If you've never learned the technical details of what "middle gray" and "18% gray" are, check out this 6-minute video by Filmmaker IQ. John Hess shares the math and science behind the concepts to demystify them.
As a spiritual symbol of Japan, Mt. Fuji is one of only three sacred mountains of the country and its tallest at 3,776 meters. Its designation as a UNESCO world heritage site further exemplifies its importance to not only the people of Japan but to the world as well.
Marques Brownlee (AKA MKBHD) recently paid a visit to the company Motorized Precision in Portland, Oregon, to check out the company's high-speed camera robots. In this 8.5-minute video, Brownlee shares the beautiful camera moves that are made possible by this "dope" technology.
If you're ever buying a Nikon camera or lens and the seller tells you they purchased it brand new, there's a very easy way to see at a glance whether it was actually factory refurbished. Simply glance at the serial number and look for a "secret code."
Just as people are right- or left-handed, everyone generally prefers the input of one particular eye, something called "ocular dominance" or "eyedness." Most people rely on their dominant eye for things like aiming, and a person's dominant eye actually has more neural connections to the brain than the other eye.
You've probably learned about the exposure triangle countless times by now. If you want a deeper understanding of the science of exposure, though, check out this 30-minute video by Filmmaker IQ.
The rise of smartphone selfies is causing big changes in how people see themselves. Here's a 2-minute video by Vox that explains why selfies usually make our noses look bigger.
Here's an interesting little factoid: did you know that the iPhone's shutter sound was originally recorded from a Canon camera?
Here's a strange photography hack that may sound stupid and unbelievable... but it can actually work: if you have a filter that's hopelessly stuck to the front of your camera lens, try lightly tapping it with your finger. The Koldunov Brothers show how it's done in the 1-minute video above.
Want to see what it looks like to stare through the viewfinder of the new Sony a7 III? Photographer Manny Ortiz made this 5-minute video that shows viewfinder views of an urban photo shoot he did.
Trying to choose between a full frame camera and a crop sensor one? Here's a 10-minute video by photographer Sheldon Evans, who talks about the differences between the two and shares why he went from full frame to crop and then back again.
Figuring out how much to charge clients is a struggle shared by many photographers, particularly if you're trying live off the fruits of your craft. In this 30-minute episode of their Picture This Podcast, photographers Tony and Chelsea Northrup spend half an hour discussing this topic and sharing advice.
In 2016, I made a video comparing the Profoto B1 and Godox AD600. Since then both models have had an updated release and Broncolor has also released the Siros 800 and 400. I decided to put all three models head to head to help people decide which is the best option.
Here's a curious little 43-second video by Japanese artist Kensuke Koike that's going viral. Titled "Top Breeder," it shows how you can duplicate a photo of a dog by putting the print through a pasta cutter and distributing the slices into new photos. One picture can "magically" turn into four.
I don't usually go the negative Nellie with anything photo related, sometimes it's best to keep your mouth firmly shut. But I'm not going to take it anymore, I'm as mad as hell, and I'm going to lean right out the window and shout it to the world, enough, I'm done with rubbish samples of film technology on the Web.
I've used diffusion filters for years but rarely for their intended purpose. If you haven't heard of them before, diffusion filters are transparent glass or plastic sheets that go in front of the lens and diffuse the light as it enters the camera. The resulting images taken with a diffusion filter have an appearance of reduced contrast that ultimately looks hazy, offering a slightly dream-like effect.
Ever wonder how much the arts and photography contribute towards the United States economy? Wonder no more. According to a newly-published government report, the arts contribute over $763 billion to the economy, and photography represents over $10 billion of that total.
How much sharpness and detail can you extract out of 8x10 large format slide film? Photographer Ben Horne was able to explore this question recently after he had one of his landscape photos digitized using a drum scanner. In the 10-minute video above, Horne pixel-peeps the massive 709-megapixel photo at 100% to analyze the sharpness.
JerryRigEverything just published this 7-minute teardown video of the Samsung Galaxy S9, and one of the interesting things it reveals is the mechanical workings of the DxOMark-leading camera, which is the first smartphone camera to feature a variable aperture.
Japan goes into a frenzy each spring as millions of locals and tourists gather to catch a glimpse of the elusive cherry blossom. Simply known as sakura, the petals come and go like the wind, representing the ethereal beauty of life.
Diane Arbus was honored with an obituary by the New York Times today, 46 years after the renowned American portrait photographer died. It was one of 15 obituaries published today as part of a project titled Overlooked.
BlackRapid is taking to social media to warn customers about counterfeit hardware being bundled into kits by some retailers. Not only can the hardware put your gear at risk, but any damage that results from using counterfeit gear will not be covered by the warranty on your authentic BlackRapid gear.
Ilford recently released a popular 8-minute video on how to process black-and-white film yourself, and now the film company is back again with another helpful crash course on how to make a black-and-white print in a darkroom. If you've never worked in a darkroom before, this intro is a great way to see what it's all about.
My name is John Kraus, and I work as a photojournalist at Cape Canaveral, covering rocket launches with up-close cameras at the various launchpads here. For yesterday’s Atlas V rocket launch, I had two cameras at Space Launch Complex 41. These cameras were sound-activated; the sound alone would kill anyone standing at the launchpad during liftoff.
Whether you're aware of the correct terminology or not, you have likely experienced color contamination happening in your photographs already. Put simply, color contamination is when one color is affected by the presence of another color in close proximity.
A few years ago, I flew out to Ecuador to create a high-resolution image of the capital city of Quito. The final image turned out to be 16 gigapixels in size and at a printed size of over 25 meters (~82 feet), it allows people see jaw-dropping detail even when viewed from a few inches away.
If you've never tried your hand at black-and-white film photography before but would like to learn the basics of developing your own film at home, here's a great 8-minute primer that'll get you up to speed.
Are you a freelance photographer like myself? Have you already put up your masterpiece on 500px? Maybe you’re trying to share your photos and sell them at the same time in case some stranger admires your work? If you’ve answered YES to all these questions, I'd like to share the terrible experience I had with 500px.
Apple just released this 1-minute video that offers a short and sweet behind-the-scenes explanation of how the company created the Portrait Lighting feature found in the latest iPhones.
How does SpaceX get such clear and detailed imagery and footage of its rocket launches? Here's a 5-minute video from Primal Space that answers that question.
It's an age-old question: why do people shoot on film? Can you tell the difference between film and digital? Is it enough of a difference to warrant the high cost of shooting film? Or is it just a fad? We are here today to hopefully answer some of these and more!
Photographer and director Joey L has been using camera drones to capture aerial photos and videos in conflict zones. Here's a 21-minute talk he recently gave on his work at Hardwired NYC.
Have you ever wondered what the photo editors at National Geographic do? No, they don't sit around and edit pictures in Photoshop. In this 6-minute video, some of the biggest names in photography offer a glimpse into the closely-knit relationships between photographers and their editors.
Do you use Eneloop Pro rechargeable batteries in your photo equipment? You may be able to get the same performance at a much lower cost. This interesting 7-minute video from Matthew Eargle of AirborneSurfer looks into whether these relatively expensive batteries ($20 per pack of 4) are actually identical to the much cheaper IKEA LADDA batteries that cost just $5 per pack of 4.
Whatever your spin is on the SpaceX launch of the Falcon Heavy and the stunt of Starman and the Tesla Roadster, for a few days (at least) it put on our radar topics such as space and space missions, rockets, interplanetary travel or technological advances.
Smooth Trans Focus (STF) was invented by Minolta in the 1980s and became available in the Minolta 135mm f/2.8 STF in 1999. The special design of the lens with an Apodization (APD) filter allows for the smoothing of out-of-focus areas, or bokeh. The APD filter reduces the light transmitted through a lens, but the strength is gradually decreased toward the center of the filter.
Photographers Tony & Chelsea Northrup made this educational and tongue-in-cheek 5-minute video in which they rant about how many of the most common terms in photography are "stupid" because they're often inherited from history (and therefore may not make sense immediately without digging deeper into each concept).
Johnnie Behiri of cinema5D was recently invited to a private tour of the Fujifilm and Fujinon factory in Sendai, Japan, where Fujifilm cameras and lenses are manufactured. While there, he shot this 4-minute video showing what goes on inside the facility.
"Zooming with your feet" means getting closer to your subject physically instead of relying on a longer lens, but you should be aware that the results you won't be the same. Here's a 9-minute video from This Place that looks at how different focal lengths affect perspective when compared to "zooming with your feet."
DxOMark has published an interesting look at how smartphone cameras have evolved and improved over the past half decade, starting from when the camera testing lab began reviewing smartphones in 2012. Needless to say, we've come a long way in just a few short years.
Photographer Peter Lik is purportedly one of the bestselling landscape photographers on Earth, having sold a reported half a billion dollars worth of prints by 2015. He also claims to have sold a single print for $6.5 million in 2014, which would still be the world's most expensive photo today. But one of Lik's new prints is raising eyebrows and eliciting cries of "Photoshop!"
Kodak's Portra 400 film is praised for its versatility, but exactly how well does it handle underexposure and overexposure? How far can you push things before your photos become unusable? Canadian photographer Kyle McDougall decided to find out by doing his own test.
Standard schlieren imaging techniques use a large mirror to be able to visualize heat or pressure differences in air. The problem with these techniques is that they require large precision telescope mirrors that are very expensive. My lab is fortunate to have a 13-inch diameter telescope mirror; but what happens when I need to photograph a larger subject?
The Fujifilm X-Trans sensor is evil, its design is seriously flawed, and it causes all kinds of issues. At least, that's what pops up on the Internet every now and then.
When you think of GoPro, you probably picture a neat, compact digital action camera, but the original GoPro was actually a 35mm film camera. Here's a 7-minute video by Thirty Five Studio that takes a look at the camera and shows what it can do.
If you use Sony cameras, here's something you should be aware of: a computer security expert is warning that Sony's camera firmware update process has serious security risks that could put your computer and data in danger.
How much of a difference is there between using an expensive high-end lighting setup and shooting the same portraits with cheaper gear? Photographer Patrick Hall of Fstoppers made this illuminating 9.5-minute video that compares a $10,000 studio lighting setup with a $425 option. Can you tell the difference between the resulting photos?
Photographer Lewis Wickes Hine once said: "There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work."
This is a story about a camera, a rather special camera. Every camera has a history, so they say. But it is not all that often that one has such a rich and documented history. One that was thought to be lost but has been found again. This is the story of Sean Flynn’s Leica M2.
In October 2017, Google announced Clips, a small hands-free AI-powered camera that's designed to capture your life's memories without much human intervention. The camera isn't on store shelves yet, but Google is revealing some new interesting details about it. One such detail is that the camera was trained with the help of real professional photographers.
