20 Awesome Photos Of The Supermoon
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If you've been outside earlier this week, you must have noticed the gorgeous moon up there in the sky. Not only it was a full moon, but it was closer to us than usual. The 'Supermoon' is 11%-14% larger and 30% brighter than the normal-distanced moon we see every night. The reason for the change in the distance is the elliptical orbit of the moon around the Earth. Take the big-looking moon, add a telephoto lens, and you get some epic landscape and cityscape photos.

Instant Film, Not Digital Cameras Is the Main Reason Fujifilm Is Doing So Well
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When we talk about Fujifilm's recent success, most of us likely point to their X Series cameras, known for their fantastic design and great system of lenses. Surprisingly however, the bulk of the company's financial success in imaging is not due to their mirrorless cameras, but rather to their Instax line of cameras.

When Photography Gear Matters
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You might have noticed a common theme in my articles: "the gear doesn’t matter". A lot of people have called me out on this, especially as in my profile picture I’m shooting on a Phase One with Broncolor lights. And yes, you are right, the kit does matter in my line of work, just not always. Sitting on the fence? Maybe. Here’s my explanation:

Man Makes $20,000 on his Smartphone with Scoopshot
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If you recall, we published an article a couple weeks ago about an app called Foap, where users could make money licensing their iPhone photos. Well, a similar app called Scoopshot (based in Finland) has just informed me that one of their users has made about $20,000 selling his photos.

Mirrorless Still Has a Significant Weight Advantage Over DSLRs
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When mirrorless cameras first started gaining popularity within the industry, brands and photographers were generally discussing the weight and size advantages. This was predominantly true until larger faster aperture lenses were brought into production and the mirrorless weight advantage was supposedly debunked.

Expression Trumps Everything in Portrait Photography
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Looking back at my early portraits often makes me cringe. I’m not even afraid to admit it now. It was always a goal of mine to be a competent portrait photographer, but I was incredibly shy and didn’t know how to engage with the people in front of my lens. I was always somehow dissatisfied with my results, as I could never seem to connect with my subjects on a level deep enough for them to let their guard down.

The Best Way to Hashtag for Instagram
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Using hashtags is still one of the best ways to get new eyes on your content regardless of what social media platform you are using. This method will save you time and change how you apply hashtags forever.

How to Remove Noise by Stacking Multiple Photos
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As a photographer you are probably confronted every now and then with unacceptably high noise levels. This may occur when using extremely high ISO levels, or perhaps when lifting shadows too much in post processing. You can try to reduce noise by one or two sliders in Photoshop, Lightroom, or similar software, or by stacking a couple of photos.

Things To Consider Before You Buy a Lens
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There’s a lot of talk about cameras and, consequently, lenses get overlooked. With competing priorities when you buy a lens, here are some things that could affect your decision on which lens to buy.

Working With Speedlights in Daylight
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With the recent flooding of the market with battery-powered monolights, it might seem as if the humble speedlight will only ever be found on top of the photojournalist's camera from now on. The Profoto B1 and B2, the Broncolor Siros, and offerings from various small brands have given us options for high-powered flashes in much smaller packages than before. But sometimes, it is still more convenient to use speedlights than to lug around heavier and bulkier offerings.

Start to Finish Portrait Retouching with Capture One Pro
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As you may already know, I spend a good deal of time polishing my photos in post production and have taught retouching in Photoshop for some time. A few months ago I made the move from Lightroom to Capture One and haven't looked back. To test out it's power, I decided to see just how close I could get to my portrait retouching style using only Capture One Pro 8 and forgoing Photoshop entirely.

The Medium Format Look: Real or Hoax?
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With the release of the Fujifilm GFX 50R, the Hasselblad X1D II 50C, as well as a burgeoning used market, digital medium format has become more attainable than ever by professional photographers wanting to step up to the next level in image quality. However, the full frame market is firing back on all cylinders, producing cameras that claim to rival medium format, such as the Sony a7R IV. Many medium format users are quick to point out that there is a medium format look that these high-end full-frame cameras are lacking. So, what is the medium format look? Is it real? Why, yes. Yes, it is.

Using a Wide-Angle Lens for Portraiture
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The concept of a portrait lens has always baffled me. When I first started out in photography, reading the Internet and listening to other photographers would have led me to believe that I needed something around the 85mm or 135mm focal lengths if I wanted to photograph a person. Anything else wouldn’t work. Well, that simply isn’t true, is it? Any lens can be used as a portrait lens. In fact, the moment you photograph the likeness of a person with it, it becomes a portrait lens. So why not experiment using different lenses in your portraiture?

100 Megapixels Is So 2017: This Camera Captures 1.5 Gigapixels
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Just when you thought that your camera has all of the resolving power you will ever need with a 50- or even a 100-megapixel sensor, a new king of the hill has arrived on the scene and the comparison to what you have isn’t even close. With 1.5 billion pixels of CCD goodness, this camera smashes the ceiling on resolution and is sure to be the envy of anyone who cares about such things.

Sony Announces the Sony a7S, a Mirrorless Full Frame Video Monster
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Sony impressed everyone late last year with the announcement of the Sony A7/A7R, mirrorless full frame cameras packed with plenty of features. Well today, in wake of NAB, Sony gave a press conference to show their update to their mirrorless line with the A7s - a full frame mirrorless camera sporting 4K video and plenty of other features with video in mind.

Why Are So Many Influencers Quitting YouTube?
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If you’ve been on YouTube at all in the past couple of weeks, the algorithm has more than likely served you up multiple videos of powerful influencers announcing that they are “quitting” the platform. While each person has their own reasons, I think there are a few common threads that we can all learn from.

DIY DSLR External Battery Pack: Get Up to 9 Hours of Shooting
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Videographers and event photographers are all to familiar with the frustration of constantly switching out the tiny internal batteries of DSLRs. On a good day you can get a thousand or so still images or just a couple hours of video before switching the batteries. This simple little mod from Chris Winter shows you hot to build a hardcore external battery that boasts roughly 9x the capacity of the standard internal batteries.

The Best Piece of Equipment To Improve Your Star Photography
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Improving night photography is an ever closing gap riddled with tech-tips, tricks, and expensive gear. The Star Adventurer by Sky Watcher-USA seeks to be the reasonably, all-in-one option to improve your starscape photography. The built-in tracking head and accompanying accessories are the perfect companion to viewing and photographing the night’s sky.

Beyond the Textbook: How to Find World-Class Compositions
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If you are no stranger to photography or other visual arts, then it is likely that you are no stranger to the “rules” of composition. There have been some excellent writings familiarizing one to the different forms of good composition, such as “The Ultimate Guide to Composition” by Chris Knight, but it’s much harder to find anything about its in-the-moment application. We all strive to find strong compositions that can drive the narratives in our photography. The next time you’re looking for the hidden story of your surroundings, recall the following simple tips.

What is Canon Building? Could It Be the New Niche Dominance of f/2.0 Zooms?
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Canon has just released the trifecta of f/2.8 lenses that cement the workhorse length of optics for professionals and prosumers alike, but they are still missing a flagship mirrorless camera body to take advantage. This is only part of Canon’s future strategy when competing against Sony and Nikon which may include a new family of f/2.0 zooms.

How to Quadruple Your Portrait Profits
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Scottsdale, Arizona-based headshot photographer Tony Taafe went from selling $60,000 in his first year of business to $250,000 in his third, and he wants to help other photographers do the same thing.

100 Sets in One Year: How a Passion Project Transformed Jada and David’s Photography Business
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A few years ago, Richmond, Virginia-based visual artists Jada and David Parrish found themselves stuck in a creative rut. The daily grind of their photography business combined with the global pandemic had taken a toll, and their passion-turned-business started to lack a bit in the passion department as they found themselves consumed with projects that didn't challenge or inspire.

The One Killer Feature Manufacturers Need to Add to Their Cameras
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When Canon and Olympus were experimenting with live view on their cameras in the mid-2000s, it seems almost comical now that they didn’t think to record video with the feature that already existed on their cameras. History is repeating itself, but this time with the lowly pop-up flash.

Review Of The Phase One IQ250 Medium Format CMOS Back
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You may have read my previous post previewing the first modern CMOS-based medium format back to hit the world market by Phase One. Soon after my post, Phase One HQ sent me one of the first IQ250 backs to arrive in the US to review for this site. I had a solid 2 weeks to try it out and see what this system was capable of doing.