Fstoppers

Your iPhone is more powerful than you think. Buried in iOS is an app called Shortcuts that most people ignore entirely, and those who do open it often close it immediately, overwhelmed by the programming-like interface. That's a mistake. Shortcuts can transform tedious, repetitive photography tasks into single-tap operations, and once you understand the basics, you'll wonder how you ever managed without them. I've made five useful Shortcuts exclusively for Fstoppers readers.

[ Read More ]

Noise and messy detail can ruin an otherwise strong subject, especially in wildlife shots where the background turns into a crunchy distraction the moment you lift exposure. This video focuses on a Lightroom approach that gets the background looking smoother without turning the subject into plastic.

[ Read More ]

Sam Abell has pursued a career in documentary photography, spending 33 years with National Geographic. He concurrently taught and authored numerous books, including The Life of a Photograph, Seeing Gardens, and The Photographic Life. In 2024, Sam received the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Photo Society and was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame. Here, he explains why he shoots in an automatic mode, sticks with shorter lenses, and why Dorothea Lange is his North Star.

[ Read More ]

A wide angle lens is a tempting choice at White Sands National Park, and it’s also an easy way to come home with files that look flatter than what you saw. The video tackles that gap between what feels dramatic in person and what actually reads well in a frame.

[ Read More ]

Re-editing a 2010 image is a fast way to see how much your taste has shifted and how much today’s tools can rescue a file you once thought was “done.” If old edits look harsh, crunchy, or just strangely loud, this video shows a clean path back to something you’d actually want to print.

[ Read More ]

The Adobe Camera Raw Adjustment Brush is one of the fastest ways to shape attention inside a frame without wrecking the rest of the tones. If local light, texture, or color keeps slipping away during edits, this tool is often the missing piece.

[ Read More ]

Ah chargers, the unsung heroes of our camera bags. When Anker sent over their new Nano Charger with the built-in smart display, I was skeptical. A screen on a wall charger? It seemed like a solution in search of a problem. After a week of daily use, I can admit I was wrong. This little charger has genuinely changed how I think about portable power.

[ Read More ]

If you're like me, you've accumulated a small graveyard of USB-C hubs and docking stations over the years. There's the one that lives on your desk, the compact one you throw in your bag for travel, maybe a spare floating around somewhere because you forgot you already had one. It's an annoying reality of modern laptop life: the hub you need at home isn't the hub you want to carry, and vice versa. Anker's new Anker Nano Docking Station takes a genuinely clever swing at solving this problem, and after a week of daily use, I think they've nailed it.

[ Read More ]

For years, a favorite working lens as a community photojournalist was the Fujifilm XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR.

[ Read More ]

A 200mm f/2 lens used to be the kind of gear you only read about, not something you actually consider buying. The Laowa 200mm f/2 AF FF is trying to change that, and the real question is what you give up to get the look at a price that does not feel absurd.

[ Read More ]

Sky swaps have been a go-to fix in real estate images when the weather refuses to cooperate. The problem now is that a routine background change can drag you into a compliance mess that most agents are not handling the same way.

[ Read More ]

This week marks the return of the Sundance Film Festival to Park City, Utah. The festival showcases dozens of new documentaries, shorts, and feature presentations, as well as a variety of panels of interest to independent filmmakers. According to Adobe, 85% of films at the festival will have used Adobe Creative Cloud tools, so it comes as no surprise that Adobe chose this week to announce new features in its flagship editing program, Premiere Pro.

[ Read More ]

Hasselblad just made the medium format question harder in a good way, with the Hasselblad X2D II 100C landing as a real-world tool instead of a studio-only trophy. If you’ve been eyeing medium format but keep hesitating over speed, handling, and file pain, this video circles the exact pressure points you actually deal with.

[ Read More ]

A photography niche can feel like the whole game, like you need to pick one lane and lock it in fast. The problem is that a tidy label can push you away from the work you actually want to make, and it can make the business side feel brittle.

[ Read More ]

Most discussions about photography describe the work of the photographer through technique, timing, or the ability to react quickly. Yet these explanations do not match what actually gives an image its meaning. If the photograph depends on a choice made before the camera is raised, then the work of the photographer is not the moment of capture but the decisions that make the moment possible.

[ Read More ]

If you had just one lens in a very small pocket of your bag to accompany you for everyday creative pursuits, this tiny pancake lens might be worth a look.

[ Read More ]

You know the feeling. You're scrolling through reviews at 11 PM, convincing yourself that the new 85mm f/1.2 will finally unlock your creative potential. Your current 85mm is perfectly functional, but this one has slightly better autofocus tracking and a new nano-coating that promises reduced flare in situations you encounter maybe twice a year. Before you know it, you're checking your credit card balance and calculating how many sessions it would take to justify the purchase.

[ Read More ]

The Viltrox AF 56mm f/1.2 Pro is a tempting fix for Nikon APS-C shooters who want an 85mm-style portrait lens without settling for a slower aperture. The catch is that a lens can look perfect on paper and still act weird on your camera when autofocus, exposure, and bright scenes start pushing it.

[ Read More ]

A shoot falling apart usually has less to do with bad luck and more to do with what you decide to do after the original idea stops working. The difference between coming home empty and coming home with usable images often shows up in how willing you are to abandon one mental picture and start responding to what’s actually happening.

[ Read More ]

A telephoto lens can turn a messy landscape into a clean, intentional frame, especially when the scene feels too big and too busy. If mountains keep looking flat or your wide angle keeps dragging clutter into the shot, this approach changes how you see distance.

[ Read More ]