Rotating an image in Photoshop might seem like a pretty simple process: you just... rotate it, right? Not quite. As this video from 2010 demonstrates, one of the ways a computer rotates an image is actually by applying 4 sequential transformations. (Warning: math incoming).
If you are troubled by blemishes big or small in your portrait work, this 16-minute tutorial by Nathaniel Dodson over at Tutvid will teach you how to use Photoshop to properly clean and heal skin in a flash.
Give weird lens lover and filmmaker Mathieu Stern some credit: he can pretty much make any lens you put in front of him work... including one made from a discarded lens tube he found in a 'trash' box at a flea market.
Firmware update usually fly under our radar here at PetaPixel, but Sigma's recently update to the sd Quattro line of cameras is a big deal. Why? Because Sigma is finally letting users shoot DNG RAW.
You don't need fancy lighting equipment to capture nighttime portraits. Follow these few simple tips from photographer Jordan Matter and you'll up your night portrait game instantly, no flash required.
There’s a very succinct analogy by Marshall McLuhan, summing up our society’s focus on the past:
“We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.”
A video is made up from 25 single photos per second, that, when placed back-to-back, trick our mind into seeing motion. But what would happen if we only took one photo every minute, and then played them back at 25 frames per second? The result is a magnificent hyper-realistic compression of time.
The newest Zeiss Batis lens has officially arrived. It's a 'compact, lightweight, top-quality' 135mm f/2.8, but what it's lost in weight it seems to have gained back in dollar signs.
As camera makers struggle to innovate, consumers are finding little need to upgrade. The market is slowing to the point of inertia—manufacturers need to take a left field approach to stay competitive.
Professional photographers and videographers who have been lamenting that Apple has forgotten all about you, fear not: Apple Senior VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller has some words of comfort for you.
Photographer Jana Romanova is suing VICE Media for using a photo from her series Waiting without permission... again. This is Romanova's second copyright infringement lawsuit agains VICE over the same photo series.
A brand-new Hasselblad H6D-100c will cost you approximately $33,000 before you even buy a lens for the system, which begs the question: is it worth the money? That's what Sonder Creative lead photographer Usman Dawood tries to figure out in this video review of the Hasselblad H6D.
Everybody wants to get closer when shooting wildlife, and one of the most affordable ways of doing this is to buy a teleconverter. These little gadgets will instantly add to your lens magnification without making your wallet thousands of dollars lighter... but are they worth it? Let's find out.
In the New York Times 2020 Report about the future of the journalism at the Times, the paper put this point first: "The report needs to become more visual." And now, it looks like the publication is putting its money where its report is.
Sony recently updated their sensor roadmap for 2017 and 2018, and there's some exciting news for medium format shooters on it. Not only will cameras like the Fuji GFX and Hasselblad X1D get a 100MP option, Sony is also developing a 150MP sensor for larger cameras like the Phase One 100XF.
What do photo editors want from photographers? And how can you get their attention in their very crowded inboxes? These are only the tip of the never-ending iceberg of questions for getting a leg up on that next assignment; and the truth is, it often depends on the editor’s personal preferences.
At least once per month, we hear about someone else—a photographer, photo shoot subject, sometimes just kids messing around—who was struck and killed while taking pictures on train tracks. And this weekend, the TODAY show demonstrated how these massive machines are able to "sneak up" on people.
One of the best April Fools trolls in the photo industry wasn't a troll at all... which made it that much better. Announced as a joke yesterday to many a rolled eye and "suuuure," Magic Lantern has managed to add Super 35mm 4K RAW video recording to the 5-year-old 5D Mark III.
"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." – Henri Cartier-Bresson
Those slick gun-metal gray Nikon 100th anniversary special-edition cameras and lenses we told you about at the end of February have officially arrived. As it turns out, people who want to celebrate Nikon's centennial in style will have a lot more options than just DSLRs and lenses to choose from.
Compared to the previous administration, President Donald Trump's White House has been fairly anti-photography. But today, we get to see another official portrait from the Trump Administration: First Lady Melania Trump's official White House portrait.
A team of researchers at UC Berkeley have revealed an 'Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation' technique that can do something really interesting: it can turn a painting by Monet into a 'photograph'... also, it can transform horses into zebras and summer into winter.
If you're looking for an 85mm portrait lens for your Sony full-frame e-mount camera, you should seriously consider the 'budget' FE 85mm f/1.8 Sony announced back in February. It might have seemed like an afterthought, but this $600 lens can keep up with glass more than twice its price.
From time to time when I read about Street Photography, I hear the opinion that street photographers exploit people on the street by taking their picture without asking. This opinion raises some valid questions about the ethics of Street Photography, but also shows the double standards we follow in the media.
The Zeiss Batis 135mm f/2.8 is reportedly scheduled to be announced later this week, and you know what that means... lots of leaks. We've just got our first peek at the soon-to-be-announced lens and its spec sheet.
Episode 164 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
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Featured: Photographer and 2017 Sony Impact Award winner, Jaleel King
The World Press Photo Awards isn't the only prestigious photo competition that experienced controversy this year: the 2017 Sony World Photography Awards received at least one complaint of plagiarism by a photo selected for the Open competition shortlist.
It is yet again the day of the year on which you can't trust anything you see online. Here's a roundup of some of the April Fools' Day jokes that have emerged in the world of photography in 2017.
We hear everyone in the photography industry talking about image quality, image quality, image quality. We especially hear about this in any circle of people chatting (or writing) about night photography. Conversations (and books, articles and blog posts) are rife with opinions and advice about how to push the limits of our cameras and lenses in order to get the best image quality in low-light situations.
Commercial photographer Vatsal Kataria of New Delhi, India, shoots big photos with small budgets. Instead of taking expensive cars and motorcycles into grand outdoor locations, Kataria builds detailed miniature sets in his studio.
Five years after beginning its very long journey, NASA's Juno spacecraft has beamed back photos of Jupiter’s poles for the first time... and they're stunning.
About a week ago, the FBI quietly re-released a collection of photos from the 9/11 aftermath into their online records vault. The photos, which focus on the wreckage at the Pentagon, were originally published in 2011, but disappeared for some time due to a technical glitch.
From the beginning of my photography career—which is … almost 30 years ago (that can’t be true!)—I've been shooting with zoom lenses. Due to the flexibility they offer, I was convinced they make the best choice; as far as I know, thousands of other travel photographers who would say the same.
Adobe is getting creative on Instagram. Taking advantage of Instagram's new ability to publish multiple images and video in a single post, they've created this simple, step-by-step tutorial that will show you how to create a 'double exposure' in Photoshop.
Here's a juicy research & development tidbit straight from the executives at Canon. In an interview with Focus Numerique at the Utsunomiya L lens factory in Japan, Canon said they're working on a "new lens technology."
Along with normal how-to articles and essays, I’ve always liked reading and writing very technical, nitty-gritty articles about photography—sometimes, articles on topics that rarely come up while actually taking pictures.
Given that most photos are captured digitally and shared online, it’s easy to forget the beauty of a print.
The biggest photography announcement of the week came from Hasselblad. In a move that is being praised by most of the photo community, the storied camera company appointed photographer Ming Thein as its new Chief of Strategy, leaving us all to wonder "what happens now?" PetaPixel sat down with Ming to find out.
Amateur photographer Mason Maxwell recently paid a creative tribute to one of his favorite albums. Using construction paper, a prism, and good ol' sunlight, he was able to shoot a surprisingly accurate version of the cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
Kodak Moments UK pulled a cringe-worthy prank on a few Londoners recently. They attracted unsuspecting strangers to their display under the guise of a "custom-built, super-fast phone charger," and then promptly 'wiped' all of the data off of their smartphones... oops.
Rich McCor, a London-based paper artist and photographer better known as @paperboyo, is taking the Internet by storm with his creative paper creations. Using black paper cutouts, he transforms landmarks and everyday scenes into something totally different and wacky.
The Library of Congress recently acquired the archives of civil rights photographer Bob Adelman. An anonymous donor gifted the collection, an archive that contains some of the most outstanding images ever captured of the Civil Rights Movement.
Smaller than any monolight but more powerful than any speedlight, the Godox AD200 pocket flash (AKA. Flashpoint eVOLV 200) is an intriguing piece of lighting equipment. But can it take on the South Texas sun? Photographer Francisco Hernandez took it out on a portrait shoot to find out.
Bentley has captured what they're calling "the world's most detailed landscape photo": a 57.7 gigapixel interactive ad stitched together from 1,825 individual frames captured from atop one of the tallest towers in Dubai.
How the heck do you pronounce the word 'Bokeh'? It's a question new and seasoned photographers alike struggle with, argue about, and make fun of each other over, so the folks at Photo Gear News decided to clear it one up once and for all.
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.
Episode 163 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast.
Download MP3 - Subscribe via iTunes, Google Play, email or RSS!
Featured: Photographer and digital artist, Erik Johansson
Most car commercials involve big budgets, test drivers, and excursions to exotic far-away lands—unless, of course, you hire miniature photography master Felix Hernandez. For his latest assignment with Audi Middle East, Felix created his own personal desert and roadway right in the comfort of his own studio.
For their latest music video, the band Explosions in the Sky enlisted the help of filmmaker Hayley Morris to do something special. The resulting video is 3 minutes of psychedelic stop motion photography that is truly impressive.
Two pairs of researchers from Cornell University and Adobe have teamed up and developed a "Deep Photo Style Transfer" algorithm that can automatically apply the style (read: color and lighting) of one photo to another. The early results are incredibly impressive and promising.