After becoming the best selling off camera flash light modifier on Amazon.com in 2014, we were sad to announce that we had completely sold out of our entire Fstoppers FlashDisc inventory. If you have been waiting patiently for our stock to replenish wait no more; our US Amazon Store now has a fresh batch of inventory. For those of you who have been waiting for the FlashDisc in your region of the world, we have good news for you too!
The future of sharing live video through social media is definitely heating up through apps like Periscope and Meerkat. Basically these apps turn your phone into a live streaming webcam that you can use to share whatever you want to the world. Although Ustream and Youtube have already allowed users to stream live video from other devices like a GoPro, Meerkat is about to make things a lot more interesting by being the first native app to broadcast from the sports camera. This could make social media way more interesting to watch.
The best shopping day of the year is upon us! Unlike the highly stigmatized Black Friday day of chaos, Cyber Monday allows us all to casually browse the best sales from the comfort of our homes. In this post I have gathered some of the best and most useful sales for photographers and videographers as well as some non photography tools that can be a lifesaver. Check back into this post throughout the day (or follow us on Twitter) as the Fstoppers staff will be updating it often.
Mark Wallace is a great friend of ours, and also one of the leading photography educators on the planet (subscribe to his series on AdoramaTV). Mark has been traveling the world for over two years now, but in the beginning of 2016 he traded the trains, planes, and automobiles for a single BMW R1200 motorcycle. His latest journey will possibly take him 2-5 years as he trades the studio gear for a simple GoPro to document his travels across six continents. If you need a break from photography education, Mark on a Bike might be the perfect cultural experience to follow.
The lust for better photo gear is something every photographer struggles with. In our photography industry, many people swear by the quality of light of this brand verses that brand, but in the end isn't light just light? In this video I create a classic beauty lighting setup with $10,000 worth of lighting equipment and then replicate that same setup with only $425 worth of lighting equipment. Will they look the same? This is the Rich Photographer vs Poor Photographer lighting test.
As more and more photographers are starting to dabble into video, the need for versatile yet affordable constant lighting gear is ever changing. Today I test the new Boling BL-50 lights to see if they could be the best bang for the buck.
Building a shooting space in your home can be difficult to say the least. For most photographers, a home studio is never large enough and every inch of space becomes a commodity. In this video we show you perhaps the easiest and cleanest way to hang seamless paper in your studio space.
Today we are releasing the second video in our How to Make a Website series with Wix. After reflecting on the content in this new video, it made me wonder, "why are photographers so intimidated by photos of themselves?" Could your view on this question be dramatically affecting your business?
Recently, two photography friends visited the Fstoppers studio on the same day. Of course, this meant I needed to plan a friendly photography competition to see once and for all who is the best photographer in the land! This challenge video comes with lots of twists and turns, but at the core, we ask the question: "can an iPhone beat an expensive $12,000 medium format mirrorless camera?" Today, we find out.
Most photographers know that a cloudy or overcast day produces really soft light that can be flattering on the human face. But many of my wedding clients naively say "Oh it's overcast today, the photos will turn out much better!" Sometimes Most of the time overcast light is actually pretty boring and removes any and all contrast from your scene. There is a little trick I explain in our Wedding Tutorial that has saved me from producing boring, flat images on a cloudy day, and I think all photographers should have this technique in their bag of tricks.
For years, videographers have been saying video will replace photography altogether. Last year we tested this controversial statement in our own Red Epic Video vs Hasselblad Photo Shootout. In this latest video, Abraham Joffe along with Philip Bloom and Sue Bryce test the idea of simply pulling out still shots from video and printing them at reasonable sizes. Just as we found with our own video, capturing the definitive "micro expression" with a video camera like the new Canon EOS-1DC can be both precise and incredibly clunky.
As many of you have seen over the last 5 days, Fstoppers.com has had a few hiccups. We had a malware scare earlier last week and our site has been in an out of blacklisting with Google and a few antivirus software companies. It's been the most aggravating thing we've ever had to deal with and we appreciate all the patience you guys have had as we continue to make changes to our server and security. We are looking for someone who can help us with the site when problems like these arise; if that sounds like you, we want you to apply!
Update: Live Now! As a wedding photographer myself, I think the most important thing any photographer can do for their business is adding video to their services. I met Rob and Vanessa earlier this year and was excited to hear they are teaching this new "Fusion" video/photo hybrid to other photographers. On June 29 - July 1, creativeLIVE is airing their 3 day workshop for free! Learn how you can easily incorporate video into your photography business from two of the industry's leaders.
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
As photographers, we are always in search of that new unique lighting modifier to add to our bag of tricks. I recently saw this video on Strobist where Amber Gray claims her Broncolor Para FB could actually reduce the amount of post production on her models. That statement seemed a bit bold when I first heard it; usually I credit a great makeup artist for awesome skin texture rather than a specific light. I've never used a ring flash
![[BTS] How To Create HDR Images Using Bracketing With Trey Ratcliff](https://cdn.fstoppers.com/styles/med-16-9/s3/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/how-to-photograph-high-dynamic-range-HDR.jpg)
![[Studio Lighting] Could This Be The Best Light For The Photo Studio?](https://cdn.fstoppers.com/styles/med-16-9/s3/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Bron-kobold-para-FB.jpg)