If you want to learn the science and technical details of how cameras and lenses work, there's a fantastic new resource on the Web for you. Developer Bartosz Ciechanowski has published an interactive 5,700-word article that explains things in great depth.
Photographs are omnipresent in our daily lives. From social media and advertising to family photos hanging on your wall. Images are used for identification and as evidence, as well as informing us at a cultural level about who we are.
In the previous essay, I introduced a couple of imaginary photographs. The first, an old woman celebrating her birthday with family and friends; the second a photograph of a man seated in a chair, attentive to something out of frame.
My name is Ben Sandofsky, and I'm the co-founder and developer of Lux Optics. We make Halide, the most popular RAW camera for iPhone, so when Apple revealed their new ProRAW image format, we were beyond excited.
Now and then, it just so happens that I find a show or movie that visually amazes me. I was blown away by the colors of Grand Hotel Budapest and by the cinematography of Birdman. The hit Netflix series The Queen's Gambit is one of those surprises that I have discovered recently.
This is the third essay in this series, and it begins a smaller sequence of notes running over the ways we as viewers make sense of pictures. We spend, I think, too much time thinking about what happens before and during the making of a picture, but not enough on what happens when someone actually looks at it. For most of us, for most pictures, surely this is the most interesting time?
While you're stuck at home, why not try out some cool photography science experiments? In this short 5-minute video, the George Eastman Museum shows you how to make your own photographic prints using salt.
What many photographers aspire to do is to be able to tell a story with their images -- to create pictures that make the viewer keep looking as they dig deeper and deeper into layers of the photograph.
We all know that reducing aperture increases depth of field, but how much does that help? Here are some facts about depth of field.
In the previous essay, I made an argument that photographs (and things that are like photographs) metaphorically transport us into the scene of the photo. We react, body and mind, a little bit as if we were actually present.
It's common for photo writers to state, "A 100mm lens on a Micro Four Thirds camera has the equivalent reach of 200mm on full frame". While the field of view is equivalent to 200mm FF, the reach is not necessarily equivalent.
Travel vlogger Drew Binsky was wandering the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, recently when he came across an older photographer named Haji. In this 9-minute vlog, Binsky tells the story of Haji and how he has been shooting for 65 years using a 100-year-old box camera.
So, you make photographs? Or take them, or something like that? I’m going to guess here that you probably hope people will like them, or see something in them that’s interesting. You’re interested in how people see photographs, how people make sense of photos. Me too.
Maximilian Heinrich of Analog Insights recently inherited an 85-year-old Leica camera and handed it off to his friend Jules for repair and restoration. This 15-minute video is about the camera's journey from nearly being passed on to a camera store to being brought back to form.
One of the best ways to broaden your horizons and inject a little inspiration into your photography is to explore subjects outside the world of photography. To study painting or take a course in graphic design, for example. But I recently discovered a fount of photographic inspiration in an unusual place: a neuroscience lab.
Sony recently published multiple promotional videos for its latest sensors aimed at the industrial space, and while it's unlikely all of the features shown have consumer applications, some might find their way to consumer cameras.
Want some free photography education by top professional photographers? Nikon has got you covered. The brand just made all of its online classes free for the holiday season.
During World War II, the US Air Force used massive cameras to capture aerial photographs for the purposes of mapping and reconnaissance. The resulting photographs provide a fascinating look into what the war looked like for those who fought it from above.
Over at Halide HQ, we’ve been busily working away on a very deep, technical analysis of what’s new in iPhone 12 cameras this year. All four of ’em. On Friday, we got our hands on the final iPhones in this year’s line-up, the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Photographer Mathieu Stern recently got his hands on a handful of cheap expired film rolls to see what results he could get out of them. You can see his experiment in this 5-minute video.
Check out this absolute unit of a camera that was used to do aerial photography during World War II. Mounted on the front of the camera is a massive 2-foot long 610mm f/6 lens.
The Linhof 617 S III Technorama is a panoramic film camera that captures four giant 6x17cm panoramas per roll of 120 film (hence the name 617). Camera West TV made this 4-minute video that offers a look at this special camera and the results it can produce.
I met a man who owned a ton of his uncle's photos he took during his time in World War II. The images by Kenneth McKenzie start in Vancouver and Banff where they did their training, then all across Europe.
The Seoul gallery Blackmarket recently created a blacklight print of a photo by Seoul-based cyberpunk photographer Noe Alonzo. This 3-minute behind-the-scenes video shows how the print is made using screenprinting.
What even is a ‘studio shooter’ today? Years ago it was a little easier to define, but due to us having tons of heavy, cumbersome lighting and cameras, we were all pretty grounded in the actual home-base of a studio. Today though, the vast majority of my own jobs are not shot in my own space. I shoot wherever I’m needed and whether that be in a home, an office, hair salon or even another hired studio, I’m always on the move.
Portrait and fashion photographer Lindsay Adler has started a new reality competition series called The Concept Challenge. In each episode, two talented artists are given a concept that they must complete before time runs out.
If someone would ask me what digital camera brand is the most different from all the others, I would definitely answer Leica. A couple of weeks ago I bought my first Leica rangefinder, after using virtually every other camera brand on the market.
Robert "Scratch" Mitchell was one of the pilots who helped recreate the famous Top Gun canopy-to-canopy photo scene to see if it was possible, and explains in this 10-minute video what his team got right, and what Top Gun got wrong.
Camera West recently received an unusual camera through a customer trade-in. In this 3-minute video, the camera shop takes a hands-on look at the Calypso, the first 35mm underwater film camera that didn't require a bulky housing.
Photographer and YouTuber Frederik Trovatten has just released episode three of his popular "How to take photos like..." series. He started with Vivian Maier, moved on to Robert Frank, and this week he's breaking down the style and philosophy of the great Joel Meyerowitz.
Pye Jirsa from Lin and Jirsa Photography and SLR Lounge dispels the idea that making a great home studio is expensive. In this 20-minute video, Jirsa explains how you can make a quick studio at home for as little as $20.
In the latest Lightroom update, Adobe removed the Split Toning tool and replaced it with Color Grading, a move that photographer Mark Denney explains in this 12-minute video has forever changed the way he develops color – for the better.
Lindsay Adler is an accomplished portrait photographer and educator, and in this 11.5-minute video she explains three different, versatile, and easy-to-master lighting setups using a beauty dish as the key light.
You might be familiar with the exposure triangle, but in this 7-minute video, Mark Wallace from Adorama TV describes the exposure diamond and how to effectively balance a strobe with ambient light.
Karl Taylor, a photography educator, has published this 10-minute video that explains why hiring an assistant is one of the best investments of capital any photographer who is serious about growing a business can make.
When COOPH has something new published, it's very likely going to have some cool ideas that you can execute at home. In this 6.5-minute video, that remains true as they show eight clever lighting tricks you can easily try for yourself.
Image stacking is a technique used in astrophotography to reduce noise and recover signal. It means taking multiple shots of object (usually long exposures) and combining them to create a cleaner image.
You may know Steve Giralt from his outstanding effects work with his production company The Garage or his in-progress education Kickstarter, but in this 9-minute video, he shows you five tips that promise to make your beverage photos better.
In a video commissioned by Apple, Donghoon and James of Incite Design show off some incredible visuals captured by the company's latest smartphone, the iPhone 12 Pro. The two show how they did it in this 5-minute behind-the-scenes explanation.
Yesterday, iFixit finally tore into the brand new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro (the Pro Max isn't available yet) during a 1 hour and 30 minute-long live stream. And about 44 minutes in, they got to the part we're most interested in: the cameras.
Steve Giralt is a New York City-based director, visual engineer, and founder of production company The Garage. He shoots those visually-stunning commercials you see on TV, and while most studios keep secret how they are made, Giralt wants to share it all with the world.
In just one relatively small "bulge" of the Soul Nebula (also known as Westerhout 5) in the constellation of Cassiopeia, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of a star that is still being born.
Professional wet plate photographer Markus Hofstätter is obviously fond of historical photography processes. But his latest video doesn't actually involve taking any photos; instead, he's restoring a 140-year-old chirping brass bird that is thought to be the origin of the phrase "watch the birdie."
As you may very well know, long exposure photography is a method by which you expose a sensor to a scene for an extended period of time. But in this 15-minute video, PiXimperfect asks the question, then isn't a video just a long exposure? Well, not really, but you can use a video to make long exposure photos.
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!
Over the past seven months, Ilford has been publishing a set of helpful "Darkroom Guides" to the How To playlist on the company YouTube channel. The series was created to help film photographers take their "next steps in your black and white darkroom printing journey." If that describes you, then this is one you'll want to bookmark.
American people standing up to the Soviets! America needs Nixon! These were some of the tag lines attached to this photo during Nixon’s presidential campaign in 1960. But behind every picture, there is a story. And this is one of those photos where the story is just as good as the picture.
If you've seen the movie Inception, you're likely very familiar with that one scene where physical space is bent on top of itself. It's one of the movie's most iconic visuals, and in this 3-minute video, COOPH shows how you can easily make your own photos with an Inception vibe with a drone.
Pete Souza is one of the most well-known photographers in the world mainly due to his work as the photographer for United States Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. In this 5-minute video, he explains what is required of someone in that role.
Photographer Gavin Hoey recently produced a video for Adorama TV that tackles a critically important subject for photographers: light fall off. Mathematically captured by the so-called Inverse Square Law, it's vital that photographers understand this property of light, especially when working with strobes.
