Twenty Meters of Rocks: Revisiting the Same Spot Multiple Times

Tyrifjorden is one of Norway’s largest lakes. Along its shores, I have found a spot that I have visited frequently over the past few years. It has become my favorite location for sunrises, especially during winter when the sun rises right in front of me.

Low Contrast Lens Filters: What They are and Why You Should Use Them

As the name of the filter alludes to, these lens filters do indeed lower the overall contrast of a shot. To clarify what that means in relation to photography: these filters will reduce the darkness of the shadows by allowing light to bleed into them from surrounding highlights.

This is What it Looks Like When You Spin a GoPro at 1800rpm

25-year old YouTuber Mr. Michal of the Czech Republic recently took his GoPro for a spin... literally. He strapped his GoPro to a lathe, centered the camera, and captured a dizzying set of shots while it spun at everything from 14 all the way up to 1800rpm.

Advice for Beginner Photographers in 2020

Seeing that it's a new year and a lot of folks have recently gotten cameras, I thought it might be helpful to put down my thoughts and advice for beginners.

Ep. 332: Predictions for 2020…and 2019’s Hits and Misses – and more



Episode 332 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
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Featured: Fine art photographer, Julia Anna Gospodarou

 

A Helpful Gear Guide for New Event Photographers

Event and wedding photographer Mik Milman has released a handy buying guide that lists all of the gear a beginner needs if they want to get into this niche. From camera bodies, to glass, to flash guns, he covers all the bases so you don't waste money buying stuff you don't actually need.

New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Could Quadruple Camera Battery Life

Researchers at Australia's Monash University have developed what they're calling "the world’s most efficient lithium-sulphur (Li-S) battery," an ultra-high-capacity design that could quadruple camera battery life and run a smartphone for 5 consecutive days without a charge.

Hands-On with the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 for E-Mount and L-Mount

Back in mid-2017, I was tasked with reviewing Sigma's first 24-70mm lens, the 24-70mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM IF Art lens, and I was extremely disappointed. You can read my whole review here, but in summary, I found it to be sadly inconsistent with its sharpness. Most notably, I found that edge sharpness was really quite bad.

The Fallacy of Photo-a-day Projects

At the turn of the millennium, veteran photojournalist David Hume Kennerly embarked on a project using a single camera outfitted with a single lens – a medium format Mamiya 7II with a 43mm f/4.5 lens. As he crisscrossed the country, he committed to taking a photo each day, which culminated in his book Photo du Jour.

GoPro Karma Drones Worldwide Bricked by Possible GPS Issue

Users of GoPro's failed "Karma" drone are reporting that their drones have been unable to fly since the new year began. According to numerous forum and social media posts from across the globe, the drone is more-or-less bricked due to a lack of GPS signal.

3 Things Most Photographers Get Wrong About Flash

In this video, we’ll talk you through 3 common misconceptions when it comes to flash. These are easy mistakes any photographer can make so pay attention and see how to correct them with these easy tips!

Is That Photo Post-Processed? Yes, It Is.

Yes, it's post-processed. I get this question all the time, like every other photographer on the planet, and it often sparks heated debates that challenge the notion of objective reality and the meaning of photography.

Nikon D780 DSLR Photos Leaked

Nikon is set to unveil its new D780 along with a number of other products at CES next week, but photos of the DSLR have just leaked onto the Internet, giving us a first glimpse at what Nikon has in store.

Review: A Landscape Perspective of the Tamron 17–28mm f/2.8 Di III

My main objective in this article isn’t to provide an in-depth review of the Tamron 17–28mm f/2.8 Di III lens, but I hope to offer the reader a few insights in terms of how the lens performs from a landscape photographer’s perspective as a photographer who usually prefers to shoot ultra-wide-angle.

Why is Canon Putting Its Best Mirrorless Features Into a DSLR?

After Canon shared the development information on the impending 1D X Mark III last year, we called out that its specs not only blow away any previous notions of what a camera with physical moving parts could do but also noted that it's got all the makings of a great mirrorless camera... with a mirror.

Photographer Captures Eerie Images of Venice Underwater

This past November, Venice experienced its worst flooding in over 50 years, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency. But while news of the flooding caused thousands to cancel their travel plans, photographer Natalia Elena Massi did the exact opposite: she packed her bags and drove to Venice.

Why Artists are Never Happy: A Candid Message for Creatives

Whether you're a photographer, a filmmaker, a YouTuber, or a painter, this latest video by Kaiwan Shaban will probably hit home on some level. It's an honest, candid message for artists of all stripes who struggle with the fact that they are never quite satisfied with the work they are creating.

How to Adapt Industrial Lenses for Extreme Macro Photography

If you ever visited some industrial surplus shops, very often you would see some cameras and lenses used in industrial automation. What you probably do not know is that these lenses can have very high optical performance and features we want: high resolving power, large image circle, low distortion, and often very long working distance compared to some of other lenses we use.

Why I’m Sticking with Lightroom Classic… for Now

Ever since Adobe announced that Lightroom would become “Lightroom Classic”, the writing has been in the wall. Lightroom as I know it will someday become a technological dinosaur. If Adobe gets their way, the replacement—confusingly known as Lightroom (non-Classic)—is the way of the future.

The Problem with Presets: Why You Should or Shouldn’t Use Them

A month ago, a photography podcast slammed the preset industry in a scathing episode that was all about how presets and the photographers who sell them are terrible. Now, the photographer duo behind the popular YouTube channel Mango Street are speaking up and sharing their thoughts on this contentious topic.

Opinion: Sony Has Finally Fixed (Almost) All of Its Major Issues

Photographer and YouTuber Matt Granger just released a video titled "The Truth About Sony," but while this might sound like some sort of exposé, it's really not. What we have here is an honest discussion about the growing pains that Sony users have been dealing with for years, and how Sony has addressed (almost) all of those issues over the past couple of years.

In Our Time: A Year of Shooting Exactly One Film Photo Per Day

At the end of every year, I get to see, for the first time, all the things I’ve already seen. New Year’s Eve is my final film pickup day for One Second, an ongoing project in which I, an otherwise sane, rational, working modern photographer, make one photograph, and only one photograph, on film, every day, with no do-overs and no second chances.

iPhone 11 Pro’s Night Mode Isn’t What You Might Think

After PetaPixel shared a story I shot with the new iPhone in Russia’s Arctic North, the response was enormous. One email that I received pointed out a technical detail I think deserves more attention. It turns out that the “Night Mode” doesn’t actually work with the iPhone’s telephoto lens, yet the phone goes out of its way to look like it does.

The 10 Most Popular PetaPixel Posts of the Decade

On May 14th, 2009 a little blog called PetaPixel made its debut. More than 10 years and nearly 27,000 published posts later (26,886 to be exact), as we wrap up our first full decade in existence, it seemed appropriate to look back at the ten most popular articles of the decade.

Simple Lightroom Trick Helps You Find Sensor Spots (or Anything Else) in Your Photos

Using Lightroom to remove spots caused by sensor dust is a pretty straight forward process: just click "Visualize Spots" and use the Spot Removal tool, right? Well, photographer Anthony Morganti thinks that he's discovered a better way, and in the video above he shows you a "hidden" Lightroom trick that makes it easy to systematically search your images for sensor spots... or anything else for that matter.