Mobile

Last year I profited nearly half what I made at my day job in freelance photography using nothing more than my iPhone. I've spent the last 4+ years on Instagram building a following and client base that has allowed me to vie for projects and relationships with clients to make money. That has slowly grown to allow me full creative freedom to shoot with nothing more than an iPhone and get paid for it. Now, before you go and sell off all your Canon or Nikon gear hear me out, this is not as easy as it sounds, but I'll lay it out for you.

In a move sure to delight photographers everywhere, Instagram has begun testing support for multiple accounts within the app. The ability to post and interact using separate accounts without having to resort to third-party solutions or logging in and out of the app has been highly requested for years. If this comes to fruition, it will represent a paradigm change in workflow for many mobile photographers.

While running a Kickstarter campaign might be a bit easier for veteran company Peak Design, there’s something to be said for raising over $4.8 million of excitement over a messenger bag. What is so special about this bag that merits this reaction? After reaching out to Peak Design, they sent a just-finished version of the Everyday Messenger — the "Trey Ratcliff bag" — for review so I could answer some of those questions.

I think the only thing that has changed photography more than the invention of digital cameras is the ever-growing involvement of photography and social media. Sites like Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr are the perfect platforms for sharing not only your work, but also behind-the-scenes images and other content that draws interest towards your brand. Today it is easier than ever to take advantage of this. Not only have mobile apps changed the shape of the industry, but they have changed the way that photographers can work. Apps like Snapseed, VSCO, and Lightroom Mobile have made it possible for aspiring artists, or even those in a hurry, to create incredible content with relative ease.

We can argue back and forth for days about if guests should have the right to take photos as they please at weddings, but when it comes down to it, if the happy couple can't experience their special day without a guest interfering, haven't we gone too far? Photographer Thomas Stewart thinks so.

While some photographers stay close to home, others travel quite regularly. I’ve been traveling my entire life for one reason or another. And whether it was for a newspaper job I was essentially commuting to (living four days in Southern California and three days in Northern California every week) or a short trip on a personal photographic exploration, I quickly learned that it’s great to have some creature comforts to keep you company along the ride once whatever glamour of traveling that’s left these days fades away.

South Africa native Matthew Rycroft creatively combined creepy music, a creepy-looking dude, and some dark, chiaroscuro lighting techniques to create a video that brilliantly mocks the cliché Instagram accounts with which we're all too familiar. The final result is a well thought-out piece that's short and sweet and definitely leaves room for more.

I don't have specific numbers. I don't even have vague numbers. But I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me Adobe's mobile photo editing apps have seen a huge success. The biggest reason: they're free. And the second: they really work, which makes the first reason even better. Today, Adobe updated two of these apps, Photoshop Mix and Photoshop Fix, with support for split view in iOS 9, for the screen size of the iPad Pro, and for the pressure and tilt sensitivity of the Apple Pencil for use on the iPad Pro.

On Thursday, Visual Supply Company (makers of the immensely popular editing app, VSCO) announced the release of DSCO, their new app for creating short, GIF-like clips. I downloaded the app and spent some time with it today.

Think we're in the middle of a Photoshopping epidemic? You don't even know how bad it is (well, now you do). According to a recent survey, 68 percent of adults take to some kind of photo editing before they share any photo with another person or online. As desktop and mobile editing tools become easier to use — with some even serving the specific purpose of being easy to use for the less technically inclined — Photoshopping images is the latest trend... and it's still growing.

Smartphones get a bad rap. They’re ruining the photography business, they’re the downfall of society - you know, that sort of thing. Wedding photographers complain about the glare of screens dotting the aisle like a runway landing strip. Newborn photographers cringe when mom shoots over their shoulder. Clients text you at all hours of the night, not realizing your “work phone” is sitting on your bedside table. But as much as we hate on smartphones, we can’t ignore that they’ve given us the ability to network, communicate, and market in ways that weren’t possible just a few years ago. Here’s how to use your smartphone to build your business more effectively.

Snapseed, Google's ridiculously powerful and popular image editing smartphone app, just got a major upgrade for its Android users. Following up on the introduction of raw file capabilities in Android 5 last year, the app now supports editing of those files right on your phone, greatly increasing the capabilities of photographers on the go.

Storehouse angered a number of power users in its big shakeup with the release of Storehouse 2.0 which ditched a number of features for a streamlined, more privatized system that made it harder to use the platform as a photographer’s social media marketing dream. But the numbers are out, and while it may not become the next Instagram of photo marketing and discovery, here’s why there’s a good chance it’ll find its way into your living room, regardless.

Astropad Mini, the app that allows iPhone and iPad users to turn their device into a graphics tablet for the Mac, received a major update on Tuesday. The app now includes support for Apple's 3D Touch, meaning it can now recognize 256 levels of pressure, bringing it even closer to turning your iPhone into a fully functioning graphic tablet.

One of the first things I heard when I sat down at a large white table with Light CTO and Co-Founder Dr. Rajiv Laroia and VP of Marketing Bradley Lautenbach was that, when it comes to lenses, plastic is better than glass. Scratching my head for a bit, while searching for some logic, but keeping an open mind (I did ask for a meeting with the guy who decided to put 16 lenses in a small box and call it the future of photography), the meeting proceeded to somewhat blow my mind… if it’s all true.

This week, Instagram released a new app called Boomerang in efforts to grow its need for world domination in the mobile market. This time, they took aim at popular GIF-like apps such as Phhhoto and Apple's New Live Photos. I am a huge fan of Instagram and it has helped me grow my love for photography into something far greater than I ever thought possible, but I have no idea why they keep creating exact copies of already existing apps. Are they trying to simply steal market share? Or, are their hopes to do what Twitter and Periscope did to Meerkat by creating something far better on a larger scale?

A sense of adventure has always been a common trait among photographers especially those who photograph landscapes. This sense of adventure often takes us to some interesting and remote locations. Well now there is an app that allows you turn those remote destinations into a scavenger hunt for other adventurous souls to find. TapTag allows you to leave a photo "postcard" of the location you visit for others to find.

YouTuber Michael Delaney found a pit full of rattlesnakes and, despite anyone's best suggestions, didn't turn back. Instead, armed with a GoPro on the end of a stick, Delaney recorded the scene, most of during which the only audible audio was the collective rattling of the bunch. Eventually, repeated strikes from multiple snakes knock the GoPro off of its mount and into the middle of the pit (good luck getting that one back). Put it some headphones, put the video on full screen... I dare you not to flinch at the first good strike...

Having seen plenty of Apple iPhone 6s reviews and comparisons over the last few weeks, including the newly famed Lee Morris iPhone fashion shoot, it could be said we have had enough. Though as primarily a mobile shooter myself, I was looking for something a bit more in-depth and something that got down to the very details of the phone's camera capabilities. Thanks to the ever so talented travel photographer Austin Mann we have what I have been waiting for and it's the best iPhone review I have seen yet!

So outrageous are the looks of the L16 camera, you might find yourself checking today's date to make sure we haven't entered into April. But no, this is completely real. Light, the company behind the L16 camera, took a compact body and crammed 16 cameras, each with its own plastic-covered lens, into it. The idea is to create an all-in-one camera with multiple focal lengths, allowing the L16 to use computational photography to combine resulting images for higher quality photos from an aggregation of photos taken with small sensors.

Every year's Adobe MAX conference marks the an obvious time to expect updates throughout Adobe's product lineup. So what's different this time? Mobile. Adobe has the monopoly in the area of creative applications for media editing, but for the first time in a while, it feels like they're competing with some unknown entity. This year's updates bring so many new features across the widest range of Adobe products ever that there's no doubt they're serious about their making customers happy with a huge concentration on mobile.

A 17 year-old Russian teenager died recently after attempting to capture a photo of himself that would make it look as though he was falling from the top of a building. After Andrey Retrovesky secured himself with a rope that was used to help with the special effect, in a grim turn of events, the rope snapped, leaving Retrovesky in a free fall. Although some brush reportedly helped to break his fall, sadly, it wasn't enough to keep him from succumbing to his injuries just a couple hours after the incident.

It can be daunting to try to think of a completely new, never-been-done-before concept for a shoot. But sometimes, the answer is surprisingly simple. In an age in which everyone is touting shooting on the latest equipment with 4K video, while begging for ever-greater bit rates, Japanese designer Dan Tomimatsu took pause to give us something refreshingly simple and beautiful. Using a water droplet "stuck" inside a five-yen coin as a lens on an iPhone, Tomimatsu shot "O (eau)" with the intention of reminding the world that beauty can be found outside of razor-sharp 4K imagery.

There are thousands of apps out there to expand your mobile photography capabilities, but what about apps that augment your abilities when you're holding a DSLR? Here are five of my favorite apps to enhance your productivity.

I have always been a firm believer that the best camera is the one that is with you. Images are about story and feeling, not megapixels and dynamic range. When a moment happens, you want to be ready. Buttons, menus, confusing UI and accessories just delay a photographer from capturing those moments right at their peak. The less switches, buttons and taps your camera takes to get ready to take the shot, the better off you are to be ready to take the shot.

Photographer and industry analyst Thom Hogan is sick of selfie sticks. He's sick of them poking him in his back and sides. He's sick of the crowds of people who stay in his way after taking said selfies just to show their friends and then try to figure out where they're going to share them.

Happy New iPhone Day! Today, that small startup in Cupertino known as "Apple" released their latest and greatest iPhones, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. But with all the hype and cool new features, we were mostly concerned with the camera and boy, did they deliver.

DxO (yes, the company best known for creating a rating system for cameras) has just released what seems to be the world's most powerful compact camera. Available today you can now pick up this incredible device that includes a 20.2-megapixel 1-inch CMOS sensor, 32mm fixed lens, and an outstanding f/1.8 aperture for perfect low light conditions. I have to admit, in my first week testing out the camera this might be one of the best compact cameras I have ever used and here are my first impressions.

Keeping track of contracts and payments can be somewhat cumbersome. If you're like me, sometimes you want to write everything down and have an excel spreadsheet just to double check everything. Along with that there is a neatly organized folder on your hard drive, external, and hard copied in a cabinet somewhere. Agree wants to eliminate a majority of the hassle we experience in our day to day when talking to clients.

My favorite on the go retouching solution just got even more mobile with Astropad Mini. The creators of Astropad have managed to scale down their app for use with iPhone and even added functionality for the Apple Watch.

Or at least that's what the salesman tried to sell it to me as. You see, LG's new G4 sports a pretty incredible camera for a phone. Its 16 MP 1/2.6" CMOS sensor has an f/1.8 lens in front of it for light-gathering goodness. If this wasn't enough, the full manual controls of Android's new camera have been implemented. This all sounds impressive. But, just how capable is it?

Last month, the Portland-based Lensbaby announced a new mobile photography kit aimed at bringing their unique lens esthetics to the mobile platform. This new creative mobile kit includes two lenses and a magnetic kickstand. I had the opportunity to review it over the last few weeks.

Many of us dream about the idea of traveling, and using our skills as photographers, filmmakers, or designers to sustain a lifestyle that allows us to travel and work at the same time. Guys like Elia Locardi come to mind, but his methods are just one of many different ways to make a nomadic working lifestyle a sustainable one, and in this article I’ll tell you the story behind Wickstrom Design.

You may have heard of "Skyfire" last year, a web-based platform that used custom weather forecasting models to predict the best times to shoot sunrise and sunset. Now, there is a new mobile app available for iOS that uses the Skyfire platform, called "The Photographers Ephemeris," that brings this service to a new level.