Smartphone video is seemingly getting better by the minute. While they may still have a little way to go to match a $50,000 RED Weapon (though it's closer than you think), smartphones can be utilized to create videos of astonishing quality given the obvious limitations (small sensor, fixed focal length lens, noise issues created by limited ISO capability).
I can’t be the only one who dreamt of knowing which image would perform best on Instagram before posting a set or simply what picture people like best amongst a selection. A great photographer should be able to pick his images on his own, but sometimes, when it comes to social networks, it’s more complicated than that.
Let's face it, we all use our phones a little too often. The average person checks their device over 100 times a day. For this reason, I decided to use a fairly unknown hidden function on most smartphones to help curb my habits. Not only did it help tremendously, but it also brought some unexpected benefits to me as a photographer.
Here we have our first hands-on look at the upcoming RED Hydrogen smartphone they are preparing to release. As many of you know, RED is known for making high-end cinema cameras, but now they have launched themselves into the deep end of the smartphone world market.
In perhaps an unexpected move, a former senior vice president at Google has said that Android cameras are "years behind" the iPhone.
Chinese lighting manufacturer Godox has just released a few details about their most recent project: an off-camera flash for your smartphone. The Godox A1 is more than just a constant light, offering several options in what they are calling their first “phone flash system.”
Getting into video is often thought to be expensive. Buying new cameras, new lenses and specific gear such as stabilizers or fluid head tripods. But what if you could save some money and film with your iPhone, while still getting an amazing quality out of it?
We've all seen those inspiring commercials which claim to have been shot entirely on a smartphone. While technically they were captured with the device they are trying to sell to you, it is often with some heavy equipment adaptation which has always felt a little fraudulent to me, even if they do mention it in the small print which no one reads.
Instagram Stories have quickly become a popular way for photographers, videographers, and other creatives to share real-time work, behind the scenes clips, and other interesting miscellany with their audiences. As their popularity continues to grow, here's how to to make your Stories stand out amongst the crowd.
There are many professional photographers specializing in automotive photography who would find this disturbing. It's really possible to create professional looking images using your smart phone. All you need to add is a tripod, ND filter, and some post production to give your images something special.
Here are my favorite tips from the video:
A little earlier this month we published a review of ACDSee Pro for iOS. Some people seem not to understand fully the purpose of being able to edit pictures on a smartphone, so to make it clearer, I decided to follow up with a tutorial. The goal is to show you the possibilities offered by ACDSee Pro but also give you some ideas on how to use such an app while on the go.
Blackmagic Design have brought new functionality to the URSA Mini Pro, their flagship camera. Keeping up with the times, users will now be able to download an app in order to control the camera. The best part? They’re letting the public create their own custom versions.
"Could you Photoshop this for me?" I'm pretty sure that's something every photographer hears on a far more regular basis than any of us would like. I get it, people want better photos. Maybe they didn't see that trash can in the background, or they couldn't get everyone with their eyes open at once, or they didn't like the color of shirt they were wearing in the photo.
The year was 1997: Celine Dion's heart went on, a sheep named Dolly became the first cloned mammal, and the camera phone was born. See the story of how a man's daughter's birth inspired the invention of one of the most ubiquitous devices in the world.
It was less than a year ago I sat here and told you guys about the brilliant Google Pixel and how it was truly an iPhone killer for those wanting to give Android a go. The way manufacturers are building incredible hardware around Google's Android system is far better than it was years ago, and today OnePlus is doing just that with their brand new OnePlus 5.
Deep in the heart of Shenzhen, China, OnePlus is burrowed inside the teeming tech hub. With the smartphone race being dominated by major manufacturers, it’s difficult to see OnePlus competing. They’re hoping that hard work and keeping their pulse on the upcoming available technology, that they can take on the best.
Sneaky advertising is annoying. People often use their social media following to their advantage, featuring paid content to promote products, but the problem is that they often don't disclose that, leaving the consumer possibly tricked into believing it's an honest endorsement.
June 29 of this year will mark the ten-year anniversary of the iPhone's introduction to the world. It has, for better or worse, revolutionized many things about modern life, including how we document it through photos. Here's how the landscape has changed and will continue to evolve.
With the importance that social networks now take, our work as photographers has evolved into something entirely different over the past few years. Nowadays, images must be edited faster than ever, and, sometimes, that means not being able to use our computers, but having to rely on mobile solutions.
You can't go wrong with the narration of Carl Sagan or Alan Watts when it comes to making a video and showing scenes of the great places such mountain ranges, lakes, beaches, and landscapes we have on this planet. Apple took it upon themselves to use this narration in their latest ad campaign. I am impressed with the quality of the footage.
This video displays basic tips for a person looking to start vlogging or capturing video to showcase their skills. It's aimed at beginners, although there are some great tips for the avid shooter too. How to create a dolly-like effect using only your body, and how long a shot should last to make it something the viewer can actually focus on and absorb is included.
Leica is a company that is synonymous with premium quality at a premium cost in the photography industry. So when Leica co-engineered their second-generation dual-lens camera with Huawei and placed it on the affordable $599 Mate 9 smartphone, I was eager to try it out.
Apple started the WWDC17 event yesterday which is used to introduce the new features to the developer community, for them to use and create new apps with. So here we take a look at what Apple has introduced and what we can expect from our devices in the following months once they launch it.
Apps for working out the best times to shoot in natural light based on your location are not new, but the GoldenHour.One App by Hana Kusova brings together the perfect ingredient of features to compliment any photographer’s planning process for outdoor photography.
As Instagram continues to evolve as a platform serious photographers use to showcase their work and gain new clients, the app continues to introduce features that make those tasks more easily accomplished. Starting today, users can archive posts, making them viewable only to themselves.
In reality, this shouldn't even be a comparison. We all know what the outcome is going to be, yet we still love to see the results. That or we secretly hope that the phone in our pocket can really keep up with a Hollywood workhorse that is used to film some of the most popular movies and television shows that are being released.
Based on Instagram being so important and popular for photographers at this particular time, and as a follow up on some Instagram tips I wrote about before, we constantly look for ways to stand out and be different or better.
Today I will talk about one of my favorite ways to do that and even provide a few of my custom Photoshop actions for free.
Have you ever watched a Marvel Avengers movie wishing you had your own personal AI just like Tony Stark? At Google I/O 2017, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed a new technology lovingly branded "Google Lens" which aims to bring mankind a breath nearer to each person having their own personal Jarvis.
Google’s Pixel has been hailed as one of the best on the market, some even calling it the best. I’m not saying the iPhone’s camera is lackluster, but is there something missing?
With the availability of cameras in mobile phones and the ever-growing presence on social media, a lot more people are taking photos of all sorts of theses. The quality of the cameras have improved over the years, so much so that there has been some professional photoshoots done completely using the camera on their phones.
I've written about FTC rulings on paid social posts in the past, and most recently here, but we are at it again with one of the biggest fiasco's of the year so far in the form of the Fyre Festival. Celebrities went wild with posts in prep for the music festival set in Bahamas by promoting it and getting paid in excess of $100,000.
Love it or hate it, social media has taken over many of our lives. And in the case of a photographic life, no social media name reigns more supreme than Instagram. With its photo dependent backbone and emphasis on visuals over verbals, shutterbugs rush to the app either as a means of expression, or a means of impression.
Instagram's popularity with photographers is incomparable. What is essentially a free portfolio building app disguises itself as a powerful marketing tool to connect with prospective clients, but it suffers at times due to its sheer size and scope.
Your phone takes the best pictures, right? That’s why you bought it.
Not so fast, says tech vlogger Marques Brownlee in a YouTube video, where he pits the top five smartphone cameras on the market in a blind test against one another to see which one comes out on top.
Score one for authentic interaction. Today, Instagress, a prominent Instagram bot service, shut their doors after being "requested" to do so by Instagram.
When the initial iPhone came out with a camera that took rather decent photos I was so excited about it. To have a camera in your pocket whenever you needed one was now possible.
Spoiler alert: building a successful Instagram page takes work. Hard work. I'm sorry, but to be incredibly honest with those that have followed me since the beginning it takes more than a snapshot with my iPhone and hitting the post button.
There isn't a lot of information about this Adobe App and whether this technology will be added to the desktop software yet, just that it's called Sensei and they have this video to show its potential.
Propelling Fstoppers into the successful community it is today and inspiring a slew of shooters to create without limitations, the iPhone Fashions Shoot was meant to prove that a talented photographer needed little more than their own knowledge and creativity. In these one minute spots for the Huawei P10 mobile phone, Chinese
Everyone wants to make money doing what they love. We love photography, and for many of us, getting paid to take photos is a dream. I never wanted to be a photographer; I liked it, but shooting full-time was never a goal I had early in my career and still isn't.
Fed up with audience members filming the show with their phones, one musician stopped playing mid-song and turned their own behavior back on them.
Instagram is very much a calling card for a good amount of photographers these days. Many of my friends with successful photography businesses attribute a large proportion of their client influx to the app. Here's a great video on how to make your account better.
As phone cameras continue to become more powerful, apps are developing at breakneck speed to match them. Today, Adobe introduced Lightroom Mobile for iOS 2.7 and Android 2.3, which brings a new raw HDR mode and other features.
As a photographer, I take and see a lot of photographs. As a photographer who does a fair amount of work for an art museum, I see a lot of art. So, I don't really know how to feel about this new concept I just found out about (via a user-submitted story idea! Go ahead and submit things!) that involves using a mobile device to view a photography exhibit...
Be ready to freak out, Instagram lovers: you can now upload up to ten photos or videos – all in a single post! Going live today, you can now choose series of photos or videos inside one single post on your page without having to debate whether to share those b-side shots.
Keeping your gadgets charged on the go is essential if you travel a lot and expect to get any work done on the road. Thanks to the millions of battery packs that are out there, charging your phone is easy enough. But what if you need to keep your laptop charged while off the grid for a day’s shoot or while on a long flight without an outlet?
Last month, I wrote an article called Hacking Instagram to Grow a Huge Following and Build Better Engagement with "Instagram Pods" that was received far better than I ever thought possible. I received hundreds of direct messages within the app of people asking about Instagram pods as well as wanting to join one.
In today’s age, it’s safe to assume that more people are taking pictures with phones than with actual cameras. I’m not here to say that the practice is wrong or that it’s right. I am just here to identify Amazon’s number-one selling mobile printer so you can bring some of those images stored on your phone to life.
Polaroid has been an iconic brand for over 80 years in the photo community. Even though they have had a few recent slips to adapt to the fast-growing tech world, it's finally finding its grass roots in the latest generation of photographers. Their latest offering comes with the incredibly fun and portable Polaroid Snap Touch.
Moment Lenses has been on the scene of mobile photography for a few years now and truly separates themselves from the crowd of phone lens attachments in many ways. First, their products are of damn good quality. Having shot with my Moment Lens since their first Kickstarter a few years ago, it's been a great addition to my bag of tricks while out and about shooting.