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You Can Use a Flat Screen TV as a Cheap and Simple Backdrop for Product Photos

As my startup gear brand Eupidere grows, we face more and more photographic challenges in shooting thrifty product photos. Recently, I had just minutes to come up with an image that is a) eye catching, and b) Christmas related. There are lots of Christmas decorations around right now and the little guy above, wearing striped pajamas, is one of them. We decided to put him into a winter scenery and wish everyone Merry Christmas.

This is How Canon Flips the Mirror in Its New DSLRs

If you shoot with a DSLR, you might take for granted that the mirror inside your camera swings out of the way to allow light to hit the sensor. There's actually quite a bit of precise engineering behind those seemingly simple flips.

With its new Canon 5DS and 5DS R, Canon introduced a new mechanical mirror mechanism that's designed to reduce mirror flip vibrations. The 43-second video above shows how the system works.

The FAA’s B4UFLY App Tells You Where You Can Fly a Camera Drone

Since May of 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been beta testing a new smartphone app called B4UFLY (pronounced "before you fly"). It's a portable resource that helps aerial photographers and other drone pilots stay up to date on where it's safe and legal to fly.

An Introduction to the Many Kinds of Clamps Used in Photo Shoots

Photographer Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens made this helpful 7-minute video tutorial that provides a crash course on the different types of clamps used by photographers during shoots.

"This is not super glamorous stuff to talk about," says Morgan, "but it’s the basics that we use every single day that we’re on set."

SP-445: A New Small and Simple Developing Tank for 4×5 Large Format Film

Long-time film photographer Timothy Gilbert was frustrated with existing options for processing 4x5 large format sheet film at home, so, as an engineer, he decided to create an easy-to-use and affordable system himself.

After several prototypes and extensive testing, what he came up with is the SP-445 processing system, an extremely compact and simple tank that requires minimal chemicals and effort.

Here’s How Camera Brands Have Fared on Flickr Over the Past 5 Years

Flickr recently gathered up photo and camera data to review the past year, and now the company is doing some number crunching to reveal major trends in the cameras used by the photographer community.

The graph above shows how the popularity of major camera brands have changed over the past half decade.

A Look at Serena Williams’ Photo Shoot for the Cover of Sports Illustrated

Here's a short behind-the-scenes video showing how fashion photographer Yu Tsai recently photographed tennis superstar Serena Williams for Sports Illustrated magazine. Williams was featured in the cover story after being selected as the publication's Sportsperson of the Year, the first time an individual woman has taken the award in over 3 decades.

How Memorable Are TIME’s Top 10 Photos of 2015… to a Computer?

The braniacs at MIT have created an algorithm to determine the “memorability” of a photograph. The deep learning-based technology “learned” what makes a photo memorable by evaluating the rankings from 5,000 human volunteers, and even indicates which portions of an image it considers to be memorable with a heatmap depiction. The algorithm is allegedly as good as a human in determining what makes a memorable photograph.

But ranking a photo based purely on aesthetics isn’t necessarily how humans associate photographs. Context matters. Where was I? What was I doing? What is this photo representative of? I decided to test the algorithm against TIME magazine’s top 10 photos of 2015.

Nikon D5 Has a Big Removable Eyepiece and a Built-In Viewfinder Shutter

When the first Nikon D5 photos leaked out earlier this week, sharp-eyed commenters noticed that the viewfinder appears to have little release buttons on the side, suggesting that the camera will have a larger interchangeable viewfinder piece.

Those observations were spot on: newly leaked photos show that the upcoming Nikon D5 does have a large eyepiece that can be easily removed by pushing the buttons in and sliding the piece off.

This Algorithm Can Tell How Memorable a Photo Is

Some photographs have the power to burn themselves into our memories for a long time, while others are easily forgettable after they're seen. Scientists are MIT have been researching the science behind memorable images, and now they've created a web app called LaMem that can analyze any photo and assign it a memorability score.

Develop Your Negatives: How To Turn Bad Moments Into Great Photos

The next time you are frustrated, having a bad day or negativity is simply surrounding you, break the cycle and turn everything around with your photography. It always amazes me how incredibly powerful photography is in bringing light into the darkness of life. While most of the things don’t have this almost magical power, your photography has. It’s one of the most positive things you could do, especially in moments when you need it the most.

Shooting Above-and-Below Photos of Icebergs with a Custom Camera Rig

Photographer Steve Mandel just returned from Antarctica, where he made photos of icebergs using an underwater camera, a surface camera, and a drone.

For his underwater shots, Mandel shot each photo so that it's a split view in a single frame: half of it shows the iceberg above water, and half shows what's below.

These Light Painting Photographs Were Made Using an Automated Drone

German drone manufacturer Ascending Technologies is celebrating Christmas season this year by doing some light painting photography. Each of the photos they've made was painted by an automated drone that was programmed to follow waypoints in the sky.

The company believes this is the first drone light painting project of this kind.

Photographer Criticized for Christmas Photo Showing Family Bound and Gagged

Louisiana-based photographer Hannah Hawkes is taking heat this week over a family portrait she shot and shared on her Facebook page. The Christmas photo shows the father holding a sign that reads "Peace on Earth" while the mother and two daughters are gagged with green tape and bound with Christmas lights.

The photo soon went viral in a negative way for Hawkes, as commenters around the Web condemned the photo as "sexist," "degrading," and promoting violence toward women.

Is Your Photography Improving? Graph Your Keepers to Find Out

Are you improving at photography? We probably all ask ourselves the question, yet often we don’t know how to find the answer in any meaningful way. It is something that has nagged me for years, so I finally decided to find out if I really have been improving. Here is how I did it.

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Was Shot on Film, and Kodak May Be Profitable in 2016

Back in July 2013, we shared how major filmmakers had banded together to rescue Kodak by committing to purchasing film from the company. One of the big names was J.J. Abrams, the director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which opens this week.

The new Star Wars was shot on Kodak film, and thanks to a number of other major productions using Kodak as well, Kodak says it may be profitable starting next year.

25 Moods of an Ocean, As Seen by a Photographer at Eye Level

For the past 2 years, photographer Che Chorley has been working has been working on a seascape project. Each shot is captured with the surface of the sea at about eye level, and each mainly shows the ocean, horizon, and sky.

But different weather and times of day cause the photos to have drastically different appearances. Chorley has put together a set of 25 seascape photos showing 25 different "moods" the ocean showed him.

This is What Happens When a Camera Gets Dropped in Lava

Ever wonder what happens to a camera if you accidentally drop it into a volcano's molten lava? Well, wonder no more, because some poor photographer found out the hard way.

Photographer Amanda Stevens was working at Samy's Camera in Pasadena, California, this past weekend when she came across this Sony Alpha mirrorless camera that had been destroyed by lava damage.

Guy Shuts Down Major Freeway for Proposal Photos

A man in Houston, Texas, is being heavily criticized this week after causing traffic on a major freeway to come to a standstill while he proposed to his girlfriend -- all for "priceless" photos and a video that were shared on Instagram and Facebook.

There Are Now 8x More People Taking Pictures than 10 Years Ago

Camera sales haven't been doing too well in recent years, but that hasn't kept picture taking from exploding. While the dedicated camera industry has seen year-on-year declines, smartphone photography has turned everyone into a casual photographer: there are now 8 times as many picture takers worldwide than there were 10 years ago.

Smiles in Exile

Tragedy and drama have so far been the images of the refugee crisis. When I went out there to document the situation I knew there would be more to it and I was not disappointed.

Canon’s New Billboards Provide Real Time Photo Tips

Canon's latest billboard ad campaign in New York City does more than promote the camera brand: they can actually help you shoot better photos. Each of the fixed and mobile truck billboards is updated in real time with useful photo tips you can use on the spot.

Adobe Doubles Profits Thanks to Growth in Creative Cloud Subscribers

Adobe announced its quarterly results last Thursday, and investors are happy: the company beat market expectations by doubling profits from a year ago thanks to a huge growth in Creative Cloud subscribers. It seems that the shift from boxed software to digital subscription plans is paying off big time for the San Jose, California-based company.

These 2 Street Photographers Deal with Angry People in Very Different Ways

Street photographers Chuck Jines and Keenan Hastings both uploaded videos this week showing confrontations they had while shooting on the street -- Jines in New Orleans and Hastings in Detroit. They both came across strangers who didn't appreciate their photo being made, but Jines and Hastings had two very different ways of dealing with the situation.

‘Time Lapse’ is a Sci-Fi Thriller About a Camera That Photographs the Future

If you're a fan of both photography and science fiction, here's a movie you can add to your queue of things to watch: "Time Lapse." Released earlier this year, the film is about a mysterious camera device that shoots Polaroid pictures that show the future.

"Three friends discover a mysterious machine that takes pictures 24hrs into the future," the movie's synopsis reads. "They conspire to use it for personal gain, until disturbing and dangerous images begin to develop..." You can watch the 2-minute trailer above.

The Evolution of Cameras Explained in 11 Portraits

Want to see how the look of portraits have evolved with major camera developments throughout history? Photographer Leo Rosas Morin of COOPH shot 11 portraits of 1 model, and using Photoshop, he recreated the aesthetics of 11 key moments in photography history.

Stunner Santa Poses for a Male Fashion Photo Shoot

For its holiday campaign this year, the Yorkdale shopping mall in Toronto, Canada, created Fashion Santa. Instead of wearing his traditional red hat, coat, trousers, and boots, Santa posed for a photo shoot wearing festive outfits representing the latest trends in male fashion.