Do you ever feel like a "small fry" compared to the "big names" that are established in your area? Ever wonder if you are missing out on business because you don't have the same accolades on your website? Rather than let that get you down, why not embrace being the underdog, after all it has a lot of advantages!
A successful travel photographer recently announced that he would willingly give his photos to Starbucks to use on Instagram for free, as long as they weren’t marketing a product. I was so shocked that I almost spat out my coffee.
Priolite just announced the addition of a new flash unit to their HotSync lineup, the MBX300HS. This slightly smaller and lighter, but much cheaper, unit is a welcome addition to their current line of products. Alongside the already available 500Ws and 1000Ws strobes, this new compact unit looks like a solid alternative to more well-established brand's battery powered system.
Late last year I wrote an article entitled “Why I Sold My RED and Downgraded to a C100.” The article, as you can imagine, was met with a bit of hostility. In short, Filmmakers and Red-users couldn’t seem to understand how I could give up the cinematic image capabilities of my RED Scarlet and settle for an entry level Canon Cinema camera.
Quite possibly the most exciting product announced within the last year comes from lighting company Profoto with the announcement of the Profoto B1 studio strobe. Promising TTL within a 500 watt/sec studio strobe is exciting all on its own, but they also announced that this device is cordless, with a built in battery pack. But does the light live up to its hype?
Adding props is an important and sometimes difficult part of food photography. There are times when an image needs the negative space, while other times, a well-placed prop will take the photo from good to great. When selecting a prop, I have found that menu-based props are the easiest to use correctly. Let me show you how to style a shot with menu-based props.
We're all familiar with double-exposure photography by now, often done by combining some sort of landscape or cityscape with the outline of a person to create a visually interesting effect. Now, it's taken to the form of video. Granted it has been done before, this video by Breeder takes it to another level.
Many photographers start off their careers focusing on wedding photography. I started my career as a wedding photographer in Charleston, and I still enjoy shooting a handful each year. Over the next few months, I hope to share some of my thoughts on wedding photography and how event photographers can improve their photos. Today I was reminded how important "In Camera Cropping" is for emotionally charged photographs. Read the full post to see two examples of how cropping can make or break an image.
During a shoot with Tony Roslund and Gary Martin for PRO EDU this past December, I was lucky enough to operate a Movi M5 for lots of behind the scenes and "color" footage. The motion rendered from the Movi, even while running, was most impressive. Just recently though I learned of the Nebula4000 Lite, and at a fraction of the price, I think this might be the next big compact video camera accessory to have.
Chinese manufacturer DJI just announced a new technology to identify and track airborne drones. Dubbed AeroScope, this system takes advantages of all the telemetry data sent by the aircraft to give the authorities a detailed vision of the drone presence in a local airspace. This system is mature and has been installed at two international airports since April. Here are the technical details and legal challenges associated with this technology.
There are good reasons why monochrome photography is compelling. Let’s look at what makes a captivating black-and-white photograph and what doesn’t work. Also, why Nik 7 SilverEfex is possibly the best tool for converting color images.
Marc Donahue and Sean Michael Williams first wowed audiences with their Dream Music video back in March. They're back with a new video that blows the first one away completely. Using highly calculated photo timelapses with match edits, they have created very surreal looking videos.
For many companies, losing 7.5% of your workforce would typically be bad news, perhaps an indication that profits are falling. This is not the case at Leica; in June last year, it announced that sales had increased for the fifth consecutive year. So, why is Leica doing so well when other camera companies are seeing their figures nosedive, and why is it reducing its number of staff?
Painting, collage, photography, music, installation, sculpture, and even video are all acknowledged mediums for art. But can we truly consider a proper GIF animation as "fine art?" Six recent winners of Saatchi Gallery's and Google+'s new Motion Photography Prize prove the answer is, "Yes," as they celebrate this new form of "motion photography."
26-year-old Constantin Schiller was one of very few lucky photographers to trial the newly released Nikon Z fc. Fittingly for him, the new Nikon Z fc was shaped like the FM2 camera of the 1980s, very similar to the FE2 Schiller grew up using. Here, he shares and talks through his experience of the new Nikon camera, including a photo trip to Japan.
I've written a number of articles about how the police and other law enforcement agencies, both in the US and abroad, have been interfering with and hassling photographers and videographers who are only trying to document a scene that's in front of them. There have been multiple instances of people in power (such as Obama himself) saying that this is unconstitutional. And finally, it would seem, one police department has begun to realize that.
Most of us who know drones know that DJI is one of the leaders in the industry. Over the past few years, they have been making some of the best products for both professionals and consumers. With other companies like GoPro, Yuneec, and Autel trying to compete with some of DJI's main products, DJI is here to claim their place as the industry leader yet again.
The largest single landscape print I have made to date is a ten-foot-wide panorama of the Painted Rock at Fort Irwin. Titled A Thousand Words Fall Short, I donated it to a Veterans' clinic on the 4th of July. Printed on Fuji-crystal archival paper, front-mounted to 1/4" museum acrylic with an anti-glare coating, and backed by a solid sheet of aluminum, it really caught and exalted the light in the humble hallway where I was honored to see it hanging a couple days ago.
Earlier this year, Blackmagic Design announced their newest upgrade to their editing and color grading software. Guess what, they want you to be a video editor, and to prove it, they want you to have their software, free. DaVinci Resolve 12.
Due to Executive Order 13884, issued by President Trump on August 5, Adobe has deactivated all Creative Cloud accounts in Venezuela (and consequently, all associated software) and will not be issuing refunds to any customers.
A great street photography photo, like any well shot candid photo, is a combination of good light, composition and the right moment. You have to go search for that combination of interesting light and people. The hardest part of street photography is you have to create the context for your photos. It is your job to convince people they should be invested in this picture you took of a complete stranger.
Sometimes being a "creative" really sucks. But it's also the best thing to be in the entire world. But did I mention it can suck? Well if you feel like you're in a rut, then watch this preview, and prepare to be inspired. Today, Musicbed released their feature-length documentary, "Make," which explores why creatives continue, well, creating.
For any photography enthusiast, a nice view of a city’s skyline can be quite irresistible to photograph.
Sometimes even the widest wide angle lens is not enough. In those cases you have to shoot multiple images and stitch it together into one extreme wide angle shot. You can go as far as 360° around, if you want. But you have to avoid parallax errors.
Food, beverage, and product photography is all about sculpting light, your composition, and understanding which modifiers to use in which situations. In this behind the scenes tutorial, PRO EDU takes you in their St. Louis studio for a step by step look at building an image. Join PRO EDU this May in the Bahamas for a 2 day intensive workshop on liquids, glass, beer, and beverage photography. You could even win a free trip.
I love Fujifilm's X Series cameras. They're small, light, quick, and have wonderful image quality. The lens collection is at the top of the game, especially the primes. I went back and forth for quite some time in the lead-up to my recent personal work trip to Myanmar. I would be creating a book and needed to choose carefully. Which gear should I take? Should I take my DSLR system, or should it be the Fuji X system? In the end, I went for the Fuji X, as it allowed me to carry a couple of extra lenses and fit all of my flash system in the same pouch as well. But how would they perform?
Nikon has had a torrid few years as it rapidly tried to pivot to mirrorless on the back of declining financial results. It ended 2019 with falling market share, losing second spot to Sony. The reason for this is now apparent: low mirrorless sales that place it 5th in the market. What is happening at Nikon?
We’ve studied how direction and angle can drastically change the quality of light produced from your umbrella. We have also seen examples about how distance can change the umbrella light falling on your subject.
Now it’s time to look at the big picture. Let’s take a peek at how our umbrella is actually producing light across the whole image, not just the subject that you chose. In Umbrellas 103, we’re going to study fall off, and compare the type of light produced by four different shoot thru and reflective umbrellas.
If you’ve ever wondered why you might use a giant umbrella instead of a small, collapsible model, this article is for you!
It's a slightly uncomfortable question when said directly, but it's one you ought to answer. If you want any significant improvement in your work, being happy just taking pictures isn't enough.
