Educational

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

The Rise of 8K: Pros, Cons, and Why You Should Adopt it ASAP

8K is the future... at least that's what Matt Granger believes. And so he recorded this educational video at the YouTube studio in NYC to prove his point, explain some of the benefits and pitfalls of ultra-high res footage, and convince you to adopt 8K just as soon as you can.

How to Get a 35mm f/0.9 Lens for Just $350: Speed Boosters Explained

You would think the physics of lenses and light are pretty set in stone—and yet, somehow, people still get really twisted around when it comes to things like crop factor, depth of field, and speed boosters. Hoping to end (or at least quiet) this debate, photographer Jimmi Kai created this very informative, easy-to-understand video.

The NPF Rule: A Formula for Sharp Star Photos Every Time

A common rule of thumb to figure out your maximum shutter speed for sharp stars at night is to divide 500 by your focal length. Sometimes it's called the 600 Rule or the 400 Rule or several other numbers that can be used depending on your sensor size. Unfortunately, it's a a very inaccurate rule today.

The Modeling Industry: What Photographers Need to Know

I think it's fair to say that most photographers will, at some point in their career, have to work with models at least once—whether you're a still life shooter that photographs models' hands holding a fork full of food a couple of times a year or an e-commerce shooter that works with models every single day.

I Spent Two Years Botting on Instagram — Here’s What I Learned

In the world of Instagram, there is a practice known as botting -- and I hate it. For the uninitiated, botting is the process of tying your Instagram account to a wide variety of automation software, which charge users small sums of money to juice their profile. At the heart of it, it’s a pay-to-play relationship where you’re paying money to grow your following on Instagram.

How to Make a Timelapse Video: A Beginner’s Guide

A video is made up from 25 single photos per second, that, when placed back-to-back, trick our mind into seeing motion. But what would happen if we only took one photo every minute, and then played them back at 25 frames per second? The result is a magnificent hyper-realistic compression of time.

Pros and Cons of Using Teleconverters

Everybody wants to get closer when shooting wildlife, and one of the most affordable ways of doing this is to buy a teleconverter. These little gadgets will instantly add to your lens magnification without making your wallet thousands of dollars lighter... but are they worth it? Let's find out.

TODAY Show Demonstrates Why Train Track Photography is So Dangerous

At least once per month, we hear about someone else—a photographer, photo shoot subject, sometimes just kids messing around—who was struck and killed while taking pictures on train tracks. And this weekend, the TODAY show demonstrated how these massive machines are able to "sneak up" on people.

Why the Technical Stuff Matters

Along with normal how-to articles and essays, I’ve always liked reading and writing very technical, nitty-gritty articles about photography—sometimes, articles on topics that rarely come up while actually taking pictures.

The Exposure Triangle: A Beginner’s Guide

How important is exposure in photography? What are the components of exposure? What is the "Exposure Triangle"? These are the questions I will attempt to answer in this introductory article about ISO, aperture, and shutter speed -- the components of achieving a properly exposed photo.

How to Find the Best ISO for Astrophotography: Dynamic Range and Noise

ISO is one of the three major exposure settings in the exposure triangle of a digital camera -- shutter time, f/number, and ISO. Of the three, it is ISO that is probably most misunderstood. Even more so than f/number. In fact, it is a common misconception that higher ISO settings will cause images to be noisier. In fact, the opposite is often true. Wait, what?

What a Failed DSLR Shutter Looks Like After 100,000+ Photos

Just as how cars can fail after a certain number of miles, camera shutters can go belly up after a certain number of actuations (i.e. flapping open and closed for an exposure). If you've ever wondered what a heavily used DSLR shutter can look like after it bites the dust, today's your lucky day.

18 Frequently Asked Questions About the Business of Photography

Tim Tadder is a wildly successful commercial photographer in a time when the term "wildly successful photographer" sounds like an oxymoron. So RGG EDU went to Tim's house and asked him 18 questions about the photo industry, which Tim answered while playing some leisurely putt putt in his backyard.

An Introduction to Abstract Photography

Abstract photography seems to be an elusive subject, hard to nail down to a single definition. This may be due to the abstract nature of the idea of “abstraction” and perpetuating misconceptions about abstract photography.

How Sony Mirrorless Cameras Are Made

Want to see what goes on inside Sony's main factory for digital cameras and lenses? Here's a 4-minute video that shows how the Sony a7R II is assembled, tested, and boxed up at the Sony Digital Imaging factory in Chunburi, Thailand.

This is the Power of Sigma’s $60 Lens Dock for Fixing Focus

Sigma's Art series of lenses are already praised for their image quality and sharpness, but you can hone that sharpness even more by adjusting the focus of your lens using Sigma's USB Dock. Photographer Kyle Kozinski recently discovered just how much of a difference it can make.

The Challenge of Shooting with High-Speed Cameras

In the 16-minute video above, Gavin Free of the The Slow Mo Guys answers a question he often receives: “Is using a high-speed camera similar to using a normal camera?” The answer is “Yes and No”, and we end up looking into the biggest challenges in using high-speed cameras.

Learn Photoshop Tricks in One Minute with Adobe’s ‘Make it Now’ Series

I once read a Quora question that went, “What can I learn in one minute that will be useful for the rest of my life?” I don’t know about the rest of your life, but if you're a photographer, head over to the Adobe Creative Cloud YouTube channel and check out their 'Make It Now' one-minute video tutorials on designing (not retouching) with Photoshop CC.

What It’s Like to be a Colorblind Photographer

I am colorblind. And I am a photographer. In my particular case, and in the majority of those that are "color challenged", being colorblind doesn't actually mean we cannot see colors. Or at least, without borrowing your eyes and brain for a while and comparing what we see, I don't believe this to be the case.

Saturn’s Moon Pan Looks Like a Ravioli in New NASA Photos

NASA has just released new raw photos of Saturn's tiny moon Pan, captured on March 7th, 2017, by the Cassini space probe from about 15,000 miles away (~24,500km). The photos reveal a bizarre-looking moon -- one that looks like a giant ravioli floating in space (or a dumpling or walnut or "paper mache mini-planet").

8 Ways the New Canon 77D is Different from the 80D

Canon made an unusual move in 2017 by announcing the Canon 77D as the first camera in a new line that fits between the 80D and the 800D (AKA the Rebel T7i). If you're scratching your head about what makes the 77D different, check out the 4.5-minute video above by ZY Productions about 8 differences between the 77D and 80D.

4 Cool and Unusual Used Cameras Found in Tokyo

Japanese camera manufacturers dominate the digital photography landscape, so it might come as a surprise that the used film camera market is also thriving in Tokyo.