September 2016

What's the place of digitally manipulated photo illustrations in the world of photography? The age-old discussion was rekindled this week after renowned Australian landscape photographer Ken Duncan spoke out, saying the Australian Professional Photography Awards (APPA) have been "hijacked by manipulators."

If you ever see an ultra-slow-motion clip online, there's a good chance that it was shot using a Phantom high-speed camera. The 12-minute video above is a behind-the-scenes look at how the cameras -- which cost upwards of $150,000 -- are made.

Facebook is changing its policies after a torrent of bad publicity and public outrage over its decision to censor an iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning photo. The social network will now allow photojournalist Nick Ut's famous "Napalm Girl" photo from the Vietnam War.

Facebook is updating its Moments photo app to become more competitive in the world of hosting and sharing. The new version adds the ability to host full-resolution photos and share them over the Web.

It's an apology, but it sounds a little bit like a #humblebrag, too. Fuji X-T2 production can't keep up with demand, and so the company has released an official apology to those buyers who will have to wait a little longer to get their hands on Fuji's new mirrorless camera.

Meyer Optik's renaissance—starting with the special Trioplan 'soap bubble bokeh'—has been nothing short of spectacular... and it's not over yet. In a bid to continue growing, the company is bringing back yet another lens from its storied past: the Primoplan 58mm f/1.9.

There's one feature of Laowa's exciting 12mm f/2.8 'Zero Distortion' lens that's flown mostly under the radar: their special 'Frog Eye Coating' (FEC). But after watching this demo, you'll have to admit it's pretty incredible.

Street photography is one of the easiest genres to get into, and one of the hardest to build up the courage to actually try. Hopefully, this quick video by VSCO Academy will show you just how simple it can be to start capturing great street shots.

Like many of us, photographer Kyle Graham wants to travel the world having adventures and taking pictures full time. Unlike most of us, he's decided to seek out a "SugarMama" to help him make this dream a reality.

Want to see the guts of the most anticipated DSLR of the year? You're in luck. Roger Cicala over at LensRentals took the time to tear down, piece-by-piece, a brand new Canon 5D Mark IV so you can take a look inside and ... just maybe ... learn something, too.

Sony is upping its action cam game in a big way today. The company's already well-regarded action cameras, big competitors for that GoPro that hasn't come out yet, just got Optical SteadyShot Stabilization.

Facebook is being slammed by Norway's largest newspaper after the social network deleted a post showing the iconic Vietnam War 'Napalm Girl' photo because the shot contains nudity.

The Google Photos app wants to be a staple... for iOS photographers. Just a month after poking fun at 16GB iPhones and offering Google Photos as a storage solution, the tech giant has updated the app once again. This time, they want to make your iPhone's 'Live Photos' a lot more usable.

Canon just released this 3.5-minute video that explains how lenses work. We learn about focal points, spherical aberration, chromatic aberration, and how multiple lens elements are used together for aberration correction.

If you've never used an X-Rite ColorChecker Passport before, this quick-and-dirty primer by photographer Jeff Rojas is a great place to start.

Instagram and Apple are making nice. With the release of the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus—and the new camera features built into each of them—Facebook-owned Instagram is building special features and compatibility into an update meant specifically for iPhone 7 users.

Apple officially announced the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus yesterday. In case you missed the live stream of the event, here's a 13-minute recording of the segment in which Apple VP Phil Schiller introduced the new camera features found in Apple's latest flagship smartphone.

I’ve been shooting festivals for a number of years now. In the pit, backstage, on-stage, around the site… While all of that is great (like, really really good fun) I’ve had an idea knocking about for a while now.

Well… that was quick. Just two days after pictures of three new Zeiss lenses leaked online, the company has officially unveiled the new members of the Zeiss Milvus line: the 15mm f/2.8, 18mm f/2.8, and 135mm f/2.

Lifestyle photographer Scotty Turner shared his ‘super scientific’ white balance method on YouTube this morning, and it is spot on. Instead of getting technical about it, he does what we’ve all done at one point or another: he jostles the slider like a maniac to ‘reset’ his eyes.

When you resize (and resample) a photo in Photoshop, you’re given the option of strategies such as Nearest Neighbor and Bilinear. If you have no idea what those mean, check out this 9-minute video by Computerphile.

When photographers think of my country they think of windmills, Amsterdam, and tulips. These are generally the most photographed subjects in the Netherlands. What they don’t know is that my country turns purple in August.

The most appreciated photography project on all of Behance this week is also probably the most touching portrait project you've seen in a while. A simple series of portraits, the project embarked to send one simple message: smiles don't get old.

Sails Chong of Studio NEXT-IMAGE is one of the most creative wedding and couple photographers in the world. His compositions are gorgeous and he seems to be constantly pushing the envelope. Here's a quick peek at two of his latest pre-wedding shoots... explosions included.

NASA recently released a shocking slide show that shows, picture-by-picture, the death of what was once the fourth largest lake on Earth. Known as the Aral Sea, this endothermic lake is now mostly an arid wasteland.

Motorcycle stunt riding is seen as a reckless sport in so many circles. This kind of riding is usually left to YouTube channels filled with guys with helmet mohawks and seriously questionable decision-making skills. Because of this, I often find myself presented with the question: how can this kind of riding be fun? The typical response is: “you’d have to ride to understand.”

Back in July, we reported the rumor that Canon would soon debut their own lenses with digital displays, following in Zeiss' footsteps with the Batis line. Today, we may be getting our first look at what those displays may look like and show.

Once bad boys of rock and roll Motley Crüe are in hot water with the photo community. Two famed rock photographers are suing the band for using their iconic images of the band all over merchandise sold during the Motley Crüe farewell tour last year without permission or payment.

The winners of the 2016 Australian Professional Photography Awards were announced last week, and one of Australia's top photographers isn't happy with the selections. He says the prestigious awards have been "hijacked by manipulators" whose work should be considered illustrations rather than photographs.

DxOMark just finished testing Sony's 85mm f/1.4 GM lens, part of Sony's uncompromising new line of G Master lenses. And the results show that Sony really did leave out the compromise; in fact, it looks like the 85mm f/1.4 GM is on-par with the lusted-after Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 ... at less than half the price.

French criminologist (and high school dropout) Alphonse Bertillon was a pioneer in the field of anthropometry – the use of human measurements – to identify criminals. As a part of this practice, Bertillon standardized the modern mugshot in 1888 with the now familiar frontal and profile portrait, the latter of which was selected because Bertillon believed the ears to be a highly identifiable characteristic.

In 1871, the Prevention of Crimes Act made it a legal requirement that anybody who was arrested in England and Wales had to have their photograph taken—thus was born the official "mug shot". But mug shots from the late 1800s look very different from the ones you might see today.

Film photographers sick of the same-old who want to try something totally different definitely need to give Film Washi a look. The self-styled "world's smallest film company" just started making its signature black-and-white film "W" in 35mm format!

Canon hasn't given up on the EOS M series of mirrorless cameras. In fact, it seems they're preparing to launch what might be considered the "next chapter" in the M-line: The EOS M5. And today we get our first look at it.

Remember Instagram's Photo Maps? No worries, neither did we until we found out today that, shockingly enough, Instagram has decided to kill off a feature they say "was not widely used."

LG is poking fun at profile pictures in their latest ad campaign. Specifically, they're making fun at how people edit the same photo differently depending on which social network they're using that profile pic for.