Patrick Hall

Perhaps no DSLR camera has caused such a stir as Nikon's new 36mp DSLR camera. Not only does it provide the most megapixels of any compact DSLR yet, but it also falls below the $3,000 mark! But the question everyone has is "can a small 35mm sensor really come close to the quality of a large medium format camera?" The guys over at DSLR Magazine put the Nikon D800 up against the Hasselblad H4D-40, Leica S2, and Sigma SD1 to find out. The results will most certainly shock you!

Everyone knows that Rebates come and go. Right now however many companies have substantial rebates on some of their top gear. The bad news is apparently a lot of these rebates are coming to an end on April 1st (no joke here). We recently got a phone call from the guys at BH Photo, and I've combined all the major deals into one post. If you are in need of some new lenses, cameras, or computer storage, be sure to check out the full post.

If you enjoy looking at fashion images, then the photography duo Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello should be on your radar. They are ranked as among the top fashion photographers on Model.com and it's easy to see how their work stands out within one of the most saturated fields of photography. In their latest campaign shoot for clothing designer Anna Sui, Sanchez and Mongiello have one of the simplest lighting setups ever: just a single gridded Profoto head.

Last week one of the most respected camera review sites, DxOMark, listed the brand new Nikon D4 as the best digital DSLR camera to date. The D4 ranked so well that it was actually the 2nd best digital camera period falling behind only by the Phase One IQ180. Today both those cameras fall to a shocking competitor..the much less expensive Nikon D800!

Adobe releases a new version of it's flagship editing software Photoshop every year or two. Usually the releases are pretty uneventful except for a few new automated features that full time editors rarely use. Adobe Photoshop CS6 changes this trend and might be the biggest revamp to the photo editing software yet. You can download Photoshop CS6 Beta here to test the software for free, and in the full post I'll touch on a few key features that might make this update worth considering.

As any photographer knows, understanding color space and color management can be one of the most difficult concepts to wrap your head around. What is the difference between Adobe RGB and sRGB? Why do magazines always print my images with funky colors? Why do I need different profiles for different devices? I still have trouble with these concepts. Luckily photoshop guru Kevin Kubota has made a really useful video explaining how

Corey Rich was one of the first photographers to demo the new Nikon D4. His extreme athlete documentary "WHY" was one of the best product launch videos I've seen yet. Luckily for all of us, Nikon asked Corey to produce a behind the scenes video on how he and his crew filmed the various athletes for the short film. Watching this BTS video was one of the most inspiring videos I've seen in a good while. Not only am I pumped to have

Welp we have done it again; we've made it another year! According to CDC.org, we should be on our way to making sentences with 2-4 words, playing simple make-believe games, pointing out cats, dogs, and birds, and of course climbing up and down furniture without anyone's help. In all seriousness, Lee and I (along with everyone else on the Fstoppers staff) are incredibly grateful to still be sharing to this community we created back in March of 2010.

It seems with every new version of Photoshop, Adobe finds a way to add something both useful and unbelievable. First we had the new Content Aware. Then rumors of a tool that makes your blurry images sharp and focused. Now apparently Photoshop CS6 is going to let you add nearly authentic shallow depth of field to your otherwise infinitely sharp photos. Obviously most photographers will do this with a fast lens but

A few weeks ago, Fstoppers caught up with celebrity photographer Brian Smith. If you didn't take the time to read the article, don't worry because ReDefine just published a video interview with Brian from Tamara Lackey's recent interview out in Vegas. What I love about people like Brian is he's quick to point out the real defining element of his work: his relationship to his subject. Male photographers often get caught up in

While in Las Vegas for WPPI, I met Rob Adams and Vanessa Joy who are two talented videographers and photographers respectively. They are both at the top of the wedding market and often speak to photographers about how they can incorporate video into their businesses (something we have been preaching here for years). To help photographers make the video transition easier, Rob and Vanessa have designed PhVusion video editing software which allows you to trim and color correct video directly in Photoshop.

This video from Smarter Every Day shows how you can capture any gun's flame throwing abilities with precise accuracy. Using a Pulse Generator, Destin explains how he rigged his flash setup to fire at the exact moment the gun is fired. By dragging the shutter and combining the exposure with flash, the Alabama native created some pretty interesting photographs. Some even show the bullet leaving the muzzle!

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Dane Sanders at WPPI while we were in Las Vegas. If you don't already know Dane, he's a wedding photographer who web chats with some of the industry's up and coming photographers. Trey Ratcliff of Stuck In Customs fame sat down with Dane to talk about creating unique and artistically strong content for the web.

Back before I ever picked up a camera, I always enjoyed looking through the pages of Sports Illustrated. I was never the rabid sports fanatic many of my friends were growing up, but I definitely loved the close game, the epic play, the milestone achievement, and of course the human emotion that came with obtaining greatness.

As a music lover myself, the Grammys is one of the few awards shows I sit down to watch year after year. This something interesting happened I had never seen before; a commercial featuring Willie Nelson singing Coldplay's The Scientist actually outshined the live performance from Coldplay moments before. Twitter was ablaze with comments about "that cute Chipotle" commercial.

Internet MEMEs are a common occurance throughout most of our social media outlets. Today my Facebook feed has been full of this funny MEME which tries to portray how photographers are seen through the eyes of their friends, society, and their clients. I've posted a few of these What People Think Photographers Do MEMEs to help lighten up your week.

We've featured Yuri Arcurs, the worlds most successful micro stock photographer, many times here on Fstoppers. In a time when people complain that the value of photography has gone the way of the buffalo, Yuri has created an empire on images that cost less than $1.

Photographers love Zack Arias because of his no nonsense, laid back approach to photography. In his full blog post Why I Moved To Medium Format :: Phase One IQ140 Review, Zack describes some of the amazing features these DSLR alternatives have for the commercial photographer.

Have you ever noticed when you are hanging out with another photographer, your non photography friends absolutely hate you? This video had me laughing a few times because like it or not we all sound like this from time to time. After you watch this, leave your favorite photographer cliche in the comments.

We haven't posted a deal here recently because, well, there really hasn't been many deals since the holidays. One of our favorite crop lenses, the Sigma 17 -50 2.8 OS, is currently under $600 (retails $669) for the first time in a long while. Click the full post to hear why like like it so much.

Remember when Apple released the new version of its flagship video editing program Final Cut X? If not, you might want a refresher course with Conan O'brien. Basically the backlash was almost unanimous, and it made many of us thankful we chose Adobe's Premiere as our editing software of choice.

Now this is pretty interesting. Recently at the 2012 SHOT show (tradeshow for outdoors and hunting), Foursevens revealed their new lithium powered LED light. Unlike typical LED lights, the XM18 produces an unprecedented 15,000 lumens of light. According to my simple calculations, the XM18 might be more powerful than your low to mid level Arri HMI lights!

Jay P Morgan's Behind The Scenes Videos seem to pop up every single week. In this week's episode, Jay teaches a few tricks for shooting black and white photography. Everyone knows how to convert their images into black and white in Photoshop but Jay recommends turning your camera to BW so you can see the results real time.

Every photographer needs a few things in their bag of tricks. An easy trick is to add some smoke to your images for effect. You can always create photo smoke on a budget if you want to MacGyver it but there is another solution - two solutions in fact.

It's always good humor when someone makes a career path diagram outlining possible jobs within a particular field. If you aren't sure about whether your skills are best utilized as a Director, Studio Head, Screenwriter, Producer, or Film Critic then this is a great starting point. Hopefully someone makes one based on art buying and photography publishing.

I love optical illusions, and this simple trick used in a Sony Cybershot ad was one I had not seen before. Check out the image below. Stare at the color triangle in the middle of the model's nose for 30 seconds. Then stare at a white wall or screen and blink rapidly! You should see the model take her clothes off in near full color!

If you thought Jasper James's City Silhouettes were crazy wait until you see Ira Fox's Puddle Portraits. Using the natural reflections caused by rain puddles, Ira has captured the world in an interesting yet pyschodelic way. The results are one of a kind, and it just goes to show how thinking outside the box can pay off in a big way!

A few days ago we showed you what it's like to be a Sport Illustrated Editor. The NFL Conference Championship games are about kick off in a few hours so it seems fitting to bring you San Francisco 49ers team photographer Michael Zagaris as he talks about capturing the two key plays of the '9ers Division Championship game. Enjoy!

Trey Ratcliff is a very successful photographer who also runs a very popular blog Stuck in Customs. In a recent lecture for Google, Trey explains what makes the internet so exciting for creative professionals, and how you too can put your own internet stimulus out there for others to enjoy.

The response Peter Hurley's downloadable tutorial The Art Behind The Headshot has been receiving over the last few months has been unbelievable. Peter's technique has changed the way so many photographers approach working with models, and it's apparent by his facebook group that photographers of all skill levels are taking the best headshots in their portfolios.

With just over a week since it's announcement, Nikon's flagship D4 DSLR is already causing a stir in the most unlikely of places. The camera will feature a slot for the new XQD memory card which moves data much faster than current SD or CF cards. But can the card become the next media standard?

If you are a sports fan, you are going to love this interview. Grover over at Photoshelter recently interviewed Sports Illustrated Director of Photography Steve Fine. Steve's job is to pick out the absolute best "super selects" from a handful of sports photographers and publish those photos in record time (sometimes within hours).

The BBC has produced some of my favorite shows of all time. Their newest program called Earthflight captures amazing HD video from the skies as they put you literally on the wings of wild birds. I really can't imagine how they got these shots of eagles stalking unsuspecting flamingos but it's definitely not filmed on a Gopro Hero.

I just wrapped up a future Fstoppers video here in New Orleans, Louisiana, and I'd love to grab a drink with anyone in the area. The meetup starts at 8pm Tonight Tuesday the 10th at Bar Tonique located at 820 North Rampart St. It's located just on the edge of the French Quarter so we can escape all the hoopla that comes with Bourbon Street. Hopefully I'll see you there.

Have you ever wondered just how many photographs are taken each day? Maybe you've wondered where the most photos are taken throughout the world. Well the GPS data tracking company Triposo has released a timelapse video that shows exactly where most of the world's photographs are taken.

Peter Hurley is pretty well known among the Fstoppers crowd but after the release of his highly anticipated DVD, The Art Behind The Headshot, Peter has become an inspiration to hundreds of photographers around the world.

If you've watched an american football game, you've seen those cool shots from high up in the air. They come from a camera called the Skycam which was actually invented by the same people who designed the Steadicam used in movie productions. It's basically a remote camera controlled by four computer driven suspension cables.

This video is a couple years old now but it's the first time I've seen it. One part Geico caveman, two parts Macgyver, Bryan Peterson shows how easy it can be to create a simple yet eye catching stock photo.

One of the biggest rewards of our 2011 Behind The Scenes Contest is we finally get to meet our readers and see what they enjoy shooting. Meet Kevin Kozicki; he is a great fashion photographer based out of sunny Los Angeles. In his contest entry, Kevin wanted to use poinsettia leaves in some sort of beauty themed image while not going in the typical Christmas/Holiday route.

Unless you shoot fast moving objects with flash on a regular basis, you might not be aware that a strobes "flash duration" has a huge affect on an image's total sharpness. Flash duration is simply the time at which your flash is emitting light.