As with a majority of newbies to photography, the obsession with gear and chasing the newest toys proved to be irresistible to me. I spent far more time reading reviews, comparing charts, watching youtube videos, and looking for deals than actually going out and shooting.
Let’s not waste any time. What is the most important element in someone’s photography style? The quick answer is repetition.
You’re pretty new to hiring professional photographers, so perhaps you feel you need to provide them with a wedding photo list in advance of your wedding. Here are 5 important reasons why you probably shouldn’t.
The particularity of the photo industry is its death wish. At its core, everything and everyone in this industry seems hell-bent into destroying itself and, along with it, the whole industry.
Late Winter and early Spring bring another cycle of photo contest season – that time of year when many major prizes are announced (especially in the photojournalism realm). And with each year brings another round of punditry regarding the value of photo contests and an almost inevitable controversy regarding the winners.
This is a question that I struggle with, because I truly believe that the best camera is the camera you already have. I want to believe that you can give me any camera and I will still make great photographs. But the truth is, camera gear does matter... kind of.
Sometimes you know about two things in completely different parts of your brain, and then one day, for no reason, you put them together and your head explodes — a cascade of understandings like the last scene in “Usual Suspects”. After 40 years of taking pictures, that happened to me. One idea changed me overnight. And if you have a camera it will change you, too.
I just did an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Instagram Stories, and someone asked the question: ‘Do You Photoshop Your Pictures?’
In Guns, Germs, and Steel, author Jared Diamond describes two systems of invention transmission: 1) idea diffusion: imitation of an idea, and 2) blueprint copying: literal copying of an idea.
The battle is on. The forces of truth against forces of deception. With visual AI making it easier to fake visual content, its credibility is at stake. And with it, the income of thousands upon thousands of people worldwide who depend on the credibility of visuals to thrive: newspapers, magazines, photographers, newswires, webcasters, television news, videographers, journalists, and photo agencies, among many others.
I did my first advertising assignment in the year 2000. I still remember how excited I was when I, a few months later, walked out of a bookstore on Chestnut Street in San Francisco with several magazines with my pictures in them.
I've noticed that a commonly used compliment for street photographs is to describe them as "timeless." My interpretation of this is that it is used to mean that there are characteristics of the image which in some way transcend the boundaries of the context it was made in and can exist almost in its own context, its own space.
Fourteen years ago I took an interest in street photography. I went looking for resources and information on this amazing genre, unfortunately to no avail, until I came across a great free ebook in 2006 called “Street Photography for the purist” by Chris Weeks.
The Fujifilm X100 was the single most impactful camera of the 2010s. I’ve seen folks say the same about the Sony a7/a7R, Samsung Galaxy NX1, and various Micro Four Thirds cameras, but I will argue that the Fujifilm X100 delivered a bigger bang than all of them combined.
I used to work for Nikon cameras. From 1995 through 1999, I was Nikon UK’s Senior Photographic Advisor. My job was basically to be the guy in the building who knew what a camera was for!
My name is Adam Marsh, and I'm a Melbourne-based event photographer. I recently wrote an article titled "Adobe, This is Why Photographers Are Hating on You,” and it seems to have been incredibly divisive. There was a huge amount of feedback and engagement on this topic in the wider global photography community.
When it comes to technology, consumers have been conditioned to expect notable feature changes with version numbers increases. The iPhone 11 Pro, for example, not only included the snappier A13 Bionic chip, it also sported a three lens array and significantly better low light performance.
When they were young, my children used to get very excited about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. But they saw through those by the time they were six. So why has the myth of saving JPEG files at 72dpi lasted far more than six years?
Well-curated portfolios can be some of the most powerful tools available to a photographer looking to efficiently communicate what they’re about to potential clients and customers. The classic portfolio is a physical book of prints, maybe 10-20 total, often accompanied by a declaration of intent in writing or in person if being showcased at an actual critique session.
As a part of the launch of the Fuji X100V, Fujifilm posted a video on their YouTube channel of Japanese street photographer Tatsuo Suzuki at work. Suzuki’s aggressive style rubbed people the wrong way, and within the week, he was scrubbed from the campaign, and then erased from the Fujifilm website.
Here’s why print wins over digitals every time. Really, it’s simple. It’s all about our children.
Photographer Usman Dawood recently published an article in defense of Adobe. Reading it was a lot like reading a Microsoft fanboy at the height of the Window Vista era -- sure, the product works, but at what level of financial cost and frustration?
Last week, Emerald Expositions, the owner of Photo District News (PDN), announced that PDN would no longer publish new content online or in print. The magazine had been a staple of the professional photography industry, particularly for advertising and commercial photography.
Over the last few years, it seems like it’s become really cool to hate Adobe; kind of like how it’s cool to hate Coldplay. Except the main difference is that Coldplay really does suck.
The crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his 13-year old daughter Gianna, and seven others aboard a helicopter shocked millions around the world. Near the Staples Center in California where Bryant played for 20 years as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, make-shift memorials appeared. And online, fans posted messages of grief and condolences on social media.
Although some may feel like I'm some sort of rockstar photographer that is so busy he has to turn down work he doesn't want, the truth of the matter is right now I am just a guy sitting on a rock typing out a letter to people he has never met with the hopes that it helps just one person keep their head up.
I have a confession to make. I often shoot in aperture priority mode. I’m a reasonably competent photographer with a solid grasp of the factors that drive exposure, but I don’t want to fiddle with multiple dials when I just want to take a photo.
Sitting with a group of picture-takers last night, it dawned on me that even though all of us call ourselves “photographers,” so much of what we care about, the way we shoot, the very core of what we like about taking pictures, is distinct — almost to the point of us having little useful to share.
I’m not going to wax poetic about the Leica M6 TTL .85. I don’t need to.
The National Archives of the USA is putting on a show. "Rightfully Hers: American Women and The Vote." Out front of the show, there is a large visual display that includes an iconic photograph of the Jan 21, 2017 Women's March on DC with some blurred out elements. Specifically blurred out is some language on the protest signs, language the Archive staff judged to be political or NSFW. You can read more about it here.
Over the past few years, I've experienced a number of lenses that were optically stunning. Near-perfect examples of optical technology, lenses like the Sony 135mm f/1.8 (which I reviewed and loved) and 24mm f/1.4 (also loved) along with the Canon RF 28-70mm f/2 or their RF 50mm f/1.2 all exhibited these traits of pushing towards "perfection."
I don’t want to photograph models. They are lovely and beautiful and work with you and do what you ask and most are a dream to photograph, resulting in beautiful images. All this is true, but… I don’t want to photograph them. I don’t.
As camera technology continues to progress, the way in which we operate them is changing as well. Photographers should always use the most familiar and effective technique to get the shot, and to that end I want to be clear about the purpose of this article: I’m not trying to convince anyone to blindly stop using back-button focus.
On December 19, 2019, Flickr (and SmugMug) CEO Don MacAskill posted a letter entitled “The world’s most-beloved, money-losing business needs your help.” MacAskill described how SmugMug saved Flickr from an imminent demise at the hands of Verizon, and how the company needed the photo community to step up to staunch the money-losing operation.
After the Second World War, if you were a professional photographer, then you would have used cameras from companies like Hasselblad and Leica. Photojournalists tended to shoot predominantly with Leica cameras, and they were essentially the standard.
When it comes to image quality, there are very few cameras that can compete against a good medium format system. The resolution, detail, and colors they produce are difficult to match using cameras with a smaller sensor. This is one of the reasons manufacturers can charge what they do for these types of cameras. The issue, however, is that many people tend to romanticize what medium format cameras are. And for the most part, it’s complete nonsense.
I guess we've all been there: people question our images, saying they're "fake" because we edit our raw files.
At the turn of the millennium, veteran photojournalist David Hume Kennerly embarked on a project using a single camera outfitted with a single lens – a medium format Mamiya 7II with a 43mm f/4.5 lens. As he crisscrossed the country, he committed to taking a photo each day, which culminated in his book Photo du Jour.
Yes, it's post-processed. I get this question all the time, like every other photographer on the planet, and it often sparks heated debates that challenge the notion of objective reality and the meaning of photography.
Photographer and YouTuber Matt Granger just released a video titled "The Truth About Sony," but while this might sound like some sort of exposé, it's really not. What we have here is an honest discussion about the growing pains that Sony users have been dealing with for years, and how Sony has addressed (almost) all of those issues over the past couple of years.
I think the question of whether something is or is not "art" is a bit disingenuous, often used more as a tool for gatekeeping than true analysis or critique. There is no objective standard for what makes something enjoyable as a piece of art, whether that's a photograph, music, sculpture, or a blade of grass in a field.
Flickr users received an email a few days ago asking for help to save Flickr by subscribing to the Flickr Pro service. Don MacAskill, the CEO of both SmugMug and Flickr, explained that the platform is still losing money and needs our help to keep it alive.
Quite often when I’m browsing my Facebook photographic communities I see posts from people who are depressed because they have lost interest in their hobby. They usually say that they can’t work up the enthusiasm to get out there and photograph anything and that they haven’t even picked up their cameras in weeks, months or even years. They have lost their ‘phojo’ and they wonder if they’ll ever get it back.
Photographer and occasional PetaPixel guest author Robin Wong recently published a very interesting take on a question that most people thought was settled: why is the camera market shrinking? While most people would just blame the rise of smartphones and call it a day, Wong shares a more nuanced, and possibly more accurate, list of reasons.
Telephoto lenses and landscape photography may seem an odd pairing. Telephotos are more at home in the hands of wildlife, sports, and portrait photographers. They’re used to get close to the subject, help to compress perspective (cue the comments on "lens compression is a myth") and isolate distracting elements.
In a recent interview with DPReview, Olympus VP of Sales and Marketing Aki Murata laid out the company's market position quite eloquently, explaining why (and how) Olympus intends to compete in a camera market that is increasingly focused on full-frame.
My son texted me the other day asking for my meatball recipe. It’s a rarity that he texts me for recipes, so I was thrilled to my toes. About a week later, my daughter texted me asking for my fresh pumpkin pie recipe. Again, joy spread through my body as I thought to myself, “Finally.”
Should you buy an iPhone 11 Pro? That’s a big question many people have had on their minds since Apple recently released their latest flagship smartphone that contains 3 different rear-facing cameras. However, a thorough answer to that question isn’t cut and dry.
I used my Nikon D610 to take the last photograph of my mom before she died. I’ve documented my children's lives nearly everyday. The rubber grip is wearing thin in spots. A rubber tab on the bottom is chronically flapping loose; my fingers push it back into place out of habit. This camera has become an extension of me, and I have grown to love it. But it has not always been that way.
Before I going into this one, let me first share a little recap about my background with Apple. A number of years back, I was in love with the iPhone 4S. I felt it was a phone made for photographers and supported it wholeheartedly, going so far as doing speeches at Apple stores about how their products catered to my workflow.
