February 2014

Don't you just hate it when you spend several thousand dollars on a dressed up Sony RX100 (Mark I) or NEX-7 with a Hasselblad logo on it, only to find yourself carrying it around in the same cheap camera bag as that guy down the street who bought the Sony version?

Well fear not, dear citizen of the luxury world, because Louis Vuitton is here to help! Introducing: the $3,500 Louis V camera bag for small and medium-sized cameras.

New York-based photographer Alex John Beck began his series Both Sides Of in order to explore two beliefs. First, that perfectly symmetrical faces are the most beautiful. And second, that one face is representative of one character.

The final photographs, displayed as pairs of symmetrical portraits that show what the subject would look like if you simply mirrored their left or right sides, seem to indicate that neither of these beliefs holds true.

We first introduced you to scientist and photographer Zachary Copfer's 'bacteriographs' back in 2012. A technique that he invented and, as far as we know, only he uses, Bacteriography uses the subject's own bacteria to 'grow' a portrait of them on a petri dish.

Earlier this month, Copfer brought his signature technique to the UK for the first time ever in order to photograph several British celebrities at the UK's Big Bang Fair.

If you're just getting into studio photography, trying to figure out how to light, shoot and set up your shots can be both frustrating and expensive. After all, if you're trying to take high-quality studio shots, you need high end strobes and all sorts of other gear, right?

Maybe not. Of course high end equipment helps, but in the video above, photographer Alex Koloskov of Photigy shows you how you can light studio still life shots using a few $30 dimmable LED bulbs instead of strobes.

When we say 'night vision' camera, what sort of image does that bring to mind? Probably something green, or maybe grey if you're into IR, but definitely not 720p footage shot in full color. Well, that may change soon if the newly announced Falcon Eye KC-2000 night vision camera delivers on its promises.

World Press Photo 2014 jury chair Gary Knight has said that many of this year's entries into the contest were "missing something" -- and there's quite a bit of controversy surrounding the contest -- but he doesn't want that to take away from your opinion of the winning photographs.

To that end, World Press Photo has released the video above in which Knight talks about several of the winning entries and why the jury picked them to take home first (and in one case second) prize.

DxOMark has already had a chance to put the exciting new Tamron 150-600mm super telephoto lens through its paces, and the results might surprise you. At a fraction of the cost, it actually OUTPERFORMS pricier (and not as far-reaching) Canon glass when mounted on full-frame systems.

If we had to name the most exciting camera of 2014 thus far, Fuji's X-T1 would probably get the nod (although the Sony a6000 is no slouch). Some call it the Nikon Df done right, others are saying it's the camera that will finally take the X-Series mainstream, but general opinion about this camera seems to be very good.

There's only one problem... many of those opinions come from people who haven't had a chance to use it yet. And since a spec sheet and press release can only say so much, The Camera Store and photographer Nick Devlin decided to go hands-on and take you in the field with this exciting new shooter.

Here's something that'll help you start off the week with a grin (or a grimace, if you harbor an aversion to beards). Will it Beard is a fun photo experiment of sorts created by art director Pierce Thiot and his photographer wife Stacy Thiot.

They wanted to determine what household items 'will beard' -- meaning what random objects they could successfully pack into Mr. Thiot's beard -- and got a fun, viral photo series for their troubles.

Michael Shainblum captured this perfectly timed (call it luck if you want, but luck favors the prepared, so we're going with perfectly timed) shot of lightning striking the Burj Khalifa during a storm on Wednesday of last week.

We realize it's February 16th, but it's hard for us to pass up an opportunity to watch Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York at work. And so, two days removed from Valentine's Day, we give you the love stories of HONY as told by ABC News this last Friday when they featured Stanton as their person of the week.

A US law firm is in the process of collecting information from upset Nikon D600 owners to possibly file a class action lawsuit against the Japanese camera giant over the D600's widely-reported sensor dust/oil issues.

After last year's controversy over the winner of the World Press Photo of the Year, all eyes were on the organization as they announced the winner of this year's contest.

But while general consensus from the photo community seems to be that John Stanmeyer deserved this year's award, talk of conflicts of interest and the high percentage of disqualifications due to photo manipulation are plaguing the contest.

The image above isn't a crappy out of focus digital camera image or post-production experiment. In fact, it was taken using a custom-built camera made almost entirely of drinking straws and X-ray film... that's it.

We weren't able to send anyone all the way to CP+ this year, and some of the products and details emerging from the trade show have us a little sad about that.

We already shared the news that Fuji will soon be debuting a 50mm tele conversion lens for the X100/s, and now we've got some specs and price information for the upcoming Pentax 645D CMOS Medium Format camera.

It's common knowledge that Photoshop is used, in varying degrees, to help models and celebrities look their best in magazines. But is 'their best' really all that great? Does removing imperfections, smoothing skin and trimming waistlines really something desirable?

BuzzFeed wanted to find out, and so they offered four women professional photoshoots and Photoshop makeovers to see how they reacted to their before and after images.

Have intellectual property theft, cratering wages and general unfairness left you feeling a little down on the photography business?

Then here's a little restorative tonic: A well-known, in-demand shooter refuses a celebrity cover shoot for Vogue just because he doesn't like the particular celebrity. Who happens to be Kim Kardashian, fiancée of photographer-basher Kanye West and a major cultural annoyance in her own right. Come back to Mama and Daddy, faith in humanity!

Privacy is a big concern these days, what with the NSA looking over both your shoulders, reading your emails and chiming in on your cell phone conversations. And while you might not be able to "fight the man" as it were, you can protect your privacy a bit by learning how to remove sensitive location information from the photos you post online.

It's a good day to share a nerdy photographer love story, and Greg Wlosinski and Lindsay King's story certainly fits the mold. And what's more, Greg was able to document the couple's recent proposal in a creative stop motion video inspired by a few posts he read right here on PetaPixel.

Update: The Color Run has responded to our request for comment. Read their side of the story at the bottom.

Update #2: It seems The Color Run and Maxwell Jackson have reached an agreement. You can read the full update at the bottom.

A young Florida college student photographer is receiving an outpouring of support from the photo community over what may turn out to be one of the more ridiculous copyright lawsuits we've ever run across -- a suit in which the Color Run (you know, "The Best, the Biggest...The Happiest 5K on the Planet") is allegedly suing HIM over a photo of his that they used.

Does every image need to be post-processed to a fare-thee-well? Photo-sharing site 500px thinks not, as evidenced by a recent update of its iOS app that finally allows for uploading via mobile device.

If you type Wedding Photography into Google's Image Search, you'll be greeted by a flood of Pin-able fairytale wedding photographs for the traditional bride who wants the traditional white wedding where everything is perfect and there are no sitcom clap tracks.

But what if you're not the typical couple who wants the typical wedding? What if the best term to describe you is "badass" or simply "different"? Well, that's when you call Allebach Photography, a studio specializing in wedding photography the likes of which you won't see in ye olde bridal magazine... although you will see it in many a tattoo publication.

You may be stuck in a photographic rut and not even know it. To the rescue comes Lightroom Analytics, a free plugin for Adobe's Lightroom management/editing package that analyses the metadata in your library to spot trends.

Let me start this off by saying that one of my biggest pet peeves is inconveniencing people, or being inconsiderate to those around me. I've always hated the idea of being a burden on others, and thus, I often go above and beyond to avoid being a nuisance to anyone around me.

As a result though, I also hate it when other people are inconsiderate around me, or to me directly. In my opinion it shows a serious level of self absorption that is often quite literally outright offensive.

All that said, as a photographer, it can be hard not to be invasive of people around you and thus this little pet peeve of mine can often be at odds with the job at hand.

Third-party lenses are on the rise, there's no denying that. Between Sigma kicking large amounts of booty with its impressive lineup and Tamron looking serious with the new 150-600mm lens it recently announced, competition for space in your camera bag is getting fierce.

And apparently it's about to get even fiercer, because rumor has it Samyang intends to step its game up as well.

Last year's World Press Photo of the Year award went to a controversial image of a funeral procession in Gaza, City. This year's winning photo doesn't strike the same tragic nerve as last year's, and yet it makes such a powerful statement about technology and our global community that we immediately understood why it took home the top prize.

There's no use ignoring it, it's Valentine's day, and that means some cool photography related Valentine's stuff will invariably make it onto PetaPixel. No worries though, it's not all going to be sappy and romantic. Some of what we'll share, like this awesome 15-second stop-motion video, is downright hardcore.

Editor's Note: This goes without saying, but we neither condone nor encourage you trying this at home. Be Safe!

I'm a firm believer in a healthy respect for gravity, but Russian rooftopping daredevils Vitaliy Raskalov and Vadim Makhorov don't have that problem, and to be honest, they get some spectacular photos because of it. Case in point, check out the video above in which they take you on a POV journey up the second tallest building in the world, where they shot some incredible images.

Among the many forces holding women back in our world -- poverty, reductive religious attitudes, lousy child care, etc. -- you may now add another tool of oppression: stock photography.

Guys, you may want to be extra careful about where you read your copy of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue this year. It will contain a double-helping of grist for feminist outrage this time around, as Barbie, that icon of feminine pulchritude and academic rigor ("Math class is tough. Let's go shopping!") struts her stuff alongside the human models.