Ian Norman and Diana Southern over at Lonely Speck just uploaded their full 2016 astrophotography workshop to YouTube for free. This incredible resource covers everything from getting the shot, to basic editing, image stacking, and panorama stitching. They even included the Q&A from the end of the meetup!
In the 1880s, photographer William Jennings set out to prove that lightning was a far more varied and volatile thing than a simple zig zag in the sky. After some trial and error, he ultimately succeeded, capturing what is often shared online as "the world's first photograph of lightning."
What does the inside of a car tire look like while it's being driven on? That strange question was just answered by engineer Matt Mikka of Warped Perception, who mounted a GoPro inside a tire and then took it for a spin.
If you've ever been Canon lens shopping, you've probably had to take a minute (or five) to figure out what the name of the lens actually means. With a string of seemingly random letters and numbers, these abbreviations have baffled photographers, beginners, and some professionals alike, for as long as they have been around.
Want an astrophotography challenge that doesn't come around very often? Try photographing Saturn peeking out from behind the Moon.
Some speculate that overall fake news could cost the economy $39 billion a year. Quite a market to grab for a savvy tech startup, even at 1%! But while fake news and in particular deep fakes have been accused of wreaking havoc on minds and economy, there is surprisingly only a minimal amount of companies offering tools to combat them.
Billions of photos are being snapped and shared on the Internet every day. There are more cameras than people in the world nowadays. Photography is something we take for granted; something we can easily do whenever we want. But it wasn’t always like this.
Most photographers know the basics of lens-based image stabilization (Lens IS) and in-body image stabilization (IBIS), but if you've ever wanted a technical deep-dive that explains exactly how these systems work to generate 4, 5, or even 7 stops of stabilization, this video from Imaging Resource is here to answer that call.
If you're new to photo printing, the most recent video from Sid at StyleMyPic should be required watching. In it, he covers what it means for a color in Photoshop to be "out of gamut," and how to use Photoshop's Proof Colors and Gamut Warning views to get your prints looking just right.
In running my photography channel, I get a lot of questions about RAW files vs. JPEG, and some people not fully grasping exactly what RAW files really are. So, I figured a box of cereal may simplify things. Read on.
Photographer Robert Hall recently released a simple-yet-brilliant explainer that uses water to illustrate the properties of light and explain a few concepts that frequently confuse beginners, including: what is a "stop" of light, how do you use the exposure triangle, and how do various flashes and flash modifiers affect your image.
Great Britain's Royal Institution has put together a fascinating "tour through the history of photography." Using his own camera collection as a jumping off point, chemist Andrew Szydlo takes you through a sort of "crash course" on the history of photography in 41 minutes.
In 2019, researchers made international headlines by releasing the world's first photo of a black hole. Here's a 1-minute video that zooms from the night sky into that black hole image to show how impressive the achievement was.
Commercial photographer and educator Karl Taylor is a working pro with an impressive portfolio to his name and major brands on his CV. So it came as a surprise when he declared recently that he hasn't used a light meter in 15 years... and explained why you shouldn't be using one either.
With a supply crunch in medical-grade facemasks, the general public has been turning to homemade masks in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. Now researchers are using lasers to reveal how effective different kinds of DIY masks are at blocking tiny droplets from coughs and sneezes.
If you ever receive a direct message on Instagram informing you that copyright infringement has been detected in your photos, beware: it may actually be a cleverly-disguised phishing scam.
Did you know that your body is bioluminescent? That's right -- the human body actually emits visible light and can be photographed by an ultra-sensitive camera in complete darkness.
Martin, the host of about photography, has put together a timely and inspiring ode to the work of photographer Harry Gruyaert—a master of his craft and Magnum photographer whose approach to using color, and his passion for photography in general, is worth studying, admiring, and emulating.
Photographer and YouTuber Arthur R recently received several comments from viewers about how he didn't use a body cap to protect his camera sensor from dust. In response, he decided to do some tests to find out how durable and scratch-proof sensors actually are.
Photography is all about light. To be more precise, photography is all about the quality of the light. This can be a particular challenge for outdoor/landscape photographers.
Jordan Drake and Chris Niccolls over at DPReview TV recently published a follow-up to their lens cleaning video, where they tested something that we've all wondered: how much do scratches, dust, water droplets, and fingerprints on your lens really impact image quality?
While enjoying a calm and misty morning at the pier in Malibu, California, I spotted dolphins. After observing them for a while, I noticed that their swimming was synchronized. There was a natural explanation for their circling: a feast had begun, quickly attracting sea lions, pelicans, and seagulls.
PBS NewsHour aired this 7-minute Race Matters segment on the camera's role over the past decades in not only documenting social movements but also shaping and shifting public perception. (Warning: This video contains violent and disturbing images.)
While digital photography and post-processing have done away with the need for certain types of lens filters, there are still a number of filters that can't be replaced by Photoshop. Here's a 8.5-minute video by DPReview on which filters you should still consider keeping in your camera bag.
Portrait photographer Miguel Quiles is tackling one of the most common beginner questions out there: should I invest in speedlights or strobes? In this video, he covers the pros and cons of both, and which you should go with depending on your needs and shooting style.
It's common knowledge that most lenses are at their best (i.e. sharpest) between f/5.6 and f/8, depending on the lens. But why is that? Why does stopping down further actually make the image softer? This is what YouTuber ZY Productions explains in the video above.
When you think online photography education, underwater photography probably isn't the first niche that pops into your mind. But that's what the newly launched Bluewater University is focused on -- it offers live virtual instruction for all things underwater.
We’re going to ask a controversial question: What do UV filters do, exactly? A UV blocking filter, (not to be confused with a UV Bandpass filter, which has the opposite function) is perhaps the most standard lens filter out there. It’s sold with every beginner lens filter kit along with polarizers and ND filters, and sometimes it’ll even ship with your camera.
Portrait photos from over a century ago rarely show subjects smiling, but this 19th century photo is an exception, and it's been going viral online for that reason.
Just starting out with doing photography with a DSLR (or mirrorless) camera? Here's a free PDF you can download that will take you through some of the basics of understanding and using the camera so you can hit the ground running.
Somehow or other lens compression effects seem to have hit the zeitgeist. A day does not go by when I fail to see some news photograph critiqued on the grounds of lens compression. Either what it appears to show is fake (or allegedly fake) due to lens compression, or lens compression is concealing some truth. So here's a little description of it, and a cautionary example.
If you're looking to hone your Lightroom CC and Lightroom Mobile skills, Adobe has launched a new series of bite-sized video tutorials that you might be interested in. The series is called "In a Lightroom Minute," and it's made up of 60-second (give or take) tutorials that cover a wide variety of topics.
Expert wildlife photographer Steve Perry has created an excellent "crash course" in Bird in Flight photography that he's sharing for free with all of us. The video covers 10 techniques/tips that "will give you all the basics you need to start filling your memory card with wall-hangers."
COVID-19 has brought unprecedented challenges to many areas of the economy in the past few months. As we emerge from lockdown situations, businesses will continue to have a need for fresh commercial photography, whether it is for new marketing efforts, making portraits of new faces as leadership and staff undergo changes, documenting new facilities and infrastructure projects, or communicating with stakeholders about a company’s efforts to keep workers safe and healthy during this ongoing crisis.
One of the biggest and hard-fought debates I regularly see online is about UV filters. Many photographers swear by these relatively expensive pieces of glass, and they predominantly use them to protect their lenses.
Photographer Todd Dominey recently inherited a piece of photo history from his parents: an original Polaroid SX-70. This camera sent Dominey down the rabbit hole of instant photography history, as he discovered the story behind this world-shaking camera, and the man who invented it, Edwin Land.
The folks over at YouTube channel Media Division recently put together an incredibly comprehensive test of the fastest camera lenses on the market. In this video, they cover everything from the legendary Zeiss R-Biotar 100mm f/0.73 X-Ray lens, to some of the more "practical" options with maximum apertures under f/1.
If you're running low on free educational content and you're eager to use this time to improve your craft, we have some good news. The website Photography Life hast just released all of their premium photography courses, usually $150 apiece, for free on YouTube.
If you've been looking for a fresh, entertaining take on the standard beginner's guide to
getting out of Auto Mode, look no further. The YouTube channel TheCrafsMan SteadyCraftin has released the strangest (and yet still very informative) tutorial we've seen in this genre.
Landscape photographer and educator Mads Peter Iversen has put together a helpful focus 'primer' for the aspiring landscape photographers out there. In the video, he goes over auto and manual focus technique, his personal workflow, and a few basic tips and tricks that work well for him.
After four years, we have a new budget-conscious iPhone. Like previous SE, it reaches that price point by sticking to components from previous generations. iFixit found the the camera sensor interchangeable with that of an iPhone 8.
Engineer and YouTuber Ben Krasnow over at Applied Science has put together a fascinating little optical demonstration that explains the physics behind 'hypercentric' optics and how they allow you to see around and behind objects. He even shows you how to build your own.
The Pentagon made headlines around the world this week when it officially released several UFO videos that were internally declassified in 2017, confirming their authenticity. And while this has sparked a flurry of "aliens among us" speculation, some are pointing out that there is an optical explanation behind each of the three clips.
A bible for photographers. That is how Robert Capa described The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson. After almost 70 years it was first published, this book has still a lot to say to photographers and especially to street and documentary photographers.
My name is Jason De Freitas (@jase.film on Instagram), and I'm an analog photographer based in Australia. In this article, I'll share how I shoot the Milky Way from my backyard on medium format film.
It all started as a seemingly simple task. To make it easier to master the menu system of the Sony a7 Mark III, I decided to create a mind map. But this project quickly evolved into a major, and rather fascinating, undertaking.
I managed to get Sony to lend me every single lens they have to loan and I shot the same model with all them. Many of these lenses are not made for portraits so the sample image may not be relevant to the lens. I just thought it would be interesting to see how the lenses looked when compared side by side.
Have you ever seen long exposure images shot using 10-stop ND filters? They are visually energetic and dynamic due to the motion blur caused by the moving clouds over a long duration of exposure.
The two most commonly asked questions in photography are probably: "what gear do you use?" and "what settings do you use?" In this video, landscape photographer Mads Peter Iversen answers that second question by diving into his typical workflow and explaining when and why to use certain settings when shooting landscapes.
I want to take you back to a simpler time. It’s September of 2016. Everybody is running around outside taking beautiful photos with their new cameras. The full-frame mirrorless camera showdown has yet to turn into a hot war. It has officially become cool to shoot with Sony.