballero, as he sets up and composes his image all the way through his manual dodging and burning and developing in the darkroom.

Yes, you heard right. The newly announced Fotodiox Excell +1 speedbooster (reminiciant of the Metabones Speedbooster) will allow you to mount your Nikon F and Canon FD glass to your MFT body while optically adjusting for crop-factor and giving you a whole extra stop of light. At an introductory price of $160 the Fotodiox blows the Metabones, which sells for between $400 to $600, out of the water and you can get that extra stop of light on a budget.

If you're a wedding photographer then you're all to familiar with Uncle Bob photographers: people with a camera getting in your way, breathing down your neck asking about settings and gear, and otherwise making your life dificult. This parody instructional video teaches Uncle Bob how to get the best pictures he can at a wedding while also being a huge annoyance to the wedding guests and photographer.