Articles from Michael DeStefano

Coming in from Devin Graham and the talented crew over at Devin Super Tramp, this massive gear envy video lets us see what it looks like to purchase $221,000 of Leica Summilux-C glass.

Last week wrapped up another successful year for WPPI and a great learning experience for so many photographers. One of the things that people often don't take advantage of at these large conferences is the chance to work alongside other photographers, challenging themselves to shoot outside their comfort zone. These photographers did just that and filmed it for our benefit. 

In the world of adventure sports photography being in the right location isn't always enough. Often times you have to match the athleticism of the athletes you are photographing to get those really amazing shots. that means hanging off the side of a cliff hundreds of feet above the ground alongside a rock climber. Or swimming a couple feet above a coral reef in twenty-foot plus surf. In this case, it means spending a week in the desert running up and down sand dunes. 

Frequency separation has long been a popular technique for skin retouching. However, for a lot of photographers new to photo editing, beauty retouching, and ACDSee, it can seem like a very difficult process. Within ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018, the process has been made easier with the addition of an automated frequency separation tool.

Lifestyle photography means different things to different types of photographers. Some might say photojournalism is the truest form of lifestyle photography. A portrait or wedding photographer would describe it as putting their subjects in real life situations and capturing almost candid moments. I shoot commercial and editorial work so more often than not I create scenes using models and props that feel like real life events but weren't. No matter how you look at it though, lifestyle photography is about telling stories.

There's a new Mobile Sync app available for all three 2018 ACDSee Photo Studio products and it makes life much easier. ACDSee Mobile Sync lets you send all your images and videos wirelessly from any mobile device to any computer running a Photo Studio 2018 product.

Tether Tools is well known for its variety of wired and wireless products that make tethering easier and safer for your equipment. They have consistently been able to create products that solve problems that most photographers experience. Today with the release of their newest cables, the TetherPro USB-C products, they solve what has been a huge frustration for many early USB-C adopters. 

Building a stock photography portfolio and generating passive income can be one of the easiest ways a photographer can make money. However, creating a sizable portfolio that generates a worthwhile income month after month doesn't just happen overnight. Chances are you have already been shooting images suitable for stock without realizing it. With just a little planning and adjustment to how you see and approach assignments, you can turn your existing and future work into a growing stock catalog. Additionally, with stock sites like Adobe Stock built right into your Creative Cloud, submitting, tracking, and learning what sells is a relatively easy task. 

As a photographer, I spend a lot of time sitting at my desk, both producing and consuming content. I have a supportive chair, high-end monitors, and all sorts of peripherals cluttering up my desk. All to make that time easier, comfortable, and more productive. One area a lot of people either don't think about or just skip is speakers. Whether you are listening to music while you work or editing your next big video project, quality speakers will improve the experience and quality of that work. In an attempt to improve the audio experience at my desktop I tried out a midsize set of speakers made by the Canadian company Kanto. The Kanto YU4 speakers are a reasonable size with a built-in amplifier making them perfect for desktop use. 

When it comes to landscape photography, preparation and using the right tools go a long way to get that perfect shot. Tripods, filters, or even drones can all take your image to that next level. However, many photographers don’t give enough importance or time to the editing process of their images. With software that combines multiple tools into one program and simplified non-destructive editing, ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 can make it easier to experiment with new edits on overlooked images and even save some of those over or underexposed captures.

Recently Fstoppers reviewed ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018, the newest version of their all-in-one editing flagship. If you are not familiar with ACDSee’s platform, it is an editing suite similar to Capture One Pro or Photoshop, but also includes photo managing tools and quick editing capabilities similar to Lightroom. This gives ACDSee a unique combined platform that simplifies the average user’s workflow and eliminates the costly need for multiple programs.

The Christmas Wish, which has become an annual viral sensation put out over the last few years by The Heart Project is back and even bigger for 2017. In 2016, the project created holiday magic for 30 sick children from one hospital. This year Karen Alsop, the lead photographer behind the project, took it countrywide in Australia reaching even more people in need and this is just the beginning. 

With the holiday sales starting this week it's the perfect time to start calibrating your monitor or upgrade your old device to a new one. Datacolor is offering some great deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So pick up a new device and read through my walkthrough on how to use your new toy.

Whether you are a full-time video editor or just occasionally edit some of your own projects like me, you have probably found yourself on Youtube at some point trying to learn. Tutorials are an amazing tool at our disposal and we share and create some great tutorials here on Fstoppers all the time. However, sometimes I just want to see how someone does what they do from start to finish. That's where Taran Van Hemert comes in with his newest editing video. It's not a tutorial at all. It is 4 hours and 20 minutes of a standard video editing job for the Youtube channel Linus Tech Tips from start to finish. 

Photographer Ryan Taylor recently worked with Red Bull to shoot a highlight story on Hilary Knight, one of Red Bull’s professional athletes and member of US Olympic Hockey team. With Knight going to the winter Olympics this February it was the perfect opportunity to showcase her journey to Gold.

Landscape photographer Thomas Heaton has been releasing one hit after another on his Youtube channel lately and his newest video is one of my favorites. Focus stacking is a great and relatively simple trick any photographer can use to add a unique look to your images. 

The Get Well Tree is the latest touching project from the talented collaboration The heART Project. Many of the previous projects have been featured here. Each one brings amazing artists and sponsors together to help bring love and smiles to a family that has experienced some form of hardship. This time the project follows two childhood cancer survivors on a fantasy journey through a dream-like world. 12 photographers came together to create a 14-page photo storybook staring these two heroic little girls.

Chris Burkard has made an impressive career out of photographing adventure in some of the most beautiful places in the world. With over 2.8 million followers on Instagram, it's safe to say he is one of the most successful outdoor adventure photographers shooting right now. However, this wasn't always the case and like a lot of photographers, Burkard once found himself dissatisfied with where he was in his career. That's when a trip to Norway's Lofoten Islands changed everything. 

As Adobe Lightroom Mobile has become more and more powerful with each update, more photographers are starting to adopt mobile workflows to get images out to both social media and clients faster. The ability to quickly make edits on your phone or tablet then share those images almost instantly has a lot of uses. Now in his newest video, photographer and YouTuber Peter McKinnon gives a quick tutorial on how to apply presets within Lightroom Mobile.

As the summer starts to wind down I know it means one thing. It's going to get a lot colder here in Boston. It also means It's time to start getting ready for Photo Plus Expo as well as some of the other winter conferences. For some, this might be simply booking travel, but for me, it's a big weekend. One that I spend a lot of time preparing for. In part, because it's one of the bigger speaking engagements for me but also its one of the best networking opportunities to help build my brand. 

Importing photos after a shoot is often one of the more boring parts of an assignment and getting it done as quickly and easily as possible is often the name of the game. This has unfortunately led to a lot of Lightroom users not really using the Import function to its full potential. In his newest video, Joe Allam walks through his entire process in great detail, explaining why he does each step along the way. 

An updated version of the Biotar 58mm f2 will join the already announced Biotar 75mm f1.5, as the first two pieces in Oprema Jena’s lineup of modern remakes of classic lenses, the company announced today. Oprema is offering 58 people the chance to get the Biotar 75 and Biotar 58 – both originally produced by Carl Zeiss -- as part of a special rewards bundle in the current Kickstarter campaign for the Biotar 75. The 58 Biotar 58s will be pre-production models with serial numbers between 1 and 58. A pledge of $1,999 USD would allow someone to get both lenses at $2,500 less than the combined projected retail price for the lenses. The Biotar 75 is expected to go on the market next summer at a projected retail price of $2,499, with the Biotar 58 following by the end of 2018 at a projected retail price of $1,999.

With the solar eclipse almost upon us, it is important to remember that there is a real reason why it can be dangerous to photograph. If somehow you missed all the articles and news stories talking about how to watch and photograph the eclipse safely and you are planning to go out and shoot it last minute unprepared, here is one last example of what not to do.

Anker, a company known for their chargers, battery banks, and cables also produces a series of affordable and compact solar chargers. These devices, when combined with large mAh battery banks and various USB chargers, can be used to charge just about any electronic device, keeping a photographer up and running no matter how far they may travel.

On August 21, hundreds of thousands of people in North America and millions watching live at home will be experiencing a once, maybe twice, in a lifetime celestial opportunity. A total eclipse of the sun. Thousands of photographers will be traveling to locations along the path of totality to get the best possible photographs during the event. Photographing an event like this requires some special equipment so I will go over what you’ll need and some extra tools like the Sky-Watcher Star Tracker Mini (SAM) that can help you take your images to the next level.

Datacolor’s Spyder5 series of products is their latest in calibration tools to help digital artists make sure they are always seeing the most accurate colors on any monitor display. There are three models to choose from: Express, Pro, and Elite+, with the Spyder5Elite+ version receiving a large software update last year. Now Datacolor is making it even easier to get a better calibration for your workflow by offering discounted prices when you upgrade to their Spyder5Elite+ model from any of their previous models or competitors products.

Pixrit is the latest in social media content managers specifically targeting photographers. With tag lines like, “Designed for photographers, by photographers,” and, “Schedule 1 month of sharing in less than 5 minutes,” they have set high expectations for a service that already has some strong competition.

When I received this bag I have to admit I had never heard of K&F Concept as a company before. A quick examination of the bag and I could see that this large travel backpack style bag wasn't something cheap you would pick up at Walmart.

The Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Mini (SAM) is Sky-Watcher’s newest time-lapse and astrophotography tracking platform. It’s their attempt at a compact lightweight mobile setup that's both beginner friendly and easily packed into your camera bag.

Electronics company MGCOOL has recently put out several new sports action cameras in the style of GoPro targeting the 4K and affordable market. The Explorer 1s both feature rich and capable of 4k at 24FPS packs a lot in for the low price of $70.

With the rising prices of additional baggage when flying. Traveling with all the gear photographers need for the average location shoot is getting out of hand. There are lots of articles and tricks for saving some money but most of us have stripped down our travel kits to the essentials. This of course means for bigger jobs renting extra gear once on location. Manufactures seem to get this and there has been a boom in options, from battery powered strobes to wireless flashes and all sorts in between. Back from his online blogging hiatus, Zack Arias shares how he has solved this issue with an all in one ready to go lighting bag.

"Glow" is a creative new music video from Toronto-based cinematographer Jonah Haber. Using a glow-in-the-dark background similar to what is often called a shadow wall, Haber captures the dancer's movements as a series of shadows frozen in time.

The art of animation in any form can be a long an tedious process however doing so with traditional stop motion techniques, manipulating your subject one frame at a time takes serious commitment and determination. Brett Foxwell takes this practice to a higher level creating amazing alien like organic worlds by slicing away one layer at a time from various pieces of wood in his newest short film "WoodSwimmer".

You can find them on just about any street in every city come trash day. Each one a unique piece of home decor. Once the centerpiece chosen to define our communal spaces, now an abandoned remnant of our disposable lives left curbside. I call it a couch, you may call it a davenport, chesterfield, or lounge. Andrew Ward calls it a sofa and he has been photographing everyone he comes across around Los Angeles for the last five years. What started out as an odd fascination quickly grew into the personal project Ward calls “Sofas of L.A.”

When any talented individual with a dedicated set of skills finds themselves with a little free time it almost always results in something both creative and amazing. Some of the most interesting creations have come from artists and craftsman in their spare time. So it comes as no surprise that a successful photographic digital artist like Karen Alsop when presented with a newly found photo of her ancestors, would turn it into something that would surprise and amaze her friends and family.