November 2015

Love the look of wet plate collodion photographs? Did you know you can give any digital photo that same look using Photoshop? It's a technique that can be learned in about 10 minutes.

Facebook is in the process of rolling out a new feature in its Messenger app called Photo Magic. Using facial recognition, it scans through your new photographs, spots the faces of your friends, and asks you if you'd like to send those photos to those friends.

Ongoing student protests at the University of Missouri over campus race relations have dominated the media over the the past several days. Now a new video showing the group blocking a student photographer is sparking controversy and discussion about press freedom.

It was a wedding like many others. The bride and groom were all smiles the entire day and excited for the ceremony. That semi-chaotic buzz of electricity was in the air as tasked bridesmaids went from place to place working on a variety of details before the ceremony. And after a brief portrait session, the bride was ready to take her father’s arm in their walk down the aisle.

Understanding the exposure triangle of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO is one of the first steps in learning photography. To help people wrap their heads around the concept, photographer Tony Catalano has created the Interactive Exposure Tool, an online tool for experimenting with how changing camera settings affects the resulting photo of a scene.

Photographer Trey Ratcliff is on a roll. Just months after designing a camera bag with Peak Designs and watching it become the most-funded bag in the history of Kickstarter, Ratcliff announced today that he has teamed up with Macphun to create the ultimate HDR creation software, a program called Aurora HDR.

You know those iconic photos of NASA Apollo astronauts posing with the US flag on the moon? The 3-minute video above is a "behind-the-scenes" video that shows some of the portraits being shot.

Street photographer Keenan Hastings recently mounted a GoPro to his Fujifilm X-T1 and visited the Eastern Market in Downtown Detroit for up-close-and-personal street portraits. The 4.5-minute point-of-view video above shows how he approached his subjects for photos.

Earlier this year, Apple launched a global ad campaign called "Shot on iPhone 6" that featured the company's favorite iPhone 6 photos, which were captured by 77 different photographers. The iPhone 6S has since replaced the 6, but Apple hasn't forgotten about how the photographers helped the phone become yet another hit.

SLOPES is an innovative new stand for GoPro HERO cameras that uses a polyhedron shape to give you 20 different positions. Mount your camera to it, and you can position your camera in the orientation you'd like in just a couple seconds without having to adjust anything else.

Slovakian food recipe site Varme published this simple 1-minute video tutorial on how you can use $25 in IKEA products to create a DIY lightbox for improving your food and product photography.

People on the West Coast of the United States were treated to a light show Saturday night after the US Navy quietly launched a test of an unarmed missile. As a bright white light shot across the sky and burned out as a blue haze, panicked people placed 911 calls with theories of giant meteors or aliens in UFOs.

Want to own a camera that once belonged to a photography great? Now's your chance. The estate of the Mary Ellen Mark is currently holding an eBay auction for a Nikon FM2 that was part of the late and great American photographer's collection. Mark passed away back in May at the age of 75.

The United States announced last month that it's creating a federal drone registry and will soon require that all drone owners register their devices in order to fly legally. While the move should help reign in the "wild wild west" that is the drone industry today, some are wary that over-regulation could hurt the rights of drone owners -- including the rights of the media to gather news.

The Internet is abuzz over a series of photographs by a farmer named Liezel Kennedy in Saskatchewan, Canada. The image above may appear at first glance to be a simple snapshot of a snowy Canadian countryside, but it's actually a photo showing how well sheep can blend into their surroundings in the wild. There are about 550 sheep in the photo.

The dangers, and perks, of sports photography: Northampton Town Football Club photographer Pete Norton was shooting a match recently when he found himself being pulled into the action. After his team scored a goal to secure a 2-2 draw, the players swarmed their photographer, knocked him over, and piled on top of him.

Right, I've had enough. I want to talk to you all about guests using mobile phone cameras at weddings. I want to plead with you, and I'm going to make this very simple: brides and grooms, please have a completely unplugged wedding ceremony.

Think the Google Glass camera glasses are funny looking? Check out the 3RDi. Pronounced "third eye," it's a new camera that lets you capture your life while you're enjoying the moment by placing a camera smack dab in the center of your forehead, making you look like a camera cyclops.

Want to see where camera drones are headed? DJI made this 3-minute video that shows a concept drone called the DJI Phantom X. It's a look at what camera drones may soon offer for capturing both daily life and high-end productions.

Want a high-tech way to share photos with others? MOO recently launched a new product called Business Cards+ that can help. On the surface, they look just like ordinary business cards that can be printed with personalized designs. However, inside each one is an embedded NFC chip that can trigger actions with a simple tap of an NFC-capable smartphone.

If you're curious about what it takes to do well on Instagram, Connor Franta can tell you. He's one of the biggest stars on the photo sharing service, boasting over 4 million followers. Franta recently published the 6-minute video above with his tips and tricks for shooting and editing photos that attract eyeballs.

Akiwi is a new website that's designed to help you keyword photographs with minimal effort. It's a semi-automated image tagging system that is easier than manually tagging and more accurate than automatic image recognition.

Update: This giveaway has ended. The winner has been announced below.

Photo colorizer Jordan Lloyd of Dynamichrome was recently commissioned to digitally color reconstructed photos of the discovery and exploration of Tutankhaten's tomb starting in 1922.

Here's a little tip for those of you who shoot with Fuji Instax film while out and about: once you're done exposing a pack of film, you can use the empty plastic pack as a container to hold your Instax photos.

Yahoo is rolling out a revamped image search engine today that now includes photo results from its Flickr service. As long as you're signed in, the personalized Flickr results will include your own collection of Flickr photos, photos from people you follow, and other top public photos on the service.

Requests for free spec work is a big problem for photographers, who lose out when clients demand free photos in exchange for "vague to nonexistent compensation." To show how ridiculous the idea of spec work is, Toronto agency Zulu Alpha Kilo had a guy approach people in other businesses with requests for free spec work to sample their products and services before actually committing to paying. A barista, chef, personal trainer, and architect all responded with indignation; watch their reactions …

On October 28th, 2014, the Orbital ATK Antares rocket exploded on takeoff, destroying the vehicle and the supplies that were being sent to the astronauts on-board the International Space Station. The explosion was captured by a large number of photographers and videographers observing from a distance, but now NASA has published its own up-close photos of the explosion.

There are deadlines and then there are deadlines… this is the latter.

Want to see how the great-grandfather of Canon DSLRs compares to the company's latest and greatest camera? Photographer Jim Goldstein got his hands on the "ancient" Canon D2000 from 1998 and decided to pit it against the new Canon 5DS R in a shootout. The 10-minute video is a look at how a 17-year-old 2-megapixel DSLR stacks up against a 5-month-old 50-megapixel DSLR.

B&H workers have unionized after passing a 200-to-88 vote yesterday to join the United Steelworkers (USW) union. Last month, nearly 200 workers launched a protest and unionization campaign, accusing the photo retail giant of subjecting employees to long hours, unsafe work environments, inadequate training, and discrimination.

Lytro today announced Immerge, a new camera that may revolutionize how virtual reality content is captured. The company calls it "the world's first professional light field solution for Cinematic VR."

"Tilbakeblikk" ("retrospective" in Norwegian) is a fascinating photo project that shows how Norway's gorgeous landscapes have changed over the past century. Decades-old photos are faithfully re-captured by figuring out exactly where the original photographer stood.

DJI announced today that is has acquired a minority stake in Hasselblad, forming a strategic partnership between a well-known brand in high-end cameras and the best-known brand in camera drones.

The Sony Alpha mount is alive and kicking. Less than a month after Sony UK told photographers that there are "no A-mounts planned," Sony Europe today announced the new Sony a68, an APS-C A-mount camera that boasts "4D Focus."

It's always impressive when photographers and filmmakers capture mind-blowing shots in-camera rather than resorting completely to Photoshop, CGI, and other digital tricks. Screen Rant put together this 7-minute video that shows 9 movie scenes that were incredibly difficult to capture because they were (mostly) the result of meticulous planning, real stunts, and (often) countless takes.

Remembrance Sunday is this week in the UK and the Commonwealth, and public figures are expected to wear remembrance poppies on their clothing to commemorate soldiers who have died in war. Prime Minister David Cameron is finding out the hard way this week that Photoshopping a poppy isn't viewed in the same way as actually wearing one.

Facebook yesterday announced that it's working on new artificial intelligence technology that can describe photos to people who can't see them. The AI would allow the blind to interact with the world of photo sharing in ways that aren't currently possible.

Here's a friendly piece of advice: if you bet on sports, never post a photo of your winning ticket online. That's what an Australian woman found out the hard way yesterday. After sharing a photo of herself with her winning ticket on Facebook, someone used the photo to claim her $825 prize.

Sony's rollout of uncompressed 14-bit RAW continues: the company announced today that it will be releasing a new firmware update for the Sony a7 II on November 18th that adds the ability to the camera.

After my Star Wars photo-manipulation went viral, I was contacted by a fellow in Hong Kong who wanted to surprise his wife with a bit of Wonderland. He gave me some photos of him and his bride, and then graciously gave me artistic freedom to create the photo above.

Canon conducted an interesting experiment on the power of perspective in portrait photography. The camera company enlisted the help of 6 photographers and asked them each to independently shoot portraits of a man named Michael. But there was a twist: each photographer was told a different thing about Michael's background.

Want to see what Lytro's light field camera technology is all about? You can now take the plunge for 69% off. The unusual Lytro Illum camera, which lets you refocus shots after they're captured, is currently being featured as an Amazon Deal of the Day. For today (November 4th) only, you can purchase the Illum for $400.

National Geographic is laying off 9% of its 2,000 employees as it prepares to finalize its "expanded partnership" with 21st Century Fox, a $725 million deal that turns the iconic yellow-bordered magazine into a for-profit publication. The roughly 180 layoffs reportedly represent the largest reduction in the 127-year history of the Society.

The company behind Polaroid cameras has filed a new lawsuit against GoPro, claiming that GoPro ripped off the design of Polaroid's cube-shaped action cameras by launching the GoPro Session back in July.

Last month, I covered an NFL football game in which I had freedom to roam once what I shot what I needed for ESPN the Magazine (that story to be published this month).

I have yet to be let down by Sigma's highly respected Art series of lenses. Sigma is now set to release the widest f/1.4 lens on the market, with the upcoming 20mm f1.4 DG HSM Art lens to be released in the latter part of the month.

Update: O'Neil has apparently deleted all of her social media content, including the video and photos that were originally in this post.