Photography competitions garner hundreds of thousands of entries per year and give away about as much money to a small subset of winners. But when those competitions are judged by well-known photographers —which is expected of any prestigious competition — this industry is small enough that it is mathematically impossible to avoid the possibility of a conflict of interest arising.
Much to the surprise of many, photographing athletes doesn’t always mean you are a sports photographer. Truthfully, I don’t know much about sports at all.
The broad strokes of an emotion can be fairly simple to translate into visual communication. A smile for joy, a tear for sadness, bared teeth for anger, wide eyes for fear. Nuance however is always present, the experience and expression of complex emotions are not always as straightforward.
Text-to-image generators are a new and messy technology and this week another major step was taken that some argue is damaging to your copyrighted photographs.
The mark of a mature camera system is the breadth and depth of lenses that are available for it. The most recent news swirling around Canon, its RF mount, and third-party lens manufacturers demonstrates the principal battleground between competing mirrorless brands.
Canon has said the quiet part out loud: it doesn't want you to spend any of your money on anything other than Canon products. This is a huge mistake, and I'm pleading that the company rethink this strategy.
Here’s a question that I’ve asked myself many times over the past few years: does it make sense to travel abroad to take photos?
It’s time that we recognize how much of an impact Gen-Z is having on modern photography culture. Even millennials -- of which I am one -- need to understand that the influence of this young subset of creators is colossal and only going to grow.
Away from the world, the city, and the light pollution, I stood in a green forest where the breeze couldn’t even penetrate the trees surrounding me. It was an area that only existed to me in my imagination after multiple times of poring over Google Maps and allowing my mind to wander.
The ultimate skill of the photographer -- of the artist -- is to create the aesthetics of the scene in front of them "in the moment". The Natural Landscape Photo Award is perhaps the epitome of this with minimal image manipulation allowed, while the World Press Photo has a Code of Ethics. So straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) has got to be the pinnacle of ability, hasn't it? Or is there more to the notion of what an image is and where the skill lies in producing it?
Earlier this year, Arizona governor Doug Ducey signed HB 2319, a law that would make it illegal to record or photograph police within eight feet of them. It's being challenged, and the results will have nationwide implications.
Artificial intelligence-powered (AI) image generators have exploded in popularity and apps like DALL-E, Midjourney, and more recently Stable Diffusion are exciting and tantalizing technology enthusiasts.
Of all the arts available to mankind, my heart belongs to music. Perhaps it’s a sentiment that doesn’t serve my self-interest much, as my only achievements in the arts have come through photography.
We need to talk about copyright law. Now before your eyes glaze over and I lose you, I promise what I have to say is worth hearing.
For the last several years, manufacturers have repeatedly blamed smartphones as the reason the camera market has collapsed so spectacularly, and a recent experience has me now fully understanding this.
The smartphone has won the compact camera battle, and that ship has well and truly sailed. The only surprising thing about this news is that it took so long for the compact camera to finally die.
Ordinarily, it is the end-of-year results that are the most interesting as they provide a picture of how the year has gone and what the outlook for the next year is. However, with this report, Canon has confirmed three critically important aspects of the camera market which gives it increased confidence going forward.
TikTok's domination in short-form video is not the only thing Instagram should be worried about. In the time that Instagram has shifted ever further away from its roots as a photo-sharing app, Generation Z has found a new space to post their selfies and photo-dumps -- and that's TikTok.
When I think of Ansel Adams, I think about beautiful landscapes, the zone system, and preserving the environment. I would have to say that Ansel Adams and Playboy Magazine are not words I would put into the same sentence, yet here we are.
Most people today own a smartphone with a camera that they bring with them everywhere they go. These state-of-the-art mobile cameras arguably make everyone a photographer (in some sense of the word).
Pentax could now be in the strange and advantageous position as the main beneficiary of the demise of the DSLR as both Canon and Nikon prepare to exit the space.
The first task I give photography students is to create a starscape. To do this, I ask them to sweep the floor beneath them, collect the dust and dirt in a paper bag, and then sprinkle it onto a sheet of 8x10 inch photo paper. Then, using the photographic enlarger, expose the detritus-covered paper to light.
There are lots of misconceptions about street photography made by people starting out or itching to try this ultimately most challenging (unless you want to take boring photos), most rewarding, and most accessible of photographic genres.
Let’s talk about something obvious that apparently is big news: Nikon is going to stop making DSLRs.
If there was one word to describe 2022's camera sales trends so far, it would be "pivotal." When I say pivotal, I mean it to say that it seems as if a switch has been flipped and the market has turned on its head.
Deepfakes are a problem, and we need to talk about the rising issue of fake content on the internet and how some companies are shifting to put some of the blame for what they created on our shoulders. For more, read this week's Clipped Highlights!
Micro Four Thirds had a lot going for it when it launched as it promised low cost, smaller lenses, and good image quality. So why didn't it become the go-to format?
A few months ago, the US Copyright Office rejected Steven Thaler's request to copyright a picture on behalf of an algorithm he dubbed the Creativity Machine.
As much as photography purists don't like it, vlogging and streaming are not only a real desire, the demand for cameras in this segment is considerable. After seeing the success of the Sony ZV-E10, Nikon wanted a piece of that pie and aims to get it with the Z30.
Photography has been the most standard way to capture events for decades. If you want an event documented, you hire a photographer. However, in the next few years, that could all change.
With Canon's strong foothold -- or should that be increasing stranglehold -- on the mirrorless market, you can easily argue it is becoming the Microsoft of the camera world.
Most photographers I know have lens preferences and tend to utilize a favorite lens for their photography. Maybe it’s the way the lens captures the sun flare or the way the lens sees what they picture in their mind. But what if you could only shoot one?
We're sold software on the basis that what we can't get right in-camera, we can fix and improve after the event. Even with all the fancy algorithms that are available to us, the single best thing you go do to your image is a simple crop.
During the dark ages of digital photography, also known as the early 2000s, I was spending an awful lot of time trying to get my Canon 430EX Speedlite to work as an off-camera flash. Speedlites, by design, were clearly never meant to be used that way.
Earlier this week, Apple revealed the M2 chip and the two computers that would be the first to use it. And while the MacBook Air saw significant upgrades across the board beyond just the new chip, the equally-priced M2 MacBook Pro did not.
A new report from TechInsights confirms that the Nikon Z9 sensor is made by Sony, a fact that does not matter at all.
Photographers, from beginners to the most experienced, search for ways to improve their compositions. To be successful in your search, you have to compose an image based on two things above all else: light, and the relationships of forms.
As a photographer, you might be out on the street or at a vantage point in the landscape. You raise the viewfinder to your eye, compose the framing that you envisioned, then click the shutter. You have a picture that was acquired using the technical elements at your creative disposal: focal length, shutter speed, and aperture. But where was the camera?
Almost six years ago, I spoke with industry experts about the state of memory cards and all of them told me that CFast was about to be a thing of the past. So did that actually happen? Is CFast really dead?
The announcement has landed and it's now official: Canon has released an APS-C RF-mount camera. In fact, it hasn't just released one - but two - in the form of the R7 and R10. It might seem strange, given that Sony and Nikon have had APS-C models for some time, but this is a big deal because Canon already has the EF-M mount and EOS M APS-C mirrorless range. This begs the question, is Canon about to scrap the EOS M line?
Nikon has revised its medium-term management plan and in an eye-opening revelation, all but announces the death of F-mount.
Nikon recently released its annual results which are a key metric in determining how well the manufacturer is doing both in terms of short-term finances as well as implementing its medium-term strategy. The quick takeaway is that it's making more money, but that camera market share is worryingly low. What does this mean for it going forward?
It's the time of year when many corporations announce performance over the last year and Fuji is no different, except all eyes are on recovery from COVID shutdowns and supply chain problems. So how did Fujifilm do? The short answer is very well and, for its Imaging division, film is king.
The year 2020 saw digital camera shipments nosedive to a new low of 8.9 million units, down from 121 million units in 2010. It was believed it couldn't get any worse and, indeed, shipments stabilized in 2021. So why do sales appear to be in free-fall again?
You're out in the field, having scouted out a new location to grab a landscape vista. You release the shutter button and then chimp the back of the camera to see what you've captured... the sky's blocked out, blinking back at you. You've got a dreaded case of the blinkies, but does it actually matter?
The most common method to teach photographic composition to novices is the "rule of thirds" — in short, divide the screen into equal thirds vertically and horizontally, and then place your point of interest on any of the cross points for a maximally pleasing image.
I believe in a happy medium, somewhere between too little and too much. Aristotle defended this view with his Golden Mean, the middle ground between excess and deficiency. Apply it to the pleasures of life, to your emotions, to your decision-making, and it makes practical sense. Even digital photography follows Aristotle’s wisdom.
Cancer took my mother away. I was in a downward spiral until a chance encounter with nature set me on my path to recovery. I began photography as a means of prolonging the serenity I felt when surrounded by nature.
I know that the idea of proxy recordings and how to create them in editing software such as Adobe Premiere and Divinci Resolve has been talked about a hundred times, but did you know you can generate them in-camera for even more time savings?
The smartphone is perhaps the single most important device in history, wresting the power of news and journalism back into the hands of the everyday person. Data communication is the key enabler, but the camera -- more than anything else -- slakes the thirst for instant visual gratification. So, why is shooting with a smartphone so deeply unsatisfying?
