Educational

PetaPixel's editorials are in-depth stories, thought-pieces, and opinions on the photography industry led by the minds of our editorial team.

How to Use Photoshop to Turn Video Into Long Exposure Photos

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.

Ilford is Creating a Set of Super Helpful ‘Darkroom Guides’ on YouTube

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.

How Richard Nixon ‘Stole’ This Photo and Twisted It Into a Campaign Slogan

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.

Drone Photo Tips: How To Make Inception-Like Images

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.

What It Takes To Be A White House Photographer

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.

Lighting 101: Everything You Need to Know About Light Fall Off

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.

How To Take Photos Like Robert Frank

Robert Frank was a Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker whose 1958 book titled The Americans has been heralded as perhaps the most influential photography book of the 20th century. In this 16-minute video, photographer Frederik Trovatten shows you how to mimic Frank's style.

Why Do Bad Photographers Think They Are Good?

Have you ever met a photographer who thinks their work is incredible, but you don't agree? Perhaps they're actually really bad? In this 9-minute video, Scott Choucino explains how and why this happens, and how you can avoid it.

Four Composition Techniques to Try for Better Landscape Photos

If you're interested in photographing landscapes, you should know there are multiple ways to make your images more interesting – some that only require a bit of imagination. In this 26-minute video, Canadian film photographer Kyle McDougall covers four techniques he uses to make his landscape images better.

Can You Even See the Difference Between 1080 and 8K?

YouTuber Matti Haapoja decided to put himself, and his viewers, to the test: can you tell the difference between shots taken in 1080p and those taken in 8K from the Canon EOS R5? He edited several clips back to back in a mix of 1080p and 8K to see if the average person watching on YouTube can tell which is which.

The History of Astronaut Photography: Using Cameras in Space

If you ever wanted to get a quick history of cameras and their use by NASA, YouTuber Scott Manly put together an excellent resource. In this 14-minute video, Manly explains the history of cameras used in the Space Program, what they were, and the changes manufacturers eventually made at NASA's request.

These Five Mistakes Can Hold Back Your Photography Career

When photographers are just starting out in their careers, they tend to make the same set of mistakes that cost them work and, therefore, money. In this short 4.5-minute video, photographer Scott Choucino cites five mistakes that held his career back and urges you not to make them yourself.

How To Take Photos Like Vivian Maier

Armed with her Rolleiflex, a roll of TRI-X 400 (or Ektachrome) film stock, and her bold character, the late Vivian Maier made herself legendary with her dramatic street photography. Her street portraiture in particular is riveting thanks to the expressions on her subjects. As Frederik Trovatten puts it in this 13-minute video, "she takes the photo she wants to take whether the subject wants to be a part of it or not."

This Guy Prints Color Photos with Dirt

Photographer Calvin Grier is a master of the alternative photography process known as carbon transfer printing, but for the past few months, he has been taking things to a new level. Grier is creating full color photographic prints using dirt.

Sigma Shares Caveats for Using Its EF Lenses on the Canon EOS R5

Sigma has been looking into whether its EF lenses play nicely on Canon's R System of mirrorless cameras, specifically the R5, and the company has just reported its findings. While modern Sigma lenses generally play nicely with the R line, there are a few caveats customers may want to be aware of.

A Look at the Ginormous Gowlandflex Twin-Lens Reflex Camera

The Gowlandflex is a ginormous twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera invented by famous American glamour photographer Peter Gowland. The camera equipment shop Camera West got its hands on one through a trade-in and made this 3-minute video that offers a look at the unique camera.

The $4.5K Fuji XT-1 Forensics Package Doesn’t Really Create UV Photos

UV photography has many obstacles. Ultraviolet light, or light from 200nm – 400nm in wavelength, is notoriously difficult to image with normal camera equipment. A normal digital camera will record images in the visible light spectrum, or 400nm – 700nm in wavelength. To unlock sensitivity to those shorter wavelengths, a camera has to be physically modified to allow passage of light below 400nm.

The Market For Discontinued Photographic Film

My fridge was recently full of instant film. I mean that literally, it was not possible for me to put any more packets of the film into the fridge without risking damaging them.

A Scene Breakdown of a Marine Corps Ad Created by an Oscar-Winning Duo

The Marine Corps’ latest ad is a masterclass in cinematography, advertising, and visual allegory. It is the result of Oscar-winning talent and keen insight by a sophisticated advertising agency. Such mastery of the cinematic language warrants a deeper look.

Are You Still Chasing ‘Perfect’ Color?

It's my belief that color is actually one of the most subjective elements that we as humans all understand, yet we actually have no real way of enforcing or translating it to one another.

Bill Biggart: The Hero Photographer Who Died Capturing 9/11

September 11, 2001, was a sunny Tuesday morning. Bill Biggart and his wife Wendy Doremus were walking their dogs in downtown Manhattan. At about 8:45 a.m., the couple noticed clouds of grey smoke forming against the clear blue New York City skyline. A passing taxi driver informed the couple that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center.

Canon R5 and R6: Comparing the File Formats (RAW, CRAW, JPEG, and HEIF)

In my last article, I shot images with both the Canon R5 and Canon R6 to compare the ISO performance of both cameras. As always, this lead to a lot of comments, emails, and DMs asking me if I could also compare the different file formats of these cameras. While I still have both these cameras on loan from Canon, I decided that now would be a good time to tests these parameters for all of you (and me too).