Great Reads in Photography: April 4, 2021
Every Sunday, we bring together a collection of easy-reading articles from analytical to how-to to photo-features in no particular order that did not make our regular daily coverage. Enjoy!
Every Sunday, we bring together a collection of easy-reading articles from analytical to how-to to photo-features in no particular order that did not make our regular daily coverage. Enjoy!
Here's a quick, easy idea for something you can try in your kitchen with a macro lens. Yesterday as I was doing the dishes, the water stream hit an egg cup and bounced up in a concentrated jet, splashing water up all over me.
At the beginning of 2020, Cornell Watson's full-time job was in human resources. At the end of the year, he was shooting for the New York Times and Washington Post and creating fine-art projects for which he has received a $20,000 grant award.
Neil Kramer has spent close to a year quarantining with his ex-wife and mother in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom Queens, New York City rent-controlled compact apartment. This has produced a sitcom of chaotically humorous photographs that are actually based on real-life situations that have occurred while they are holed up.
In 2015, I fully committed to switching from my Nikon DSLR system to a Sony mirrorless system starting with the Sony a7 II. Up until that point, I had always held on to my Nikon D700 and D800 as my workhorse cameras for weddings and commercial shoots but experimented with Olympus, Sony, and Panasonic for my travel photography.
Over the last few years, several companies have been actively producing accessories for smartphones. The majority of these accessories have been for iPhones and for the most part the accessories haven’t been overly significant devices. What I mean is that the accessories most manufacturers produced have been small LED flashes or add-on lenses. This seems to be changing with what Profoto has done and I wonder if this is the right direction for the market.
I wanted a device that can throw light patterns onto a wall or a model. There are some commercially available but they are quite expensive and I this was only for occasional use. I thought that this is something that can be 3D printed.
Very few photography brands can sustain a legacy full of history. Meyer Optik Görlitz has brought back a 100-year-old design with modern quality construction that renders a vintage unique style that endures artistic at this modern age.
Believe it or not, the "levitation" photo above isn't a multi-shot composite. Some lighting equipment was removed from the edge of the frame, but the main image of the woman "floating" above the water is actually a single exposure. It simply took some patience to capture it just right in-camera.
Profoto has just announced (in their words) "an innovation that rewrites the rules of photography." Thanks to a technology called Profoto AirX, the company has made their B10 flash series compatible with the iPhone, allowing mobile photographers to use a Xenon flash to its full potential "for the first time in history."
Ask any retoucher what one item they couldn't live without, and they will probably point to their photo editing tablet. Swapping your mouse for a pen tablet can make a huge difference for your workflow, but is it really worth spending $380 on the Wacom Intuos Pro that everyone seems to be using? Are there any affordable alternatives? I'm glad you asked!
Here's a 12-minute tutorial by AdoramaTV in which photographer Gavin Hoey shows how you can capture a perfect rim light shot without using multiple stripboxes and flashes -- all you need is just one light.
Dutch commercial photographer Roelof Bos has, like many of us, been looking for a creative outlet ever since his professional work ground to a screeching halt. But while many photographers have opted for in-door projects or "porchraits," he wanted to create something more stylistic... and striking.
I'm fine-art photographer Petri Damstén from Kuopio, Finland, and in this article I'll share how I created a tiny smoke machine from an electronic cigarette and 3D printed a part for precise smoke distribution control.
Episode 335 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
Download MP3 - Subscribe via iTunes, Google Play, email or RSS!
Featured: Photographer, Karen Jerzyk
The Godox AD300 Pro (AKA the Flashpoint XPLOR 300 Pro) has finally arrived. After a lot of regional announcements and teasers and other tomfoolery, Flashpoint announced their version of the light—available immediately in the US—earlier today for just $500.
Living in the part of New York where the first confirmed case of COVID-19 virus was discovered earlier this year, things have been pretty weird. Our corporate photography studio is in Midtown Manhattan, things there are completely shut down. Even if we were able to lawfully work, there is no work to do as we deal with corporate clients and they all have strict stay at home policies.
Isaac Alvarez and the UNPLUG Production crew are back with another low-budget, high-quality photography tutorial. This time, they're showing you how easy it is to capture some epic "action scenes" from the comfort of self-isolation by using some action figures, sugar, and creative lighting.
My name is Antoine Loncle, and I'm an independent photographer. I shared my homemade 8x10 box camera on several photography groups and it received a lot of interest. I figured I'd do a little write up for anyone that wanted to know more about the camera as well as see some images of the building process.
Photographer Heather Lahtinen of the Flourish Academy recently took on one of the most common complaints among working photographers: that cheap photogs are "saturating" the market and stealing all the jobs by undercutting better photographers on price. Lahtinen says this is "the biggest load of crap" she's ever heard.
Wedding photographer Reggie Ballesteros gets a lot of questions from aspiring wedding photographers, and one of the most common is: how do you use off-camera flash? So he's created a comprehensive guide that covers his entire process—from the gear he uses, to his thought process during setup, through execution.
In late 2018 my buddy RJ (AKA RJD2) approached me about shooting the cover art for an upcoming album he was working on. He didn’t have a concrete idea about what he wanted to do but suggested possibly involving his Delorean.
DynaLite Inc.—a trusted professional lighting brand that has been around for over 50 years—has shut down. In a statement posted to the company's website, CEO Peter Poremba announced that the company "has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy and has closed it doors."
Photographer and YouTuber Irene Rudnik was recently scrolling through Instagram when she stumbled across some beautiful blue-hour snow portraits by photographer @kateblc. Like any good artist, she decided to run with that inspiration, and in the video above, she takes us along behind the scenes to see how she captured a beautiful holiday-themed nighttime portrait using only a single flash.
Apple's Made-for-iPhone (MFi) licensing program may soon allow third parties to create dedicated strobes for current and future iPhones. According to sources who spoke with 9to5Mac, MFi partners were briefed on "new specs" that will allow them to manufacture strobes that connect and sync over the Lightning port instead of Bluetooth.
What started off as a quick lighting test in my garage has turned into a full investigation and installation of my own DIY photography ceiling rail system. My shooting space measures 7x10 feet (2x3m) -- not a great space for shooting portraits.
'Politricks': "the word "politics" altered to convey the empty-campaign promises often experienced after politicians get elected." About a year ago I had this thought of making a picture from this word.
When a light source is large relative to a subject, that light is considered “soft.” Soft light casts a shadow with a less defined, soft edge. Skin and other kinds of texture will be minimized. When a light source is small relative to a subject, that light is considered hard. Since the light comes from a smaller area relative to the subject, the shadow cast by hard light will have defined edges and the appearance of skin texture will be maximized.
Kevin and Tracy over at Canada's Strobepro Studio Lighting recently put together an lighting shootout where they tested out various continuous LED lights for studio portrait photography. The question they're trying to answer: can continuous lights replace strobes?
In this video, I’ll show you a simple Photoshop compositing technique to remove light stands from your images in less than two minutes. Then, we’ll do a complete rundown of how the image was shot, lit, and processed.
Westcott just announced an exciting new 400W/s monolight and universal wireless trigger that promise to provide a killer combination of portability, affordability, and compatibility for on-location photographers who have been relying on Godox/Flashpoint for their lighting needs.
If you want to piss off a majority of professional photographers, show them a smartphone camera rig setup and explain how great it is. Better yet, show them an article about an iPhone-only wedding photographer. I've seen this reaction countless times, and it's especially prevalent when you look at smartphone photography accessories.
‘Flash duration’ isn’t a very glamorous topic, but it’s certainly something that every single photographer that uses flash should be aware of.
When photographer Scott Choucino of TinHouse Studio first got into off-camera flash photography, he found himself struggling to find good info on putting together a solid affordable setup. That's why he created this video: a beginner's guide to his favorite super-cheap off-camera flash set-up.
President Trump has announced that a fresh wave of tariffs will be imposed on goods imported from China beginning September 1st. The 10% tariff—which is in addition to the 25% tariffs already in effect—may mean increased prices on any cameras, lenses, or other photography gear imported to the United States from China.
If you’re wondering why someone who loves Sigma cameras and gets called the ‘Foveon Wizard’ by his peers is writing about the Panasonic Lumix S1R, I need to take you back to 2007.
A surgeon at a meat market. It's an absolutely simple yet ridiculous idea, so it had to be done for real! China has been harvesting organs from detainees, so maybe this absurd project of mine isn't so far from the truth!
Episode 325 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
Download MP3 - Subscribe via iTunes, Google Play, email or RSS!
Featured: Photojournalist and author, Steve Simon
Profoto has just announced the new A1X, a "new and improved sibling" to the A1 round-head flash that was announced back in September 2017.
Episode 320 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
Download MP3 - Subscribe via iTunes, Google Play, email or RSS!
Featured: Photographer and digital artist, Erik Johansson