For many advanced photographers, the rule of thirds is seen as something of a beginner's trope or amateur construct, but learning how, why, and when to break it can be a challenge. This short episode of Brain Flick helps deconstruct that question and explain why and when "bad" compositions work.
You may not know this, but you can't buy the GoPro Hero5 or Hero5 Session from Amazon right now, and it's not because they're not available to order. The issue is a squabble over pricing that may have cost GoPro as much as $10 million.
I have the best job in the world. Seriously.
Longtime Adobe Lightroom team member Benjamin Warde shares a very useful little tip in this 60 second episode of Lightroom Coffee Break. If you've ever run across a difficult-to-clone spot in Lightroom, Warde shows you how to use a setting that will definitely help.
About 5 years ago, the last employees that worked here left. The company was bought by a Swiss giant in the industry and they decided to move the facility. The site this facility was built on was rented, but the new owners did not renew the contract.
Back in November of 2015, filmmaker Daniel Riley created what he dubbed "the world's brightest flashlight": a 1000W LED panel that pumped out an insane 90000 lumens of light. This week, he took his invention to the skies.
The lens that Sigma Art lovers have been waiting for is finally here (almost). The new Sigma 85mm f/1.4 Art is a welcome addition to Sigma's Art lineup, and I'm sure people all over are saying "it's about time!"
Episode 116 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
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Featured: Photographer Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens
Photographer Felix Hernandez was recently commissioned by Audi to create a set of photos of the R8 sports car. Hernandez used his signature technique of creating realistic photos using miniature scale models, clever props, and careful camera angles.
Want to learn about product photography editing techniques? A small trove of helpful video tutorials has been found in an obscure YouTube channel that had previously gotten no attention.
Canon is planning to launch a miniature satellite into orbit, and onboard will be a space camera that's based on the Canon 5D DSLR.
A backpack filled with extremely rare and valuable Soviet camera prototypes was recently stolen at the Berlin Central Station in Germany.
Gary Fong is famous in the photo industry for inventing the Lightsphere diffusion system, but now he's taking a huge step in a new direction: Fong has directed a Hollywood feature film... using only Sony mirrorless cameras.
The CompactFlash Association announced the development of a brand new family of high-performance memory cards last month. And even though the so-called "CFexpress" storage is still very much in development, these blazing fast cards should have photographers very excited.
We're just one day away from the official release of the DJI Mavic Pro and just over a week away from the GoPro Karma release. But if you're still having trouble deciding between the two foldable drones, this infographic might help.
Marc Silber of Advancing Your Photography just released another insightful conversations with Ansel Adams' son Michael Adams. This time around, they tackle Ansel's famous book The Range of Light, his work schedule, education, childhood, and much more.
Upscaling a photograph always means trading resolution for size. And while Photoshop's "preserve details" scaling does a pretty good job, there's a freeware program called "A Sharper Scaling" that can do it even better.
Chris Hughes' recent trip to Cuba was supposed to be yet another fun travel experience where he could see the local culture and capture some cool drone footage. But thanks to that drone, he instead spent 13 days in solitary confinement in a Cuban jail.
Instagram Web upload is finally here! Okay not really... but it sort of is. As of today, Instagram is available on Windows 10 tablets and PCs, making it possible for the first time to upload a photo to the photo sharing site from your computer. But there is a catch.
As we mentioned this morning, composition is one of the most critical aspects of photography. But another, equally important piece is understanding the basic laws of light and how to use them when capturing a photograph.
Wedding photographer Leslie Hollingsworth captured this comical photo of the wedding party's reaction as a car nearly took her out. In case you've ever wondered, this is what it looks like when a car almost kills you in the middle of a group photo.
Every great photograph consists of three key elements. First and foremost composition, then lighting and, of course, the moment. Look at any great image and you’ll notice these elements.
If you drive around in industrial areas, you may have noticed massive cooling towers across the landscape, the tall, open-topped, cylindrical concrete towers that are used for cooling water or condensing steam for industrial uses.
There are stickers and covers out there that can overlay Photoshop shortcut icons over your keyboard, but those may soon be unnecessary. Apple is reportedly interested in the dynamic E Ink keyboard created by Sonder, a keyboard that can instantly change what's displayed on each of the keys.
Google has announced a new update for Google Photos that brings four new features for finding, animating, and rotating your precious memories.
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to night photography is incorporating good foreground elements, but learning a few simple tricks will instantly elevate your game.
Storm and wedding photographer Mike Olbinski of Phoenix, Arizona, is back again with another incredible time-lapse project that shows summer monsoon season covering landscapes with rain, lightning, and dust. The 8-minute video above is titled "Monsoon III."
The children of wealthy people often flaunt their opulence through Instagram photos, spawning a popular blog called Rich Kids of Instagram. Now those Instagram users have an exclusive photo sharing app designed for them as well. It's aptly named Rich Kids, and it costs a whopping $1,000 per month to share photos through the service.
Over the past several months, Adobe has been promoting Photoshop at major sporting events with its "Adobe Photoshop Fan Cam," which shows fans in attendance being Photoshopped on the big screen. Adobe recently invited PetaPixel to a game for a behind-the-scenes look at how the Fan Cam is done.
Choosing the right hashtags for your Instagram photos can make a big difference in how many eyeballs see your work. If you find yourself constantly struggling to come up with the best relevant hashtags for your photos, there's a new web tool designed just for you. It's called Display Purposes.
San Francisco-based Shoot Film Co. has launched a new notebook for film photographers called PhotoMemo. It's a small, simple, and elegant way to jot down technical details and notes while you're out shooting.
This is a review of the Canon 5D Mark IV. My name is Albert Palmer, and I’m a professional wedding photographer who uses my cameras at least 1 to 3 times a week -- often for 10 to 12 hours a day and in quite challenging conditions.
Episode 115 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
Download MP3 - Subscribe via iTunes, Google Play, email or RSS!
Featured: Photographer, retoucher and digital artist Clinton Lofthouse
If you're looking for an affordable way to capture 360° photos and high def video, Ricoh's new Theta SC is worth a look. Full featured and powerful, the camera delivers surprising performance at a tempting price point.
In a recent interview with LensVid at Photokina, Sigma's CEO Kazuto Yamaki answered a question many have been asking for years: why does Sigma continue to make cameras when lenses are clearly their strong suit? The answer was ... surprising.
Google's Android Experiments platform is all about wacky ideas, and the company's own experimental app Sprayscape is nothing if not wacky. Using your smartphone's camera and gyroscope, the app lets you paint 'perfectly imperfect' VR-ish 360° photos.
Walt Disney reportedly smoked three packs a day, so how come it's so difficult to find a photo of Walt smoking when you're walking around Disneyland or digging through the Disney Archives? The answer is simple: all of the cigarettes have been Photoshopped out.
This is one of the best "Internet saves the day" stories we've run across. When a filmmaker in North Carolina took his drone out to survey the damage done by Hurricane Matthew, he inadvertently helped rescue a man and his elderly dog who were trapped in a flooded house.
Over in Peoria, Illinois, a box of nearly 200 glass negatives from the late 1800s and early 1900s has been found in the corner of the attic in a condemned house.
At the end of October, for the first time in history, you'll have the chance to own one of Ansel Adams' 4x5 view cameras for yourself. Heritage Auctions has gotten their hands on an Arca-Swiss 4x5 inch view camera used by Ansel in the 60s, and on October 27th it goes up on the auction block.
Official Lone Star State Photographer Wyman Meinzer is a Texas legend. A world-class hunter, trapper, marksman, outdoor pioneer, and photographer, he's the ultimate outdoorsman and quintessential Texan.
Leica just added a strange very limited edition camera to their M line. It's called the Leica M-P (Typ 240) "Grip," and it's covered in the rubber material you'd usually find on a ping pong paddle.
Let's be honest, the best part of High School Chemistry was definitely setting stuff on fire, which is probably why we enjoyed the latest "Beauty of Science" video so much. Following up on his stunning Crystalization timelapse, Yan Liang decided to capture combustion next.
Here's a 3-minute video by Great Big Story about the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, a nuclear bunker that was once used by the Feds to house $4 billion worth of gold. Its goal these days is to preserve the nation's history of film.
Check out this tin that's designed to look like the vintage Leica M3 35mm rangefinder camera. From a distance it may be mistaken for the real thing, but the storage tin simply has the design printed flat on the surface.
When Google announced its Pixel smartphone last week and boasted about its "best smartphone camera ever," there was one notable thing it lacked compared to the iPhone: optical image stabilization. Instead of physically stabilizing shots, the Pixel uses readings from the phone's built-in gyroscope to compensate for shake.
This 1-minute video was captured by a road-tripping group of friends who stuck a GoPro out a car window while driving down a road in Vermont. It's also a video that accidentally captures how one of the kids lost his dad's $1,000 DSLR.
Canadian fine art photographer David Burdeny created this remarkable photo of a giant iceberg that's neatly divided into four quadrants, each with a different look.
For his book and project Abandoned Asylums, Ottawa, Canada-based photographer Matt Van der Velde took his camera into abandoned state hospitals, asylums, and psychiatric facilities across the United States.
The latest photo trend taking over your Twitter feed this week is also quickly rising to the top of the Internet's "Reasons I Shattered My Smartphone Screen" list. It's been dubbed the "hands-free..." or "self-five selfie," and it's exactly as ridiculous as it sounds.
