This week we continue our Puerto Rican Photo Challenge. In our second challenge, two photographers explore the elaborate cave systems hidden deep within the central hills of Puerto Rico. In the full article, you can vote which image was the best and later this week we will reveal the winning image.
Everyone who is photographing landscapes knows how important light is. With the right light situations, a boring landscape can transform into something magical. It is not only choosing the golden hour, but also waiting for the right moment. You need to be patient.
Every photographer has their own workflow, and most of us start by making edits in our raw files. Sometimes, I start in Lightroom Classic; other times, I open them with Photoshop, which takes me to Camera Raw. At times, I use Luminar AI. Now, with the debut today of DxO PureRAW, photographers have a better way to start their editing sessions, with some compelling advantages over what you are using now.
Sony users tend not to struggle when it comes to choosing lenses thanks to a ton of third parties complementing a large offering from the Japanese manufacturer. However, one lens now forms a bizarre gap in the lens lineup and, amazingly, companies are not trying to fill it.
I live just a few miles outside of New York City, so when 911 happened, my world was rocked harder than most in the world. After getting my daily dose of hate mail this week about taking pictures at the 911 Memorial at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, I thought I'd write about it.
Detroit may be known for things like its extreme crime, car theft, Robocop, and the Detroit Auto Show by the outside world, but it also happens to be a very creative town of possibilities and one of my new favorite places to photograph in. In fact, despite being a Washington DC-based photographer (soon to be relocated to NYC full-time), I've done 4 separate paid photoshoots in Detroit this Spring alone. Detroit has some of the most incredible grand locations, which you will learn about in the blog post below.
A set of over 300 never-before-released photos taken on September 11, 2001 has just been posted on the U.S. National Archives' Flickr page. These images take us right into the middle of meetings between President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and more. They offer us a powerful look at the reactions of our nation's leaders as they are faced with the largest terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil.
Tamrac has been keeping busy to revitalize their brand by shipping new products such as the Anvil and G-Elite series of photo backpacks as well as these new Goblin gear pouches. Made to provide minimalist padding to your equipment, the Goblin pouches come in a variety of shapes and sizes to protect cameras, lenses, memory cards, and accessories.
The Nikon FA is the arguably the best valued, vintage, manual focusing 35mm film camera you can buy today. It’s light weight, wonderfully modern for a vintage camera, and the built-in aperture priority mode makes use of the most modern metering of its day which is still unrivaled.
When I was looking for a camera that could shoot higher resolution than my Canon 5D Mark IV, I had three options: Phase One, Canon 5DD, or mirrorless. I ended up getting the Canon 5Ds, and after using it for a bunch of work, here are my long-term thoughts.
When the weather gods do something crazy, don't ask questions; just say thank you. You can try and plan your outdoor photography until you're blue in the face, but sometimes, when it starts to look like the conditions might be epic, you need to be spontaneous and just get out there.
There are endless benefits to using strobes over continuous hot lights, but there is one drawback: sometimes, you may actually want to capture motion blur.
Many photographers use the word “make” to describe their process of photography. “I made these images,” you might hear a professional say describing his work. The layman phrase, “take pictures” or “capture photographs” evokes a feeling that the photographer did not put any work into the image, that they simply pointed the camera and the photo just came to be. Any creative medium takes skill and I’m not here to argue the artistic validity of a photograph over a painting or sculpture. But a somewhat fatal flaw of the digital age is the ease of which photography can be transferred, saved, downloaded, and reproduced in comparison to that of physical artistry.
Shots taken from Google's Glass were released a few days ago. It is no surprise that the first pictures taken with the Google glasses are sort of, well lame. We do have to remember these are meant to simply document your on the move lifestyle and not be compared to a professional camera. I'm sure once they are released to the public we will begin to see some better quality shots. The glasses definitely have some potential to be great.
Mostly, photographers learn the camera settings and compositional techniques first. Those basics of photography are essential. But when we have mastered those, what do we do next?
I consider myself lucky. Not because I won the lottery (which I didn’t), or because I drive a Dodge Viper (which I don’t). I do however, consider myself lucky for photographing subjects with a clear complexion more often than not. It’s luck. Not Photoshop.
Landscape photography offers endless opportunities to capture breathtaking scenes and create stunning images. However, one common issue that can plague your landscape photographs is the presence of dust spots. These pesky little specks can appear on your images and distract the viewer's attention from the beauty of the scene. In this article, we will explore several effective techniques to help you avoid dust spots in your landscape images and maintain the integrity of your photographs.
BBC's "Sherlock" has been widely praised since it debut in 2010 thanks to it's razor sharp dialog, witty humor, and gorgeous production. From a filmmaking perspective there is much to be admired, which is why we were thrilled to see Nerdwriter1 use the Conan Doyle adaptation as his latest subject in his latest YouTube video essay.
From the realm of "how not to be a professional" comes the story of a concert photographer who violated venue rules, put the musician at risk of a medical issue, and did little to help his case after the fact.
A couple of weeks ago, Elinchrom released the Skyport HS, a new iteration of the very old and rudimentary Skyport. The Skyport HS seems to have everything a strobist could hope for, from the laser grid to focus in low-light conditions to the Hi-Sync mode. This new radio trigger is a welcome addition to Elinchrom's product line. At least, it is on paper. The Swiss company was kind enough to lend me a unit before it was even released so that I could play with it and review it for you.
There is obviously no shortage of camera apps out there in the world but, every once in a while something new hits the market that actually seems a bit useful. While not something I would recommend to the casual, or even semi-pro photographer the Mark II Artist's Viewfinder actually looks very helpful to directors, and photographers that need to do a lot of scouting and planning for their shoots.
Sadly, there is no linear relation between the effort to get a photo and the quality of it. However, if there was, mountain landscape photography would be of the highest quality. In this article, I will share five tips to upping your photography quality in the mountains.
An interesting system is in development via Kickstarter for video professionals to get excited about. The LineCam can most easily be compared to a zipline style "track" that can either be operated through gravity (with the Glide) or via remote control (with the Flow). The devices themselves appear to be very well designed and prototypes have already been used in the field by the GoPro Media Team, who had this to say:
Let's face it, smartphone cameras are getting better and better with every release. Mobile photo editing software is getting better too, and with the rise in popularity of Instagram over the last four years, sharing vintage-looking photographs have become quite the trend. Online content studio Rubber Republic produced the #PictureBelfast campaign for Tourism Ireland featuring fashion and lifestyle blogger Donna Ross going head to head with Belfast based photographer Andrew Rankin. Their challenge was to take photographs showing off the best of Belfast – half with a smartphone and half shot on film – where Internet users would try to guess which method for each image was utilized.
"What is your budget?" Have you ever asked that question? Actually, the more important matter is: Have you ever been asked this question? How has it made you feel?
We all know someone who has had their gear stolen, lost or damaged but it is rare to hear about a large commercial organization hit by thieves. Those headed to work at LensProToGo Monday morning were surprised to see just that as the company’s Concord, Massachusetts office had been robbed.
If you’re thinking of making your love for photography into the thing that pays the bills, here are a few pitfalls which you might want to avoid.
Howdy everyone and welcome to the Wednesday Rundown. I hope everyone had a great holiday and got all the camera gear you could dream of. This week we have some great videos, two of them are NSFW so hopefully you are at home and can enjoy. You need to check out the Midnight shoot by photographer Marius Budu. Also check out the body painting and milk collaboration by Alexa and Sheila. If you have a great and informative video you want to see in the Wednesday Rundown please shoot me an email jerrit@fstoppers.com .
Vintage lenses can be a great way to get some different glass for you to try without spending much money. But, there are also a number of hidden gems that can create stunning and singular results.
Coolors is a fantastic new app that I stumbled across the other day. It is an incredibly easy and intuitive way to generate a beautiful 5 color palette for any situation. Primarily developed for designers it has instant appeal to us photographers. We deal with colors in most of our work and knowing how to match and complement effectively can make or break the images we create.
