Earlier this year, photographer Danielle Reeder of Somerset, UK, launched an experimental photo project called The Traveling Dress Collective. The idea was to pass one dress around between photographers based around the UK to see the diversity of the resulting portraits.
The moment I had been waiting for finally arrived exactly 49 days after I got my Huawei P30 Pro. This is one of my final tests for the phone after shooting the Milky Way handheld and a meter. So what’s the big deal about this test? Because photographing the Milky Way in Singapore with a DSLR was deemed impossible by many astrophotography veterans here just 5 years ago.
If you were to ask a photographer whether it’s better to invest in a camera or a lens, most would answer lens. After all, no amount of megapixels or camera features can save blurry or ill-rendered images. The lens is the eye of the camera, which is why photographers spend thousands of dollars on them. However, this doesn’t mean that you need an expensive lens to make compelling images.
Bruce Gilden is one of the top street photographers of our generation. He’s controversial, talented and he has his own style… so there’s no question as to why some might want to emulate him.
This was a fun experiment and, to be honest, I’m not sure if it’s been done before. I read about photographers capturing the Milky Way with their phones so I wanted to put a drone to the test and see what it could do while hovering. As it turns out you can not only catch the Milky Way’s galactic core but also meteors and satellites as well.
I am a fan of light (honestly what photographer isn’t?). Hard light; reflected light; dappled light; low-key light; colored light -- I love it all. Light makes or breaks not only my images but my mood. I’d venture to say that light is sandwiched between “belonging” and “safety” on my hierarchical pyramid of needs.
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.
The British photographer Rankin recently conducted an experiment for a project titled "Selfie Harm." He photographed 15 teenagers between ages 13 and 19 and gave them the untouched portraits to edit themselves. Each teen was instructed to retouch their face until it was "social media ready."
While browsing a flea market, photographer Mathieu Stern came across an old slide projector and managed to buy the Rollei 90mm f/2.4 MC lens mounted to it for just €5 (~$5.70). With a little bit of ingenuity and effort, Stern converted it into a camera lens and found that it's a terrific lens for shooting portraits.
Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami loves experimenting with camera equipment, from flipping a lens element for "magic bokeh" to creating a working analog watch camera. His latest experiment is also off the beaten path: he found that a display from a broken laptop works perfectly as a view camera's ground glass.
Want to hear a communist joke? Well, they are only really funny if everyone gets them, but if you still want to hear it, then Soviet: A worker standing in a liquor line says: “I have had enough, save my place, I am going to shoot Gorbachev.” Two hours later he returns to claim his place in line. His friends ask, “Did you get him?” “No, the line there was even longer than the line here.”
One of the earliest ways of creating color photos was by combining black-and-white photos shot using red, green, and blue filters. Matt Gray recently decided to use this technique to shoot color photos using his Game Boy Camera.
Paparazzi photographers in Los Angeles spend their days and nights pursuing celebrities who aren't actually very important people on the world stage. On the other hand, politicians in Washington, D.C. have a huge global impact, yet they're largely ignored out in public. VICE recently decided to do an experiment by setting L.A. paparazzi on D.C. politicians.
When I read or watch reviews of lenses by folks in the photographic community, it often seems like one of the most important qualities to them is how the lens renders bokeh. It’s often made me wonder, do we sometimes forget that bokeh is just background? And is this fixation healthy? Or most importantly, how much does it matter to an average person who has never heard the term “bokeh”?
Photographer and YouTube star Peter McKinnon decided to do an experiment on whether you can create top-quality content using entry-level camera gear. He had a pro photographer see if he could distinguish between photos from a $400 camera and those of a $4,000 camera.
After discovering retouching services being offered on Fiverr, the popular platform that lets freelancers offer ultra-cheap services, photographer Irene Rudnyk recently decided to conduct an experiment to see what kind of results you can get for $10 and less.
As drones continue to explode in popularity, there have been more and more stories of operators flying way too close to airplanes. Now new research is revealing just how much damage a direct drone strike would do to an airplane's wing.
Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami has been studying and tinkering with lenses for years, and a few years ago he made a discovery: by reversing one of the elements in a vintage lens, he found himself with a lens that produced beautiful and unusual "magic" bokeh.
This idea had been rolling around in my head for years. I use flashes a lot in my photography. Whether that is a Speedlight on or off camera or in the studio with some big strobes and modifiers. But this is the first time I have ever used an aerial drone-mounted flash.
After seeing photographer Skyler Burt's experiments with lighting food photos using a cheap work light, photographer Jessica Kobeissi recently purchased that same $20 light from Home Depot for an experimental portrait shoot.
Light-painting photography is generally done in the dark since you need long exposure times to capture moving light sources as streaks. But use can also shoot long-exposure photos in bright sunlight using a neutral density filter. Photographer Eric Paré recently did just that, experimenting with doing light-painting in afternoon daylight.
Photography can be confusing. I get it. I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Because of this, at times it helps us to actually put some of these theories and myths to the test. One of these myths is the concept of compression and, with it, parallax.
Photographer Mathieu Stern loves experimenting with very old and/or strange camera lenses, but his latest project is quite strange, even by his standards. He used a 3D printer and created a lens that looks like a giant eyeball.
Portrait photographers generally pick focal lengths somewhere between 80mm and 135mm, which produces a flattened perspective distortion when the subject fills up the frame. Photographer Keydrin Franklin of 924photography recently decided to try his hand with shooting portraits with a 500mm super-telephoto lens.
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.
What do you get when you cross process the most popular negative medium format film on the market? I asked myself that question after having a crossing run-in with Fuji Pro 160, a film that I normally avoid. The photos were out of this world and I wondered what would happen to Kodak Portra 400.
How does a 140-year-old lens perform on a modern $15,000 cinema camera? Photographer and filmmaker Mathieu Stern wanted to find out, so he paired his ancient (by photography standards) lens with a 5K RED camera to see what would result.
Professional landscape photographer Dave Morrow had thriving social media accounts with over 1.5 million followers. Last year, he decided to delete those accounts and give up his huge followings there. The decision changed his life and photography.
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?
Last year, I had the privilege of photographing Heather and Brett Pocorobba for their engagement and wedding. I am not a traditional wedding photographer, but they wanted a real street vibe to their collection, so it was a good fit.
What do you get when you pair an extremely high-end cinema camera with an extremely low-end still photography lens? LA-based filmmaker Gene Nagata of Potato Jet wanted to find out, so he mounted a $48 Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 lens onto a $12,500 Scarlet-W RED Dragon 5K camera.
I just developed a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 shot at 6400 ISO. I've been wanting to try this little experience for a while now. Some films are known for handling push processing very well, and Kodak Tri-X 400 is one of them. Many photographers I know are even shooting by default at 1600 ISO but I wanted to push its limits 2 stops further.
There are still a few very unique and interesting things that can be done with film but not with a digital camera. One of these experiments is the recording of sparks on film.
There are plenty of stories of people finding old camera films and finding images on them. Photographer Daniel Keating recently got his hands on something a bit different: a 100-year-old bottle of Rodinal black-and-white film developer.
The folks at Daytripper Photo recently decided to find out what happens when you microwave a DSLR camera in the name of science. The 11-minute video above documents how the Nikon D60 and 18-135mm lens fared (spoiler: not well).
Photographers Jessica Kobeissi, Rachel Gulotta, and Daniel Inskeep decided to approach strangers in downtown Los Angeles and offer free portraits. The 11-minute video above shows what happened.
Cameras and lenses are expensive. Really expensive. Even the cheapest entry-level DSLR kit today costs $500 or more. But what if you buy the cheapest possible used DSLR? A camera that's over 10 years old? How would it stack up against today's modern cameras? I was curious about this, so I decided to find out for myself.
The progression that is the discovery and appreciation of photography is a journey unique to the voyager. Whether the path is walked through a textbook, an online forum, or alone, there is no two that are alike.
My 3-year-old daughter is at that phase in which she wants to do everything that daddy does. Apparently photography is not immune to this phase and seeing this as a potentially huge win (it's not easy to coax her into driving 6 hours to go shoot some waterfall) I dug out my old Canon 40D DSLR and a 50mm prime lens that I had lying around and let the experiment begin!
Planning to photograph the upcoming solar eclipse? You'd better make sure you have the right solar filter to protect your camera. Here's a 2-minute video that shows how shooting the sun without protection can completely melt your DSLR's guts.