When photographer Paul Schlemmer started out in photography in his late teens, he spent the first four years studying the subject of light. As he became more proficient, he began sketching lighting diagrams to share how photos were lit and constructed.
Want a glimpse into the star-studded everyday life of a celebrity photographer? Photographer Noam Galai just published the above 7-minute video with 1 second from each day in 2016.
These days, more and more of what you think are real photos are actually CGI renderings. But have you seen "CGI renderings" that are actually real photos?
My name is Paul Fehr, and I recently proposed to my girlfriend, Ale, in a photography darkroom. Here's how I did it.
England-based fine art and fashion photographer Bella Kotak made this 10-minute video that shows how she shot and retouched a recent self-portrait.
For the past few years, I have been really enjoying pushing the iPhone camera as far as it can go, to do photography projects that many people might not have realized you can do with an iPhone. I also use other cameras, but there’s something fun about the always-in-your-pocket aspect of iPhone photography.
In May of 2016, I had the opportunity to travel to Argentina through my university for the purpose of researching food politics with our anthropology department. I jumped on the opportunity when it was offered, and had the experience of a lifetime learning about conducting anthropological work.
I have a studio. For those of you that know me -- the author of the Studio Anywhere books, which focus on shooting anywhere but a studio -- this statement may sound oxymoronic or even blasphemous. Nonetheless, after years of shooting in my cramped basement, I finally outgrew my space and needed a slightly larger, dedicated space to have for working with clients.
Hello, my name is Vincenzo Spina. I’m a full-time Presentation Director at Ubisoft Montreal. Although I make games for a living I also love photography and comics.
Yesterday I talked about the overall ideas behind how we shot an MMA fighter smashing food for Nikon's “Moment of Impact” campaign. As promised, today I’d like to discuss the technical details about how I lit the shoot.
In September I shot a campaign for Nikon using its new D500 camera, in which the brief was to demonstrate how fast, powerful and robust it was. We set about capturing split-second moments of impact, photographing scenes that would otherwise be impossible to see with the naked eye.
Looking for a great winter photography project? How about snowflakes? If you live in the Northern tier of states I promise you will have plenty of subjects to shoot.
Nate Dodson over at TutVid just put together one of the most comprehensive overviews of Photoshop's key tools and features we've ever seen. 30 different tools or features you should definitely know about, each covered under two minutes. This one is worth a bookmark.
A couple of months ago, photographer and retoucher Erik Almas was approached by Adobe with a challenge: faithfully recreate the 1664 painting "The Concert" by Johannes Vermeer using Photoshop and Adobe Stock photos.
Photographer and digital artist Karen Alsop wanted to bring Christmas cheer to sick children, so she decided to use her photography and Photoshop skills to transport them to magical places. She calls it the The Christmas Wish Project.
For his recent project titled Frozen, photographer Denis Klero shot creative studio portraits of action sports athletes in a way that makes them look like they're frozen in ice.
Photographer, weird lens expert, and friend of PetaPixel Mathieu Stern created this very simple and straightforward Photoshop tutorial for anybody out there who wishes they were a Jedi and wants to impress their friends.
Five years ago I was somewhere in the wilds of central Vietnam, about to click upload on my first ever video project. If you had told me then that, in just a handful of years, I would be contributing to one of the entertainment world’s most prestigious and popular wildlife documentaries — BBC’s Planet Earth II — I think I’d have had trouble keeping a straight face. But that was before I witnessed firsthand the power of the Internet and a good idea.
Photographer Tyson Haslam recently built himself a giant do-it-yourself camera for shooting large format photos on X-Ray film.
Every photographer should photograph a cancer patient at some point in his/her life. It teaches you how little of a person you are and how you’re but one character in the story of life. That’s what I learned at least when I had the privilege of photographing the double mastectomy of my friend, Diana Sheldon, 38, last fall.
As photographers, whether consciously or not, I think we’re all trying to capture moments in the way that we would like our own moments to be captured. What then are we supposed to do when it’s our turn to be the subject? This question troubled me as my wedding day drew closer. Who does the wedding photographer choose to photograph his own wedding?
One of the ongoing pain points of being a photographer is the time we spend editing. Don’t get me wrong, I love turning a flat image into something breathtaking, but it does take a while to get through a batch of 1000+ photos from a wedding or concert.
It's not every day that you come across a camera that's big enough for the photographer to stand in. But that's what photographer Ross den Otter built for the recent Capture Photography Festival in Vancouver, Canada: he shot portraits from inside a 4x8x8-foot camera obscura.
After our first visit to Yosemite National Park, my girlfriend and I have made it our goal to try to visit as many National Parks as possible. It's partly because of how beautiful and varied the parks are from one another, and partly because of the escape from the everyday noises that we find while out there.
Adobe is dedicated to updating Photoshop consistently, but those updates don't always go so well. A lot of people have rolled back their healing brush tool, and ever since Select and Mask replaced Refine Edge this summer, people have been complaining. Meanwhile, Nate Dodson over at Tutvid has been desperately trying to make this new tool work.
My name is David Bracetty, and I'm a photographer based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Back in July, I spent 10 days at the Olympic Track and Field Trials photographing athletes moments after they stepped of the track and their fate was decided.
My name is Marius Hanzak, and I'm an experimental photography student currently studying at the Cleveland College of Art and Design in the UK. For one of my recent projects, titled RGB Church Street, I experimented with making color photos using black and white film.
German photographer Michael Quack has created a helpful resource for photographers getting started with portrait lighting equipment. It's a look at 111 lights and modifiers and the different looks you get using them.
Photographer Mathieu Stern has based his YouTube channel on reviewing cheap and unusual lenses, but for his latest experiment he went a different direction. Stern created his own lens using 3D printing to see what results he could achieve.
Photographer Clint Davis recently did a photo shoot with top-tier 2016 IndyCar racing drivers and their cars. He also created a series of behind-the-scenes animated GIFs showing how the composites were created.
It's been a pretty dismal autumn in Vancouver. The sun makes guest appearances, but the rain has the stage for the most part. Business as usual, if you've ever been here.
One of the things you learn in sports photography is that with so many photographers on the sidelines, you’re bound to get the same photo as someone else. Obviously the one way to prevent that is to find a different angle, but sometimes you’re limited on space.
In September 2016, Snapchat changed it’s name to Snap Inc. and introduced Spectacles, a pair of sunglasses with a built-in camera that records 10-second snippets of video and posts directly to your Snapchat Story.
For his project "The Spirit of Iron Man," photographer Dan Votjech visited the world's hardest triathlon, the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, and shot portraits of the competitors using a large format Polaroid camera.
A .22 caliber bullet moving at 1,200 feet per second slices through an apple in the classic high-speed shot. This photo was created recently by Nasser Albahri at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).
If you're going to be shooting in an area where you're genuinely concerned you might have your camera stolen, it's probably wise to prepare. And if you prefer the DIY "on-the-cheap" approach, then this simple 'theft-proof' camera strap may be exactly what you're looking for.
My name is Nick Fancher and I'm a portrait and commercial photographer who specializes in lighting, specifically with the use of small flash in unconventional locations.
Here's a quick DIY build for cash-strapped studio photographers who are sick of gaffer's tape-ing their reflectors to light stands. YouTuber Joe Edelman will show you how to build not one, but two DIY studio reflector holders for 10 bucks total.
This is the archerfish from Asia. These amazing fish have the unusual habit of feeding on land-based insects. Even more unique is their method of hunting their chosen prey: they spit a powerful jet of water at their dinner knocking it from overhanging foliage into the water, where the fish quickly gobbles them up!
I definitely love do-it-yourself projects, especially those that help me out with a project in a niche way.
Here's a 2-minute video in which cinematographer Matthew Rosen explains how he pulled focus at high speed for detergent ad.
The first rule for any photographers, portrait, landscape, or weddings: always, always check your gear, count it twice, because the last thing you don’t want to happen is not having the right gear for what you want to shoot.
French freelance photographer and graphic designer Sebastien Del Grosso has created a series of beautiful artworks based on the Star Wars universe. It might not look like it, but photography played a big role in the project.
My name is Philippe Echaroux, and I'm a French celebrity photographer and an ambassador for Hasselblad and Elinchrom. I recently had to do a portrait shoot at a large studio in Paris, but for this shoot I decided to have a bit of fun.
Here's a video by the Camera Repair Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that shows an overhaul they did recently of a Pentax K1000 film SLR -- the "dirtiest Pentax [they've] seen in a very long time." The 3 to 4 hour examination and cleaning is condensed down to 2.5 minutes, and shows the beautiful mechanical inner workings of the K1000.
One of the challenges (and rewards) of managing a digital production lab for a university research library is working with the wide assortment of analog formats that are collected within its archives, special collections, and map library holdings. For instance, we've recently begun conversion work on a 2002 aerial survey of Connecticut that was originally shot on 9"x9" positive black and white film.
Since 1991, the Italian coffee company Lavazza has asked the world's top photographers to shoot photos for its annual "Lavazza Calendar," which was become prestigious in the world of fashion photography. For the 2016 edition, Lavazza asked photographer Joey L to photograph the theme, "From Father to Son."
Hyperfocal distance—commonly defined as "the closest distance at which a lens can be focused while keeping objects at infinity acceptably sharp"—is critical for landscape photographers who want their whole frame in focus. Here's a trick for nailing hyperfocal distance without resorting to charts or smartphone apps.
If you've been itching to step up your film photography game—be it trying 35mm for the first time, stepping up to 120 medium format, or even trying out large format film—this old video that's circulating the Interwebz again today is a great place to start.
Photographer Josh Gladstone of PhotoChemicals made this 11-minute video showing how you can use new Instax instant film on an old Kodak instant camera.
