Sony Netherlands gave me a Sony a1 for a review. During two weeks, I dove into this amazing camera, learning about all the things that make the Sony a1 the top of the Alpha line-up. I shot a lot of pictures and learned a lot of things about this camera. These are my thoughts.
Digital retouching is a touchy subject. Many see it as virtual plastic surgery, a dishonest concealment of the person’s true self — creating an unrealistic standard of beauty. Others view it as a means of helping a person look their best, or to achieve an artistic vision. Either way, there doesn’t seem to be much sign that this trend is about to change. Countless articles have been dedicated to this debate, but it is not every day that we hear a famous photographer weigh in on this issue. In this video, fashion photographer and past judge of America’s Next Top Model, Nigel Barker steps up to defend this form of image manipulation with some interesting justifications.
This black-and-white photo tricks your brain through a process called Color Assimilation Grid Illusion. By laying thin color grid lines over the top of it, your brain to perceive and fill in the missing colors itself.
In a saturated market of incoming photographers each holiday or tax season, it is easy to get discouraged when you are trying to get paid clients in the door. When we think of photography sessions we generally tend to lean on the idea of photographing only people in portraits. Families, boudoir, fashion, and even underwater sessions. With so many other creative ways out there to get paid why not tap into another resource for marketing?
Some might say we're a little iPhone-biased. Well, this might change some things. The new Nokia 808 Pureview has not 8, not 20, but 38 usable megapixels packed in its shell! It's a little thicker than the new iPad right where the camera is, but the rest stays remarkably thin. Even if it's $700 or more (according to eBay pre-order listings), I can't wait for a Nokia 808 v. Hasselblad H4D-40 shootout!
Ask yourself a simple question, it's 2019 and digital pretty much everything is and has been in full swing for a while now, do you still watermark your images? I do, I have no plans on stopping, and apparently it really upset someone on Instagram recently.
Next month, Leica is adding the full-frame mirrorless Leica M-E (Typ 240) to their lineup of M-system rangefinder cameras. Is the price low enough to gain a larger following?
Opinions matter to most people, but when the opinion of another photographer goes against or deviates from what the original photographer intended for that image, does that that make the image wrong?
First of all, if you watched the lead video above, you have learned that Matthew Jones is possibly a crazy person. Car photography is absolutely a challenge, but rollerblading down the road at full speed to capture driving action is just bonkers. When I heard Matthew talk about doing this and when I saw the high quality of his images, I knew I had to feature him on Fstoppers. Obviously this technique is not for everyone, but Matthew has absolutely captured my attention with his story. Read below to read why he has chosen to do this and see samples of his great photography,
Black and white conversion can be a complicated ordeal, and you can find yourself down a deep rabbit hole of theory if you're not careful. There are times where that kind of in-depth analysis is critical to a perfect image, but sometimes you just need a quick fix. That's where this tip comes in.
As photographers looking to improve our craft, we watch YouTube videos, buy online training, read articles, and maybe even take a class or two. We can pursue our quest for information and consume all of these trainings and never see a marked improvement. The key to getting better? Get those reps in.
Because most of us fear rejection to some degree, speaking to a complete stranger and asking them for something, let alone asking if you can photograph them, tends to be pretty challenging. I’ve never been one of those naturally confident people but over time I’ve developed some techniques that have provided me with the confidence to work with strangers, which has brought additional benefit when communicating with paying clients.
What to name your photography business is one of the first questions any entrepreneur has to answer before venturing out into the freelance world. Many photographers simply use their full name as their business name, but could that be the worst decision ever? Today, we discuss some of the most important things to consider before making the jump into being a full-time photographer.
Arguably the most important person on any production set is the producer. Charged with preparing for the worst and having a back up plan to a back up plan, a producer is responsible for making sure any shoot happens without any mishap, injury, or stoppage whatsoever. Blaine Deutsch is commercial advertising producer who handles days of pre-production, casting, big crews, planning, preparing, investing, paperwork, contracts, permits, and thousands of dollars on the line.
There’s a good chance that your camera neck strap is connected to your camera incorrectly. If so, your camera is in danger. Here’s how you should be doing it to stop your camera from falling to its doom.
For reasons unknown, I receive many calls to photograph pseudo reality TV shows more than almost anything other than athletic campaigns. Like sports, I try not to watch the shows I photograph. It is not out of disrespect for what the celebs and athletes are doing, but rather I want to remain distant from the connotations put upon them from commentators or editors. As much as we’d all like to believe that everything about a reality TV show is real, it is often far from it.
From factory workers to farmers, a 14-week labor dispute between operators of the 29 West Coast port terminals and the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union) has begun to affect many people. Ships and trucks carrying cargo containers from around the world are stacking up outside the gates and offshore. This accumulation of ships eerily waiting offshore caught the eye of fine art photographer Mike Kelley. In less than 24 hours, he was above them in a helicopter with camera in hand.
Everyone has their baby. You know, that one camera that speaks to them in a way that all other cameras fall short. Of course, saying something like, "best portrait camera ever" is pretty loaded, but I calls it how I sees it! The Mamiya RZ67 is, for a variety of reasons, one of the best cameras ever made. In this article and accompanying video I'll give a birds eye view of the camera and its features, show a little work produced by it, and give you some insight into why this camera is at the top of the heap for me.
Dear Fujifilm, on behalf of all instant photography fans, please give us a decent Instax camera — one that excites us, one that inspires us.
Tripods are an essential piece of equipment for most photographers. They steady your camera in order to capture the sharpest details, allow you to take exposures with long shutter speeds, make it easier to take multiple images of the same scene for composites, and help create those perfect panoramas. Like most photography equipment though, there are low end tripods and high end tripods. The offerings from Novoflex is on the high end of this spectrum with some really cool features.
The August cover of Vogue Russia has a small issue that people have been talking about. They have been questioning whether or not it was another Photoshop mishap or just a matter of angle? The beautiful model, Natasha Poly, graces this cover and we can assure you she has all her limbs intact. We'd like to know your thoughts on whether or not this is just a matter of angle, or if the missing arm was definitely an oversight.
Announced at NAB 2018, AMD’s Radeon Pro SSG is setting its sights on 4K and 8K video with a monster GPU.
You've likely seen Lee Morris's iPhone fashion shoot by now. One of the common critiques had been the use of expensive lighting. Well here is yet another prime example, by Philippines-based portrait photographer Laya Gerlock, that creative use beats expensive toys. That's not to say an iPad, iPhone or D3 equivalent are inexpensive but you have those already, right?
In the digital world it may almost seem as though selling albums or wall art would be a thing of the past. The majority of clients will want to post their session to social media and go about their day. As photographers, it is up to us to educate the client about the importance of having a physical piece of art as well as the right type of art for their home.
In what may become the next big thing in real estate and architectural photography, being able to zoom around a house has just gotten a little easier to do.
Midway through 2015, Phase One released the XF camera system, an impressive digital medium format system which combines modularity, software upgradability, and image quality into the ultimate shooting package. Last August I spent a couple weeks shooting with the XF paired with the IQ3 50MP digital back, and in January I again spent two more weeks with the newly released mind-blowing XF 100MP system. In this review I cover my time with the new Phase One system shooting landscapes and nature photography and my experience playing with the image files in post-processing.
If you look back to the beginning of photography, color didn’t exist. In fact, it didn’t exist for a long, long time. Even as 35mm film pioneered the way that photography was used and purchased, black and white was king. Slowly, as time progressed, color film began to take a foothold in the industry. Once legendary color films like Kodachrome and Kodacolor became widely available, black and white became far less popular for commercial use. Now, in the digital era, almost every digital camera records information in color. Why then, would I bother viewing my images in monochrome during my shoots, even if I know I’ll deliver them in color?
It's easy to dismiss the amount of difficulty involved in location shoots. A few years ago, Joey Lawrence (JoeyL) shot a personal project of portraits in Ethiopia. Whether traveling by van, boat or Indiana Jones plane, it's great to have the opportunity to see how hard the literal journey was on the way to the figurative photographic destination. Just handling the equipment was a pretty substantial undertaking.
Jurassic Park is my favorite movie of all time. The story line itself is captivating but the incredible special effects are what really set this film apart. The movie was released 20 years ago in 1993 and the CGI and robotic dinosaurs still look more realistic than the majority of special effects in movies today. Stan Winston has just released 3, never before seen videos of the creation of the robotic dinosaurs from the original Jurassic Park.
Western Digital recently announced a new storage device: the My Passport Wireless SSD. With capacities and prices ranging from 250 GB ($229.99) to 2 TB ($799.99), the Wireless storage device is a provocative buy you might want to add to your kit, especially if your shooting requires you to be out in the field.
