A Hands-on Review of the Fujinon XF 50mm f/1.0 R WR
What difference can f/1.0 give to your photography?
What difference can f/1.0 give to your photography?
Today, I’d like to review, well, reviews. Since gear and gear reviews are something all of us, including myself, spend a bit too much time obsessing over, it’s worth taking a step back to think about what they do and do not have to offer.
The Sony system is blessed with an abundance of thirdparty manufacturers making excellent glass. Many of them are available for a discount right now, so here’s a short roundup of the best autofocus prime lenses available on the FE mount, from wide to telephoto.
If you’ve ever shot a landscape and been frustrated that the sky wasn’t epic enough for you, today’s software has you covered. But what if you need to swap out the foreground, too? This incredible new photo-editing package could dramatically improve your photography.
If you've every tried keying out a person you know the NLEs have improved a lot over the years. After Effects can even give you a workable cut-out without a green screen now. But what are the professional movie making folk changing to now? What's next?
Usage charges or license fees (depending on where you live) make up the majority of a commercial photographers income. However, most of us either don't charge it when we should or simply do not charge enough. Let's look at how we should be doing this.
For the bulk of my career, I’ve operated on single-light photography for my projects while many others relied on multiple heads. This video is for the photographer eager to start and they think it requires a stockpile of gear. It’s to remind them they can operate on a lot less and start sooner if you have a clear direction with your concept.
When you are lighting portraits, you might sometimes notice unflattering shadows created on your subject's face. It does not take much to fix that, however; often, just adding a reflector can fix those issues, and this great video tutorial will show you how to do that.
Along with the latest iPhones being recently introduced, we also have the latest version of iOS, version 14, available for installation on several generations of iPhones. And with it comes several new features and upgrades to the camera app, though you might not be aware of all the new capabilities. This great video discusses four new features and improvements that you might have missed in iOS 14.
Bird photography is a genre that requires great technique and a heck of a lot of patience, all backed up by good editing skills to create the best possible image. This fantastic video tutorial offers over 20 tips and tricks for editing bird images in Lightroom.
Whether you're just starting out or are a professional photographer, knowing how to properly use a tone curve is one of the most important editing techniques you can learn. In this video and article I'll show you everything you need to get started in less than 5 minutes.
This year has been tough in every aspect, no question about it. Has your love for photography also suffered through this?
We all hate to admit it, but the most popular photo and video camera in the world is the iPhone. The iPhone 12 Pro was just released, and I decided to put its video cameras to the test by comparing them to the Sony a7S III. The phone did surprisingly well.
Good black and white portraits are timeless and will always be in style, but they demand a different approach than color portraits. This fantastic video tutorial will show you a few multi-light setups for shooting compelling black and white portraits with dramatic contrast.
Beverage photography is its own genre within the commercial world and some photographers specialize even further by photographing liquor bottles. This is a great tutorial for someone who wants to try their hand at photographing an attractive whisky bottle and beverage, with an affordable setup.
It is always best to start out with one light when you are first learning how to use artificial light, but once you have mastered the basics, you can enter an entirely new world of creativity when you start working with multi-light setups. This fantastic video tutorial will show you a dynamic and professional three-light setup for creating compelling portraits.
When you think of medium format cameras, you do not generally think of them as working fast enough to keep up with the demands of wedding photography, but on the other hand, the Fujifilm GFX 100 is not a normal medium format camera. This great video discusses how well it performs for wedding photography.
Though they simply cannot offer the same level of image quality of less extreme lenses, superzoom lenses can often give you quite good image quality with the added convenience of a very wide range of focal lengths all in one device. This great video review takes a look at one such lens, the Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports.
One of the most useful and effective features in Photoshop, is the ability to create masks on different layers. This allows you to perform pin point and localized edits onto your image without impacting the rest of the file. For many photographers, layer masks are crucial and in my view, luminosity masks are one of the more useful ways of creating selections.
Finding the perfect camera system is not that easy. Before you make a large and long-lasting investment, you should do proper research and critically analyze your own needs. Step by step, you will get closer to the best possible system for yourself.
Competition is one of the main causes of innovation, but camera innovations have been stalled out for years, and I think Sony could be to blame.
It sounds like clickbait, but follow me for a minute. I know what you're thinking: "Oh yes, I do. I back up my catalog and my photos!" That's good, but it may not be good enough.
Camera technology is moving at quite a fast pace nowadays, and it can be awfully tempting to pick up the latest and greatest gear. But on the other hand, cameras are hardly cheap, and it is the sort of purchase that should be carefully considered. So, how do you decide when it is time to actually buy a new camera? This great video discusses that question.
Photographers certainly love their bokeh, and not all bokeh is the same, as different lenses can have vastly different character. This neat video shows the kind of crazy bokeh you can get when you put a less common lens on your camera.
One of the marquee features of Skylum's Luminar 4 has been its AI-powered automatic sky replacement, which seriously cuts down the time spent on what is traditionally a very tedious and time-consuming task. Now, Photoshop has caught up with its own sky replacement tool. How does it compare and how can you use it to create your own composites? This great video tutorial will show you the new tool in action and how to take better control of it for your own work.
What photographer hasn't thought about getting into medium format photography? This comparison provides some useful side-by-side work for you to make your own comparisons.
If you still shoot with DSLRs, you might have encountered issues (particularly when you have shot at wide apertures) with your focus missing by just a little bit. If you have experienced this frustration, you might benefit from an autofocus microadjustment, and this excellent video tutorial will show you exactly how it is done.
Photographing water can be as complicated or as straightforward as you like, but it's better that you have the knowledge to choose between the methods.
Well, Adobe has gone and done it. Sky replacement is now a featured part of the just-released Photoshop 2021. For about a year, Skylum has been the leader in sky replacement with Luminar 4, but the story isn't that simple anymore.
Lightroom totally dominates the realm of digital asset management (DAM) — a solution for everything, it fits the mold of most photographic workflows, however the bitter pill to swallow can be the treacle-like performance and that monthly subscription. Is it time for Adobe to start again?
There's a new change happening in the photography world and you may not even be aware of it. Let's see how it'll pan out and learn how it might affect you.
Will LIDAR be the future of camera focusing? Imagine being able to use your vintage lenses that gives you a level up with a unique looking image in video with auto focus, bypassing the camera's internals and "seeing" in the dark. The DJI RS2 can do this very well now. This video shows us how we'll be able to do just that.
When you think of kit lenses, you generally do not associate them with the kind of image quality you expect to see in professional-level images. But in the last few years, we have seen some remarkably good kit lenses come to the market, and this great video review takes a look at what might be the best yet.
Wedding photography is one of the most challenging genres out there for a wide variety of reasons, and there are a lot of myths and misunderstands floating around about what it is like to work as one and how you should run your business. This fantastic video features a seasoned wedding photographer discussing seven prominent myths and misconceptions about wedding photography and setting the record straight.
A little over two years ago, the Sony FS5 II compact cinema camera was released. Both the original FS5 and the FS5 II have become common names found in wildlife filmmaking thanks to their relatively low price, portability, and slow motion recording options maintaining 10-bit 4:2:2. In this review I put the camera to work for a month of filming at the onset of the autumn season and share my thoughts on the experience.
Some shots are great without a story, some are great and tell a story, but occasionally, the story couldn't be told in one image. Which shot in your portfolio has the best story behind it, and what's the story?
Leica's newest, versatile mirrorless body has some impressive specs, but is it worth the money?
Back in March, Globe Newswire reported that the global facemask market is expected to reach $21.2 billion in sales by 2026. For many photographers, this represents an opportunity to try out a new revenue stream as other sources of income dry up. So, how do you get started selling face masks featuring your photos? We'll take a look at a few vendors on the market.
Photographer Sana Ullah got the idea for her “Places You’ll Pray” photo project while shopping with her sister, who ducked into a fitting room once to pray as part of her Muslim faith, and so, it’s fitting that the first photo she took for the series several years ago was in a shopping mall.
My MacBook Pro started to lag, get buggy, and slow down when editing photos and videos. So, I decided to do something about it, and with just a few budget tweaks, it now runs like new again.
The original DJI Osmo Pocket was quite popular, offering impressive and versatile performance in an extremely compact and literally pocketable package. Now, the Pocket 2 is here, and it brings with it a bevy of worthwhile improvements while remaining at an affordable price. If you have been looking for a pocketable gimbal that will not break the bank, check out this great first look at the Pocket 2.
When you are new to photography, it is common to think that you need to head over to Photoshop for any sort of serious editing, but you might be surprised by just how much you can accomplish using Lightroom if you know what you are doing and where to look. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to edit a portrait from start to finish using only Lightroom.
Many rules in photography and videography have been constant for decades. However, some of them were formed to accommodate limitations in older technology, so are they still relevant?
The BBC and Getty Images are combining forces to create and curate a library of images and videos of children and families around the U.K. to better reflect diversity in the population.
When you think of lighting for portraits in a flattering way, you probably do not immediately gravitate toward the harsh contrast of midday sun. However, you might be surprised by just what you can accomplish when shooting in the midday sun, and this great video tutorial will give you three helpful tips for creating better images with it.
Today, DxO is taking the wraps off their latest update to their PhotoLab series, PhotoLab 4. It's a major update of its multiple award-winning photo-editing software. This latest version features DxO DeepPRIME, a revolutionary demosaicing and denoising technology based on artificial intelligence and trained with deep learning.
Drug and alcohol addiction often go hand in hand with art. Painting has Van Gogh and Pollock, poetry has Coleridge and Ginsburg, music has The Beatles and Jim Morrison, and novels have Burroughs and Welsh. I was, however, surprised by how little information I could find about photographers’ substance abuse. Where are the in-depth books about photographers that were inspired or crushed by their addictions?
Color is one of the most important aspects of photography. Unless you're shooting in black and white, color is a fundamental issue that requires great care and diligence. For this reason, I'm regularly looking for better tools to manage color, and I think I might have just found the best so far.
Most modern cameras have the option of highlight tone priority available. It will improve gradation in bright areas of the image. But does that function has any use when you are shooting raw images? Let’s find out.
Instagram’s censorship policy has been called into question after warnings were placed on a post by Celeste Barber, a comedian who parodies images of glamorous models. Replicating the amount of flesh shown in a Victoria's Secret advert, Instagram’s algorithms demonstrated some interesting double standards.