2013

Rumor: Nikon to Announce a 35mm f/1.8G Full-Frame Lens at CES

Nikon already makes a 35mm f/1.8G DX lens but the equivalent isn't available for its full-frame cameras, at least not yet. At this point, if you want a 35mm FX lens for your Nikon, you're stuck spending $1,600+ on the f/1.4, but that might all change in a couple of weeks at CES.

Sony a7R: A Rising Tide Lifts All the Boats?

I have to admit I didn’t get too worked up when the Sony A7 and A7R were released. The last time I wrote about Sony it was how there were so few lenses for the NEX system years after introduction. So now we’re going to a system requiring a whole new lens mount. Sure the camera’s specs were interesting. But the idea of yet another camera body good mostly for shooting lenses on adapters wasn’t very exciting. So I planned to ignore it.

Creative Photo Series Quite Literally Turns Fashion Photography on Its Head

A fashion photographer's job is, at its most basic level, to draw attention to the clothes he or she has been asked to photograph. But how does one make their fashion shots stand out when there are so many more out there, often bookending your own shoot inside the very magazine you're featured in?

Montreal-based photographer Martin Tremblay (also known as Pinch) figured out a way to turn fashion photography on its head... he literally turned it on its head!

These Two Brothers Have Had Their Photo Taken with Santa for 30 Years Running

Christmas is exactly ten days away, which means parents have a little over one week left to frantically drag their screaming children to the local mall or holiday venue to sit on Santa's lap for that traditional picture. But where most parents would do this for a few years until their kids inevitably grow out of it, a pair of brothers decided they would keep the tradition going... for 34 years.

The Entrancing and Surreal Self-Portraiture of Kyle Thompson

There are selfies, and then there are self-portraits. Make no mistake, these are two very different things, in the same way that a photograph differentiates itself from a snapshot. So while the word 'selfie' might be in the midst of experiencing its 15 minutes of fame, it would be an injustice to call photographer Kyle Thompson's gripping self-portraits 'selfies.'

What Can a Building Teach a Photographer, Six Months Spent Photographing the PDC

In a world dominated by too many photos and too little photography, one of the pieces of advice we stumble across fairly often from masters of this craft is to simply "slow down." Andy Romanoff is one such master, and his project "Seeing the PDC" -- for which he spent 6 months photographing the Pacific Design Center in LA -- is a testament to slowing down and really seeing what it is you're trying to capture.

Three Things You Ought to Know Before Deciding to Become a Nature Photographer

It’s been over two years since I cut the academic anchor and sailed away as an independent nature photographer. How am I faring? My little business is chugging along fine, thanks! I’m busy. I have an infant daughter, and I love that my new life allows the flexibility to work from home. Yet I still interact regularly with the university. I’ve just published a couple of research papers. Things are good.

I know from various conversations that some of you aspire to be photographers. This post is for those of you curious about what a transition to professional photography might hold.

Photo Projects That Made For A Better 2013

It’s that time of the year when we all take a moment to reflect back on the major events that will forever be remembered, the trends that changed our zeitgeist, and the pop culture phenomena that will soon be forgotten.

For the photo industry, this was the year that the word “selfie” was coined Webster’s Dictionary’s word of the year. In such a context and with so much of the conversation focused on the mobile photo taking frenzy, it almost started to get a little too easy to overlook the stories out there that, if not for the photograph, would not have been told nor raised in our collective social consciousness.

Most Instagrammed Locations and Cities of 2013 Revealed, as Well as Most-Liked Photo

Every time we decide to post something about Instagram, we go through a bit of an internal dilemma. On the one hand, it's the most popular photo sharing app in the world, and many photographers have used it to great effect -- for those reasons alone we can't exactly ignore it. On the other hand, a solid percentage, perhaps even a majority, of you guys hate the app with a passion that defies our collective vocabulary to describe.

Go Behind the Scenes with Talented Time-Lapse Photographer Michel Shinblum

Michael Shainblum is a name that has come up a few times on PetaPixel, and it's always associated with a spectacular time-lapse that earns many a "beautifully done" and even the occasional "hot damn." And now, thanks to The Creators Project, we get to go behind the scenes with Shainblum as he creates one of his masterpieces.

To Hell with Blown Highlights

Here is a good example why it is so important to work the scene to get the best results from …

Anna Hill’s Photoshop Project Pokes Fun at Overly Manipulated Beauty Advertisements

Photoshop takes a lot of flack in this day and age, especially when it comes to the beauty and fashion industries that consistently publish overly manipulated imagery. Often that 'flack' doesn't give us much to laugh at, but a recent project by East Carolina University student Anna Hill does.

She put together four mock Photoshop ads that poke fun at just how far the beauty industry often takes photo manipulation.

eBay Alert: Care to Pick Up a 24 Karat Gold-Plated Nikon FA? It’ll Only Cost You $4,800

Update: Looks like the discount is gone folks! This puppy is back up to $12,000.

Those looking to drop several grand on a 35mm film camera for your favorite purist this Holiday season need look no more. Introducing the Nikon FA Gold limited edition camera: a 24k gold-plated camera with lizard skin accents that is currently going on eBay for the relatively low price of $4,800.

To clarify, when we say "relatively low," we mean relative to what you would have spent on the same camera yesterday when it was listed for a whopping $12,000.

Interview with Award-Winning Landscape Photographer Lauren Henkin

Born in Washington, D.C., visual artist Lauren Henkin graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in architecture from Washington University in St. Louis and now resides in New York City. He primary subject is the American landscape. Her most recent project, The Park, focuses on Central Park, the massive constructed urban space and how people engage it.

Instagram Unveils ‘Instagram Direct,’ Lets You Send Pics and Video to Specific People

Today was the day of the mystery Instagram event that had many a tech site speculating about what the Facebook-owned image sharing giant would announce. A couple of sources were close, but there's no longer any need to speculate because Instagram has let the cat out of the bag, and that cat's name is Instagram Direct.

Already live as I write this, Instagram Direct is a new service that will allow users to send direct messages complete with text and either photos or videos to a select group of people, rather than sharing them with your entire follower base.

Aurora Borealis Time-Lapse Photographed Through an Airplane Window

Who says you need to travel to exotic locations to capture the aurora borealis in action? Sometimes, all you need is a window seat on a trans-Atlantic flight from London to NYC -- at least that's what happened for one lucky amateur photographer recently when he was treated to one heck of an 'in-flight movie' right outside his airplane window.

Twitter Takes Aim at Snapchat’s Market by Letting You Send Pics via Direct Message

The tech world is full of 'wars,' all of them over the attention of that flighty creature known as 'the consumer.' And one of the wars being raged most furiously is between the major social networks: the established behemoths Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; that stubborn network loved by photogs, Google+; and the new kid on the block that has everybody's undergarments in a bunch: Snapchat.

Well, Facebook has had its go at stealing some of Snapchat's market (both literally and through acquisition) and has been ultimately unsuccessful on all counts. Now it's Twitter's turn.

Incredible Steel Wool Light Paintings Done to Look Like Rorschach Ink Blots

Light-painting, like time-lapse, is a genre of photography that is packed full of talent, making it really hard to pick quality work to feature (if you haven't already, check out this list of 10 amazing light-painting photogs you should follow right away).

We were thrilled, therefore, when we stumbled across Nicolas Rivals' series of steel wool light painting Rorschach tests dubbed, simply enough, Light Rorchach.

Adobe CC Splash logo

Survey Reveals that Adobe’s Photography Program is Bringing in Tons of Users

If you've followed PetaPixel even just the last month, you might have noticed that Adobe extended its Photoshop Photography Program (also referred to as the Photography Bundle) to people regardless of whether or not they own a previous version of Photoshop not once, not twice, but three times.

That is: this special promotion that allowed everyone to sign up was supposed to end on the 2nd... then on the 8th... and now is extended all the way to the end of the year. And while our you guys have come up with all manner of reasons in the comments as to why Adobe might be doing this, a new survey reveals the real reason: it's working really well.

Startup Turns Animated GIFs Into ‘Moving’ Lenticular Prints

Lenticular printing has been around for ages as a commercial gimmick, producing untold hordes of postcards, luggage tags and other novelties with images that seem to move when you jostle the shiny surface. (Also, the particularly hideous faux-3D cover for my 1978 high school yearbook.)

Taking Photographs Weakens Memories, Psychological Study Finds

Here's something that both photographers and the typical millennial have to look forward to in old age: Your memory is going to suck because of all the photos you took when you should have been paying attention to what was happening around you.

That's the upshot of a new psychological study that finds you can have a good photographic record of an event or a good memory, but not both.

Pushkar Mela: A Fair for Camels or Photographers?

Take a deep breath. Picture it in your mind. The world’s largest gathering of camels. Taking place at a tiny Rajasthani town filled with temples, narrow streets and a picturesque lake. Men in brightly coloured turbans as far as the eye can see. Enough dust and sand to make your nostril hairs work overtime. And hundreds of photographers in every nook and cranny, taking thousands of photographs of this annual event.

My experience at the Pushkar Mela earlier this month was definitely unexpected. In all honesty, I guess I should have known better. I went there with the expectation to capture a town lost in time, an event that would bring back memories of the old days gone by and boy, how wrong I was. The Mela turned out to be a hunting ground for photographers from all over the world.

The Nikon Df Takes DxOMark’s Low-Light Crown, Outperforms the D4

It seems the Nikon engineers had some tricks up their sleeves when they put the D4 sensor inside the new Nikon Df, because while the sensor earned identical scores to the D4 in almost every category when DxOMark put it through its paces, the Df actually BEAT the D4 in the "low-light ISO" category.

But more than that, it beat EVERYBODY in that category, narrowly edging out the previous champion D3s to claim the number one low-light spot among DxOMark's rankings.