Photographer Tanya Musgrave shoots weddings professionally, but she also dabbles with photo manipulation on the side as a hobby. A groom she worked with recently asked her to do a special Star Wars photo based on the Battle of Hoth seen in The Empire Strikes Back. So, Musgrave shot a special photo on the way of the ceremony and then did the rest of the magic in Photoshop.
We’ve written a number of times recently about how flying your camera drone near wildfires is both dangerous and illegal, but this week two men also discovered that getting too close to killer whales can also get you in trouble with the law. Two drone pilots recently did just that in Washington, and they received hefty fines.
A decade ago, photographer Matt Logue started creating unusual photos of Los Angeles by using Photoshop to remove all the cars and people from the scenes. His project is titled Empty L.A.
Canon has some interesting ideas for what cameras of the future will be like. A newly published patent shows that Canon has looked into the idea of an LCD screen that can expand and contract on the back of the camera.
Instagram cracked the restrictive barriers of its iconic square format yesterday, announcing to the world that it intends to remain the dominant platform of the visual content world. Initially created so that the every picture could be seen full screen on any device and any orientation, the square frame also incidentally made reference to the Polaroid format, adding another touch of the nostalgia that made Instagram so popular. So why change it?
There have been different solutions developed over the years for quickly and easily swapping out lenses with a single hand. First, GoWing introduced the Lens Flipper and Clip, which allows photographers to quickly do swaps in only a few seconds. Now, the folks over at Peak Design have announced the CaptureLENS, a similar fast lens switching device with a few unique stand out features and a smaller price tag.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina ravaging the city of New Orleans. Photographer Seph Lawless was recently commissioned by The Guardian to use his camera to explore and document the aftermath of the storm as it appears a decade after its landfall.
If you happen to own a Leica M camera, here is an accessory you may find useful: MGR Productions of Hong Kong is selling an adjustable viewfinder magnifier. Simply screw the accessory into your viewfinder ocular and you are ready to begin using it. Twist the dial to vary the magnification level between 1.1x and 1.6x.
Working with a collection of film negatives can be quite an overwhelming task that requires each photograph to be carefully loaded into a scanner for identification. However, when developer Bruce Johnson needed to go through his grandfather’s extensive collection of photographic work, he realized a better solution was needed. Light Box Loupe is the easy iOS solution for proofing negatives (and reversal film) in real-time.
FrontYardVideo pointed a camera at a caterpillar and captured this beautiful time-lapse video of its metamorphosis. We see it feeding, turning into a chrysalis, and emerging as a monarch butterfly after about two weeks.
PRENAV is a company aimed at developing extremely sophisticated automation systems for small aerial drones. Recently, the company announced that they had acquired $1.2 million to help make their drone technology smarter. So, what better to do with a bit of the seed money than fly drones around, create precise light patterns for light painting, and photograph them?
It looks like the hype surrounding the new Sony a7R II is justified... at least when it comes to sensor quality. DxOMark tested backside-illuminated full-frame sensor in the camera -- a world's first -- and the sensor received the highest overall quality score ever awarded by the testing lab.
Disappointed with Instagram's limited selection of filters? Well, a new app on the block called ‘infltr’ is promoting the ability to give your photograph over 5.1 million unique hues. Throw in one of your favorite pictures and simply swipe your finger to begin moving throughout the color spectrum. For a small price, you can have more hue filters than you could dream.
For some photographers, no term strikes more fear into one’s heart than "Color Spaces." The idea that different devices, along with our eyes, perceive light differently can seem confusing. Anyone that has gone to print one of their photographs probably knows that it can take some know-how to ensure your images are correctly represented on paper.
For the past few years, video effects specialist Robert McIntosh and another buddy of his have been working on creating a better way for consumers to stabilize video footage. What they've developed is a proprietary video stabilization program called ReelSteady. The first consumer version of the software just launched today.
There was a time when I guess you could have called me a wedding photographer. Although at that point you could have really called me an ‘anything’ photographer. It was early in my career. At that point in time I would have photographed a cat eating belly button lint if someone had paid me to do so.
Last month we reported on the AstroPad App for the Apple iPad: a solution that allowed you to turn your consumer tablet into a professional graphics tablet when working with applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or Illustrator. Now, the company is announcing a new app for the iPhone called AstroPad Mini -- it's everything you love about AstroPad... just minimized.
Photography has been used in many ways throughout its history: as documentation, propaganda, keepsake, etc. But never has it been so frequently used as a weapon as in the Information Age. As visual communication becomes the de facto language of social media, we can only surmise that we will see more and more examples of using photography for nefarious purposes.
Starting today, Instagram users will no longer be limited to posting square photos. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing company just announced that it is finally enabling support for landscape and portrait format photos and videos.
You've heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Well, perhaps not always. Redditor doowi1 created this humorous illustration showing the Google result for the exchange rate between pictures and words over the past half decade. "Take a picture, it'll last longer," they write.
After reading Stephen Mayes’ TIME essay on the end of photography I couldn’t help but respond. To begin with, his main proposition is that “in the future there will be no such thing as a ‘straight photograph’” to which I’d add that I’m not sure there ever really has been much of a ‘straight photograph’ although in recent decades the public has become increasingly aware of this.
World champion sprinter Usain Bolt had a scary encounter with a clumsy cameraman at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing today. After winning the 200m race, Bolt was upended after the cameraman lost control of the Segway he was riding.
Typically, tying a model up and throwing her to the bottom of a pool isn’t a recommended practice for both legal and moral reasons. However, this new music video for the song "Lydia" by Highly Suspect dares to do just that. You begin to realize something is a bit odd as the video rolls on and on -- there are no cuts, meaning Marina Kazankova actually had to hold her breath during the entire 4-minute-plus video.
Earlier this year, Canon unveiled their EOS M3 24.2 MP mirrorless compact camera with interchangeable lenses. Unfortunately for those in North America, the M3 was only launched in Europe and Asia at the time. Now, Canon’s mirrorless compact is making its way to American shores and will be launching in October of this year.
Cube is a small new device from the Australian company Palette. Easily sample colors around you using the portable color digitizer and sample them later on your PC or Mac. While the Cube’s central abilities focus on identifying the beautiful colors that surround us every day, it can also be used for color matching and achieving picture-perfect white balance in photos.
As expected, Canon today announced its new EF 35mm f/1.4L II prime lens. On APS-C sensors, the lens is the equivalent of a 56mm. It's the world's first lens that features the company's new Blue Spectrum Refractive Optics (BR Optics) technology.
Adobe Photoshop is ubiquitous on the desktop computers of photographers around the world, but the company has yet to win the same amount of love on mobile devices such as tablets or smartphones. After calling it quits on Photoshop Touch earlier this year, Adobe will be bringing a full-featured version of Photoshop to iOS this October.
"Photoshopped" photos may be everywhere these days, but retouching images to make them look nicer has been around since the early days of photography -- it was just done differently through the years as new techniques and technologies emerged.
If you constantly move your camera from one device to another in the course of your work, you may have experienced the annoyance and inconvenience of different manufacturers offering different plate designs. What they generally have in common, however, is the same standard tripod screw. The folks at Edelkrone used this fact to create the QuickReleaseONE, which the company claims is the world's first universal quick release for switching between plates.
Here's an interesting rumor that has emerged in the camera world: Leica may soon offer a camera that competes directly with the likes of the Sony FE system. The company is reportedly planning to announce an interchangeable lens followup to the new Leica Q. It would be a full-frame, non-rangefinder mirrorless camera with autofocus lenses.
The team at Uncage the Soul Productions followed 23 high school students around as they spent a week at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s Astronomy Camp. The event was held during the 2015 Perseids Meteor shower and videographers were able to capture the reactions of students as they witnessed the beauty of space through their own eyes and, of course, a couple of DSLRs.
People often say that dogs and their owners look more and more alike as the years go by. For her ongoing project "The Dog People," German photographer Ines Opifanti is shooting portraits of dog owners trying to mimic the expressions on their dogs' faces.
NASA's New Horizons probe shot a number of close-up photos of Pluto during the first every flyby back on July 14, 2015. Björn Jónsson took those photos and turned them into this smooth and breathtaking animation of the flyby.
Finding the perfect camera strap can seem like an overwhelming endeavor due to the sheer number of available options. Today, we are going to be taking a look at two different straps that are coming soon from Peak Design and may just help you in your search. The first strap is the Slide Summit Edition: a design variation of the company’s standard Slide strap. The second is the Slide Lite strap designed for smaller mirrorless camera systems.
In the future, instead of buying a dedicated Canon lens for tilt and shifting movements, you may be able to simply buy a tilt-shift adapter for your existing EF lenses. A newly surfaced patent suggests that Canon has been working on that kind of universal adapter.
“What single moment defines a skydiver?” This is the question I kept asking myself as I prepared to photograph Sarah. At the time of this shoot, I only had a few tandem jumps (attached to an instructor.) But still, that "moment" -- for me at least -- had always been getting in the door before a jump. You can put the gear on, you can ride the plane up, but getting to the door is where you really have to face yourself. And so it was this moment that I chose for our shoot: at the door, arms …
Elinchom have just announced the Litemotiv, a new extension to their lineup of softboxes. The two new modifiers are made up of sixteen sides and come in two distinct sizes. According to the company, theses monster softboxes help to create “close to perfect catchlights.”
How have magazine covers and their photos changed over the past century? The answer sheds light on not just the design and image choices of major media companies, but changes in our cultures and the way we think as well.
Earlier this year, Facebook launched the Moments app for both iOS and Android. Similar to many other applications out there, Moments is aimed at combining your photographs and your friends’ photographers from a single event into an easy to navigate album (and then uploading them to Facebook, of course). Today, the app has received an update that can automatically create movies from your experiences.
Last week, Kenko Tokina USA unveiled the new line of Hoya HD3 lens filters, which promise to be harder than their predecessors while still providing photographers with excellent optical quality.
If you happen to have a plethora of Contax lenses stored away and are now busy playing with a Sony A7 or NEX camera then we have some exciting news for you. Thanks to eBay shop Kens_Camera, it is now possible to purchase a Contax N-mount to Sony E-mount adapter. The seller explains he designed the adapter himself and that it is an entirely automatic adapter with only slight autofocus limitations.
Want to wear all your camera gear around you? The Vest Guy has photographer vests designed just for you. Many of the company's offerings have a large number of spacious compartments that allow you to carry multiple cameras, lenses, accessories... and even your laptop.
Cafe Art is a UK-based initiative that aims to connect the homeless with their wider community through art and photography. The project was founded in 2012, and since then they've hung up artwork in more than 20 cafes across London.
As photographers, we capture the light around us to preserve moments in time. Sometimes, however, we not only want to contain the light, but also control it. So, when Elinchrom asked us if we wanted to test their powerful ELB 400 portable battery pack and Quadra Pro flash heads, we, of course, said yes. Now, let’s see what we can do with 424 watts of portable power.
Earlier this year, Czech Republic-based street photographer Rishabh Kaul was hired to document the Podoli Public Swimming Pool in Prague. Over the course of two months, that single swimming pool became the focus of Kaul's camera as he applied his keen eye for framing and storytelling.
David Pangborn was recently visiting Denali National Park in Alaska when his guide-led group spotted a playful grizzly bear on a nearby hill. As Pangborn pointed his Canon T2i and Tamron 18-270mm lens at it, he captured this unusual video of the bear going down the hill... by rolling.
A Canon 35mm f/1.4L II lens has been rumored to be nigh since back in 2012, but it appears that the lens may finally be on the cusp of being announced. A leaked photo and list of specs have been published online, giving us a first glimpse into what we can expect from Canon.
Olympus today announced the new OM-D E-M10 II, a new entry-level mirrorless camera that succeeds the original E-M10 and sits below the E-M1 and E-M5 lines. It's a Micro Four Thirds camera that packs a 16.1-megapixel CMOS sensor with an ISO range of 200 to 25600 (expandable to 100 to 25600).
The 42MP Sony a7R II has got to be one of the most anticipated camera systems in the history of cameras, and for good reason.
Photographers, be warned: if you share a photo online with a Creative Commons license that allows for commercial usage, you need to be okay with if that actually happens. A photographer named Art Dragulis just learned that lesson by losing a copyright infringement lawsuit.
