June 2014

Remember the advent of multi-blade shaving razors? Single blades gave way to two blades and then three, four and five. There are even a six+ blade razors out there in case you want a REALLY close shave. Well, a fresh Canon sensor patent has us wondering if the same thing isn't happening to digital sensors.

Canon has patented a Foveon-like sensor before -- a type of sensor, initially implemented by Sigma, that uses individual layers for detecting red, green and blue -- but the company's newest multi-layer sensor patent shows not three, but five layers.

Inspired by the beautiful ink-in-water photography of Alberto Seveso -- who, by the way, we've featured many times on PetaPixel, so definitely check that out -- South African artist and photographer Chris Slabber recently put a spin on ink photography the likes of which we've not seen before.

Using his skills as a digital artist, he combined the genres of ink photography and double exposure portraits to create something that, in the interest of avoiding photography word inflation, is both good and beautiful (but not 'stunning' or 'brain paralyzing').

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if journalist Esther Honig has proven anything with her fascinating Photoshop project Before & After, it's that whoever 'they' are (it turns out, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford) is right.

When photographer Jana Cruder was commissioned to photograph the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, she jumped at the opportunity to do something different -- something she felt would better express "the emotion and art of movement" that she witnessed when she saw them perform.

That something turned out to be copious amounts of colored corn starch.

If something seems too good to be true, that's probably because it is. A great example of this was sent to us by a reader earlier this week when he found one of his photos had been purchased for use by an Austrian publication. Great news, right? Well, not entirely.

The photo is being used at the top of an article on shooting photos without expensive equipment, the caption implying that it was a smartphone camera that yielded these epic results. But of course, that's not the case.

There's no shortage of great photography resources out there for photographers of all levels who want to continue honing their skills, and joining their ranks today is a new video series from Olympus that is part marketing campaign and part learning opportunity.

This has got to be one of the stranger Photoshop controversies we've ever run across. Usually, Photoshop in the mainstream news means that some model or celebrity has been poorly altered on a magazine cover, but this time around, it's a football star going after Photoshop, saying it's being used in a smear campaign against him.

Mitch Dobrowner is a fine art photographer based in Studio City, California. Born on Long Island (Bethpage) New York he as have a wife (Wendy), 3 kids, a dog... and in his words, a bratty cat.

His work has been published by National Geographic Magazine, ABC News, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, CNN, NPR, Audubon Society, LA Times and LensWork, among others. Google recently produced a 2 minute commercial revolving around his work for their Search Stories campaign.

We told you to expect a wave of interesting "then and now" series when Google first integrated the 'time-machine' feature into Street View, and that prophesy is starting to come true.

A couple of weeks ago we showed you GooBing Detroit, a Tumblog that tracked the demise of Detroit in Street View images. And today, Gizmodo published a fascinating look at the rapid pace of gentrification that has transformed several areas of Brooklyn.

There's only so much specs, a press release and a product description will tell you. And so, since there's still a month's worth of time standing between you and actually touching the new Nikon D810, we've hit up all of the Nikon YouTube channels to compile the best promo, intro and behind the scenes videos we could find.

Each video is accompanied by a short description so you know what you're in for. We hope you enjoy getting to know Nikon's newest shooter a bit better.

There are two ways to look at an incrementally improved DSLR: either the company missed an opportunity to improve something that has fallen behind the industry standard, or they are leaving well enough alone and not 'fixing it if it ain't broke,' so to speak.

Nikon's replacement for both the D800 and D800E, the D810, falls into that latter category: an incrementally improved DSLR that probably won't receive too much flack for it.

Crowd-sourced taxi service Uber and photo-sharing service EyeEm announced an interesting partnership today: EyeEm will give you $20 in Uber credits no strings attached via a promo code, but if you're willing to document your Uber travels using the app, you can win even more credit and keep on traveling around town for free.

In a move some will inevitably say was planned by Nikon, but which certainly looks a lot more like a mistake from our end, UK tech website Expertreviews has published (and quickly removed) their entire Nikon D810 review ahead of the official announcement, which is expected late tonight.

One question -- or should we say debate -- that often arises among photographers is whether or not you should take a lower-paying job if it means getting an assignment from a reputable publication or brand. The hope, of course, is that the impressive photo credits will entice other clients to hire you for a fair rate, making up for the initially low pay.

While there is no “right” answer to this question, the team over at PhotoShelter asked John Harrington, author of a number of top-selling photography books, to weigh in on the debate over Skype.

Indie rock band OK Go's recent music video for the song "The Writing's On the Wall" was a smash hit, receiving some 6.6K likes on PetaPixel alone and currently boasting over 7.6M views on YouTube.

But just in case the claim that it was all shot in a single take without any cuts has you skeptical, the band yesterday released a spellbinding behind-the-scenes video to show you how the optical illusion magic was made.

@chadders_dm special thanks to @FAMediaOps #gwsMarc they win the prize no question pic.twitter.com/ueDxKB2HgQ
— Dickie Pelham (@DickiePelham) June 13, 2014

On the tenth of April, The Times chief sports photographer Marc Aspland was in a terrible car accident. The crash, which occurred in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, left him with brain hemorrhaging, nerve damage and two broken collarbones.

It was these injuries that led to Aspland missing out on two of the world’s largest sporting events, Wimbledon and the World Cup. But after news of the photographer unable to make it to these events spread about, a number of athletes started to team up to send support his way. Using the hashtag #gwsmarc (get well soon, Marc), a number of well-known tennis, cricket and football athletes have teamed up to show their support.

When you hear Antarctica, a number of images probably come to mind: penguins waddling along, barren white expanses and massive glaciers all probably make an appearance. But no matter what images the continent conjures up, you probably wouldn't describe any of them as 'colorful.'

When Canadian photographer Gaston Lacombe headed south to spend a couple of months on the frigid continent, he too expected to find a whole lot of white, with maybe some blue and the occasional tuxedo black of a penguin. What he didn't expect were the occasional explosions of color he actually found there.

What’s the first thing you’re going to do when your $1900 pre-ordered Leica T arrives on your doorstep in the coming weeks? Well, wooden accessory manufacturer Miniot hopes you’ll cover its aluminum unibody design with one of their hand-crafted wooden cases.

The Assignment I was contacted on a Friday for this assignment which was to take place the following Tuesday.

It was almost a year ago to the date that we featured the work of photographer Matther Cetta. In a series titled Photogenic Alchemy, he took rolls of film he had photographed with his toy camera and developed them in a number of strange ingredients -- from Drano to Pepto Bismol.

We've already seen that Apple plans to take some serious photographic steps forward when it comes to the its newest mobile operating system, iOS 8, but we have yet to find out what the Cupertino giant has up its sleeve hardware wise.

Of course, even if we haven't heard from Apple, that doesn't mean we don't have some idea what's on the way. As the iPhone 6's inevitable announcement draws ever nearer, vague hardware rumors are beginning to solidify.

Watermarks are a controversial topic. Many believe they ruin your images, and are so easily removed that there's no point in adding one. Others see it as a necessary hurdle they would like to place in a potential photo stealer's way.

If you happen to fall in the latter camp, Phlearn's Aaron Nace would like to show you a simple way to create a custom brush that will take care of your watermarking needs for good, and offer a few tips on how to apply that watermark so that it doesn't outright ruin your images.

In the ongoing effort to reach a happy medium between beauty and functionality, Flickr is yet again tweaking the layout of its photo pages. A number of users are reporting an updated layout complete with a few minor adjustments that seem to be making at least some formerly disgruntled users happy.

I will start off by saying I am partial to SanDisk memory cards, but I recently found a great write up on their website that is pretty much universal, explaining the difference between SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards. I wanted to share this information with everyone because sometimes it can be confusing trying to figure out which SD Card is best for you.

Michael Woloszynowicz of Vibrant Shot is back with another share-worthy and thorough tutorial, and this time he's showing you how to fix some of the hair and skin issues that tend to crop up in portraiture.

Earlier this year, renowned Cape Town photography store Orms developed their last roll of slide film through the E6 process. To bring the era of a legendary process to a proper close, Hero AV brought together a short documentary depicting three photographers who were asked to shoot the last of the slide film that would be developed at the lab.

British wildlife photographer Chris Weston recently had one of the most interesting 'first time' GoPro experiences of anyone out there: upon setting the camera up for the very first time, it nearly got swallowed by a 500 lb grizzly bear.

We’ve featured the work of German photographer Jakob Wagner a number of times before. If you remember the previous features, you’ll know he enjoys capturing ‘scapes’ of all kinds: winterscapes, aerialscapes, nightscapes and more.

But today, his subject is none of these. Today we explore the strangely patterned world of sand and water revealed in his series Sandscapes.

Photography and sports are easy bedfellows. As wonderful as it is to watch a goal unfold before your eyes on television, it's just as powerful to see a tack-sharp photograph of the look of dismay on the goalie's face as the ball soars past his or her outstretched arm.

But sports photography isn't just for capturing dramatic moments; sometimes it can affect the course of sports history, as was the case in 1989, after one of the most controversial games in the history of football.

Last month we featured A Day In the Life of Roadtrippers time-lapse photographer Joel Schat -- a wonderful, jealousy-inducing BTS look at Schat's travels. And today we have for you the product of those many days spent traveling across the country, cameras in tow. No surprise: it’s a beauty.