October 2014

Chinese camera gear company Yongnuo has introduced a new model to its affordable line of wireless flash triggers: the RF605.

Front facing cameras on smartphones have traditionally been dwarfed by the camera on the back. After all, you're supposed to take "serious" photos with the rear camera, and the front one is mainly used for things like video conferencing, right? …

If you're looking to get into aerial drone photography, the PlexiDrone is one robotic quadcopter you might want to look into. It's an ultra-portable drone that can be transported disassembled and snapped together in less than one minute when needed.

Photographer Christopher Schmidt was out flying his quadcopter at Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, Massachusetts earlier this week when his humming drone drew some unwanted attention. No, not the police. Nor a neighbor with a shotgun. It was a hawk that wasn't too happy with another flying "creature" invading its territory.

Contact sheets often provide a fascinating glimpse into the mind of photographers, showing final shots among outtakes that were left on the cutting room floor.

While it’s the fifth most common type of cancer in the United States and the deadliest of all skin cancers, melanoma can often be cured if caught early enough. So, in an effort to step up early detection efforts, a team of researchers at Duke University have developed a gigapixel whole-body camera that captures high-resolution images that will allow doctors to more quickly and effectively diagnose melanoma.

The Maersk Triple E is the largest ship ever built by mankind and is operated by the largest container shipping company in the world. Back in 2011, Maersk signed a contract with Daewoo Shipbuilding in South Korea to have 20 of these gigantic vessels made for $3.8 billion dollars.

One day soon, people around the world may be contributing vast amounts of information to the science of space using a cheap 3D-printed telescope and smartphone with a high-res camera.

While taking the first of three scheduled spacewalks aboard the International Space Station this month, the Expedition 41 team decided to make the most of their 6 hour and 13 minute spacewalk by taking some incredible photographs of their mission. Beforehand though, they made sure to turn the camera on themselves, capturing a few self portraits while hanging around outside of their vehicle almost 100 miles above Earth’s surface.

At the Adobe MAX 2014 conference this past week, Adobe showed off some of the crazy technology current brewing in the company's labs. Two of them offer a glimpse at what may soon be available to photographers in Photoshop: changing the time of day (i.e. lighting) in photographs with a simple slider and removing haze from a scene automatically.

We've shared in the past how a broken lens can be used for "freelensing," or taking tilt-shift-esque photographs.

If you ever hand your phone over to family and friends with hesitance, afraid they might swipe over one photo too far when you’re trying to show them a few photos, Microsoft Research’s new app Xim might just save you from a few nerve-wracking moments.

The FlashDisc by Fstoppers is a portable softbox that can fit into your pocket when its not in use, thanks to a design that allows it to fold up in a manner similar to portable light reflectors. It allows photographers to achieve soft directional light in situations where larger softboxes are impractical.

Instagram’s Hyperlapse app is a simple way to create smooth hyper lapse videos. But beyond its basic functionality is a hidden set of features that cranks up its capabilities. It may be secret, but it's quite easy to get to.

Update: Canon tells us that "The 'Director' spot bears no relation to the individual profiled in this story," and that it is "a completely fictional character." …

Feminists in France are demanding that a statue based on Alfred Eisenstaedt's iconic ‘VJ-day in Times Square’ photo be taken down. They say that the original image it was based on is one that portrays sexual assault.

Nearly $2 million in cameras and production equipment were stolen from three Fremont, California businesses over the weekend. Thieves broke into the offices of Black Magic Design, Mac House Productions, and Core Microsystems, grabbing pricey high-end gear and hauling it off by the boxful.

The team over at DigitalRev is always thinking of new and interesting ideas. And their latest is an intriguing little camera exchange and review they've aptly titled ‘Camera Swap.’

A rule of thumb in design is that form follows function; however, with these clever and colorful pendants, you don’t have to worry about a compromise in either department.

If you lived in Europe or Africa -- or if you're in the US and the thought of getting up between 2 and 5 in the morning repelled you -- you probably missed this week's total lunar eclipse and 'blood moon.' But have no fear, because Griffith Observatory in LA captured a close-up (if a bit shaky) time-lapse of the entire rust-colored event for you.

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.

Ever wonder how the tech packed inside of your new Nikon lens actually works? How does Vibration Reduction provide 4.5 stops of stabilization? And what about the silent motors, how do those work?

In a video released earlier today, Nikon Asia decided to peel away the outer shell of its glass and show you, revealing the technology that makes a Nikkor Lens a Nikkor.

Panasonic might have found the last piece of the puzzle keeping many DSLR users from switching over to mirrorless cameras.

It looks like Canon isn't the only one ready to re-start the dreaded Megapixel Wars with a high megapixel camera that has been all but confirmed to exist. Nope, fresh info from highly trusted sources claims that Sony will be jumping into the fray as well with a 46MP full-frame camera to be announced at the beginning of 2015.

I have seen absolutely beautiful things happen in the photo industry. I’ve seen strangers become best friends, I’ve seen grand ideas being brought to life, and I’ve seen photographers grow from beginners to mentors. I’ve seen so many things that make me proud to be a part of such an amazing community.

In a new video released yesterday, Fujifilm offers a beautiful behind-the-scenes look at the care, attention, and technology that goes into creating each of their Fujinon lenses from start-to-finish.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration and one of its agents, Timothy Sinnigen, are being sued by a woman who claims they used the photos on a seized phone of hers to hijack her identity and create a fake Facebook profile though which they hoped to bust an alleged New York drug ring.

Two hundred million images... PhotoShelter has amassed over 200M images from over 80,000 photographers in the almost a decade since they burst onto the scene. And today they unveil a new way for those 80,000 photographers to share those 200M+ images with fans that might not even know they exist yet.

Multi-layer sensors and high-megapixel DSLRs aren't the only cameras Canon is rumored to be working on in the "breaking the status quo" category. Already mentioned by Canon Hong Kong, a large-sensor, high-zoom PowerShot premium compact is being officially teased in a Canon Netherlands video.

Photographer and educator Tony Northrup and company recently put together a video that is equal parts humorous and hard to watch. It's called 'Stuff that Annoys Wildlife Photographers,' and it features Chelsea Northrup in her best impression of a wildlife photographer's worst nightmare.

‘Where to Start Chart’ is an infographic designed to help beginner photographers work their way through the settings on their camera. Produced by Adorama TV, the PDF is reminiscent of the "skill trees" found in various role playing video games, but instead of having spells and skills, the tree offers photographic tutorials.

The idea of ‘average’ is strange, especially when it’s put into real-world situations and memories. The places most familiar to us change on a daily basis, even if it’s just the slightest bit, but when we look back, our brains piece together this conglomeration of what we’ve seen over the days, months and years to create a familiar, cohesive memory.

HTC's rumored action camera is now official. Today the company announced the RE, a handheld action cam that could easily be confused with a miniature periscope or an inhaler.

For years and years I’ve worked on location, slowly I’ve moved over to tethered shooting and past two years I have been trying to shoot tethered as much as possible, I’m a big fan of it and I find it can really help a shoot and improve the images overall when everyone knows what they are working towards.

In Google’s ongoing effort to ‘Street View’ some of the most incredible places on Earth, the company has pushed the limits of the 360-degree genre once again.

Update: We've received an official response from Flickr, which you can read at the bottom.

'See Impossible' debacle and subsequent parody aside, recent rumors indicate Canon really is getting ready to innovate, or at the very least take some risks and release some interesting products.

Canon's big 'See Impossible' reveal turned out to be a pretty big disappointment for us gear heads. Most headlines dripped with disappointment and one article led off its coverage with an image of Bart Simpson writing "I will never hold my breath for a Canon announcement again" over and over on a chalkboard.

What you see above is one of the most unusual pieces of lighting gear we’ve ever chanced across. Looking a bit like a prop from the upcoming Star Wars film, this contraption is actually a macro flash adapter designed by Polish photographers Agnieszka and Ernest Lysak.

Inspired by Steve McCurry’s “The Last Roll of Kodachrome,” four Tokyo-based photographers took to the streets with only a single roll of 120 film and a Hasselblad to capture what it would be like to shoot the very last roll of film in existence.

During the Max conference, as he was preparing to demonstrate some of the touch functionality baked into Photoshop CC on the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, Adobe's Josh Ulm said, "when we started to explore touch, we knew that we would have to radically shift the user interface." …

Funny faces and unusual antics in front of a camera might be more prevalent now than ever before, but if you think our Victorian ancestors didn’t have fun with film every once in a while, you might be pleasantly surprised to see this humorous collection of slides that prove you wrong.

Liz Kaszynski has one of the coolest photography jobs in the world. As one of the 10 Lockheed Martin aerial photographers certified to take pictures from the back of fighter jets -- and their only female photographer for the F-35 -- she photographs and rides in some of the most advanced flying machines on Earth.

If you're in the market for a GoPro Hero4, and especially if you've already purchased one, listen up, because there seems to be an overheating issue with some of the cameras that could potentially be dangerous.

Filmmaker Leonardo Dalessandri recently spent 20 days in Turkey, and by the looks of it, he didn't stand still for a single minute of it. Over the course of that 20 days, he travelled almost 2,200 miles with his camera equipment in tow, capturing the video and time-lapse clips he eventually compiled into the 3-minute visual journey embedded above.

Light modifiers don’t come cheap, especially softboxes. But, if you have enough DIY talent, some patience, and $20 bucks to spare, you’re only an hour or so away from having a custom-made softbox of your own.

There are a seemingly infinite number of videos that walk you through retouching a portrait from beginning to end; however, most of them are based in Photoshop, Lightroom and -- once upon a time -- Aperture. This leaves the less-used but robust Capture One Pro out of the game.

Ansel Adams is one of the most famous landscape photographers known around the world. He is best known for countless, perfectly balanced black and white images of the Yosemite Valley, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, and many more iconic national parks and landscapes throughout America. He set the standard of landscape photography presented as fine art to this very day.

Water droplets can make for some beautiful high-speed photography, but how do photographers manage to capture such precise moments? And what if you add even more elements to the equation, such as shooting a tiny pellet through the drop as it reaches its peak? …

In June of 2011, astrophotographer Jean-Luc Dauvergne travelled all the way to Tajikistan to capture the total lunar eclipse on June 15th in the best conditions possible. Lasting almost two hours, he captured the eclipse from start to finish in a captivating minute-long time-lapse with one heck of a crescendo.