“Street photography is dead”, declare forum threads and thinkpieces far and wide. The Internet and phone cameras have watered the quality down. The uniformity of the modern world means nothing is interesting anymore. Privacy and security issues make it immoral and dangerous. From a lot of angles, it seems, the photographic discipline I love is under attack.
Roger Cicala—the founder of Lens Rentals and one of the most entertaining and informative voices in the world of optical testing—has some news for you: zoom lenses are never as good as primes, and they vary so much from copy to copy that you should probably never trust a zoom lens review.
I’m always searching for interesting personal projects—ideas that are worth the effort and time it takes to make it visible.
Here's a neat little animation from Harman Technologt, the folks behind the Ilford brand of film, that breaks down exactly how a basic film photography SLR (single lens reflex) camera works.
It's time to give some long-overdue love to two cheap films in price, but by no means in quality. It can be tempting to go for the expensive films when you're out buying rolls of 35mm, but let's not forget about the bottom of the shelf.
Yongnuo has been making decent Canon knockoffs for a while now, so when it was discovered that an 85mm f/1.8 Canon clone was in the works, we got excited. Now, we get to find out if the Yongnuo, at half the price of its Canon counterpart, can keep up.
I had a few hours to kill before work one morning, so I decided to head down to a public garden a few miles from my house and take some pictures.
DJI has announced the winning photos of its 2016 SkyPixel Photo Contest, which honors the best aerial and drone photos captured around the world using DJI camera drone equipment. The grand prize winner this year is the photo above, titled "Fishermen close the net" by Ge Zheng.
Moving down the aisles that are carved between each row of seats, the line slowly edges on. A choir of no more than three people -- woman and two men -- expel their voices gently and slowly, serenading the churchgoers as they inch forward toward the pulpit where they receive their bread and wine.
Hungarian fine art photographer Balint Alovits recently completed a new project titled "The Time Machine." It's a collection of photos showing the Bauhaus and Art Deco staircases found in buildings around Budapest.
Pixlplay is a new hardware and software combo that transforms your smartphone into a special camera designed for kids.
Buying a car is a stressful, time-consuming task for the average American. So when I was asked to create imagery that shows the fun, functionality and ease of purchasing a car in the digital age by Edmunds, it was a tall order to say the least.
Apple's next top-of-the-line iPhone may cost over $1,000 -- enough to buy two entry level DSLR kits with a chunk of change to spare.
It's often said that a camera adds 10 pounds to a person being photographed. SciShow made this 2-minute video exploring reasons why cameras play tricks on our eyes when it comes to apparent weight.
How much of an impact does light pollution have on how we see the night sky? Photographer Sriram Murali has created a new video that aims to show us the answer.
Episode 149 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
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Featured: Parachūt co-founder Melissa Niu
How many times have you rolled your eyes at those "zoom... enhance... zoom in closer... I SAID ENHANCE!" scenes on television shows? Well, Google is attempting to unroll your eyes with a pair of neural networks that can intelligently "enhance" images using a source image that is just 64 pixels.
Vincent Moschetti of One Year with Film Only has developed a fun little "tool" that will help film beginners find their perfect 35mm match. It's called "Film Dating," and it's basically a 5-step questionnaire that tries to narrow down the qualities you like in a film stock and suggest the best option for you.
The world of iPhone lenses is heating up, and Moment doesn't want to be left behind. The company—known for its high quality smartphone lenses—just launched a Kickstarter to fund a new wide-angle lens, a slim mounting case, and a battery case that features a two-stage shutter button.
Improved optics, improved stabilization, improved autofocus, there's not much that isn't improved about the new Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS II. Maybe that's why Kaiman Wong calls it "Canon's best lens" in his latest gear review.
Former White House photographer Pete Souza has been making headlines lately, but not the way he usually does. Souza, it seems, is using his old Obama photo archives to comment on, mock, and otherwise troll the new Trump Administration.
There are a lot more music photographers than there are music photography jobs — that’s just how it is in this corner of the industry. It's a port of entry for many hobbyist photographers, and the result is saturation of the market. A lot of budding photographers are willing to work for free, making the gigs that are out there even tougher to get.
Need a home studio for some product photography? COOPH has some great ideas for you. In this inspirational little video, the magazine shows you how to build a DIY photography studio at home using mostly household items.
On Saturday, PetaPixel ran the story of a photographer whose photo had been imitated to a surprisingly thorough degree by a German ad agency. While a poll on that article suggested that a clear majority (~74%) of respondents saw it as unethical plagiarism, I thought I’d dig into the legal aspects a bit.
Today is Google Maps' 12th birthday, and graphic design student Matteo Archondis is paying the platform homage in a really cool way. A fan of timelapse and hyperlapse techniques, Archondis created a visual hyperlapse tour of the world using only screenshots taken within Google Maps.
Four engineers who pioneered the creation of digital image sensors have been awarded this year's prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize, which comes with a hefty £1 million award. The prize is considered to be one of the world's most prestigious in the field of engineering.
Photos of Canon's soon-to-be-announced EOS M6 mirrorless camera have leaked, and unlike the M5, it doesn't feature an EVF. Instead, Canon is releasing a new removable EVF that has also leaked for your peeping pleasure.
The exodus continues. Warren Ng, one of the only recognizable faces left at DigitalRev, has announced that he, too, has left the company and its 1.7-million subscriber YouTube channel DigitalRev TV.
But wait, there's more! They never actually say it, but Westcott's new Omega 360 Reflector is dripping with "But wait, there's more!" The versatile reflector kit from Westcott touts itself as the world's first 15-in-1 reflector.
Max Asabin is a Russian hobbyist photo retoucher and digital artist who has been wowing the Internet as of late with his Photoshop skills. Many of his creations involve combining various photos together into seamless composite portraits of people.
Sony just debuted a new type of 3-layer CMOS sensor that captures images with incredible speed. At full tilt, the sensor can capture 1080p Full HD video at a blazing-fast 1,000fps, and all but eliminates the rolling shutter effect when shooting fast moving objects.
We love a good in-camera double exposure; done right, they can look as surreal as anything we can create in post. But if you don't have the skills, expertise, or interest in doing it in-camera, this quick tutorial shows you exactly how to fake the 'double exposure effect' in Photoshop.
Professional birth photography has been growing as a niche over the past few years as more and more expectant mothers want their labor and delivery experiences captured on camera. Lauren Chenault decided to go a different route: as a photographer herself, she decided to shoot her own delivery room photos.
So-called "gray market" products are popular in the world of photography, but buying your Sigma gear through an unauthorized reseller will cost you in the long run. Not only will Sigma not honor the warranty on gray market products, they'll actually charge you extra to fix them.
A photography professor in Oklahoma recently had an awesome idea for teaching his students about the beginnings of photography: he turned his classroom into a giant camera obscura.
Need a little creative boost this week? Here's a short video that shares 4 fun smartphone hacks that might just inspire you to create something different using the little computer in your pocket as either the camera or a prop.
A lot can be said in a single photo. As the old cliché says, “a picture is worth 1,000 words.” Certain famous images have had some impact in shaping the public perception of an event, such as Nick Ut’s “Napalm Girl” photo, which ran in many newspapers and changed how people thought about the Vietnam War.
The next lens in Sony's high-end G Master line has been revealed, and it promises the "highest ever quality bokeh for an alpha lens." Say hello to the FE 100mm f/2.8 STF GM OSS.
Lino Manfrotto, the photojournalist who founded the eponymous Manfrotto line of tripods and camera accessories, died at his home in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, on Sunday, February 5th, 2017. He was 80.
Tamron has two major zoom lens updates to share today, and at least one of them will make Tamron fans very happy. Almost four years after the first generation lens was announced, Tamron is unveiling a new and improved SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD.
We've gotten used to drones capturing cool, cinematic, sometimes never-before-seen images and video from the skies. But last night at the Super Bowl, Intel flipped the script, making the drones the subject of the spectacle instead of the machines capturing it.
It would be great if you could take advantage of an epic or picturesque backdrop every time you went out to shoot portraits. But since we don't all live in Iceland, here are a few simple tips that'll help you make the most of a crappy location on your next spontaneous portrait shoot.
The world's fastest 105mm lens, the $2,200 Nikon 105mm f/1.4, made a big splash when it arrived on the scene, but is there a more affordable 105mm lens that can produce similar results? Laowa's $700 105mm f/2 STF lens gives it a shot in this lens shootout.
Is Instagram on the rise, or the decline? The folks over at DigitalRev would say it's the latter, and they believe they know why: Instagram is trying to be too many things to too many people.
Well, that’s one month in the books for my 365 project. There were some days where the ideas came easy and some nights filled with tears. (Okay not that dramatic.) According to Lightroom, I took 1244 photographs this month.
Those ropes and signs at National Parks that people seem so eager to disobey are there for good reason. If you don't believe us, just check out these photos and video that show the dangers of stepping outside the designated viewing area at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
On a recent business trip to San Francisco to help my long-time friend and talented photographer Jenn Collins on her retouching workflow, she graciously gifted me in the best way possible. She knows my sense of humor and somehow found this loose-leaf paper book of the sassiest invoices I had ever seen!
It’s 2017, and Instagram is now 600 million users strong; that’s a lot of new images/videos and stories each day. An effervescent but non curated activity. Beside all the personal accounts and brands, there’s a few magazines. Some of them revolve around the third art: photography. Let’s get a deeper look…
Episode 148 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
Download MP3 - Subscribe via iTunes, Google Play, email or RSS!
Featured: Photographer John Steele
Pelican brand hard cases are a popular choice for photographers who need to safely transport camera and lighting gear from photo shoot to photo shoot. BrandmadeTV made the 6.5-minute video above that offers a behind-the-scenes look at how these durable hard cases are manufactured.
