2015

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6 Top Online Photography Portfolio Hosting Options

Your photography deserves a website that can showcase its creativity and beauty... without breaking the bank. Former TIME CEO and Curator Gallery owner Ann S. Moore told us in a recent interview, “Shame on you if you don’t have a website! You absolutely have to have one!” Today we'll be looking at a few of the top industry solutions for hosting your photography portfolio in style.

CamSwarm Turns Multiple Phones Into a Bullet-Time Camera Array

The "bullet time" effect popularized by the 1999 film The Matrix is generally done by arranging a large number of still cameras on a circular track, so most of the rigs out there cost quite a bit of money to put together. A Columbia University researcher named Yan Wang is trying to make bullet-time imaging more accessible. With his CamSwarm technology, all you need is a group of friends who have smartphones or tablets.

Just In: The Clearest Photo of Pluto Taken So Far

Prior to this year, humankind didn't have a good idea of what Pluto looked like. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is working to change that. It has been steadily flying toward the dwarf planet over the past many months, and on July 14th, during a flyby, we'll be seeing the first-ever clear photos of Pluto.

How I Built Myself a Large Format 4×5 Monorail View Camera

I’ve been taking photos all of my life. Something that I realize now started from a young age: I’ve been genetically disposed with bad eyes, but it was only discovered around the age of ten. This forced me to look closely at what was in front of me for a long time. Once I got tested and got glasses an entire world opened up. As a result, I’ve always looked at things and people with an appreciation I doubt I could’ve had any other way.

Photographer Recovers $15K in Stolen Gear Thanks to EXIF Copyright Info

If your camera lets you automatically add copyright EXIF metadata to every photo you take, you should do it: it could help you recover your gear if it ever gets stolen. That's exactly what happened to photographer Jon Grundy: after losing $15,000 in gear, Grundy was able to identify the thief and recover his stolen equipment after seeing his name in the copyright info of online photos.

Anti-Freedom of Panorama Proposal Rejected by EU

Good news for photographers in Europe: freedom of panorama will live on to see another day -- in most countries, at least. Today the European Parliament voted on a controversial proposal that threatened to restrict the photography of copyrighted buildings and sculptures from public places. An overwhelming majority of MEPs voted against the plan.

Astropad Turns Your iPad Into a Pro Graphics Tablet for Mac OS X

A graphic tablet can be a useful but expensive piece tool in a photographer’s setup. That's why the folks over at Astropad HQ decided to enable Apple’s iPad to give you the same experience as using a graphic tablet. Astropad is a $20 solution that lets you to turn your iPad into a full featured graphics tablet. Powered by the company’s custom technology know as ‘LIQUID’, your iPad is always responsive and ready to work.

5 Steps to Making a Magical Animal-Filled Forest with Photoshop

Before I get into the nitty gritty details of how this piece came together, I would just like you all to take a minute to appreciate how very talented Mackenzie Johnson is. (She is the model for this photo, and happens to be a YouTube-singer-songwriter in case you were unaware.) Not only did she do her own hair/makeup/wardrobe and model like boss, but she even actually played and sang for this photo.

5DS Handed Highest DxOMark Score for a Canon, But Still Trails Nikon and Sony

DxOMark published its sensor test scores for the 50.6-megapixel Canon 5DS and 5DS R DSLRs today, and the news is both good and bad for Canon shooters. On the good side, the cameras scored the highest scores (87 and 86, respectively) ever achieved by Canon sensors. On the other hand, they still lag behind the Nikon D810 and Sony a7R (97 and 95, respectively) in overall quality.

Primer: Using Frequency Separation in Photoshop For Basic Skin Retouching

Photoshop contains a world of post-production tools that photographers can use to bring their works of art to life. Today, we are taking a look at the technique of frequency separation, including how it works and how it can improve your images. For the rest of us without advanced knowledge of image processing, frequency separation is simply a method we can use to separate the colors and tones of a photograph from its textures. By utilizing this technique, you can obtain better control of your …

Russia Unveils ‘Safe Selfies’ Campaign as Death Count Grows

This headline may sound like a piece of satire, but unfortunately it's not: Russia has just launched a new public safety campaign called "Safe Selfies" to warn citizens of the dangers of taking careless and risky self portraits. Apparently there have been a large number of deaths and injuries in recent days that have been directly caused by selfie-taking.

Lensbaby Launches the Creative Mobile Kit with Two ‘Reality Bending’ Lenses

Lensbaby is known for their creative art lenses and mobile accessories including the Composer Pro, LM-10, and Velvet 56. Today, the company has announced their latest addition to their product lineup aimed at smartphone photographers. The new ‘Creative Mobile Kit’ includes two lenses: the LM-20 and the LM-30, a mobile mounting mechanism, and a kickstand for long exposures.

Google Researchers Turn 2D Street View Photos Into Smooth 3D Tours

A group of Google researchers have created a new system called DeepStereo that can predict views of scenery it has never seen before. The technology allows a collection of images to be turned into a three-dimensional walkthrough using sophisticated algorithms to fill in areas that were absent from the photographs -- interpolating missing frames for a smooth experience.

Reporters Left Out of Canadian PM Photo Op, Told Phones Aren’t Cameras

Should smartphone cameras be considered "real cameras" when used by journalists? It appears Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's staff members don't think so. Despite having press credentials, a handful of reporters were denied entry to a photo op between Harper and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley yesterday because they only had smartphones and not non-phone cameras.

Concert Photographer, Where Did Your Integrity Go?

Over the last couple of weeks, the matter of photo contracts has once again been debated. First came Jason Sheldon’s blog post, calling Taylor Swift out on her hypocrisy when attacking Apple for demanding musicians give away their music for free while doing the exact same thing to concert photographers in her photo contracts. If you’re reading this, you’re probably well aware of that whole ordeal, so there’s no need to get into it further other than to say that I fully support …

Review: Palette’s Modular Photo Editing Controls Are Pricey but Powerful

In a world saturated by digital controls and on-screen buttons, the team at Palette is looking to create a more tactile future. Originally launched on Kickstarter, Palette wanted to change the way people interact with software by creating hot-swappable hardware modules. We got a chance to test the Palette Expert Kit, which allowed us to map our favorite programs, such as Lightroom, onto three dials, two sliders, and two buttons.

Photos of an Unusual Pet Family Are a Hit Online

An unusual family of animals is winning hearts on Instagram. The account @bob_goldenretriever has attracted over 77,000 followers so far by regularly sharing snapshots from the life of one man's pets: a eccentric but tight-knit group that consists of one golden retriever, one hamster, and eight birds.

How to Take Criticism to Improve as a Photographer

If you share your photography in any public manner, you're bound to run into critics who point out things you should improve in. While some of the critiques aren't worth listening to and should be tuned out as noise, others may be from more experienced people who have genuinely valuable feedback that could help you grow.

A 3D Flythrough of the Milky Way Created with Over 400K Telescope Photos

Want to be blown away by the size and beauty of the Milky Way? daveachuk of Vancouver, Canada, created this 8-minute-long flythrough of our galaxy in 3D. It may look like a CGI rendering, but it's not: it's actually the result of combining over 400,000 photos captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope across various wavelengths and over 6 years. Gigapixels upon gigapixels of photos were processed and manipulated over 5 months of spare-time work to create what you see above.

No Filter: This ‘Vintage’ Photo Was Shot with a Phone and Binoculars

Kaleta Bartosz was on a boat with his girlfriend off the coast of Croatia last week when they spotted the Royal Clipper -- a five-masted cruise ship -- sailing by in the distance. Bartosz raised his binoculars, placed his smartphone camera against the eyepiece, and captured this vintage-looking photo that looks like something from the pages of an old book.

Instagram May Be Getting Ready to Up Photo Sizes to 1080px

If you’re an Instagram fan, there is a good chance that your experience is about to get quite a bit better. In the past, Instagram has uploaded and stored user images at a meager resolution of 640x640. In a world in which smartphones are beginning to include quad HD displays, a non-HD resolution seems subpar. Luckily, it appears that 1080x1080 Instagram uploads are on the way.