2015

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.

While riding the subway on Halloween this past weekend, Mike Furlender witnessed a confrontation between a (un)happy unicorn and a clown photographer. The photographer was legally shooting portraits of people wearing costumes, and the unicorn was upset that he didn't ask for her permission before taking her picture.

After founding The Impossible Project to revive Polaroid-style instant film in 2008, Florian Kaps announced his retirement from the company in May 2013. Kaps latest venture is the Vienna-based SUPERSENSE, which is a coffee house, store, photo and music studio, and workshop all rolled into a single space.

This post is a basic rundown of how things work behind my lens, after a big day of shooting. In this case, it's mountain biking. However, whether you're shooting a party, a bike race, a wedding or flowers in the garden, all post-production works the same way.

A few months ago, photographer Adam Flor and I embarked on a sweet project. The goal was to shoot items using different colored backgrounds and use focus stacking to get full sharpness while shooting with a shallow depth of field.

"Care Deeply" is a series of photos by Thai photographer Patcha Kitchaicharoen that captures the simple fact that there are 2 sides to every emotional hug.

Do you know who the most photographed American of the 19th century was? It's not George Custer (155 photos) or Walt Whitman or Abraham Lincoln (130 each). The person with the most portraits made of them in the 1800s was Frederick Douglass, the African-American abolitionist, speaker, writer, and statesman.

A photographer in Louisiana recently shot a baby photo that was a lot more magical than she had planned. In the middle of the outdoor photo shoot, a curious deer decided to wander into the shot to see what was going on. The photobomb resulted in a remarkable and memorable portrait.

The rise of virtual reality photojournalism will get a huge boost this weekend thanks to the New York Times. The newspaper's Sunday bundle for print subscribers will include a free Google Cardboard viewer for experiencing immersive photo and video content. Over 1 million units will be shipping with the paper, and another 300,000 will be sent to digital subscribers as well.

Self-balancing scooters have become all the rage over the past couple of years, and you can now buy a small handle-less Segway-esque device for yourself for around $300 to $400. In addition to gliding around and attracting curious looks on the street, you can also use the "hoverboards" to shoot stable photos and videos.

Here's an interesting blast from the past: in 1965, the US Army released the 25-minute film above to teach the basics of photography (for military police purposes).

Paris-based photographer Mathieu Stern released this short and sweet video showing how he took a 105-year-old folding camera lens from 1910 and mounted it to a Sony a7II mirrorless camera using bellows for focusing.

Ellis Island in Upper New York Bay was the busiest immigrant inspection station in the United States at the dawn of the 20th century, with millions of immigrants arrived in the United States via the island by boat.

When shooting in colder environments, one of the things that can plague your photography is condensation forming on your gear. Photographer Mark Peter Thorpe has a cheap and simple hack for avoiding this problem: heated hand warming packs.

How do the shutter sounds of popular camera brands compare with one another? Which cameras are loud, and which are quiet? Photographer Davin Lavikka recently published the 49-second video above to shed some light (or sound?) on these questions. It's a comparison of the shutter sounds of the Pentax 645Z, Canon 5Ds, Nikon D810, Olympus OM-D E-M5 II, and Sony a6000.

When you're just starting out in photography, you may not have a lot of money to invest in putting together a high-end arsenal of studio lighting equipment. By being resourceful, however, you can do a lot with a little.

Ringo Starr is best known as the rock star drummer of the Beatles, but he was also a passionate photographer who documented the life of one of history's biggest bands first hand. The video above is a 9-minute short film titled "Ringo Starr: Photographer." Made by portrait photographer Mark Seliger for Rolling Stone, it sheds light on Starr's "other life's work." …

Want to make some realistic fake blood for a creepy Halloween photo shoot? Here's a short video tutorial by HouseholdHacker on how you can do so with household things in just a minute.

Warning: This comic contains some explicit language.

We all know Uncle Bob: the man, the myth, the photobombing, shot-blocking, wedding-wrecking legend! Turns out, when he purchased his first digital camera back in 2001, he also launched a blog! …

This past May, photographer Grant Mallory and his girlfriend Maria celebrated Maria's college graduation by embarking on an epic road trip around the United States. Mallory wanted to capture each National Park's scenic locations in a unique way, so he brought along an LED hula hoop and had Maria pose for light painting portraits.

picsbuffet is a new visual image browsing system that lets you explore and search millions of photographs through an interface that feels like Google Maps.

Want to see a super early example of a photo being faked through compositing? Look no further than this circa 1902 photo, titled "General Grant at City Point." It appears to show General Ulysses S. Grant posing on a horse with a large number of soldiers in the background, but it's actually the combination of three different photos.