Here's a simple little GIF that can come in handy the next time you're asked to explain how aperture and depth of field work. Created by Reddit user veedees, it shows exactly how stopping down your lens from f/1.8 all the way to f/16 translates into different depths of field.
Have you ever heard of the ‘donut selfie’? Probably not since it was just 'debuted' today, but it's actually pretty neat. A donut selfie is an interesting take on the video selfie that uses a panoramic technique to create a perpetual, seamless selfie across multiple locations.
We've seen similar techniques before, but never anything quite like Karen X. Cheng's new 'donut' version. Plus, you can create one from start to finish using just a phone.
In a bill meant to bring California's privacy laws into a drone-heavy 21st century, the state just signed an act into law that will make it both illegal and very expensive for anybody seeking to invade someone else's privacy by taking photos of them with a camera drone.
Those of you who own long lenses might want to give this five-and-a-half minute video a watch. In it, wildlife and nature photographer Steve Perry breaks down what heat wave distortion is, how it can affect your images, and offers a few tips if you want to ensure your images stay as sharp as possible.
When then 17-year-old Michael Tatalovich was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in 2013, he decided that he would share this journey with the world. Using Instagram, the High Schooler and photographer documented every step of his grueling ordeal in photos that show the reality of life with Cancer: both the good days and the bad.
As much as wireless technology has all but taken over, there are still times when wires are unavoidable. And when it comes time to tape those cords down, you’re stuck wrangling them up, straightening them, initially securing them, then finally overlaying the tape.
The GaffGun is here to make that process approximately 29x faster – at least according to one of their demonstrations.
This Nikon D750 Review by Ross Harvey was originally published on his blog, and is being reprinted in full with permission.
What this review isn’t: pixel peeping and statistical comparisons between various cameras.
What this review is: a real world account in a professional environment from a gear lover with high standards. It's not intended to be a catch-all review, it's specifically tailored for my own needs and shooting style.
Important notes: 1) These cameras were paid for by myself, it's an unbiased review. 2) I have used and compared gear from many other brands. They didn't hit the spot and hence not adopted professionally. 3) Every shot (except dance floor) is ambient/available light. No flash whatsoever.
Most tutorials tend to focus on one small aspect of the photographic process -- be it tweaking a minor adjustment such as white balance or showing you how to properly sharpen an image -- but this Lightroom 4 QuickStart tutorial goes way beyond this.
It, instead, opts for a more comprehensive approach, showing you how to properly edit almost any landscape image from beginning to end.
Custom-built 20-GoPro array and Red Epic camera in tow, Marc Donahue of PermaGrin Films recently spent some time at San Diego UNITED Training Center to capture breakdancers, parkour athletes and gymnasts performing complex acrobatics in slow motion and bullet time.
If you use Dropbox to store and share your photos, the recent news of an alleged username and password hack probably has you worried. But according to Dropbox, it shouldn't. Not only was Dropbox not hacked, but any usernames/passwords that might have been compromised were reset months ago due to suspicious activity.
This humorous graphic was created by Lee Hutchinson over at Ars Technica in a recent article comparing the iPhone 6 Plus to a Canon DSLR. It suggests that people who are just starting out in photography commonly experience a period of delusion in which they suddenly think they are much greater at photography than they actually are.
If you've ever used a lithium-ion battery for many years, you've probably experienced the gradual loss of the ability to hold charge over time. Thanks to researchers over in Singapore, however, future Li-ion batteries will last much, much longer than present day ones.
Scientists at Nanyang Technology University have developed a new type of lithium ion battery that can reach a 70% charge in a mere two minutes and will keep charging day in and day out for over 20 years. Yes, you read that right. Two decades.
For photographers who are constantly switching between using a shoulder strap and monopod or tripod, Steadsnap might just be the product you’ve been waiting for. It’s a small adapter that mounts to the bottom of your camera and allows you to connect both a mounting plate and sling strap at the same time.
A few days ago we featured the work of a photographer who layered different times of day into single photos. Photographer Julian Tryba's recent project is similar, except it's a timelapse.
Tryba has created what he says is the world's first "layer-lapse" video, or a time-lapse video that shows different times of the day in different parts of each frame. The video is called "Boston Layer-Lapse".
I remember seeing the photo above on Flickr once, and having my brain melt slightly from trying to figure out what went wrong.
The issue was the propeller was rotating as the camera detector ‘read out’, i.e. there was some motion during the exposure of the camera. This is an interesting thing to think about, lets have a look.
Flickr launched a new product today that aims to bring more photos out of digital screens and onto physical walls. It's called Flickr Wall Art: users can now turn their photographs into wall-ready art pieces for home decor (or for use as gifts).
When shooting on-location, bringing your desk along with you can be a drag. What you see above could change that. It's Refold, a portable standing desk made entirely out of recycled cardboard.
Earth can be absolutely beautiful as seen from the ground. But, as wonderful as it is from our point of view, certain scenes just can’t be appreciated unless seen from a bird’s eye view.
It’s this idea that lead satellite imaging company Digital Globe to create Daily Overview, a daily blog that aims to capture the beauty of landscapes and structures as seen from overhead.
I get an email or text about once a month asking me if I think Canon, Nikon, or some other photo manufacturer will ever make something like a 25-300mm f/2.8 zoom lens. I’m usually gentle with those people, because I realize that a lot of people truly believe that if they want something badly enough, someone could make it for them. Occasionally, someone exhibits the Dunning-Kruger Effect and tells me that they know it’s a plot on the part of the manufacturer’s to make us buy multiple lenses instead of just one that could do everything.
I had another one of those emails a few days ago, so I thought it might be interesting to show everyone what a 25-300mm f/2.8 would (approximately) look like.
How many different ways can you capture a car on camera? That's what Toyota's marketing team sat down and brainstormed last year when planning a commercial for the 2014 Toyota Corolla.
The 1-minute ad they came up with (it aired late last year) attempts to use every trick in the book.
In the ongoing app battle to keep private photos safe and sound from unintended recipients (and the general public), a new app called Yovo – You Only View Once – brings an interesting technology to the table.
It's called D-fence, and is based around the idea that your eyes can see what's behind a slatted fence as you're driving by at a high speed.
One of the rarest Nikon lenses in the world has popped up on eBay. It's the Nikon 13mm f/5.6, a lens reviewer Ken Rockwell calls 'The Holy Grail' of Nikon lenses.
Just how rare is it? Only about 350 of these babies were ever produced.
Russian photographer Zhenya Aerohockey has created a photo series titled Catchingcorners. In it, he documents everyday objects in such a way that buildings, pool tables, cords and more form an almost perfect 90º angle every time.
Adobe Photoshop CS6 had a memorable cover photo showing a woman whose face is covered with what appear to be white, circular scales. The photograph is the work of Oleg Dou, a man who says he is not a photographer but rather an artist who uses photography as his medium for his works.
Amazon will reportedly be opening up its first brick-and-mortar location at a location in New York City in time for this holiday season, expanding from the online-only business it currently does through its website.
We received a tip today from a reader who asked us to take a look at the official portraits for the Miss World Philippines 2014 candidates. The tipster had harsh things to say about the images, saying the creator, "must've been bored or high when he post-processed these photos."
Formula 1 racing legend Michael Schumacher is still making his slow recovery from a serious skiing accident he suffered on December 29th, 2013. While skiing through an unsecured area in the French Alps, Schumacher crashed and slammed his head into a rock.
Doctors credit his helmet with saving his life, saying he likely would have died had he not been wearing one. But this weekend a new fact emerged: the GoPro mounted to his helmet is reportedly what caused the brain damage.
A 76-year-old man named Gunther Holtorf is back home in Germany now after an epic road trip. How epic …
In August, the rumor mill started buzzing about Canon having a new 11-24mm lens up its sleeve. The next month, a leaked photo gave us our first glimpse of that lens, an 11-24mm f/4L.
There is now more confirmation that this lens is in fact legit. That's the good news. The bad news? It will likely cost quite a pretty penny.
Photographer Jason D. Page has been capturing light painting photography for years, and over the past 3 years he has also been working on a new project for the light painting community. It's called Light Painting Brushes.
Just launched today, Light Painting Brushes is a set of light tools that aims to give lightpainters a standard set of brushes to "paint" with.
Chinese camera gear company Yongnuo has introduced a new model to its affordable line of wireless flash triggers: the RF605.
A followup to the RF602, RF603, and RF603 II, the RF605 introduces grouping to the company's affordable line of transceivers.
Front facing cameras on smartphones have traditionally been dwarfed by the camera on the back. After all, you're supposed to take "serious" photos with the rear camera, and the front one is mainly used for things like video conferencing, right?
Well, the emergence of "selfie culture" is changing the game. As more and more people snap and share self-portraits using their front cameras, phones are evolving to meet this need. HTC's new Desire Eye is one such phone: it features the world's most powerful front-facing camera.
If you're looking to get into aerial drone photography, the PlexiDrone is one robotic quadcopter you might want to look into. It's an ultra-portable drone that can be transported disassembled and snapped together in less than one minute when needed.
Photographer Christopher Schmidt was out flying his quadcopter at Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, Massachusetts earlier this week when his humming drone drew some unwanted attention. No, not the police. Nor a neighbor with a shotgun. It was a hawk that wasn't too happy with another flying "creature" invading its territory.
Contact sheets often provide a fascinating glimpse into the mind of photographers, showing final shots among outtakes that were left on the cutting room floor.
Hollywood Frame by Frame is a new book by Karina Longworth that offers this look into the work of old Hollywood photographers. It's a collection of contact sheets showing famous actors on the sets of some of Hollywood's greatest films from the 20th century.
While it’s the fifth most common type of cancer in the United States and the deadliest of all skin cancers, melanoma can often be cured if caught early enough. So, in an effort to step up early detection efforts, a team of researchers at Duke University have developed a gigapixel whole-body camera that captures high-resolution images that will allow doctors to more quickly and effectively diagnose melanoma.
The Maersk Triple E is the largest ship ever built by mankind and is operated by the largest container shipping company in the world. Back in 2011, Maersk signed a contract with Daewoo Shipbuilding in South Korea to have 20 of these gigantic vessels made for $3.8 billion dollars.
Copenhagen-based photographer Alastair Philip Wiper wanted to get closer to this "monumental machine," so he convinced Wired magazine to send him to South Korea to photograph the ships under construction. Wired agreed, and Wiper was given unprecedented access to the shipyard and one of the finished ships.
One day soon, people around the world may be contributing vast amounts of information to the science of space using a cheap 3D-printed telescope and smartphone with a high-res camera.
The Open Space Agency (OSA) is trying to make that dream happen, and the telescope they've created is called the Ultrascope.
While taking the first of three scheduled spacewalks aboard the International Space Station this month, the Expedition 41 team decided to make the most of their 6 hour and 13 minute spacewalk by taking some incredible photographs of their mission. Beforehand though, they made sure to turn the camera on themselves, capturing a few self portraits while hanging around outside of their vehicle almost 100 miles above Earth’s surface.
At the Adobe MAX 2014 conference this past week, Adobe showed off some of the crazy technology current brewing in the company's labs. Two of them offer a glimpse at what may soon be available to photographers in Photoshop: changing the time of day (i.e. lighting) in photographs with a simple slider and removing haze from a scene automatically.
We've shared in the past how a broken lens can be used for "freelensing," or taking tilt-shift-esque photographs.
Photographer and lens hacker Witono Halim did this by buying a broken 50mm f/1.8 online for $25, sawing a piece off, and combining everything into a ugly-yet-functional lens with $2 of duct tape.
If you ever hand your phone over to family and friends with hesitance, afraid they might swipe over one photo too far when you’re trying to show them a few photos, Microsoft Research’s new app Xim might just save you from a few nerve-wracking moments.
The FlashDisc by Fstoppers is a portable softbox that can fit into your pocket when its not in use, thanks to a design that allows it to fold up in a manner similar to portable light reflectors. It allows photographers to achieve soft directional light in situations where larger softboxes are impractical.
Instagram’s Hyperlapse app is a simple way to create smooth hyper lapse videos. But beyond its basic functionality is a hidden set of features that cranks up its capabilities. It may be secret, but it's quite easy to get to.
Update: Canon tells us that "The 'Director' spot bears no relation to the individual profiled in this story," and that it is "a completely fictional character."
Canon's big "See Impossible" marketing push has received quite a bit of mockery from the creative community, as people hoped for more from the hyped-up countdown than an ad campaign and a couple of inspirational videos.
There's also a new development that hurts Canon's efforts even more: it turns out that one of the two people featured by Canon didn't actually shoot with Canon, and he's calling the company out on it.
Feminists in France are demanding that a statue based on Alfred Eisenstaedt's iconic ‘VJ-day in Times Square’ photo be taken down. They say that the original image it was based on is one that portrays sexual assault.
Nearly $2 million in cameras and production equipment were stolen from three Fremont, California businesses over the weekend. Thieves broke into the offices of Black Magic Design, Mac House Productions, and Core Microsystems, grabbing pricey high-end gear and hauling it off by the boxful.
The team over at DigitalRev is always thinking of new and interesting ideas. And their latest is an intriguing little camera exchange and review they've aptly titled ‘Camera Swap.’
A rule of thumb in design is that form follows function; however, with these clever and colorful pendants, you don’t have to worry about a compromise in either department.
Created by Vienna-based design firm TaliaYStudio, these pendants serve as jewelry, but are also built to function as colored filters when placed in front of your camera.
If you lived in Europe or Africa -- or if you're in the US and the thought of getting up between 2 and 5 in the morning repelled you -- you probably missed this week's total lunar eclipse and 'blood moon.' But have no fear, because Griffith Observatory in LA captured a close-up (if a bit shaky) time-lapse of the entire rust-colored event for you.