Heads up: for some reason the Sony a7R full frame mirrorless camera is currently listed on the Sony Store for $199.99 instead of its regular price of $1,898. This may either be a temporary mistake on Sony's end or one of the best camera deals you'll ever see in your life.
This year, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, also called the "Nifty Fifty" celebrates its 25th birthday. Yes, that's right: this lens was released back in December 1990 and is the second oldest lens that's still in production. Yet it still dominates the list of the most popular Canon lenses, and for good reason: it's cheap, it's fast, it's small and lightweight, and it offers good performance for the price, which makes it the first prime lens for most Canon owners.
I recently went to great lengths to solve a simple problem. I have a Manfrotto monopod that requires a little screw to attach my camera to the monopod. Without it, I can't use it. The screws are cheap and no big deal... but, they are too easy to lose.
In this article I will take a look at Google Photos' new photo compression performance. I've been using a program called JPEGmini for a couple years now to compress my JPEG images. Its compression of JPEGs is lossy, but it claims to do so leaving the perceptual image quality virtually unchanged. As far as I can tell, its claims are pretty accurate, and it has literally helped me cut the size of some of my picture folders in half.
One of the big Hollywood blockbusters to hit the silver screen this year has been Mad Max: Fury Road, which has gotten rave reviews, with many praising the insane and complex visual design of the film. If you were wondering what some of the shots looked like when they were originally captured on camera, here are some before-and-after comparison images showing those shots next to the final frames after visual effects were applied.
Photographer Jimmy Nelson has spent years traveling the globe in a quest to document the world's most fantastic indigenous cultures before they and their way of life disappear. In the 17-minute TED talk above, Nelson shares some of his best large format portraits and some fascinating things that he has learned along the way. (Note: there's a bit of nudity in the photos).
Nikon’s D7000 lineup of enthusiast level cameras is currently the highest one can go before moving onto a full-frame FX series body. The company’s latest creation, the Nikon D7200, provides incremental improvements upon the previous model while also upping the standards for low-light performance in enthusiast DSLR camera systems. In a world of connected mobile devices, Nikon has also added WiFi and NFC for smarter access to photographs.
Want to play around with pinhole photography by building your own cardboard camera? Photographer Raymundo Panduro of Pixel Análogo has just released a free template for building a 35mm sprocket camera.
Steel wool is often done by lighting a small ball of steel wool on fire and then swinging it around in a long exposure photo while it burns. But what happens when you take it to the extreme? The folks over at Joby recently decided to see what you get when you burn a giant 2-foot ball of burning steel wool.
If you've downloaded a copy of GIMP for Windows from SourceForge in recent days, you may want to double check to make sure you didn't get other programs installed as well. Some copies of the "open source Photoshop" were apparently being offered with for-profit adware bundled with the installer.
Google launched Google Photos yesterday.
Photographer Steve Axford lives in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, Australia, where he has spent a considerable amount of time exploring the rainforest with his camera in hand. Among his favorite subjects are Australian fungi, which come in countless shapes, sizes, colors, and textures -- diversity that Axford captures in his photos.
Back in April, we reported that there was a new bill in Colorado that aimed to protect citizens' rights to record police and to punish officers who interfere with those rights. Well, good news for photographers: the bill has been signed into law.
Ongeim'l Tketau, or "Jellyfish Lake," on the island country of Palau is a place you need to add to your underwater photography bucket list. The waters are famous for the millions of jellyfish that migrate across the lake on a daily basis, which provide for incredible views that many have captured on camera.
I'll say this right up front: what you’re about to read is not a review of the Fujifilm X100T. That’s a good thing, because I’m a lousy camera reviewer. So if that’s what you’re looking for, stop reading right now and hightail it over to one of the many excellent camera review sites instead. You know the ones. Just don’t forget to help support those reviewers’ growing families and camera collections by clicking through to one of their fine sponsoring vendors.
Camera triggering company Triggertrap has launched a new iOS camera app called Triggertrap Selfie. Its functionality is simple: sound-triggered selfies. Simply point your phone, make a loud sound (e.g. scream at your camera), and the app will take care of snapping a shot for you.
French photographer Francois-Marie Banier has been sentenced to three years in jail after the courts found him guilty of taking advantage of France's richest woman while she had dementia, manipulating her into giving him cash and gifts worth an estimated €414 million (~$455 million).
Richard Prince has caused quite a commotion over the past week after it came to light that he has been selling other people's Instagram photos for upwards of $100,000. Now, one of the people he took from is responding in a clever way: she's reselling Prince's artwork for $90 instead of $90,000.
Google today announced a new virtual reality system called Jump that uses a special new camera rig created in partnership with GoPro. It's a crazy-looking 360-degree camera array that uses 16 separate GoPro cameras.
If you have ever dreamed of taking photographs through a camera obscura, then we have some great news for you! Former fashion photographer and inventor Valmont Achalme has designed the Lumigraphe, “a camera obscura for your smartphone”. The project is currently on Kickstarter seeking $49,276 with the promise of helping you capture “beautiful effects” starting around $100.
Google today announced its new and long awaited Photos service, a standalone service that's separate from Google+. It's "a single, private place to keep a lifetime of memories, and access them from any device," Google says.
In the world of photography, every once in a while an anniversary comes around that is worth recognizing. Today, Canon is celebrating the ten-year anniversary of its EOS 5D camera line, which was originally announced on August 22nd, 2005. The original 5D represented a significant evolution in the digital photography market by lowering the bar of entry for photographers interested in full-frame DSLR cameras.
How far would you go for the perfect wildlife photo? Would you sit on a rotting whale carcass in the midst of great white shark feeding frenzy? Well, that's exactly what one scientist photographer does in the clip above, which aired back in 2008 on the Discovery Channel.
Back in 2013, Lomography resurrected the 19th century Petzval lens for Canon and Nikon DSLRs, creating a modern 85mm version of the classic portrait lens. Today, the company one-upped itself by announcing a followup, the new Petzval 58 Bokeh Control Art lens.
The art of street photography can be an extremely rewarding experience for photographers who are looking to capture the current state of the human condition. Candid street photography has allowed artists to capture the nature of the world and reflect on how society truly acts when it does believe it is being watched. If you’ve begun your venture into the world of street photography and already have a good handling of the basics, here are some tips to take your work to the next level.
Pixelmator, the popular photo editing app for Mac and iPad, is now available for iPhones. The app is designed for mobile photographers who want "advanced, desktop-class photo editing tools" at their fingertips without having to move photos off their phones.
Photographer John Coates wanted to become more familiar with the latest default Photoshop CC 2014 keyboard shortcuts, so he created a handy cheat sheet to use as an at-a-glance reference. It's designed for photographers who use Mac, and is of high enough resolution (2560×1440) to be used as the desktop background on many displays. You can download the file for yourself here (or here).
GoPro is officially getting into the camera drone industry. After rumors had been swirling since late last year, GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman announced yesterday that the company is building its own quadcopter, and that the drone is set to launch in the first half of 2016.
At Adobe MAX 2014 last October, Adobe gave a tech preview of a new "dehaze" feature that it's currently developing that can seemingly magically remove haze from photos. Above is a new sneak peek video Adobe just posted that shows what's "coming soon to Lightroom CC."
Documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who has had her photographs featured in publications such as Life, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair, died yesterday in Manhattan, age 75. She has traveled extensively across the globe, photographing everything from celebrities to Indian circus people.
'Like a Photograph' is a strange and mysterious short film created by Tom Varisco. Here's what the description says: "A casual snapshot of a woman reveals a dark truth about the photographer."
StuckOnz may be the perfect solution for capturing your ideal self portrait without the need to carry around a clunky Selfie Stick. The new project on IndieGoGo aims to provide affordable “nano suction for phones, cases, and tablets”. For $5, you will receive a pad that allows you to stick your gizmos onto many different surfaces to help you get that perfect photograph you are seeking.
Chris Burkard is a California-based surf photographer who has shot for some of the biggest companies and publications in the world. After years of shooting on popular, sun-soaked beaches and making a living through his "dream job," Burkard began to yearn for beaches that weren't dominated by tourists and the comforts of civilization. So, he began traveling to remote -- and often frigid -- shores around the world for surf photos that are off the beaten path.
Sharp may not be the most popular kid on the block when it comes to smartphone manufacturers, but the company is working hard to offer features that other phones don't have. For its latest Aquos smartphones, Sharp has added 2,100fps slow-motion playback. It's being called the world's highest-rate super slow motion playback for smartphones.
Now here's a neat use of Canon's lenses: the University of Toronto owns one of the smallest professional astronomical telescopes in the world that uses an array of photographic camera lenses instead of a single lens. Called the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, it uses ten ordinary Canon 400mm f/2.8L IS II lenses that cost $9,999 each. That's $100,000 in photo gear.
A new startup company, TEKNIQ Photo, believes that you are carrying around too many camera bags and that they have the perfect solution. TEKNIQ is a modular camera bag that is designed to act as three in one - a backpack, a sling, and a messenger. The project itself has launched on KickStarter, where the company is seeking $50,000 to proceed with manufacturing.
Freelance photographer Max Ellis of Teddington, UK, has received quite a bit of attention as of late for his ongoing Squirrelismo project, which features portraits of squirrels posing with various props. We caught up with Ellis to find out the secrets behind his viral pictures.
A Seattle-based fine art photographer is suing Pinterest for infringing upon his copyrights and other intellectual property rights. Christopher Boffoli claims that his photographs have been posted over 5,000 times on the public site, and that Pinterest isn’t doing enough to “protect photographers and their work”.
Have you ever found yourself in the following situation? You are researching wedding photographers, either as a prospective client or as a photographer scoping out the competition, and encounter the following:
There are many people who have studied and understand the art world better than me. But there is one thing that I’m sure of: Richard Prince is a jerk.
Aerial photography drones are highly useful pieces of technology that help us to broaden our visual horizons. However, popular consumer drones, from companies such as DJI, can cost well over a thousand dollars - something you certainly want to be careful with while flying. A new product on Kickstarter, SmartChutes, believes that they can help you to protect your drone in the event of a catastrophic mechanical failure or pilot error.
Collotype is a photo printing process that was invented by French photographer Alphonse Louis Poitevin back in 1856. Due to its ability to preserve fine detail in prints, the process was used to create fine art photo prints for many years before other processes arrived on the scene.
There's some very sad news in the world of photography today: renowned American photographer Mary Ellen Mark passed away yesterday in New York City at the age of 75.
In a world in which photographs are primarily taken with digital image sensors, there are a growing number of photographers who are newly interested in film formats of the past. But why would anyone in our age of technological convenience still choose to shoot with analog film?
Mossless photo magazine founder and freelance photo editor Romke Hoogwaerts has launched a new video series titled in situ, which offers a casual, behind-the-scenes look at how photographers work and interact.
Fotodiox has announced a new product called the EyeVenger Eyecup Kit that gives photographers a custom viewfinder eyepiece for left and right eyes that blocks out unwanted light.
Freelensing is the use of a lens decoupled from your camera, manual orienting the lens on various angles to tilt and shift the lens to alter the focal plane. Freelensing is a great method of isolating your subject or creating interest in an otherwise flat or busy scene. This technique has been around for ages but helps achieve a similar look to that created by a tilt-shift lens used often in wedding photography.
Most photocopiers (AKA Xerox machines) these days use a technology called xerography, which is also known as electrophotography. While it's almost always used as a means to create copies of documents, electrophotography can also be used as a photo process for making prints.
Here's an interesting side effect of Facebook's popularity in photo sharing: printed Facebook photo screenshots. Reddit user OutbackBrah was recently taking a look at some photos his aunt printed at Walmart and was surprised to find that they were screenshots taken inside Facebook's mobile app.
Warning: This post contains photos of injured veterans that are difficult to view.
