Features

PetaPixel's Features are in-depth, heavily researched stories designed to answer the most important questions on a topic. Where we flex our journalistic muscle, expect to find the best storytelling and original reporting the photo industry offers.
A photo editing software window shows a horse in a green field. The horse is selected and highlighted in red, while editing tools and a histogram are visible on the right side of the screen.

How Two Photographers Transformed RAW Photo Support on Mac

As photographers using macOS know all too well, native macOS-level support for RAW image formats can be hit-or-miss, and new support can take months or years to arrive, sometimes never arriving at all. This means that photographers must rely on third-party software to process many RAW photos, and that support in Apple's own apps, like Photos, is spotty. However, not all is lost, as very talented engineers are working hard to overcome macOS's own RAW limitations.

A close-up of an iron gate with the inscription “Arbeit macht frei” and a view through the gate showing a watchtower and trees in the background at a historical site.

My Visit to Dachau: Through the Lens and the Gates

Nazi concentration camps have long been documented in all forms of media, but stepping through the gates of one on foot makes for a very different experience. Dachau was where it all began, setting off an industrialized machine of death and depravity that would later consume all of Europe during World War II.

A woman wearing a dark shirt and sunglasses on her head stands on a wide, sandy road holding a camera. The background is blurred with people and buildings visible in the distance.

Lynsey Addario: ‘There Was Never a World in Which I Would Not Do This Work’

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lynsey Addario has risked life and limb and been kidnapped multiple times to perform a photojournalist's most crucial and valuable mission: powerfully capturing and telling the world's most meaningful stories. Addario's incredible career, which spans more than two decades, is the focus of the brand-new National Geographic documentary, Love+War.

A hand holds an orange underwater camera above the ocean; next to it is an underwater photo of a whale swimming in blue water.

Nikon’s 40-Year-Old Underwater Film Camera Still Offers a Unique Experience

On my recent trip to French Polynesia, I decided to do something new that I’ve been wanting to try for a long time: I brought along the Nikonos V, Nikon’s legendary amphibious 35mm camera from the 1980s. That meant no live preview, no autofocus, and no confirmation that anything I was shooting would actually turn out; just 36 frames of film, a light meter, and the quiet peace that comes with freediving and taking photos.

A person's hands hold a smartphone, taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The landmark is blurred in the background but clearly visible on the phone screen.

How One Professor Revolutionized Smartphone Photography

Smartphones have fundamentally changed photography, enabling people with no camera skill to shoot acceptable images. And that is largely down to something called computational photography that smartly manipulates the sensor so that shadows and highlights are visible in the same shot.