If you appreciate visual art and aesthetics—and, if you're reading PetaPixel, chances are good that you do—then you absolutely must watch the new Netflix original docu-series "Abstract: The Art of Design."
Fine art photographer Nicky Hamilton just completed an impressive photo series titled "The Lonely Man." Each photo in the project took him an average of 3 months to sketch, build, light, and shoot.
UK-based photographer Joe Giacomet has published a new set of portraits based on one of the world's most popular paintings. The photos parody the iconic "Chinese Girl" painting (also referred to as "The Green Lady"), created back in 1952 by Vladimir Tretchikoff.
It was late, dark and eerie as I drove through the Swiss alps in my tiny rental car. I could barely see the road and was stuck in between two semi trucks. I should have been fearing for my life, but all I could think about was how excited my 3-year-old daughter, Nellee, would be after seeing what I was creating for her.
You don't need a ton of space to create an impromptu "home studio" and capture some high quality portraits. As photographer Mark Wallace shows you in this informative tutorial, the corner of a tiny hotel room in Paris is plenty if you know what you're doing.
The international Underwater Photographer of the Year photo contest has announced its winners for the 2017 edition. The winning photo (shown above) was by French photographer Gabriel Barathieu, who captured a "Dancing Octopus" in a lagoon on the island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean.
Many a person can point to a particular moment that was pivotal in shifting the direction of their life. You might call it a “watershed moment.” For my father, photographer David Edmonson, his most recent watershed moment began in the spring of 2012.
There are two important lessons in this simple, short, inspirational tips video by photographer Moose Winans. The first is how to use complimentary backgrounds to create separation and make your subject "pop"; the second is that you should go out and shoot, even when conditions are crappy and you don't think you'll get anything.
What better way to explore the far reaches of New Zealand ... uhh, I mean Middle Earth... than with Tolkien's Gandalf as your guide? That's what photographer Akhil Suhas was thinking when, while planning his 6-month trip across the country after university, he packed a Gandalf costume... just for fun.
One of my goals as a photographer is to always improve. Regardless of how well others may think my work is I am always trying to learn and grow as a creative.
Now that the Internet is saturated with timelapse and drone videos, one of the next big frontiers may be combining the two. Timelapse photographer Artem Pryadko shows what's possible in the gorgeous 2-minute "DroneLapse" above.
I’m always searching for interesting personal projects—ideas that are worth the effort and time it takes to make it visible.
It's time to give some long-overdue love to two cheap films in price, but by no means in quality. It can be tempting to go for the expensive films when you're out buying rolls of 35mm, but let's not forget about the bottom of the shelf.
I had a few hours to kill before work one morning, so I decided to head down to a public garden a few miles from my house and take some pictures.
DJI has announced the winning photos of its 2016 SkyPixel Photo Contest, which honors the best aerial and drone photos captured around the world using DJI camera drone equipment. The grand prize winner this year is the photo above, titled "Fishermen close the net" by Ge Zheng.
Buying a car is a stressful, time-consuming task for the average American. So when I was asked to create imagery that shows the fun, functionality and ease of purchasing a car in the digital age by Edmunds, it was a tall order to say the least.
Max Asabin is a Russian hobbyist photo retoucher and digital artist who has been wowing the Internet as of late with his Photoshop skills. Many of his creations involve combining various photos together into seamless composite portraits of people.
Need a little creative boost this week? Here's a short video that shares 4 fun smartphone hacks that might just inspire you to create something different using the little computer in your pocket as either the camera or a prop.
Well, that’s one month in the books for my 365 project. There were some days where the ideas came easy and some nights filled with tears. (Okay not that dramatic.) According to Lightroom, I took 1244 photographs this month.
It’s 2017, and Instagram is now 600 million users strong; that’s a lot of new images/videos and stories each day. An effervescent but non curated activity. Beside all the personal accounts and brands, there’s a few magazines. Some of them revolve around the third art: photography. Let’s get a deeper look…
My interest in photography began about three years ago when I picked up a digital camera and starting taking the same images that any photography noob would take: long exposures, landscapes, still lifes, sometimes street photography.
Back in 2015, photographer Dustin Snipes shot a viral series of photos for Red Bull showing NBA star Anthony Davis dunking the Sun. He recently revisited the concept by shooting USA volleyball stars using the Sun as a ball on the beach.
Classical art meets modern-day drudgery in artist Alexey Kondakov's ongoing series Art History in Contemporary Life. For the past two years, Kondakov has been delighting his fans by expertly Photoshopping figures from classical art into modern-day photos.
In December 2015, the Internet was abuzz with a National Park Service (NPS) job listing that was considered the search for "the next Ansel Adams": a position for a black-and-white large format photographer with a salary up to $100,000 per year.
Egyptian photographer Amr Elshamy has shot photos showing whales and dolphins in the sea and polar bears and seals in snowy landscapes. But here's what makes his wildlife photography different than most others: they were all shot indoors on a table in Elshamy's room.
Back in August 2015, musicians Tom Hughes and Anna Silver had their heads shaved to raise money to support cancer patients. They then had the idea of turning photos of their hair growing back into the creative and trippy music video above, titled "The Changing Man" by Colonel Dax.
I’ve been really into Spartan culture lately. I’m impressed with their physical fortitude, their obedience and duty to the state and their frugal lifestyle, and I find myself wondering what kind of Spartan attributes we could apply to photography.
2016 was a very interesting year for street photography. It seems that more and more color work is getting popular. Especially in scenes with high contrast light, color images seem to be on equal footing with their colorless counterparts.
When I started working in photography, digital already ruled the industry. I never got the chance to perform controlled photography (don't wanna use the term "professional") using film.
My name is Trevor Gavin and I'm a photographer based near San Francisco. I'd like to share a very personal story of my darkest time. It’s a part of my healing and a part of moving on. It’s the only way I know how to express my emotions.
The Australian island state of Tasmania has 4 of the top 10 tallest tree species in the world and is home to the tallest flowering plant in the world, the Eucalyptus regnans, which can measure 99.8 meters (327 feet) tall.
Photographer Nick Veasey has made a name for himself by photographing large objects using X-Rays instead of visible light. The 6-minute video above is a look at how Veasey creates his art.
Raymond Thi—the creator of the Composition Cam app and ultra-popular Twitter account—is back with another great database for composition-obsessed photographers. It's called Geometric Shots, and it's a searchable collection of great composition from well-known films and TV shows.
There are some fantastic portrait lenses out there for cheap, if you know where to look. A great example is the Jupiter-9: a 50-year-old M42 mount 85mm f/2 Soviet lens that, in the right hands, captures beautiful portraits with gorgeous bokeh.
You've probably seen photographer Sean Tucker's work around, on PetaPixel if nowhere else, but did you know he didn't start his photographic journey until his 30s? In this video, he shares his inspirational journey from priest, to photographer/waiter, to full-time photographer.
The world of analog photography surprises me a bit more every day! I recently read about a technique called Stand Development, so I have decided to try it myself. For those of who never heard of it before, let me explain you the differences between it and a normal development process.
Back in November 2015, Polish photographer Michał Kulesza decided to start a daily photo project in which he would shoot one creative photo involving LEGO bricks every day. He decided to capture the famous bricks as everyday foods and objects.
Photographer Jack Fusco just released a spectacular timelapse that combines several of mother nature's more beautiful elements to powerful effect. It turns out lava flow + ocean + stars = some seriously dramatic timelapse action.
When Red Bull came to me with the idea for golfer Lexi Thompson to do an underwater boxing/golf shoot, I had to really think about how we were going to do this -- I knew it was going to be challenging.
Photographer and father of two Chris Crisman wants his children—the 4-year-old boy and the 2-year-old girl—to know that they can do become anything they want... without caveats. His series Women's Work drives home this point with dramatic portraits of women who do what are traditionally considered "men's" jobs.
Yesterday, I went out to photograph the protests in Washington, D.C. during Trump's inauguration. I'm a professional freelance photographer, and I had never really taken a stab at photojournalism before, so this seemed like a good time to try.
Check out this creative "2D" video of an urban parkour-style runner, shot top-down using a drone. It's like old video game views, recreated in real life. The 3.5-minute project was created over in Bulgaria by athlete and stunt artist Ilko Iliev and photographer Marin Kafedjiiski.
Photographer Alessandro Michelazzi recently attended the 91st "Pitti Immagine Uomo" male fashion fair in his city, Florence, Italy. While there, he shot a creative portrait project in which he asked attendees to pose for and hold up Instax instant photos of themselves.
In my mind, the process of creating a compelling composite image is as close to painting as a photographer can get: it allows you to create almost purely from imagination, not being constricted by physical locations as with traditional photography.
Tetyana Dyachenko is a Ukrainian photo retoucher who often does restorations of vintage photos that are extremely damaged -- often seemingly beyond recovery. Yet using her Photoshop skills, Dyachenko is able to recover (and recreate) extremely fine details in the photos.
We're crazy about great one-light portraits, and fashion and portrait photographer Jeff Rojas is an expert at creating and honing these minimalist setups. In his latest video, he shows you how a single light placed above your subject makes for beautiful portraits in both color and black and white.
Just when we thought there was no possible way someone could capture flowers in a fresh and unique way, we stumbled across the work of Craig Burrows. Burrows uses a technique called ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence (UVIVF) to capture flower photos the likes of which we have never seen before.
Photo lovers and travel enthusiasts looking for a new show to provide some inspiration, listen up. Photographers and YouTubers Tony and Chelsea Northrup have just debuted a new web series called Wanderlust 4K, a show dedicated to inspiring the travel photographer in all of us.
This past Saturday, I was assigned by NFL.com to photograph the Divisional Playoff game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Here's an 8-minute video by the YouTube channel Magic Lens that shows how you can create magical wedding ring photographs using ordinary things found around the house.
