Micro-drones are typically thought of as more of a toy rather than a tool. If you want to capture real recreational aerial footage, you buy a bigger, heftier drone, right? Well, not necessarily. ZANO wants to change all that by packing both power and ease of use into a tiny package that measures just 2.5 x 2.5-inches and weighs just over 1.2lbs.
High speed photography is all about fast-flash; the faster your flash, the faster the instant you can adequately freeze on a digital sensor. Modern strobes are pretty good at this, with flash durations as fast as 1/20,000 of a second, but a Bristol-based company Vela Labs is about to take high-speed photography to unheard-of heights.
Introducing the Vela One, ‘the world’s first high speed LED flash' that boasts a flash speed starting at 1/2,000,000 second, or 500 nanoseconds.
One of the biggest weaknesses of mobile cameras is shooting in low-light. The sensor can't usually handle it very well, and the built-in light sources are usually... well... crap. Here to help with that is Lume Cube, a product currently being funded on Kickstarter that hopes to quite literally light up your smartphone and GoPro imagery.
Photographer Miguel Quiles recently created this quick, informative behind-the-scenes look at how he shot an impressive set of fitness photos using just three lights in a fairly small studio setup.
When it comes to carrying light stands, it’s usually best to use a dedicated case so they don’t get damaged and carrying them is less of a hassle. But there are times when a case isn’t a viable option. This usually leaves you struggling to carry them all at once or making multiple trips to the car just to get your light stands.
Thankfully, Dave Bode from Tuts Plus has come up with a cheap and clever gear-hack that makes carrying several mismatched light stands a lot less awkward.
Two months ago we featured the work of Fan Ho, a Chinese photographer who spent much of his life documenting the streets of Hong Kong. His photographs were, to put it lightly, a hit with everybody who saw them. Strong composition and an incredible understanding of light (if you'll allow the pun) shone through in every frame.
Today, we get to go a little bit deeper thanks to the show The Art of Photography, who recently took a closer look at Fan Ho’s work, taking the time to point out what it is that sets his images apart from the many others out there.
Have you ever wondered what a multi-decade time-lapse of your living room would look like? Well, we don’t exactly have one to share with you, but what we do have is this clever advertisement from Dutch company Philips that tries to imagine what that might be like.
Connecticut-based artist Alexander Harding went a little bit meta with his intriguing photo series Visible Light. All photographers capture light, but he used light as the subject, trying to bring the essence of light to life in an almost tangible form.
Reflectors are one of the most affordable pieces of gear a photographer can have in their bag. They’re not only small in size (and usually foldable), they're also versatile and provide benefits when using both natural and artificial light.
If you’ve been looking to get your hands on an LED ring light but don’t have the cash to burn, this weekend project is just for you. It’s called the Octo-Light, and it’s a DIY LED ring light create by Instructables user comsa42.
When it comes to the quantity of lights that one needs, opinions are often heavily polarized and a hotly contested debate often rages. There are those that are staunch supporters of one light while others claim that a handful of lights are needed before anything meaningful can be done. Ultimately neither group is right as there is no definable minimum or maximum number of lights that one should use.
Since its launch in October of 2010, Instagram has inspired many a product meant to help you print, use and interact with the photos you take on the service. And one of the newer, cooler Instagram-related products we recently ran across is Cubee: an illuminating Instagram photo cube.
Sometimes we’re left working with inconsistent or otherwise less-than-ideal light sources. And while we can’t always make bad light good, we can certainly control some of the light quality if we get creative. Showing just how to do that is this clever little DIY Diffusion tip by the guys over at Film Riot.
Whether you're using one to shoot video or stills, LED light panels are a wonderful tool to have in your arsenal. But while they are available from a variety of companies, in a number of sizes and shapes, almost all quality LED light panels come with one, discouraging attachment: the price tag.
Thankfully, the above tutorial from DIY Perks breaks down how you can build your own $500 LED light panel for just under $70.
Award-winning photographer Takehito Miyatake is known for his beautiful long-exposure photographs of volcanos erupting, beaches adorned with bioluminescent creatures and fireflies that light up the night sky.
And today, we have for you some of his most beautiful work, all shot on his digital 4x5 camera.
We’ve seen low-light photography before, but what about no light photography. While it seems borderline impossible, researchers have combined a number of techniques to produce photographs in almost complete darkness, where the resulting images are using less than one photon of light per pixel!
Twenty-seven year old Alessio Albi captures incredible, emotionally charged portraits using nothing more than natural light and the environment around his home city of Perugia, Italy.
A nutritionist by profession, photographer by passion, Albi’s work often features female subjects, whose contemplative glares, combined with natural, but cinematic light create beautiful, but at times unsettling portraits.
A few weeks ago we shared with you the first part of a series Karl Taylor created, explaining the inverse square law of light. That is, the intensity of light given off from a source is inversely proportional to the square distance from the source. In the video he shares a number of examples, using a model and his own setup as a demonstration. Now, he’s back with part two.
The possibilities for photography are endless. That's the thought that crossed our minds earlier today when we stumbled across Vantablack, the new 'darkest material on the planet.'
Created by UK-based Surrey NanoSystems, this nanotube material is designed to reflect back as little radiation as possible... and it's darn good at its job. According to Surrey, the material absorbs 99.96% of all the light that touches it.
If the term "inverse square law of light" immediately sets you to hyperventilating as flashbacks of college physics begin playing in your mind's eye, take a few breaths into that paper bag, calm down, and click play on the video above.
In 6 minutes, Karl Taylor will explain this law and how it affects you specifically as a photographer without overwhelming you in the process.
Brian Matthew Hart has spent the better part of 9 years playing around with unique light drawing techniques. His latest project, Uncertainty, brings together the knowledge and inspiration he’s accumulated over those 9 years and packs them into one of the most abstracted and unique approaches to light painting we’ve ever come across.
When it comes to technological innovations, the acronym MIT comes up often. Known for their incredible collection of human capital in the form of intellect, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s capable in every facet of life.
And in the case of a project called “Tesseract,” the boundaries being pushed are those surrounding the field of smartphone camera technology.
An ongoing debate among photographers from all backgrounds is that of natural vs artificial light. Both options have their pitfalls and qualities worth praising, but even so, it seems like some photographers are hesitant to put a subject in front of a strobe if natural light is available.
But as shown in this video put together by Felix Kunze and Sue Bryce for CreativeLive, when used correctly, strobes can almost perfectly replicate the look of natural light. Kunze and Bryce compare identical model setups side-by-side using both natural and strobe lighting as an exercise in showing off the differences and similarities between the two.
When it comes to simple photography hacks, few are as useful and clever in the field as this one, presented by 34-year wedding photography veteran Frank Donnino.
Today the good folks at f-stop Gear have launched their new Loka UL backpack. This further extends their Mountain Series lineup of backpacks and is one more example of how f-stop Gear won't sleep on progress.
Take a look at the photo above. It was taken recently by the Mars Curiosity Rover and contains a 'light' in the top left that has caused such a fuss NASA actually had to come out and clarify that it wasn't, in fact, anything of consequence.
What happens when someone creates a camera sensor that better replicates how our eyes are shaped? Well, according to Sony and a recent presentation they published, this curved sensor and accompanying glass will allow for faster apertures without taking a hit on image quality.
You know those perfectly overcast days, where the clouds just perfectly diffract the sunlight, turning the world into a beautiful, evenly-lit soft box? Imagine if you could have that indoors when trying to shoot a subject.
Inspired by that which we cannot see -- such as the shapes of sound, the feelings we experience, the relationships of the various patterns in this world, and the energy constantly emitted by matter -- photographer Patrick Rochon has created a beautiful series of light-painting photographs called Radiant Light.
Samsung is reaching out to the smartphone generation today with the release of its thinnest and lightest interchangeable lens compact yet. Actually, to be more accurate, they're reaching out to the smartphone generation with the thinnest and lightest ILC EVER: the NX Mini.
What happens when the concept of graffiti as we know it is flipped on its head? Well, I believe you end up with something like 'Painting with Lights,' a project by French photographer Philippe Echaroux -- something he calls 'Street Art 2.0.'
A few weeks ago, we shared a video by photographer Karl Taylor that gave you a behind the scenes look at what a day-long fashion shoot in his studio was like. And even though a few of our readers poked fun at the video's obvious product placement, a lot of people learned a thing or two and came back with followup questions regarding the light modifiers that Taylor was using throughout the day.
Fortunately for us, Taylor was listening, and has produced this very informative follow-up video in which he discusses the differences between his go-to modifiers, complete with side-by-side comparisons.
If you paid attention in high-school physics, you know that white light contains within it the rainbow of colors of the visible light spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet (and if you're Isaac Newton you throw Indigo in there for good measure).
There seems to be a growing desire among the networks to give sports fans the absolute best angle of the action when they're watching a game on TV, but what angle is that?
Sunday Night Football is tackling the problem by giving fans every angle with the newly installed FreeD system, but researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute are taking a different approach. With their new OmniCam360, they intend to give you both 360° views as well as the ability to choose whatever angle you like best.
In an attempt to explore "duplicity in two-dimensional surfaces," illustrator, designer and typographer Alex Trochut invented and patented a way to print two images on the same surface. His photography exhibit Binary Prints, puts the newly invented method to work, revealing a different portrait when viewed in the light or dark.
Want to see some beautiful street photographs that make use of light and shadows? Look no further than the project "Man on Earth" by London-based photographer Rupert Vandervell. Each image in the series shows a single person's figure framed by the shadows and features of a big city.
Want to see how much reflected light your polarizing filter eliminates from any scene? You can easily visualize this light using an image editing program like Photoshop.
Voted "The Most Brilliant Artist of the Netherlands" in 2009, Dutch artist Diet Wiegman is a master of his craft. But of all the amazing creations he has to his name, his work with light and shadow is most breathtaking. Using garbage, pieces of glass and other rubble, he creates a sculpture that, with the help of a light source, projects a beautiful image onto a wall.
Duesseldorf, Germany-based photographer Jakob Wagner wants to show you how diverse photographs of the Atlantic Ocean can be. The images in his series "Madeiran Weather" are all of the same patch of coastal area, yet they are drastically different from one another due to the weather.
Red Bull Illume and Snap! Orlando recently came up with an awesome way to put a twist on the concept of light painting. They recruited light-painting photographer Patrick Rochon to photograph a team of wakeboarders who rode around with colorful lights strapped to their wakeboards!