Here's a time-lapse showing the total solar eclipse today (March 20th, 2015), as seen by Bjarni Enghamar from the town of Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands (an archipelago found halfway between Norway and Iceland). Midway through the video, the whole landscape is plunged into darkness as the Moon blocks out the Sun for about two minutes.
Beautiful photo compositions generally require a keen eye and a quick shutter finger, but sometimes luck plays a huge role as well. That's what happened today for UK-based photographer Amy Shore, who was photographing the total solar eclipse from her backyard in Leicestershire. A bird flew into Shore's frame as the Moon was passing over the face of the Sun, adding a unique touch to her shot.
Steve Perry of Backcountry Gallery offers this short Photoshop tutorial on how you can enhance the eyes of your wildlife subjects and make them pop. He uses a Curves layer, a layer mask, and a brush to paint in some brightness. "When it comes to wildlife, it's all about the eyes," Perry says. Now that's a bright eyed deer.
Impossible launched its first lines of instant film in 2010 after acquiring Polaroid manufacturing machines and leasing an old Polaroid production plant. Although its efforts did bring "Polaroid pictures" back from the dead, its initial offerings suffered from poor image quality and slow development times.
The New York Times has published an in-depth feature in its business section that looks at how Kodak, at one time a juggernaut in the photo industry, is working to reinvent itself after missing the boat when the camera world shifted to digital.
Photo editing apps for smartphones are a dime a dozen these days, but today there's a new one that hopes to stand above its competitors with a couple of innovative filter-centric features. It's called Priime, and is a free app for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) that's currently being featured as a "best new app" in Apple's App Store.
Tired of having eyeballs with fixed focal lengths? Scientists have developed new telescopic contact lenses and glasses that can give your eyes 2.8x zoom with a simple wink of the eye.
Another rare Nikon 6mm f/2.8 fisheye lens is for sale, and this time in a rather unusual place: Craigslist. That's right, someone around London is selling one of the rarest Nikon lenses through a simple classified listing spotted by one of our readers.
In an age in which pageviews are supreme, blogs and other online publications often ignore copyright laws, publishing viral photographs without permission in order to attract clicks and eyeballs. While much of the time this type of behavior flies under the radar, sometimes the unethical behavior comes back to bite the publishers hard when photographers do notice and take action.
The Photographic Dictionary is a project dedicated to defining English words "through the literal, figurative, and personal meanings found in each photograph." Each word and definition in the dictionary is accompanied by a photographer-submitted image that illustrates it in some way.
I was in kindergarten when this photo was taken.
Why do we make photographs? Why do we desire to make photographs so much that we can think of little else? For me it is simply because I have to make photographs. It is part of my DNA, and I love looking at other peoples' images as well. Galleries are like spiritual sanctuaries of visual goodness. When I visit people I am endlessly fascinated by the images on their walls.
FoCal today announced Version 2 of its automated camera calibration software that helps photographers calibrate the microfocus adjustment on their cameras. The new update will allow users of the software compare their autofocus test results with other users and see previous tests you've run to better see how your gear is performing.
The first one I ever saw was "Chicks Who Click." It was years ago and the photography industry was predominantly male. I didn't think too much of it, but wondered (aloud at times) the wisdom of not only creating a gender based photography group, but giving it a cutesy name like "Chicks Who Click." …
Flickr's photo search engine is getting a makeover and a boost in power. Starting earlier this month, Flickr has been rolling out a powerful new unified search interface to its users. Instead of a simple search feature for photos that match keywords, the new search will contain additional image search parameters and will be able to look up people and groups.
People come up with all kinds of ways to capture photos and videos of themselves popping the big question, from hiring a photographer, to recruiting a friend, to hiding a camera themselves. For those who want a more direct way to shoot a proposal, there's new product called the Ring Cam. It's an engagement ring box with a built-in camera that captures your big moment from the ring's point of view.
The Ganges river in India and Bangladesh is the holiest river in Hinduism. Every day, hundreds of dead bodies are brought to the banks of the river by family members and cremated ceremonially on a flaming pyre. On hand to document these rituals for loved ones are death photographers -- young men who make a living by shooting last images of the deceased for a fee.
If you enjoy random bits of inspiration throughout your day, Flickr has a new Chrome extension just for you. Called Flickr Tab, it's a simple little browser add-on that shows you a popular photograph from Flickr every time you open up a new blank tab.
Photographs help us remember important moments in our lives, but what happens when they capture things we'd rather forget? Sometimes photos are so painful that their owners can't bear to live with them, and that's the premise behind photographer Jason Lazarus' project THTK, short for "Too Hard to Keep". Since 2010, Lazarus has been collecting photos that people deem "too painful to live with any longer."
Some couples are naturals when it comes to posing gracefully for the camera, while others may be more awkward and require more guidance from the photographer. Here's a short video in which wedding photographer Jasmine Star shares 3 simple but helpful tips she's learned over the years for helping create natural moments between couples. She suggests that you should focus on: (1) touch, (2) appendages, and (3) physical tension.
Since 2013, photographer Kathy Shorr has been shooting portraits of subjects who have been shot by guns -- the victims and survivors of gun violence from around the United States. The ongoing project is titled "SHOT" and now contains over 50 portraits.
So I recently had this crazy idea in my head and some free time. The idea was to have myself falling over in the kitchen with tea and biscuits flying everywhere. Here's a walkthrough showing how I created the image with carefully shot photos and Photoshop.
Canon Australia and National Geographic are joining forces to create a six part television series titled Tales by Light. It will follow five world class photographers from Australia as they venture into "some of the world's most extreme and fascinating environments" in pursuit of beautiful images that tell stories.
Well known photographer and blogger Scott Kelby recently pointed to the 18-55mm kit lens as a reason why beginners find it difficult to take good shots -- it is neither wide nor long enough to create visual impact, he wrote. I'd like to respectfully disagree.
The Salt of the Earth is a documentary film released last year by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, the son of renowned Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado. It explores the work of the elder Salgado, who has traveled the Earth for the past 40 years in order to document our planet and the human condition. Above is the trailer for the film (note: there's a bit of nudity in these clips), which will be hitting theaters in the US starting later this month.
Sapphire glass was used by Apple for the iPhone 5 camera, and more recently it has appeared on the screen of the new Apple Watch. It will soon be available for DSLR camera lenses as well. A new company called Novo is getting ready to launch a new line of camera lens filters for photographers. The lineup will include the world's first filter to use sapphire crystal glass, and other filters will feature Gorilla Glass.
After doing offline auctions for 270 years, Sotheby's is partnering up with eBay to deliver its high-end auctions more widely in the Internet world. Starting next month, prospective buyers of the auctioned items will be able to submit bids in real time through the new website, found at eBay.com/Sothebys. The very first auctions to be held on the service is a collection of famous photographs.
PBS series Art in the 21st Century recently released this 6-minute look at the work of photographer Trevor Paglen, a guy who points his camera through astronomy telescopes at secret military sites to photography things that are off limits to the public. As we shared back in 2012, Paglen calls his imagery "Limit Telephotography."
A couple of years ago, photographer Kevin Russ packed some belongings into his car, traveled tens of thousands of miles across the US, and documented his journey with his iPhone camera. The trip earned Russ quite a bit of media attention and a sizable online following.
Here’s a fun and very easy way to do professional product photography light painting using your iPhone, or any other phone or tablet for that matter. The bigger the screen the better the results, but a standard phone screen will absolutely do the job.
The low light performance in your future camera may be improved thanks to new research in "nano earthquakes." Researchers have found that sound waves can be used to improve the electronic properties of 2D materials, paving the way for things such as camera sensors that can capture better shots in dark environments.
A graduate photo conservation class at the University of Delaware recently devoted its skills toward restoring damaged photos for grieving parents who lost three children to a fire late last year. 260 photos were recovered through restoration techniques usually seen at museums and returned to the family.
Just two months after partnering with Polaroid for a rebranded version of its service, the pioneering photo-a-day website Blipfoto has now gone into liquidation.
The AmazonBasics 60-Inch Lightweight Tripod is a $24 tripod that's the #1 bestseller over on Amazon. The #1 review on that tripod is the 8-minute video above, submitted by a man named Michael Trimble.
Want to understand the concept of depth of field better? Polish photographer and programmer Michael Bemowski has created a fantastic and feature-rich online depth of field calculator and bokeh simulator that can help you wrap your mind around what's going on when you change things like focal length and aperture.
Did you know that some creatures can actually see the world in long exposures? Scientists recently discovered that cockroaches are the latest insect found to have that feature built into their eyes and brains. It allows the resilient little bugs to see in near-pitch black environments.
Arne Svenson is a well-known fine art photographer who is currently represented by the Julie Saul Gallery in New York. For his last exhibition, Arne experienced quite a controversy recently when he was sued by one of his subjects for his series The Neighbors, after they learned that he photographed them without their knowledge with a telephoto lens from his apartment.
Update on 12/16/21: This video has been removed by its creator.
Visitors to Google today are being treated to a Doodle logo replacement that pays tribute to photography pioneer Anna Atkins. Atkins was born 216 years ago today, and in her life she became one of the first -- if not the first -- women to create a photograph.
Photography is an analytic art form. We aim our lenses to specific parts of the world around us to pick a frame because, in our analysis, that particular frame presents the photograph we wish to take. We can certainly raise the camera, lower the camera, rotate it, pitch it, yaw it, aim at a different part and end up photographing something different.
Here's a great video on photographic composition, created by The Cooperative of Photography using tips and photographs by legendary photojournalist Steve McCurry. Each of the 9 composition tips is illustrated with examples from McCurry's impressive body of work.
Photoshop's Auto Color adjustment is a simple way to color correct a photo in just a couple of clicks, but it doesn't always produce the look you're going for. Here's a short tutorial on another easy way to do color correction that puts a little more control back in your hands without making things difficult.
It is often said that "luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." This photo may be a good example of that. It's a single long-exposure photo of mountains in South America with the stars properly exposed in the background and the landscape in the foreground illuminated by the rising moon.
When Israeli freelance artist Ynon Lan visited New York City earlier this year, he wanted to capture the things he saw in a way that conveyed the constant energy he felt as he walked around. He then came up with the idea of taking thousands of still photographs of particular themes and combine them afterward into a video as a flowing visual experience.
Israeli photographer Ronen Goldman was recently commissioned by UK-based premium luggage manufacturer Redland London to shoot a series of advertising photos promoting an upcoming line of luggage. The company wanted to show the durability of the product and how it helps you "be prepared for anything," so Goldman created a photo of a man protecting himself from a cloud of falling lemons. The video above is a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how the image was created.
Director David Robin created this humorous spoof of the TV show Shark Tank for the WPPI conference and expo that took place in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. It features a number of well known photography industry figures (Roberto Valenzuela, Bambi Cantrell, Jerry Ghionis, Melissa Ghionis, and Gary Fong) as the investors and entrepreneurs.
This past Valentines day, photographer Kendrick Brinson was tasked with what she calls "the strangest assignment" of her career thus far. She was asked by OZY magazine with shooting as a fake paparazzi photographer, chasing after editor Sanjena Sathian as she walked the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard through crowds of tourists. Sathian later published an account of the experience in a story titled "Almost Famous."
Photographers Tony and Chelsea Northrup shot a hands on test video that pits the new Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 against the pricier version by Canon. "Yongnuo recently released their first autofocus lens, and it's half the price of the Canon version," they write. "We test it to see if we can recommend it for beginning photographers who want an inexpensive, fast lens." …
Photographer Josh Cripps of Professional Photography Tips made this short and sweet introductory tutorial on how you can use 10-stop neutral density filters to capture long exposure photos in bright daylight. These filters drastically reduce the amount of light hitting your lens, allowing you to blur slow-moving things in your scene (e.g. clouds or streams).
Photography is one of the most popular hobbies on the planet, but you’d never know it by reading most photography blogs, podcasts, books, and tutorials. It’s treated as a profession, where the goal is making money, buying more expensive gear or getting your prints into galleries around the world. You’re being enticed to “Go Pro,” and that’s just not realistic for the vast majority of photographers. Most photographers could benefit from going amateur.
