The steadicam has become a staple in the cinematography industry. The problem more often than not, though, is that not a lot of people can afford one.
And so, since production models range in price from a several hundred to a several thousand, a number of tool-savvy people have set out to create their own DIY options. One such example is this extremely solid and good-looking creation by Instructables user and photographer survival434
Sony rolled out an impressive firmware update for owners of its Sony Action Cams today. Owners of the higher-end AS100V get the better end of the deal, but Sony's not leaving AS30V owners out either.
Facebook doesn’t have it easy when it comes to moderating content; with approximately 1.3 billion active users, it’s inevitable there will be a few mess-ups over time. But one issue Facebook has continually struggled with sorting out is the social network's wishy-washy policy on breastfeeding photographs.
National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore has been capturing life across the globe for over 22 years. And it was these travels across our Blue Marble that lead him to take on a personal project that he hopes will bring awareness to a subject he’s held dear since he was a child.
Called Photo Ark, Sartore has teamed up with zoos and rescue facilities across the globe to document the last of some of the most endangered animals on our planet, and in the TEDx talk above, he tells you all about this moving endeavor.
The team behind the photo narrative platform Exposure just released a brilliant little app called Golden Hour.
Bringing their philosophy of doing one thing well to iOS, Golden Hour is an extremely minimal, beautifully designed app that alerts photographers when the most sought-after time of day is upon them.
One of the biggest photography-related additions to iOS 8 is the opening of Camera APIs to developers. Access to these APIs means third party developers are now given complete access to the camera in your iOS device. Most notably, this includes the addition of full manual control of camera settings, something that hasn't been discussed in too much detail... until now.
Joshua Ho over at AnandTech has written up a solid piece properly going through the minute details of what it is developers have been given access to and how it may affect photo apps available after iOS 8's pending debut.
Today, Amazon showed us that where there’s smoke, there’s most definitely Fire. After years of rumors that Amazon was working on a phone, CEO Jeff Bezos officially unveiled Amazon’s first attempt at a smartphone at today's event.
It’s called the Amazon Fire Phone and it comes to market with a few interesting, photo-centric features that go beyond the standard camera specs.
Brian Matthew Hart has spent the better part of 9 years playing around with unique light drawing techniques. His latest project, Uncertainty, brings together the knowledge and inspiration he’s accumulated over those 9 years and packs them into one of the most abstracted and unique approaches to light painting we’ve ever come across.
Earlier today, Adobe announced a collection of upgrades, updates and new releases for its Creative Cloud platform. Briefly detailed in our coverage of the announcement, Photoshop CC received a number of improvements, Lightroom Mobile received an iPhone version, and Adobe announced a new iPad app Photoshop Mix.
But that was just an announcement, and so to properly introduce you to a number of these features, we’ve compiled a demo/walkthrough collection that shows each of these new features and apps in action.
“What’s in my bag” posts oftentimes come across as a bit pretentious. Between pulling out this body or that piece of glass, it’s easy for the post/video to become a game of “look what I have that you probably don't have because it costs $XX,XXX.”
But when done right, they can be both interesting and informative, as photographer Erik Almås demonstrates in this fantastic walkthrough of his camera equipment.
It looks like autonomous drones are the next fad, because just days after sharing the Hexo+ drone, we have for your consideration another very popular autonomous flying cameraman. It’s called AirDog, and like Hexo+ it is currently in its crowdfunding stage a la Kickstarter.
Photographer Clint Davis doesn’t do simple. Featured on PetaPixel almost four years ago when he created an unforgettable promotional mailer, his second attempt at the same is even more impressive.
After leaking ahead of time for the whole world to see, Facebook yesterday officially released Slingshot: its second attempt at a Snapchat competitor that adds an interesting twist to the ephemeral message dynamic.
Last November, photographer Jeremy Cowart revealed OKDOTHIS, a two-and-a-half year collaboration between himself and the development team at Aloompa to create an app that inspired creatives to be... well... more creative.
And now, in the name of continuing to keep the creative community on their toes, OKDOTHIS has announced a 2.0 revamp of what is essentially its entire platform. The app, website and overall structure of the platform is much more streamlined now, featuring a more unified and easy-to-use design across the board.
We all know what those stacks of iconic yellow-bordered magazines are when we see them lying around your local doctor or dentist's office. They’re National Geographic Magazines, and inside of these magazines are hundreds upon hundreds of wonderful photographs that may never be seen by the next generation.
It's a sad state of affairs, but one that Tumblr blog Vintage National Geographic is trying to remedy by sharing hundreds of scans of old Nat Geo photos you probably forgot existed.
Photographer Chris Pritchard recently took it upon himself to pay a time-lapse tribute to a city he loves. The city of Los Angeles. The final product is called Above LA, and it manages to capture our attention in an over-saturated genre thanks to its fantastic compositions, beautiful use of movement and vibrant (but not overwhelming) colors.
Are you frequently afraid that you’re falling into the trap of only taking cliché photographs? If so, then Kai from DigitalRev might be able to help you sort it out with this (slightly pretentious) DRTV video on 25 photo clichés that you should stop doing.
Lytro came into the photography world not only to create a novelty product, but to fundamentally change how we approach image capture. Because despite light field photography being around for over a century, it’s only with the latest technology that the company is able to exploit what it is a camera is truly capable of doing.
We recently spoke with Lytro about its upcoming Illum camera a bit, diving into the technology behind the specs and revealing how Lytro's approach is allowing the company to not only step, but leap into the future.
Sony’s new A7s camera has been blowing minds when it comes to low-light performance; and, frankly, with a full-frame sensor made up of pixels three times as large as those in the A7r, we expected impressive low-light performance. But it seems low-light performance isn’t the camera’s only forte.
According to a report by Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape, the image files he's getting from the A7s are capable of going toe-to-toe with medium format cameras in terms of image quality!
Photography’s value to society goes far beyond aesthetics, it has become a vital tool in laboratories across the world. One recent example is the fairly new Embryoscope, a technology that is being used to help dramatically improve In Vitro Fertilization through time-lapse photography.
In a very strange partnership, it’s been announced that GoPro and BMW have teamed up to add the ability to control GoPro cameras right from within the dashboard of BMW vehicles. Starting in July, this partnership will allow any owners of 2012 or later BMW or Mini vehicles to take control of the WiFi-enabled action cameras without ever leaving the driver's seat.
New York-based photographer Michael Massaia's images are easily identified for two reasons: first, because they're all very distinct, black-and-white, large format photographs; and second, because most of them are taken in the middle of the night... a result of Massaia's struggle with insomnia.
When trying to perfectly light an object, there’s a method of shooting it inside of an environment called a lightbox -- essentially a 360° softbox that emulates the soft, natural, even lighting you would get on an overcast day.
Lightboxes are fairly small in size, meant for lighting small objects for product photographs and so on. But what if it were possible to create a human-sized lightbox for use with people? It turns out you can, and in the BTS video above, photographer Kevin Lynch shows off his version.
As much as composition, proper exposure, and location can affect how good your subjects look in a photo, posing plays a very crucial and often overlooked role -- well, overlooked until you realize that all of your portraits look awkward and unnatural.
Fortunately, there are resources out there to help. And so if you're one of those photographers for whom posing individuals and groups doesn't come naturally, this fantastic seminar put together by B&H should help a great deal.
We all have those friends. The ones that post ridiculous amounts of the most cliché Instagram photos. If only there was a way you could somehow point this out to them, anonymously and with a healthy dose of passive aggression... Well, now there is (or rather was... see update) thanks to a service called Pic Nix.
Detroit. Once one of the greatest contributors to the United States GDP and home to 1.8 million people, the Motor City is down to just over 700,000 residents as of the 2010 census, with over $18.5 billion in municipal debt.
Brought down by a 'perfect storm' of unfortunate events -- from the decline in domestic automotive production to an extremely corrupt hierarchy of politicians -- Detroit's decline is undeniable... and now thanks to Google Street View's new time machine feature, it's also on display for everyone to see.
Are you a fan of social media? Is Instagram your go-to place to share your story with the world? Are you looking for a part-time summer job? Well, if so, you might just be a perfect fit for Hillside Beach Club, a seaside resort in Turkey who is hiring a CIO – a Chief Instagram Officer.
If you remember our coverage of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards, you might recall a photograph of an adorable dog, soaked with water after a bath. It was captured by photographer Sophie Gamand and won in the Portraiture category. Today, we get a behind the scenes peek at what goes into the making of her viral puppy portraiture.
Stanley Kubrick’s legacy will forever be sealed in images. Mostly known for his motion picture work, it wasn’t until after his time as a still photographer that he took on the world of movies. Kubrick began his career as a photographer, at 16-years-old, after a single image seemingly catapulted his way to success.
It was announced last week on the Fake Chuck Westfall Twitter account that the controversial Fake Chuck Westfall blog would be taking a permanent hiatus. The center of plenty of controversy since its inception, the Fake Chuck Westfall blog has had an interesting existence, marred by legal action and takedown threats, and helped along by the Streisand effect.
Now, as the blog prepares to go offline for good, the man behind the site has come forward for the very first time, revealing his identity and the story behind the controversial blog through a PDN interview and his own final blog post
When it comes to DIY tilt-shift, there are a few different options out there, but none of them that we've seen are quite as impressive and practical as this 3D printed method from Instructables user Cpt.Insano.
Austin-based photographer Polly Chandler was recently the victim of an Internet sales scam that took advantage of distance and anonymity to create the perfect storm of events that led to her being out a few thousand dollars.
Sigma has announced the pricing and release date of the first of the three unique DP Quattro cameras announced earlier this year: the 30mm lens-toting DP2.
Following in the footsteps of the crowd-sourced transit app Uber and others like it, a new iOS and Android app called Picquest is bringing the same sort of on-demand location-based service to potential photography clients.
When you're first learning the basics of photography, one of the first things you find out about after dropping out of 'auto' is the exposure triangle.
Consisting of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, the exposure triangle is a system that takes into account each of those variables, making exposure adjustments a breeze when you need to change one of the variables for a particular situation (say, freezing motion or achieving a shallow depth of field).
GoPro pulled in more than $1 billion last year, and as the company prepares to go public, all eyes are on the action cam king to see what kind of price tag it receives. Well, now we have a figure, and according to Bloomberg, it rings to the tune of $3 billion.
So, you're finally taking that dream vacation to Middle Earth New Zealand when, on your first day there, all of your baggage gets stolen. Two cameras and every piece of clothing you brought is now gone.
What do you do when all you have left are the clothes on your back, your passport, your wallet and your smartphone? Well, if you're photographer Alison Turner, you go about your trip as if nothing ever happened, and pull a fun photo series out of it in the process.
A fascinating new study on the perception of profile photos reveals some very interesting (and perhaps a bit nerve-wracking) results: even the slightest of changes from one portrait to another can dramatically alter how people perceive you in that photo.
A major drawback of Lytro's technology has been the closed ecosystem its files are trapped in. Unable to be edited in programs such as Lightroom or viewed on the Web without a proprietary image viewer, the experience is lacking the ubiquity needed to gain the acceptance of the masses.
Well aware of this problem, Lytro today takes the first of what we assume will be many steps in the right direction, by announcing that their images will now be viewable on the Internet via a new, open-source WebGL player.
When diving into Lightroom, trying to set up a workflow can be a daunting task. Even once you have one in place, trying to stay consistent with it and properly tweak it as needed is a challenge.
Knowing this, the team over at Phlearn has put together a very useful, in-depth video that walks you through the basics of setting up a workflow and learning how to properly maintain it over time.
It was recently announced that PhotoDrive, a popular photo uploading service powered by Flickr, is getting shut down. The reason? According to the latest Flickr blog post, Yahoo! has hired Jeff Bargmann, the man behind the growing photo start-up, in an effort to add some more human talent to the Flickr team.
When it comes to technological innovations, the acronym MIT comes up often. Known for their incredible collection of human capital in the form of intellect, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s capable in every facet of life.
And in the case of a project called “Tesseract,” the boundaries being pushed are those surrounding the field of smartphone camera technology.
The dangers of urban exploration photography are well-known. However, despite this danger, it’s not often we hear of any big names in Urbex photography having major accidents or run-ins with the law. That changed a bit this week when a photographer who goes by the pseudonym The Other Side shared the story of how he was threatened with serious legal consequences for photographing a partially abandoned French factory.
One of the most sought after lighting accessories is a ring light. Meant to create a unique aesthetic, a ring light is a great way to add a sharp, but direct light source to any image. The problem is, ring lights don't come cheap, and are rarely meant for smaller cameras.
Thankfully, there's now a DIY solution for you hands-on types. Thanks to Instructables user alpacalypse, you now have a step-by-step guide to creating a ring light for your typical point-and-shoot camera.
Most camera gear is built with longevity and strenuous activity in mind, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the best possible care of your gear. To that end, Canon’s service and support team recently put out this video showing the best practices for making sure that you properly and thoroughly clean and check your gear so it can keep working for as long as possible.
What's a photographer to do when they're in possession of a 130-year-old wooden camera and a 100-year-old lens, capable of capturing images using the wet plate collodion process?
Well, if you’re Jonathan Keys, you set out on a mission to document the modern world around you using tools that are all but ancient in the world of photography... and you get spectacular results for your effort.
Known for its clever combination of selfies, text and scribbles, the self-destructing messaging platform Snapchat has become a hit. So, it’s no surprise that social media giant Facebook is interested in taking a bite out of the ephemeral messaging market.
The company has even gone so far as to reportedly offer $3 billion for Snapchat at one point. But, rather than continuing to try and buy out Snapchat, Facebook has now decided to create its own competitor, an app that existed only as a rumor until yesterday.
If you’re looking to get more out of your smartphone’s camera with minimal financial investment, look no further. Kai and the DRTV team have created a short little video that goes over ten cheap, clever tricks that'll help you get the most of your mobile photography.
Kai specifically uses an iPhone throughout the video, but a number of these tricks can be used on any mobile device.
We’ve shown you the incredible low-light capabilities of Sony’s 4K-capable A7s camera before. But for the most part, the previously-released tests were fairly static and didn't offer much in way of production-level footage.
EOS HD's Yosh Enatsu took note of this fact, and decided to put together an impressive production-level comparison to show you just how well this mirrorless beast can handle the dark.
