With more entry-level DSLRs on the market now than ever, the camera manufacturers seem to understand that it's time to woo the beginners. Canon is doing it with a new DSLR simulator website, and now Sony has launched a helpful microsite of its own, focusing on video tutorials that'll get Sony α beginners off to a good start in the world of photography.
There aren't many ways to get intimate access to the behind-the-scenes of government as a photog. Your best option is probably to try and snag a spot as the official White House photographer, but those jobs are hard to come by. A senator from Vermont, however, has found another way: get a day job as a Senator and moonlight as an amateur photographer.
Having your camera stolen is not a fun experience. If you're not fortunate enough to have a camera that catches its own theft in progress, your recovery options are limited to services like Stolen Camera Finder, CameraTrace and, the most likely fix, a good insurance policy.
Kate Seabrook is an entirely self-taught Australian photographer who fell in love with the art of picture taking after laying her hands on her first DSLR in 2009. For the next couple of years, she made a name for herself photographing Melbourne's underground music community, but when she moved to Berlin in late 2011, something entirely different caught her eye -- the U-Bahn system.
Greg Heisler is one of the great photographers of our time, and one of his strengths is meticulously planning his shots. Whether his subject is an NBA player or an olympian, Heisler's photos always capture the essence of that person, and his approach makes his BTS videos particularly educational and interesting to share.
Samsung only has a couple of weeks before the rumored "sometime between January and April 2013" timeframe for an NX2000 "smart" ILC release runs out, and just on schedule, a FCC filing with a top and front schematic of the camera has come to light.
In 1906, etiologist and photographer Edward S. Curtis set out across the United States to draw, photograph and otherwise document the lives of Native Americans that hadn't yet been contacted by Western society.
At TEDx Rio de la Plata, author Dan Ariely gave an interesting talk on motivation and how to feel good about our work. Challenging the conventional belief that money equals motivation, he shows how injecting meaning into our work -- be that by making the work itself harder or having others acknowledge it -- has a huge impact on why and how we stay motivated.
We've seen some strange photo projects in the past, but they're typically making a statement or serving some purpose. Haley Morris-Cafiero's photos of herself getting strange looks turned the tables on judging onlookers. Theron Humphrey's photos of his dog Maddie balancing on things across America allowed him to document his trip in an interesting way.
Using just a few pieces of wood, some serious DIY know-how and an Arduino, photographer and Instructables user Alexander Morris built this really cool, Instagram-inspired photo booth as a fun extra for events and parties. Fortunately for us, he uploaded a ton of pictures and instructions so that anybody with a little bit of time and skill can put one together for themselves.
Back in 2010, Adobe put out a short documentary called "Startup Memories -- The Beginning of Photoshop" to celebrate the program's 20-year anniversary by recalling its past. Somehow, that documentary slipped through our fingers at the time, but seeing as we've already started a conversation on how Photoshop is "remixing the world," we thought it was an opportune time to share this blast from the past.
There are many niches in photography, but one we don't talk about often is taking product photos. Even though these types of shots don't fall under the professional umbrella -- we're not talking professional product photography, just product shots for an online store -- almost everyone at one time or another has had to sell something on eBay or (not for the faint of heart) Craigslist.
In the first week of April, the three major auction houses in New York managed to post over $30 million in photography sales, showing that the photography as collectible market is thriving, to say the least. The houses posted a record-setting week as almost every auction blew away projected sale prices.
Photographing strangers can be a daunting proposition. It was one of the focuses of the workshops I held in NYC this past summer. What if they get mad, what if they yell at me, or what if they go completely psycho on me? Odds are, most people will simply say no pictures. Even the school of Bruce Gilden photographers have hardly been bothered with their “mugging style portrait.”
National Geographic's Stephen Alvarez is part photographer, part filmmaker and part explorer. That triad makes his photography great because while some photographers take pictures, Alvarez has learned to tell stories -- and as the years have gone by and his gear has improved, his stories have continued to get more compelling.
Following on the heels of a similar announcement by Adobe itself, design marketplace Creative Market has announced that it too has set up an in-app marketplace for Photoshop users. Out now, Creative Market's Photoshop extension allows users to browse and buy from the company's massive catalog of templates, fonts, infographics and more without ever leaving the comfort of Photoshop.
It's hard to fathom the effect that Photoshop and digital retouching has had on our world. Limitations placed on artists and photographers in particular have systematically been stripped away as terms like "'shopped" made their way into our vernacular.
Earlier today, online photo community and Flickr competitor 500px announced that it would be releasing an overhauled portfolio system very soon. Rebuilt from the ground up, the new system offers a slew of features that 500px "Awesome" users will be able to take advantage of in order to build online portfolios they're proud of.
By his own admission, photographer Andrew McGibbon doesn't like using natural light. It's not that there's anything wrong with shooting natural light -- he's done it before when the situation called for it -- it's just that he prefers the wow factor that he knows he can get by experimenting with crazy lighting setups.
If you've always wanted to feast your eyes on the aurora borealis but haven't had the time or the money to travel to areas of the world where the light display occurs, photographer Göran Strand has a treat for you. He has created an immersive 360-degree panorama using time-lapse photographs shot during a particularly active aurora. The video lets you pan around in the scene, offering a small taste of what experiencing the northern lights feels like.
ABC's Nightline recently decided to take on one of the most popular photography trends of all time: the selfie. And to help them properly tackle the subject, they asked famed fashion photographer Nigel Barker to weigh in.
If you thought the LEGO Nikon F SLR we shared earlier this week was neat, check out this LEGO DSLR created by Taiwanese LEGO enthusiast RGB900. The realistic toy camera is created entirely out of various LEGO pieces, and features an external hotshoe-mounted flash unit and a flexible camera strap!
The Nikon Coolscan 9000ED scanner is an excellent scanner. The included holders are of a very good standard and many extremely useful and high quality optional holders are available. None of them, however, are cheap.
HoldFast Gear makes gear for photographers that you won't really find from other companies. Last year one of their big products was the MoneyMaker, a suspenders-style leather camera strap that looks like it popped out of an old detective film.
When snapping pictures of wild animals in the great outdoors, there are some animals that photographers generally know to be careful around. These include creatures that are massive (e.g. moose, elephants), anything at the top of the food chain (e.g. lions, tigers, bears), and anything venomous (e.g. snakes). Well, you might also want to add the beaver to that mental list of yours.
I recently sat down with the founders of Hink, the British startup that wants to take the photographic lighting industry by storm. The company — based in Bedford — has been running a teaser campaign since March for their mysterious first product, the “Spacefish” flashgun, which is due to be unveiled and released this summer.
What do you get when you combine rock climbers, glow sticks, and long-exposure photographs? Answer: some pretty neat light painting pictures.
Announced near the end of last year, Lomography's Belair X 6-12 is the world’s first 6x12 auto-exposure medium format camera.
Steganography is the art of passing secret messages in a way that most observers wouldn't detect even though the message is in plain view. Unlike cryptography, which attempts to transmit messages as nonsense, steganography uses security through obscurity, relying on the fact that most people aren't looking for secret messages in ordinary things. Passing notes in invisible ink would be one example.
When BBC Future approached design company Conran with a challenge to "redesign any object," Senior Product Designer Jared Mankelow chose the camera. He believes that the form factor of our cameras hasn't kept pace with their function, and so his square creation harkens back to the film cameras of old, while simultaneously catapulting the camera into the future.
A short form bill was recently introduced into the Vermont House of Representatives that ought to have photographers curious, if not worried. That's because this particular bill seeks to "make it illegal to [photograph] a person without his or her consent ... and distribute it," essentially outlawing most forms of public photography.
Here's something you might want to read and bookmark for future reference. Photographer Robert Thomas has written up an in-depth article explaining what the different Photoshop blending modes are and how they actually work: …
One of the stereotypes that has become associated with Instagram users (and smartphone shooters in general) is that they're obsessed with snapping photos of their food. YouTube channel Hungry decided to see how people would react when this obsession is taken too far. They sent a Instagram photographer to random strangers and had him ask if he could photograph their food. Cameras were placed nearby to document their reactions to the strange request.
Project Gutenberg is a digital library volunteer effort that takes old public domain and converts them into freely available eBooks for the benefit of the general public. Founded back in 1971, the library now has over 42,000 items in its collection.
Ultraviolet fluorescence is a mechanism in which UV radiation excites chemicals in an object and causes them to release visible light. There are many household objects which fluoresce, such as some washing detergents (anything that ‘makes your whites whiter), soda water (it contains a chemical called quinine which makes it taste bitter, and also causes the fluorescence), the dyes found in highlighters, the bacteria found on the face (which cause spots and acne), bodily fluids (including …
Samsung is a pioneering the smartcamera market with its Android-powered Galaxy Camera, and the company may soon be introducing the "smart" concept to its mirrorless cameras.
Red Bull Illume and Snap! Orlando recently came up with an awesome way to put a twist on the concept of light painting. They recruited light-painting photographer Patrick Rochon to photograph a team of wakeboarders who rode around with colorful lights strapped to their wakeboards!
Officials over in St. Louis, Missouri are embarrassed and have a bit of explaining to do after it was discovered that a sign banning permit-less professional photography in county parks had been put up "by mistake."
Photographer Jeff Salvage and his wife Jennifer got married back in 2008 near a volcano crater on Easter Island. While they were there, Salvage had his new wife wear her wedding dress for three photo shoots in various locations and at various times. Those shoots sparked a photo project idea that would take the two on an adventure around the world.
Put your name and date on everything. That's the first lesson every kindergartener learns in school. Drawings, writing, scratch marks, pinecone Santas, they all get labeled. Kids are taught to do this because name and date are essential in understanding any piece of content. And hopefully it's a habit that remains with them for life. If that pinecone Santa ever makes it into a retrospective, viewers are going to want to know who made it. And more importantly, when.
Vine is exploding in popularity. The Twitter-owned service, which allows you to share 6-second video loops, is now the number one free app in the iTunes App Store less than three months after being introduced to the world.
The New York Daily News reports that an anonymous commuter has decided to improve his boring ride to work everyday in a very unique way: newspaper photobombs. The paper won't reveal who the photographer behind the pics is, but he or she has made quite a splash using forced perspective photography to make fellow commuters look downright hilarious.
Photographer Jacob Kedzierski first came up with the idea to create a street sign collage eight years ago while riding a bike around the streets of his hometown of North Tonawanda, NY. After completing that project and moving to New York City, the idea for a Manhattan version crossed his mind several times, but he was never ready to commit to the amount of work it would take to actually get it done.
If you're just starting out in photography, there are a lot of resources out there to help you understand the basics before you just jump in. And while books and videos are certainly helpful, one of the more fun ways to learn your way around a camera is by using an online DSLR simulator. We've shared one with you before, and now Canon Canada has released a simulator website of its own dubbed Outside of Auto.
This time-lapse, shot by photographer Bevan Percival on New Zealand's North Island, has to be one of the most beautiful we've ever shared. Shot over the course of six months using a Canon 5D Mark II, various lenses, and a Dynamic Perception 6' Stage Zero motorized dolly, it will keep your eyes glued to the screen all five minutes and fifty-nine seconds.
The San Diego Police Department is in hot water with photographers and First Amendment rights advocates everywhere this week over the way two of their officers handled a situation this last Saturday.
Google Glass has received a lot of criticism, particularly when it comes to privacy. Given the fact you can record video and take photos without people noticing, some could call it an opportunity for taking photos without permission. Now, in my spare time, I take photos with a particular interest in is Street Photography. Candid street photography is taking photos of any stranger without permission. Why is there this controversy over Glass when candid photography without permission is a growing …
Albert Einstein once described quantum entanglement as "spooky action at distance." The basic idea behind it is that certain things (e.g. particles, molecules) can interact with each other instantly (or nearly instantly) regardless of how far apart they are. For example, pairs of photons can affect one another when separated by vast distances, with the effects occurring even faster than light could have traveled between the two points.
Every year since 1960, the government has held a Military Photographer of the Year competition to highlight the best images created by photographers in uniform. US Air Force Master Sergeant Jeremy "JT" Lock has won the award a staggering seven times. No other military photographer has come close to that.
If you're a photography enthusiast and ever have the good fortune of finding yourself floating around on the International Space Station, here are two words you should know: service module. Formally called the "Zvezda Service Module," it's the component of the ISS that houses all of the station's life support systems, and is where the astronauts gather if there is any kind of emergency. But here's the main reason you'll want to pay the module visit: the fancy camera equipment used by the …
