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.
I am a landscape photographer and I love printing my photos. For me the print is the realization of all the effort I have put into capturing the image. It is something tangible that you can hold in your hands and admire.
If you've already burned through Nikon's full Nikon School Online curriculum (free all of this month) and you're eager to learn more, you're in luck. Sue Bryce Education have made their entire library of courses free for one week only, from April 20th - 26th.
Photographer Joe Edelman has put together a helpful beginner's guide that explains one of the most important (and easy to overlook) details in portrait photography: catchlights. These specular highlights can make or break your photo, and in this video, Edelman covers all of the basic "dos" and "donts" of catchlights in portraiture.
How do you go about capturing images of a coronavirus, which is too small to see with a standard light microscope? Here's a 5-minute video in which Vox explains how two electron microscopy techniques give us views of what the SARS-CoV-2 virus looks like.
Researchers have released the highest-ever resolution photos of the Sun's atmosphere. The images reveal "magnetic threads" in the star's outer layer for the very first time.
Portrait photographer Miguel Quiles recently created a much-requested video that touches on a little-understood subject within the world of photography: working directly with camera, lens, and accessory brands that want to sponsor you.
Do you know your camera basics? Today we dive into shutter speed and teach you all the ways you can use shutter speed to unlock your creativity and expand your photography style. Learn how to show fluid movement or capture a split second and what styles of photography these shutters speed options are best for.
Former White House photographer Pete Souza often gets asked about the camera gear he uses, so he posted this 11-minute video to Instagram this week to show what's in his camera bag.
Jared Polin of Fro Knows Photo—recently the target of a good-humored April Fools' Day parody—is doing his best to keep his 1M+ subscribers educated and entertained. To that end, he's now giving away his Guide to Flash Photography for free or "pay what you want."
Photographer Mathieu Stern has put together a simple step-by-step that will teach you how to turn your digital photographs into beautiful cyanotype prints. If you've never made physical prints at home, consider this your gateway drug.
In an attempt to help its customers stay "inspired, engaged, and growing" during the worldwide coronavirus lockdowns currently in place, Nikon USA has made its entire Nikon School Online curriculum free for the month of April.
If you look at album covers from the 1970s, one of the things you'll repeatedly see is a particular type of wicker chair commonly referred to as a peacock chair. Here's an interesting 7.5-minute video by Vox that looks into the history of this photography trope, which was 100 years in the making.
Unmesh Dinda of PIXimperfect has put together a brilliant educational video on the oft-confusing Divide blend mode in Photoshop. In this tutorial he'll show you how to use it to remove any color cast, before diving into the fascinating mathematics behind this useful tool.
Back in 1844, English photography pioneer Henry Fox Talbot began publishing the seminal book The Pencil of Nature, the first photo book ever to be published commercially. As it's in the public domain, you can read the book in its entirety for free online over at Project Gutenberg.
20 months after the launch of Nikon’s first foray into the full-frame mirrorless world, it’s now time to take stock of what’s to love about the Z, or D.
The world's first photo of black hole was published back in April 2019, and scientists have been laboring to find ways to capture sharper images of the mysterious regions of spacetime. Scientists are now saying that focusing on a black hole's "photon ring" may lead to a huge increase in sharpness.
Over 8 years ago, we over at On Landscape performed a mammoth “Big Camera Comparison.” We compared medium format and large format film against various digital cameras including the then cutting edge Phase One IQ280, an 80MP CCD sensor which we used on a Linhof Techno, an Alpa, and a Cambo technical camera (we also tested a D800 and a 5D Mark II).
Given the recent guidelines on social distancing from various health organizations, the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes (COVID-19) means that most of us will be self-isolating for some time. As a freelancer, how can you manage this enforced downtime positively?
Photographer Chris Lee of pal2tech has created a much-requested follow-up to his technical breakdown of how ISO works when you take a picture. The followup uses Fuji cameras as an example to explain how the Extended Low, or "L", ISO setting on your camera functions.
Dave Etchells over at Imaging Resource has released a fantastic breakdown the dives deep on exactly how camera makers—Olympus specifically—go about properly weather-sealing their cameras. In keeping with Etchells' reputation, this video is the most comprehensive overview of the topic that we've ever seen.
Photographer Ashley Boring has teamed up with lighting company Westcott to create a helpful educational video that explains the difference between rear- and front-curtain flash sync, and shows you how to use this knowledge to create some interesting portraits.
As the world takes drastic measures to slow the spread of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, having good hand hygiene is regarded as one of the key ways to protect yourself and your loved ones. If you're a photographer, you should consider regularly disinfecting the equipment you use throughout a day.
It’s the fifth in a string of beautiful days, in a place a world away from our daily life back home. The sky is wide and blue. The air is thick with scents of food we’ve yet to try, and a language we don’t understand. But friendly smiles allow us to navigate our way through this country that is settling into our hearts.
I think it’s fair to say there’s growing anxiety that is accompanying the current coronavirus outbreak, and with seemingly more bad news on the hour, we really don’t know when this thing might bottom out. So if your business is in the photography workshop space like my company PhotoEducate is, you take notice.
As more and more satellites are being launched into space, reflected light from these objects is causing increased sky pollution and issues for astronomers and astrophotographers. Now NASA is asking the public for help in monitoring this growing issue, and all you need to do is shoot smartphone photos of the light streaks in the night sky.
Photographer Chris Lee of the YouTube channel pal2tech recently released one of the most straightforward technical explanations of ISO that we've seen. In this 12 minute video, he explains what ISO is and, just as importantly, takes on a couple of common misconceptions by explaining what ISO is not.