March 2013

If you're set to get married soon and are in the process of planning for the big day, here's a tip that might save you from some sadness further down the road: don't go cheap on the photography if you can help it. It turns out that spending too little on photography is one of the biggest regrets brides have after their wedding, while spending too much rarely causes remorse.

For a wedding issue that will soon be hitting newsstands, New York Magazine created an infographic titled "What They Would Have Done Differently." The magazine asked one hundred recent brides about what they'd do differently if they could go back in time.

If flashlights can be solar and mechanically powered, why can't digital cameras? Turns out they can. Superheadz Japan has launched a new digital camera called the "Sun & Cloud." It's the world's first digital camera that's capable of generating its own power so that you don't need to constantly be worrying about battery drain and recharging.

Newer Leica lenses have a special lens code on the mount flange of each lens that informs the camera of what's mounted on it, and allows lens-related EXIF data to be embedded inside photographs. If you have an older Leica lens or a third-party lens on your hands, you might not have this special code, but did you know that you can apply the code manually to a code-less lens using black and white paint?

La Vida Leica! has published a tutorial showing how simple the process is: it only takes around $15 and 15 minutes to do.

I did a trip to Paris solely to take photographs for myself back in 1992. That sounds selfish, but I didn't have any children to take care of and my wife was enmeshed in a busy career as an art director for a prosperous advertising agency.

I was approached by Agfa that year to be a tester for their line of APX films and I requested a case of their 100 speed film and another of their 400 speed film. They asked me where I wanted to photograph and I said, "Paris." A month later, in late October, I was there with a camera bag full of new Canon EOS lenses and a couple of camera bodies. Oh, and a big shopping bag full of black and white film.

If you had to quickly flee both your home and country, what one possession would you make sure you take with you? It's a question that reveals a lot about your life and values, and, unfortunately, is one that many people around the world actually have to answer.

NYC-based photographer Brian Sokol has been working on a project supported by the UN Refugee Agency titled "The Most Important Thing." It consists of portraits of refugees in which the subjects pose with the one thing they couldn't let go of when running away from home.

If you often find yourself taking screenshots of your friends and family while in Google Hangouts video chats, the company will soon be releasing a new featured designed just for you. It's called the Hangouts Capture app, and it lets you easily snap and save funny moments with others as they happen on your screen.

Canon's special announcement today is the its tiny new Rebel SL1 DSLR, but it has a second new DSLR to show off. The Rebel T5i succeeds the Rebel T4i (AKA 650D AKA Kiss X6i) as the new flagship Rebel, and is geared toward entry-level photographers.

Canon did a pretty good job of keeping its new tiny DSLR a secret... until last week. One week after rumors of the camera first emerged, Canon has officially announced the Rebel SL1, the world's smallest and lightest DSLR.

This time-lapse video shows the building of the largest ship in the world. It's the first Maersk Line Triple-E vessel, which was constructed at the DSME shipyard in Okpo, Korea. The video shows three months of time, and consists of 50,000 photographs taken during that period.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence may be fine with excessive Photoshopping, but advertising regulatory authorities in the United States aren't of the same opinion. We reported back in 2011 that the UK had banned certain advertisements for excessive Photoshop work, and that the US was moving in the same direction.

Photographer Noah Kalina's Everyday project features one photo of his face every day, and has been running since January 11, 2000. Kalina uploaded time-lapse videos created using the photos in 2006 and 2012, and both videos quickly went viral online. Not only did they amass millions of views, but they sparked a new phenomenon as well, as people around the world started snapping daily photos of their own faces and uploading similar videos to the web.

The video above is one that uses the same idea popularized by Kalina, except it's very different from the rest (warning: it's a bit disturbing).

This strange looking vintage camera was created by Guangzhou Art Academy student Hu Shaoming, who spent four months disassembling two cameras from the 1930s and 1940s and rebuilding them with a zipper that reveals the inner mechanical components.

Urban exploration photography has gotten quite a bit of publicity in recent years, with more and more photographers taking their cameras to off-limits and/or abandoned parts of their city in order to see and capture what most people never get a chance to. While it may be a fun pastime of practitioners and one that leads to beautiful images, not everyone is a fan.

The National Counterterrorism Center (NCC) warns that photographs shot by urban explorers could pose a national security risk by aiding terrorists in their surveillance and planning.

In the early 2000s, NYC-based photographer Christopher Dawson noticed that even though major events were going on around the world, major news organizations in the US often remained fixed on stories involving the rich and famous. Due to the fact that stories involving celebrities often result in more eyeballs and advertising dollars, things like Britney Spears' custody hearing or Michael Jackson's molestation trial would attract a disproportionate amount of attention.

Starting 2004, Dawson began to create a series of photos with the camera pointed at the newsmakers rather than the stories. The ongoing project is titled "Coverage."

Apparently GoPro isn't very fond of its cameras being compared to rival action cameras. The action camera pioneer has sent DigitalRev a DMCA takedown notice after the latter published an article last month comparing GoPro Hero 3 with the Sony HDR-AS15.

As I sat trapped in a coach seat on an aged and tattered American Airlines airplane I had time to think about the whole spectrum of art photography. I wanted to have a clearer window into the different ways in which people who aren't using their cameras to make a living in a traditional, commercial application of photography approach their subjects and their understanding of style. How much is generated internally and how much is a reflexive reaction to a world inundated in images?

I spoke with a person in the film industry on Friday. We were talking about HMI lighting and he made a remark concerning still photographers. I give him credence since his background originally included a successful career in photography. His remark, in regards to the real lack of lighting acumen among most shooters was this: "There's no such thing as a good photographer under 40."

Have a cute baby photograph from shortly after you first entered this world? New York City resident Molly Thomas wants to rephotograph it. Thomas has been running a humorous photo blog titled "My Precious Roommate." Each entry features a photo of a baby submitted by readers and a photo by Thomas that recreates the submitted image with the baby replaced by Thomas' roommate -- a fully grown man.

As the recipient of a great education (thanks in no small part to my parents), I’m always fascinated by discussions of how college influence what we do and achieve later in life. As a music major, I could have never fathomed that I would one day become an entrepreneur, and when I think back to college, it had very little to do with the acquisition of technical knowledge, and more about being exposed to a wide range of subjects, people, and social situations.

Canon's new pint-sized DSLR, the EOS-b/EOS100, leaked onto the web over the past week, but there's a second DSLR that's likely going to be announced around the same time -- and that one has now leaked as well. It'll be called the Rebel T5i, which succeeds the Rebel T4i/650D.

Many of us don't get out as much as we should, but that doesn't mean we don't want to, and Google understands that. That's why the company continues to add amazing destinations to its Street View repertoire; because not everybody has the time or money to visit the Grand Canyon, or go see historical sites in the arctic.

Their most recent addition to street view, however, goes further than that. Because, while some people may not be able to afford a trip to Arizona, only a handful could survive a hike up the world's tallest mountains -- and that's where Google is taking us next.

One of the problems photographers face today is explaining to clients why it's worth it to pay a professional to do a job the client often feels they can do themselves. And while people familiar with photography can immediately give a plethora of reasons why an entry-level DSLR in an layman's hands is NOT the same as hiring a professional, clients often don't get it.

That's why Sudbury, Ontario-based photographer James Hodgins started his witty, "Crappy Vs Snappy" showcase. He either invites clients to tag along on shoots with their own camera or snaps his own crappy images in "P" mode, and then places the results side-by-side with his professional-quality shots. The client rarely needs any more convincing after that.

I’ve read too many lists online of “traveling photographer tips” that don’t actually appear to be written by actual photographers. Some things work in the real world, others simply do not. Here’s some collected tips shaped from 7 years of travel experience on the road. I don’t think you’ll find most of these anywhere else.

Argentinian photographer Daniel Mordzinski, know for his work photographing literary giants, is accusing famous French newspaper Le Monde of trashing 27 years of his work without warning. Boxes worth of negatives and slides were allegedly thrown away when the photographer's office at the newspaper was cleaned out without notice earlier this month.

Rooftopping photography enthusiasts enjoy climbing to locations that would make most people's legs turn to jelly, pointing a camera straight down, and snapping a photo that commonly shows feet, a ledge, and a huge drop. While in Dubai for Gulf Photo Plus 2013, famed National Geographic photographer Joe McNally managed to snap the mother of all rooftopping photos, seen above. The Instagram snap was captured from the tip of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest manmade structure in the world.

Winter can be a dull season for macro photographers. Many of the usual subjects are desolate, lifeless or invisible. However, there is one subject that's often in abundance outdoors (depending on where you live): snowflakes. There have been many strategies for photographing these ice crystals over the past century, but the simple stage of an old mitten is ideal.

Photo-sharing apps run the gamut between the hyper-social (ala Instagram: like, comment and share to your heart's content) and the secretive (ala Snapchat: this photo will self-destruct in 3 ... 2 ... ). Ustwo's new app Rando falls somewhere in that latter category, because while you can share photos with Rando, you have no idea who you're sharing them with, or who is sharing them with you -- and forget about likes, comments and favorites.

Photographer Nick Fancher tells us that he recently came up with an interesting way of customizing the catch light in subjects' eyes. If, in your portraiture, you place white or black foam boards to control the amount and direction of bounce light, you can also use white and black gaffers tape to control what goes on in your subjects' eyeballs!

Over the course of his career, Antonin Kratochvil has made a name for himself as one of the great photojournalists of our time. He's photographed everything from Mongolian Street Children to war zones, to Bono, and through it all has managed to maintain an intimacy in his style and simplicity in his approach that is both inspirational and refreshing.

Canon's soon-to-be-announced pint-sized DSLR is now nearly completely leaked. Just days after detailed specs were leaked by Best Buy, two photographs of the camera itself have emerged on the web.

Messe Kopp sent us this awesome and mind-bending video he shot on the streets of Downtown Jerusalem. It it's a backward-is-forward video that shows a man getting up from bed and taking a stroll down a city street, interacting with various people and objects along the way. The entire 2.5-minute video was shot in a single take.

Amazon recently added a helpful tool geared specifically towards photographers looking to supplement their camera bag with some fresh glass. This Lens Finder Tool lets photographers input their camera and then spits out a list of all the compatible lenses Amazon caries for that particular model.

French photographer Philippe Echaroux is known, among other things, as a great portrait photographer. You might remember his work taking studio quality "celebrity" portraits of random strangers on the street.

For his most recent portraiture project, however, he eschewed even the limited studio gear he brought out on the street with him, and issued himself a challenge: take a high-quality, professional portrait, using nothing more than an iPhone and a €10 lighting budget.

Some people have been asking for tips on how to do star trails. There seems to be a few misconceptions and a few different methods. Here's a tutorial on my personal technique.

The latest panorama sent down by NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover is unique in more ways than one. Not only is it a panorama taken on another planet (still blows our minds), it's also been subjected to some post production. The photo -- a piece of which is seen above -- has actually had its white balance modified by NASA to make it look more like it was taken on Earth.

Here's a lighthearted dose of humor to get you through the workday: Thumbs & Ammo is a humorous new photo blog with a tagline that says, "Real tough guys don't need guns, they just need a positive, can-do attitude." Each image in the ongoing blog is a movie still or poster from a famous flick, with the action heroes' guns replaced with thumbs-ups.

Photographer Florian Knorn recently took a Fastcam SA4 high speed camera -- ordinarily used for observing things like ballistics and fluid dynamics -- and pointed it at a Sony HVL-F58AM flash unit, capturing what a camera flash firing looks like when captured at 500,000 frames per second and then slowed down to to 25fps.

According to a recent tip received by Phone Arena, Nikon may be getting more serious about the smartphone game. The tip references Google's upcoming Nexus 5 which, according to the site's source, will feature a Nikon branded "triple camera sensor" as its key selling point.

Just days after news broke that Facebook is looking to incorporate the hashtag into its services, Flickr has already made the change on its end, adding the capability to its recently redone iOS app. The pound sign-driven communication aid comes to the Flickr app as part of the most recent update, and joins retro filters and @-based usernames in helping the service keep up with the times.

Hawaii-based photographer Sean King captures beautiful photographs of lava flows in Hawaii, venturing into locations where lava reaches temperatures of 2000°F.

A Nikon Repair Center based in Taiwan reports that it recently repaired a damaged Nikkor lens by boiling it. The lens, an $1,800 Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8, had been accidentally dropped into the ocean and damaged by salt water.

If you've been wishing you could splurge on a 27-inch Apple monitor but just can't see yourself spending that kind of money, Monoprice has a cheaper solution for you. The company's 27-inch offering uses the same LG IPS LED panel as Apple's, but a Monoprice monitor will only run you $391 as opposed to the $1,000 you'll spend at Apple.

This photograph shows the One World Trade Center poking up above clouds above New York City. Photographer Matthew Ziegler shot the photo last Monday from the seat of an airplane, sold it to the Associated Press, and then saw it appear in photo slideshows on news websites across the Web.

Rumors that Canon has a smaller DSLR on the way gained a big boost this morning when Best Buy leaked the camera's product page, complete with a detailed spec list. The camera -- currently making the rumor rounds under the name "EOS 100D" but labeled EOS-b on the leaked page -- is rumored to make official landfall on either March 21st or 22nd alongside another new EOS.

By using Photoshop on photos taken by NASA at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, London-based illustrator Chris Keegan is able to create beautiful images of people and creatures out of deep space nebulae.

The process begins a lot like those summer days as a kid lying in the grass and picking shapes out of the clouds -- just replace clouds with celestial imagery. Once Keegan has picked out a shape, he takes the image into Photoshop and strengthens that shape until it will be recognizable to everyone.

The rise of a plethora of fashion blogs has led, almost inevitably, to the rise of a style of fashion photography known as "street style." The all-access blogging medium gave photography enthusiasts who admired what legends like Bill Cunningham do a way to break into the industry and share both their opinions and pictures.

Over the past several years, however, the practice has exploded -- much to the chagrin of big fashion editors and journalists who now have to deal with massive crowds of photogs outside of major fashion shows. GARAGE Magazine's Take My Picture is a short documentary that explores this explosion, and tries to offer both sides of the story.

Combining the capabilities of a high-speed camera with the basic idea that "there are enough [magical moments] happening every moment of any given day," New York artist James Nares is currently captivating audiences at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with his mesmerizing video "Street."

Photographer Matthew Brandt takes a unique approach to photography, where the subject of the photographs take second place to the methods he uses to print them. His photography -- ranging in subject from lakes to buildings to bees -- have been printed using everything from dust, to Kool-Aid, to human tears.

While messing around with the features of his Nikon V1, EOSHD forum user Javier Sobremazas discovered something pretty awesome about the $220 camera: it can shoot 4k RAW ... sort of. The sort of plays in for two reasons. Firstly, it can only shoot 4K for one second at a time; and secondly, it's actually an extension of the camera's burst mode.

Here's another creative way to put those thousands of archived Instagram shots to some practical use, courtesy of the folks over at Photojojo. A fun DIY project, this step-by-step will show you how to turn the window of your choice into a stained glass-inspired photography display.

Even before the digital age, National Geographic's photographers, on average, took about 1,933 photos for every one photo published. And it's this dedication to showing the world only the very best of what they manage to capture that makes these photographers some of the best in the world.

In this B&H Event Space seminar, seasoned photographer Marcus Donner explains the necessity of quantity, and shares some lessons on how to go from taking pictures, to telling stories.