A year ago, Profoto launched the A1, its first on-camera flash and the world's smallest studio light. That light will soon have some serious competition: the increasingly-popular Chinese lighting brand Godox is getting ready to announce its own round-headed flash that will compete directly against the Profoto A1.
Light, the startup behind the groundbreaking 16-camera camera L16, has a new investor with a much longer history in photography. Leica is now a shareholder in the computational photography company.
Light's groundbreaking L16 camera generated a great deal of excitement over its 16-camera design, but early reviews have largely fallen short of the hype. The company is pushing full speed ahead, though, and will reportedly be unveiling a first-of-its-kind smartphone that has as many as 9 cameras on the back.
For some time now I’ve wanted to do a project which follows the light over this period. The longest day. The shortest night. To sit in one spot and photograph a simple composition of sea and sky as the light changed.
In photography, the "golden hour" is the time right after sunrise or right before sunset in which sunlight is warmer and softer -- a look that's valued by landscape and portrait photographers. If an hour isn't enough time for you to get your fill of the special lighting, you might want to visit the Arctic Circle, where you can enjoy "golden days".
A lot of the times when you’re shooting in direct sun, it’s very harsh on your subject’s face. Many people try not to put themselves in this situation because of it. Sometimes you have no choice, or maybe you like the location a lot so you have to put up with the challenge. Without any equipment, the sun can create harsh shadows and an unflattering look on your talent.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, chemists Robert Bunsen and Henry Roscoe and showed that burning magnesium produces artificial light that's similar to daylight. A man named Edward Sonstadt then brought the technology into the world of photography, and thus the idea for the photographic flash was born.
Here's a 6-minute educational video by Shutterstock in which filmmaker Todd Blankenship discusses the basics of diffusing light and introduces three cheap options for doing so... including a $5 shower curtain.
If you're not sure how to photograph a landscape, one primary factor you should consider is the current position of the sun in the sky. Here's a fantastic 3.5-minute video by CreativeLive in which National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting shares tips on harnessing different kinds of sunlight.
You've probably learned about the exposure triangle countless times by now. If you want a deeper understanding of the science of exposure, though, check out this 30-minute video by Filmmaker IQ.
Elinchrom has just announced the new ELB 500 TTL, the most powerful and portable TTL light ever made. It's a light for "adventurous portrait photographers shooting both in studio and on location."
Gemmy Woud-Binnendijk is a Dutch fine art photographer whose portrait photos may make you feel like you're walking through a museum. Her style is inspired by the masterpieces of old master painters.
Using natural light in your travel photos can land you with some amazing images, even if you think the light might be "bad" from the offset. Here's an 18-minute video from photographer Mitchell Kanashkevich that shows how to harness natural light for powerful imagery.
You may have a favorite time of day to do an outdoor photo shoot, but sometimes you might not have the luxury of picking the perfect time and lighting conditions. Here's a 4-minute video from photographer Kayleigh June that details a number of ways you can cope with harsh light from a midday sun.
Rinzi Ruiz is a talented photographer who discovered his passion for street photography on the sidewalks of downtown Los Angeles. Here's a great 4-minute interview with Ruiz by StreetShootr about his mindset and work.
On Oct 8, 2015, a completely unknown company announced a new camera which promised to change how we think about photography: "The L16 combines breakthrough optics design with never-before-seen imaging technology to bring you the camera of the future."
Want to get started with shooting portrait photos with studio lighting? Here's a helpful 8-minute video by Adorama with photographer Mark Wallace that introduces the different types of studio lighting and the specific job they each perform.
Photographer Denis Cherim has an eye for creative composition. His Coincidence Project is filled with cleverly framed photos containing interesting relationships between light, shadows, and the lines of objects.
Bald people can pose a bit of a difficulty for photographers, particularly because of the shine that can come off the skin in the studio. To illustrate this problem, Kalem from DSLR Video Shooter shaved his head for this 7-minute tutorial filled with tips for lighting bald people.
Pro lighting system maker Broncolor has unveiled the Litepipe P, which the company touts as a "real innovation in the market." The Litepipe P consists of just 5 components and is a lightweight light shaper that can be mounted and ready for use in just 60 seconds with no tools required.
In this article, I am going to highlight 5 key things that I see portrait photographers doing that I consider to be "in need of improvement." And although there are no hard-and-fast rules to photography, try to think of it as being similar to an instrument being slightly out of tune or a meal that's perhaps a little too salty. These are glaringly obvious errors to the well-informed but may not be so obvious to those who are just starting out.
Here's a 7-minute lesson by photographer Dustin Dolby of workphlo on how to improve your product photography shots by giving them a silky, soft, pleasant light.
The camera startup Light began shipping out the first L16 cameras to pre-order customers last month. If you want to see what the 16-camera camera can do, the company has also released a set of full-resolution photos for you to pixel peel.
In Spain, a community of light painters has come together to coordinate and create a huge giant man in the night. Light painter Frodo Álvarez DKL envisaged and directed the effort in Getafe, Madrid.
Here's a helpful 4-minute video in which photographer Phillip McCordall shares a few tips and tricks for dealing with reflections in still life photography.
Digital Sputnik, creator of LED light systems that have quickly become favorites of directors behind big blockbuster movies, has released an exciting new product: Voyager. This new system packs features of their previous product line into a smaller fixture.
Portrait and commercial photographer Zack Arias spends a lot of his time travelling and shooting on location. In the 23-minute video above, Arias goes through his bag of lights and tells you exactly what is (and isn't) in there.
It goes without saying that lighting is an incredible important aspect to any genre of photography. But in portraiture, light can be used to create, or enhance, emotion in a photo.
Cosmetics look great on a pure white background, known as 255 white. In this tutorial for workphlo, Dustin Dolby shows off his workflow when shooting your "typical" cosmetic catalog photos.
Off the top of your head, do you know how much more light f/2.8 lets in compared to f/5.6? Do you know the f-stop number that comes after 11? This 1.5-minute video reveals the simple pattern used by the scale.
The Lighting Channel made this rapid-fire 1-minute video with examples of 10 different ways you can light a face to create different moods and themes, from "horror" to "1920s beauty."
You would think the physics of lenses and light are pretty set in stone—and yet, somehow, people still get really twisted around when it comes to things like crop factor, depth of field, and speed boosters. Hoping to end (or at least quiet) this debate, photographer Jimmi Kai created this very informative, easy-to-understand video.
Light Rumors has published production product images of the upcoming Light L16 camera. The 4 images show what the 52-megapixel, 16-camera camera will look like when it start shipping.
My latest photo series, Pyramids In The Sky, was inspired when my wife and I visited the Mayan Ruins of Chacchoben while on a cruise in 2015. I have always been intrigued by ancient civilizations and how they were able to build these massive structures, seeing the pyramids in person was an inspiring experience.
The word "photography" derives from Greek and literally means "drawing with light". It is a combination of the Greek words "photo-" (φως), meaning "light," and "-graphia" (γραφή), meaning "writing" or "drawing". The same goes for the word "cinematography".
Polarized light is light that has waves oscillating all in the same direction. There are two basic ways to get polarized light: from reflection or by using a filter.
In 2015, photographer David Gaberle walked over 2,200 miles (3,600 kilometers) through some of the world's most metropolitan areas, photographing people in cities such as New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, London and Seoul. He's now turning this project into a book titled Metropolight.
When an object breaks the sound barrier—accelerates to the point where it's moving faster than the speed of sound—it creates pressure waves that result in what is called a "sonic boom" and Mach cone. Now, scientists have managed to captured a similar phenomenon for light itself.
CMYK—which stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (or Black)—is the color model used in most printing. It's called a subtractive color model, and if you don't understand what that means or how it works, this brilliant little demo should help.
Photographer Timothy Joseph Elzinga was woken up by his 2-year-old at 1:30 a.m. last Friday when he noticed what looked like colorful auroras dancing in the night sky. After shooting a beautiful set of photos of what he saw, he learned that it was actually a phenomenon called "light pillars."