Ever wonder what the difference between an F-stop and a T-stop is? If you've never bothered to look up and understand this bit of light transmission trivia, listen up: this simple video does the work for you.
The above photo is taken at 28mm at f/11 on an ancient Minolta 28-85mm lens, the focus was set to about 2.5 meters and according to the depth of field scales everything should be in focus... but it isn’t.
During a trip through Spain, French photographer Nicolas Rivals set up geometric shapes of light and shot long-exposure photos of them glowing in Spanish landscapes. The project is titled "La Línea Roja," which translates to "The Red Line."
Light—the makers of the 16-module L16 camera that purports to put 52-megapixel DSLR quality in your pocket—get a lot of questions about how exactly their wonder-cam will work. So they made a video that explains it in plain English.
It's so easy to get caught up in the minutia of photography. Sure, megapixels, microcontrast, MTF charts, and the like are all important, but only after you understand how to work with the most important piece of the photographic puzzle: light.
Back in 2014, San Diego-based startup Lume Cube unveiled its eponymous cube LED light that can output 1,500 lumens while small enough to fit in your pocket. Now the company is launching its next product, a followup light called the Life Lite.
As we mentioned this morning, composition is one of the most critical aspects of photography. But another, equally important piece is understanding the basic laws of light and how to use them when capturing a photograph.
Great light is what creates great images.
What makes a photograph is not the camera sensor, or the autofocus system, or the depth of field. Photographs are made with light.
The human eye can't possibly see how light washes over a portrait subject when you fire your strobe—the speed of light is simply too fast. But someone actually managed to capture the whole process on camera... nanosecond by nanosecond.
Daniel Norton, the same photographer who showed you how to capture three distinct looks simultaneously when you're pressed for time on a shoot, is back for another useful quick tip. This time, he's showing you how to capture four distinct portrait looks with a single umbrella.
BMW's headquarters are an iconic landmark in Munich, Germany -- the uniquely designed complex was deemed a protected historic building in 1999. Munich-based photographer Skander Khlif visited the tower and shot a series that studies the light, shadows, lines, and silhouettes.
Lighting company Aputure just released a light that we're pretty sure will make it into many (many many) photographer and videographer gear bags. It's called the Amaran M9, and it's tiny, ultra versatile, and costs only $45!
“But, what about gear?” It’s a question I hear a lot. Broncolor or Profoto? Fender or Gibson? Lamborghini or Ferrari? Which toy/software/high-end piece of gear is the best so that I can do exactly what that photographer is able to do?
When Light unveiled its revolutionary L16 multi-aperture computational camera in October 2015, people were so excited by the device that the company blew past its first month sales goal in the first two days. Today the company announced that it has just raised $30 million in funding to change the way people take pictures.
The softbox is one of the staples of light shaping, but are you using it the same way as everybody else? If you need a bit of an inspirational spark to light your creative fire, this short video featuring lighting expert Andrea Belluso will show you how to, in his words, "think outside the softbox."
Portrait photographer James Allen Stewart wants to show you how to break the old rules of composition... with some new rules. In a recent video, he introduces two of his own rules that have helped him compose more interesting, dynamic images.
In late 2014, I was given a few pieces of piping -- what you might call trash, but which I call the "ring of fire." It ended up being an incredibly useful tool in my photography. I quickly decided to add it to my (now literal) bag of tricks along with Prisming, Lens Chimping, my Broken Freelens, and Anamorphics.
Canon will soon be announcing a new Canon EF-M 28mm STM Macro lens. Photos and specs of the lens leaded today, revealing that it will be the first Canon lens to boast a built-in LED ring light.
We won't waste time hemming and hawing: this is just plain cool. Using a patented technology, Satellite Lab can move a light source around an object at 10,000 feet per second while capturing that same object in super slow motion, creating an effect we'll call "bullet time 2.0".
God of Lighting, Lighting Rock Star, the late great Dean Collins has been called many things, and all of them point to the fact that he knew light better than, perhaps, anybody else you've ever studied under.
It is often stated that, for photography, it is vital to use color management within your workflow, so that you can ensure accurate colors for your work.
Here's something that's both punny and bright. Polaroid has created a new handheld light called the... wait for it... BrightSaber. It's an LED lighting wand that photographers and videographers can use to light up their subjects and scenes.
Almost everything I do as a photographer comes back to this challenge: seeing light as a cinematographer would on set. I was recently reminded of this in conversation with a friend and fellow photographer as I was trying to think of the best advice I could give to someone wanting to step up their lighting game. So I’m sharing one of my lighting journals from film school, it was my sort of “ah ha” moment after several semesters of confusion and frustration when it came to lighting.
Back in 2013, Slovenia-based Lumu Labs raised over $244,000 on Kickstarter to launch the Lumu (currently available for $150), a headphone jack attachment that turns the iPhone into an accurate light meter for photographers. Now the company is back again with the Lumu Power, a next-gen attachment that doesn't just meter light -- it can measure and calculate flash and color temperature as well.
If you want to view the color spectrum of a light source in your studio, there's actually a super cheap and easy way to do so: an ordinary CD or DVD can do the trick. Simply allow the light to reflect from the surface of the disc into your eye -- it acts as a diffraction grating, allowing you to see the different color bands in the light.
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Holy Thomas Hawk, Trey Ratcliff, Karen Hutton, and Scott Jarvie does this new camera blow your mind?DSLRs just got very lame.Learn more at http://light.coWow. $1,299 coming next summer.Here Dave Grannan, CEO and cofounder, gives me a first look.Posted by Robert Scoble on Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Last Thursday, the startup Light unveiled the new L16, an innovative compact camera that uses 16 separate camera modules to offer 35-150mm optical zoom, 52MP photos, and 4K video recording when it hits stores in September 2016 for $1,699.
Blogger Robert Scoble caught up with Light CEO Dave Grannan the day of the announcement and recorded the 8-minute video above in which Grannan shows off his company's new camera and delivers his elevator pitch for why the camera will change the photographic landscape.
The stealthy camera startup Light today announced a revolutionary new point-and-shoot camera that aims to transform the way we think about cameras. Called the L16, it packs 16 separate cameras across its surface that simultaneously expose photos at different focal lengths. The resulting images are combined into high-resolution, 52-megapixel photos.
Dedolight celebrated its 30th anniversary this year by holding an international competition in which competitors create the best tutorials they can for passing on their lighting knowledge.
The video above is the entry by the Freiburg, Germany-based film production company Dugly Habits. It's a creative 15-minute tutorial in which the instructor steps into a room and shows how you can create three drastically different environments in it by changing how its lit.
The first known photograph was captured in 1826 when light reacted with a particular type of asphalt known as Bitumen of Judea. Since that first natural light photo, photographers have introduced artificial flash lighting to photos through all kinds of different ways. In this post, we're taking a look at a brief history of the camera flash -- from its humble beginnings with explosive powder and burning metal up through the latest LED lights -- to see how far it has come.
The sun can be a photographer’s best friend: it is a constant source of light that lasts all day and doesn’t require any power from your end to keep it up and running. However, knowing how exactly to work with a source of lighting that changes over time can be a bit difficult. In the 6-minute video above, director of photography Jon Salmon and his team show us how to use the sun during various times of the day to obtain the ideal lighting during a shoot.
I had kind of a hard time coming up with an appropriate title for this post... I'm still not totally sure if it conveys what I'm trying to show you today. As you may hopefully have guessed by looking at my new image, I'm going to be talking about how I made the shadow that the eagle is casting. The problem was I couldn't really call this post, "How to Create Long Shadows Cast By A Subject That Is Suspended In An Epic Beam Of Light." It's just a bit too wordy... So anyway this is how I did it!
Over the past half year, Latvian photographer Gvido Mūrnieks has been testing out a DIY ring light he made for himself. The light is large enough to shoot with longer focal length, but at the same time it's small and light enough to quickly throw into the trunk of your car on the way to a shoot.
Want a light stick for light painting but don't want to spend a lot buying a commercial product? Light painting photographer Eric Pare recently discovered a cheap and easy solution: tube guards (also known as lamp guards).
There's a stealthy startup in Silicon Valley that's working to revolutionize photography. It's called Light, and one of its goals is putting 52-megapixel cameras in smartphones by next year.
Want a portable and powerful LED light for illuminating your shots? The "Sun-Blaster" is a 1000 watt equivalent LED flashlight that you can build yourself for around $40.
Just months after announcing a 60mm f/2.8 macro lens that has gotten glowing reviews, Chinese gear manufacturer is back with a new product called the KX800. It's a flexible twin light for macro photography that boasts the world's highest guide number.
One of the strange properties of light is that it behaves as both a wave and a particle. Experiments over the years have confirmed both aspects, but none have succeeded in directly observing both natures at exactly the same time... until now.
Scientists in Switzerland have successfully captured the world's first photograph showing light behaving simultaneously as both a particle and as a wave. In the image above, the top "slice" shows light behaving as a wave, while the particles can be seen in the slice below.
The Photographer's Ephemeris is one of the popular sun and moon calculators out there for planning outdoor shoots with natural light. The service has just announced Version 3.0 of its popular iOS app, which is being featured by Apple in the App Store's Photo & Video category.
Romanian photographer Radu Zaciu has been experimenting recently with photographing fruits and vegetables using internal lighting. He places bulbs inside and uses that as the main light source for his series of glowing images. The project is called "The Light Inside."
Want a professional lighting solution that you can carry around in your pocket? Check out Relio, a new pint-sized light that aims to put serious lighting potential in the palm of your hand.