How I feel about losing DPReview is difficult to put to words. The brand has been a mainstay since I took up a camera and the space that they leave now is one that I don't think will ever be properly filled again.
For some reason wedding photography isn’t a well-respected genre in the photography industry. I have no idea why that is when it’s so physically, creatively, and technically demanding. But I do have a lot of ideas about why wedding photography should garner more respect.
Photography, like every art form, is subjective. As such, anything we create is open to criticism, whether we like it or not. When criticism is given with the best of intentions, it can lead to growth.
Photography is a visual art, and as with most art forms, there are no rigid rules or formulas that guarantee a captivating image. However, there are certain key elements that often contribute to an image's impact and appeal.
Seeing is believing. This concise rhetoric goes a long way to explain the power of photography. Where a statistic can reduce an entire country to a few numbers a photograph can bypass the mind and head directly to the heart via the eyes. Emotional, heartbreaking eyewitness testimony is just another block of text compared to the medium which makes the viewer themselves an eyewitness to whatever the photographer wanted to show them.
A new term has popped up recently: "Synthographer." It's a mishmash of the word synthesis and photographer and describes artists creating digital media from AI image generators.
Why pay for something outright when you can borrow it? Renting is an obvious solution - particularly when the item is potentially very expensive - to be able to use something you can't afford. Someone else makes the outright purchase and you pay them a small fee to have exclusive use.
I’d like to start by saying that I feel the word ‘criticism’ is interpreted by some as inherently negative, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Throughout this article, I’ve used the words ‘critique’, ‘criticism', and ‘feedback’, interchangeably, because I consider them to be more or less the same in this particular context.
We've had variations of this discussion a few times, but recent developments appear to keep moving the goalposts. What was once seemingly a simple question to answer is getting a lot more complicated as technology advances.
I love street photography, I teach street photography, I promote street photography, I defend street photography, and want everyone to experience the fun of doing street photography!
While photography and linguistic language share characteristics, when it comes to actually applying theories and practices between one and the other, it can be hard to remain coherent. This is down to the flaw in thinking that just because a comparison can be made aspects can be transposed between them.
Canon has an image problem and I'm not talking about photos. The company currently has a battle on three fronts when it comes to the perception of its brand: no third-party lens options, the actions of its printer division, and the company's stance on climate change.
It seems like a small request to a simple need... you shoot an event using your main standalone camera and want to upload a few choice shots to social media or send to a client to give them something to post straightaway. Or - as I've done - undertake some quick processing on your phone before sending it to an Instax printer and giving your customer an instant print.
Last month, the United States Copyright Office determined that artificial intelligence (AI) artwork cannot be copyrighted. That's great, but with so much AI being added to cameras, where is the line? When is a photo no longer a photo?
As I crept around a massive abandoned World War II-era train yard, I realized the Eastern European security guards had dogs with them.
With artificial intelligence-powered "photos" winning competitions and fake portraits garnering thousands of fans, we are well past the point where we should be worried. We should be downright frightened.
I’ve been a Canon shooter since I moved into digital about 15 years ago. I had been using Mamiya and Minolta cameras with film and at that time the Canon 50D came out and I decided to give it a go. Since then I worked my way through the 5D lineup to the 5D Mark III and built up a collection of glass that has served me well.
There's only so many times people can threaten to kill you before you start to wonder if they might be serious.
What makes a great hobby? Most people don’t have to ask themselves this, they just naturally gravitate to activities they enjoy and make time for them–but I’ve had to think about this for years. It’s an important question, particularly when your time is being pulled in multiple directions!
The Zeiss ZX1 promised "intuitive" photography that mixed a standalone camera with smartphone software. But now that it's marked as discontinued, is this finally the end of the Android camera?
The camera is a reasonably recent image-creation tool; compared to millennia of paintings, drawings, carvings, and illustrations, we have only a few hundred years of photographs and photographic development. What photography offers compared to those ancient arts is (relative) immediacy and accuracy.
Micro Four Thirds (MFT) is perhaps the most derided of all camera formats in modern digital photography. It is constantly overlooked, scoffed at, and is the subject of disdain. It really shouldn't be, and you all are way too hard on it.
While I was posting a series of photos on Instagram, a message appeared: "This would make a great Reel."
It looks like a glamorous job, taking photos in beautiful places and a dance party every night. Or maybe it looks like the worst job ever, dealing with high expectations and family drama. Wherever you stand on the subject, listen up because I’m going to share the best and worst parts of the job to help you decide if you should be a wedding photographer.
The world is ablaze with talk of ChatGPT, one of the latest AI (artificial intelligence) applications revolutionizing everything from research and copywriting to blog and ad creation to college essays. Noticed or unnoticed, these applications have seeped into nearly every part of our world.
Artificial intelligence-powered ChatGPT by OpenAI has been the center of a lot of discussions in recent weeks. Viewing the results of a recent test here at PetaPixel, while we agree the tech is still evolving, it already seems poised to take on the elephant in the room: Google Search.
A surf photographer has raised concerns over the proliferation of drones at popular surfing spots.
It is time to give kudos to a company that was not too long ago floundering at the bottom of the financial heap and appeared to be close to completely collapsing: Nikon.
The social aspects of social media, the propagation aspects of propaganda, and the “logos” aspects of dialogue all depend on one thing: communication. A photograph can be a very powerful medium for communication, using visual symbols to represent what a photographer saw, or created, containing in part or in whole their message.
Now that Instagram has transformed into a short-form video platform geared towards creators and influencers looking to go viral, where do we hobbyists and enthusiasts share our photos and find other photographers?
Nikon's recent development announcement for a 26mm f/2.8 lens sent chills down my spine, exacerbated by its diminutive proportions. While maybe not the most important lens in their lineup, is any mirrorless system complete without one?
When first starting my photography like many people, young and naïve, I immediately googled "how to be a paid photographer" almost immediately I found a job opening for a local school and sports photography business. I had been dreaming of being a successful artist my entire life and here was my chance!
Photography is a powerful tool in storytelling and scientific communication. But it can also cause harm when used unethically.
Sony's Alpha 7R V has the company's most advanced autofocus system that is remarkably powerful, but while the company has displayed its engineering prowess with Real-Time Recognition, it has also revealed its most significant weakness: interface design.
Carrying on a tradition we started last year, PetaPixel has gathered its staff together to discuss the things they know, not just think, will take place over the course of the next calendar year. We're ready to be very, very wrong.
Are you an artist who struggles with releasing your work to the world because it's not yet perfect? It's a common problem many creatives grapple with, but learning to let go of your idea of perfection can actually allow you to move closer toward it.
Photography once changed fashion but now fashion is changing photography, threatening to make it obsolete.
I guess I'm the sucker that keeps a lot of the digital photography software companies in business. In order to "stay current" in my recommendations, I have to keep looking at new versions of software products, and that requires a near endless tithing that's getting old.
In April 1995, my uncle secured a lucrative job in Saudi Arabia. He and my aunt left their home in suburban Sydney and relocated to a western compound (a residential gated community for ex-pats) in Jeddah. My aunt shares stories of life under Saudi’s strict laws and how she craved her western freedoms. One such freedom was the celebration of Christmas.
As the penny drops with photographers and artists alike that their images have been used to train AI image generators on a monumental scale — the backlash is growing stronger.
Wouldn’t you like to stay focused and calm even when multitasking and shooting in a very demanding situation? How about being able to notice everything without being distracted by anything? Meditation can help and that's why many photographers are getting into it. Intrigued? Read on…
The battery is the least thought-about accessory a photographer or videographer depends upon to get a job done. These small hunks of chemicals allow electricity to flow through our gear, allowing our creativity to flow.
When a software company wants to increase profits, there really only seems to be one answer: subscription pricing.
Capturing a snow leopard is considered by many to be the holy grail of wildlife photography. But when it comes to manipulating an image of the world's most elusive big cat, how far is too far?
In the process of chasing that magical number one on social media, artists are unfortunately losing the ability to do their craft and no longer focusing on the only thing that will actually shape the next generation of artists.
RED Cinema is close to releasing its V-Raptor Rhino 8K S35 which has a native, fully active, Canon RF mount. The fact this relationship exists basically proves Canon is dead-set on selling its lenses above all else.
The Fujifilm Instax mini EVO is a combination digital camera, traditional Instax printer, and photo printer for smartphone photos, all in one.
Sony's latest Alpha 7R V camera sports some seriously impressive capabilities that make it hard to ignore. But given the other cameras in Sony's line, even if this is the latest and greatest, is it the best for you?
“First do no harm…” Sometimes I think that there should be a Hippocratic oath for journalists due to the extremely sensitive stories that we sometimes encounter, and if there were such a text, it should start with those preceding four words.
Want to see some bad street photographs? I’ll share them and tell you why I think they’re not good. These photographs were all made during a five-day visit to New York City between October 31 and November 4, 2022.
