Photographer Neil van Niekerk recently invited his friend Marco Leibetseder into his NYC studio for a photo challenge: rather than using flash, Niekerk and Leibetseder set themselves the challenge to capture some creative portraits that showcased "depth" in-studio using only continuous lighting.
Four years ago, I set what seemed like an impossible goal: to make a functional Apollo 11 camera by the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. It was a crazy idea, especially with how inexperienced I was with nearly every process that would be required to do so.
When it comes to photography, it can be easy to blame our bad images on our gear (or lack of it). The truth is, while gear can make your job easier, there is no substitute for the time and effort spent on learning to perfect your craft.
In this video and article, we will teach you 5 inexpensive lens hacks in under 5 minutes using the Canon EOS R and a Canon 50mm f/1.8 II.
When it comes to online educational content, there aren’t many photographers out there willing to share their mistakes when trying to create a photo. I think it’s fair to say that there are easily far more who only share their best work online and for good reason; as educators, you want to create an image of a photographer who makes little to no mistakes at all.
"The Possession Of Hannah Grace" is a new Hollywood thriller that hit theaters at the end of November 2018. What most theatergoers won't know is that it's the first Hollywood feature film shot start-to-finish on a full-frame mirrorless camera, the Sony a7S II.
With the release of Nikon’s new mirrorless camera and the impending release of Canon’s competitor, we are seeing the future of photography as we know it. However, in the response of some we are also seeing the demise of the community as a whole.
The mirrorless camera industry is about to blow up and we have Sony mirrorless to thank for this. This is how they achieved their massive success.
Photographer and Formula 1 fan Tim Binnion recently attended the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. In addition to shooting the race with his Nikon DSLR, Binnion also decided to document it with a 0.016-megapixel Game Boy Camera from 1998... and the results are pretty awesome.
My name is Skyler Adams, and I'm a photographer. I’ve noticed that camera communities these days excitedly share news about new cameras, lenses, and lighting equipment, but hardly anyone posts an actual photo anymore. Why?
If you’ve ever loaded up a large camera backpack (like something from Think Tank Photo or LowePro) and hiked a mountain, you’ll be able to fully appreciate how terrible the experience is... well, except for the views.
Since I got my Nikon D7000 camera 6 years ago I’ve used it almost everyday. That is a lot of shutter clicks, 148,558 to be exact. It looks like I will be in the market for a new camera soon as the D7000 is only factory tested to 150,000 clicks. My dilemma is should I go full frame, or stick with my cropped frame?
Last year, Sony controlled around 40% of the $8.7 billion image sensor market. Now, Sony is looking to take on a new challenge: building small high-resolution sensors for the mass-market that can capture images at 1,000 frames per second. If this sensor makes it to the market, Vision Research's Phantom high-speed cameras may have some stiff competition on its hands.
Here's a tip: if you're going on a once-in-a-lifetime trip and you'd like to shoot photos of a lifetime to preserve the memories, you probably shouldn't purchase a cheap $40 compact camera to do so. One couple in the UK did just that, and now they're upset about the bad honeymoon photos they ended up with.
Having an overhead camera rig can be useful for certain types of photography, including product shots, how-to images, and food photos. If you enjoy the challenge and joy of building your own equipment when you can, an overhead rig is another opportunity to do so. You can create one with some cheap materials and some basic workshop skills.
Photographer Mario Nagano has a new camera lens that will undoubtedly draw quite a few looks from fellow photographers: it's an old lens from a 1950s bellows camera that has been converted into a Micro Four Thirds lens for his Olympus OM-D E-M5.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive way to achieve high magnification in your photography, you need to know about the reverse lens macro photography technique. Reverse lens macro photography has allowed me to achieve the magnification I couldn’t come close to with my more expensive equipment.
Tired of waiting hours for your camera battery to recharge? A newly developed aluminum battery could one day replace lithium-ion batteries and allow you to charge from empty to full in a matter of minutes.
Well known photographer and blogger Scott Kelby recently pointed to the 18-55mm kit lens as a reason why beginners find it difficult to take good shots -- it is neither wide nor long enough to create visual impact, he wrote. I'd like to respectfully disagree.
It's precisely because the 18-55mm kit lens is cheap and common that I relish the challenge of capturing great images with it. I just love the “You shot that with a kit lens?” wide-eyed reaction when people realize how learning to read the scene and lighting makes more difference than splurging on an expensive lens upgrade.
The lifelogging camera market is starting to get crowded. One day after Narrative announced a new version of its wearable, always-snapping camera, a new challenger has emerged. It's called the SnapCam, and is made by a company called iON (better known for making home and action cameras).
One of the biggest challenges of shooting 4K Ultra HD footage is the sheer amount of data you're processing. That's about 30 8MP photos coming into your camera every single second. But the old FOR-A FT-ONE and the new, smaller, FOR-A FT-ONE-S scoff at your measly 30fps.
These cameras, while they definitely don't come cheap, earn every penny of their price tags by capturing 4K footage at up to 900fps.
Laaaadieeesss and Gentlemennnn! I have for you the lens test to end all lens tests! Not a mere test, mind you, but an epic showdown, a clash of the titans, the ultimate cage match! Pixel peepers rejoice!
One of the best kept secrets within the fashion and beauty photography is the way to obtain absolutely perfect and flawless skin colors, brightness and texture. That’s an art, absolutely, and often a quite technical challenge.
In this article I will explain how to obtain perfect skin colors, with the help of a ColorChecker. But not just a simple ColorChecker workflow with the standard, bundled software. No, there’s a neat trick which saves a lot of time and a lot of custom color editing (and desaturating) of skin tones.
It’s a quick, transparent automatic workflow, once set up and created. Your camera needs to shoot in RAW.
Hand-held macro photography presents a lot of challenges, but three of the most prevalent are: subject movement, camera shake, and harsh shadows. Fortunately, you don't have to carry around a bunch of gear to solve these issues. In fact, a cheap plastic cup will do the trick all by itself!
Want to make some great photos but don’t have or don’t want to spend a lot of money? A few days ago I posted photo of a Hummingbird on my Facebook page I took with a new Nikon D810 and a 85mm 1.8. I received a comment asking me “how much money do you spend on your equipment to get a shot like this?” Others comment from time to time that they’d love to get into photography but don’t have the money.
So, I thought, how close can I come to some of the shots I get with my Nikon D600 and the D810 with a really cheap used DSLR? The personal challenge began.
Phantom, the company behind some insane high-speed cameras has announced their new flagship camera, the Phantom v2511. Bumping up the specs across the board from their current flagship device, this beast manages to pack in up to 25,600 frames per second at 1280 x 800 resolution (just over 720p).
I have a couple of things to talk about today. First, is to announce the winner of our name the new machine contest. Second is to answer about 1,000 people’s questions regarding optical testing and adjustment.
Taking "say cheese" far more literally than anyone before them (okay, maybe not anyone), Japanese company Chobi has created a camera made to look like, well, cheese. Alright... get ready for some serious cheese wordplay folks.
DigitalRev's Cheap Camera Challenges are a big hit here at PetaPixel. Watching a pro use a less-than-capable camera to try and create something worthwhile is both hilarious and educationally valuable. Case in point: check out what cinematographer Phillip Bloom was able to do with a Barbie Camera and some creativity.
Well, we started the photography tips train rolling earlier today with four incredibly informative short interviews with portrait master Gregory Heisler, and what better way to follow that up than with some great tips from the sillier side of the photo industry: the folks over at DigitalRev.
Give James Bond, Jack Bauer or Chuck Norris a spork, and they'll figure out a way to overpower bad guys wielding guns. What happens when you give a seasoned photographer a cheap digital camera designed for toddlers?
That's what Kai Wong and DigitalRev did recently. They flew in David Hobby of Strobist and gave him a 2-megapixel Buzz Lightyear camera and three cheapo flash units. Hobby was then tasked with shooting 5 challenges in 5 locations of 5 subjects, using his resourcefulness to make the best images he could with the uber-low-end gear.
If you shoot film and aren't much into chemicals (or don’t have a basement in which to keep a gigantic 5×7″ enlarger), you’ll soon find yourself needing a way to import those beautiful pictures you’ve taken onto your computer. What? Why didn’t I say, “you'll need a scanner”? After all, it’s not 1987 anymore -- scanners are as common as toaster ovens.
The idea that the camera doesn't make the photographer is, most will agree, a sufficiently dead and overly beaten horse of a subject. It's nice, however, to actually see the concept in action and taken to an extreme. Of course you could give an enthusiast a several thousand dollar camera and see what effect it has, but the people over at DigitalRev take the opposite approach: they give a crappy camera to a pro photographer.
Scientists at Duke University have created a digital camera that boasts a whopping 50 gigapixels. The camera, dubbed AWARE-2, uses 98 separate 14-megapixel microcameras and a special spherical lens. Each microcamera captures a tiny portion of the scene and a specially designed processor stitches the images together. Processing the data is so hardware intensive that 97% of the camera is made up of electronics and computer components (the other 3% is the optical elements).
John Sypal is the photographer behind Tokyo Camera Style, the "Sartorialist of the camera world".
PetaPixel: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?
John Sypal: I had a very typical middle class and middle American childhood. A semester followed by a year abroad at a university in Japan led me to the place I am today, namely a suburb just outside of Tokyo. I’ve been interested in photography since high school and upon studying and living in Japan have been enjoying the photographic scene of Tokyo and the people who make it all possible. In 2008 I was taking part in a weeklong photography festival and asked a guy if I could take a picture of his camera. And since there were lots of people around with film cameras at this event I asked a few more. I had just seen my first tumblr a week earlier, and so after getting a few more pictures Tokyo Camera Style was born.
Sports photography is one of the most demanding genres when it comes to the gear you use. So what happens when you invite two pro sports photographers to a skate park, take away their DSLRs, and give them a couple of 0.3MP kiddy action cams instead? Let's find out!
An organization committed to exposing climate failures at large companies has called out Canon again, citing the camera company's lack of public targets concerning the use of renewable energy and emissions reductions.
Underwater drones are still in their infancy. While filmmakers are already using them to create magnificent art, underwater drones haven't approached ubiquity for consumers and enthusiasts. However, Australian company Advanced Navigation believes it can change the landscape (or seascape) with its new Hydrus autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV).
My first digital ILC (interchangeable lens camera) was the Nikon D40, which I purchased during my senior year of high school in late 2007. That camera was followed by the Canon T2i (550D), which I bought in 2010, primarily because of Canon’s significantly more advanced video features; I have always been an active filmmaker as well as a photographer. Like most people, my first two lenses for each of these cameras were the kit 18-55mm zoom and a cheap nifty-fifty prime lens, so the cost of switching systems wasn’t exactly high.
Photography is unique, as far as artistic media is concerned. Behind the camera, we can freeze time, turning once-in-a-lifetime moments into indelible mementos that have a good chance of outliving the gear that created them.