One of the biggest drawbacks of drones is their relatively short battery life. It's a difficult problem: bigger batteries provide power for longer, but they also weigh more. A team at Stanford is seeking to completely bypass that problem with a novel approach.
The choice of colors in a scene can be one of the most influential factors in giving a film its signature identity. Whether you're looking to recreate an iconic look or simply seeking new inspiration, Cinema Palettes is making it incredibly easy to replicate your favorite films.
We've all been there. Our creativity is stagnant, our work has ground to a halt. We begin to convince ourselves that if only we had that new lens or body, we'd be creating world-class images again. Of course, the moment we actually buy that new piece of gear, the reality that our photos are not suddenly transformed sets in. One man had just such a realization, and the result is hilarious.
Canon has announced the Speedlite 600EX II-RT flash and EF-M 28mm f/3.5 Macro IS STM lens. The 600EX II-RT improves upon Canon's flagship Speedlite with faster recycling times and other features, while the EF-M 28mm f/3.5 offers a unique new feature and gives us some very interesting insight into the future of the Canon brand.
The relationship between those who fly drones and those who don't has sometimes been a rocky road to equilibration, as these flying cameras often find new ways to annoy, confound, and anger the general public. On the same token, the general public continues to find new ways to express said disdain when confronted with a perceived intrusion. Apparently, medieval spears are now a method of that.
Recently, one of the most well-known photographers in history was caught in a Photoshop scandal. Naturally, this begs the question: where is the line between truth and manufactured reality in photography?
In a decision that defies common sense, a photographer climbed a nearly century-old wooden building in the Big Cypress National Preserve and proceeded to shower it with sparks from lit steel wool. The building burned to the ground.
If you own a top-notch DSLR, your shutter might be as fast as 1/8,000 s. Some mirrorless cameras top out at 1/32,000 s. So, what do you do when you need to photograph action using a shutter speed 3,000 times faster than even those blazing mirrorless cameras? You use an entirely different kind of shutter.
Most people will agree that Alfred Hitchcock was a master of film. "Vertigo" may have been his biggest masterpiece. It's a subtle and meticulously crafted film that weaves complex storylines into a thrilling experience for the viewer. It's amazing to examine just how thorough Hitchcock truly was. Studying his methods can greatly inform your own filmmaking.
The history of camera gear is rich, storied, and well, weird. Camera design has evolved in many different directions over time, sometimes in magnificent arcs of ingenuity and design, others in pit stops of absurd creativity or questionable judgment. Today, we're celebrating some of the strangest stops along that journey.
Well, that escalated quickly. When Detroit-based Rapper Danny Brown used Photographer Michelle Grace Hunder's photograph without attribution, a simple credit request was met with a less than mature response. It only devolved from there.
The Fstoppers community is brimming with creative vision and talent. Every day, we comb through your work, looking for images to feature as the Photo of the Day or simply to admire your creativity and technical prowess. In 2016, we'll be featuring a new photographer every month, whose portfolio represents both stellar photographic achievement and a high level of involvement within the Fstoppers community.
If you own a DSLR and like to shoot with fast lenses, you're likely acquainted with the procedure known as "autofocus microadjustment." The process is a bit tedious and annoying, but highly useful for those of us who savor that razor-thin depth of field. Thankfully, owners of new Nikon bodies now have the option of having their cameras perform the procedure automatically for them.
I've been feeling pretty cool lately. I've been making some time-lapses and doing a lot of aerial work. It's hard not to feel cool when you're taking shots from 300 feet in the air. Then, NASA came along and made a time-lapse 250 miles up in space. I no longer feel cool.
I recently purchased a drone, and I've caught the aerial bug. The new perspective afforded by it has been wildly addicting. However, I'm still very much an amateur in my newfound abilities. Films like Wild Scotland, in their beauty and seamless sense of evolving wonder, give me something to aspire toward.
We can learn so much about the art of storytelling through careful study of some of the pinnacles of the film. Blocking, subtext, shot framing: all of these and more are crucial to the conveyance of plot. Check out this video that breaks down some of film's most iconic and masterful scenes and provides great tips to incorporate into your own work.
Fans of Lensbaby's unique optics will be pleased to know that today, the company has announced a new lens, the Twist 60. Drawing on the resurgence in popularity of swirly bokeh effects, the lens is sure to be another interesting option for those who have recently jumped aboard the vintage optics movement.
"Our machines are disturbingly lively and we ourselves frighteningly inert." The unsettling quote from Donna Haraway, Chair of the History of Consciousness program at the University of California Santa Cruz, scrolls across the screen as a network of drones patrols a city, scanning pedestrians, cars, buildings, and even people in their homes, monitoring them, tracking them, and assessing them fines and charges for breaking the law.
I'm normally a huge numbers geek. I want to know every specification of every device because I believe in the power of statistics. But when it comes to hard drives, well, I just want them to work. I want ample space for my data, I want to know it's backed up without a second thought, and I want to be able to access it quickly and easily, no matter what device I'm on. Enter the Western Digital My Cloud Mirror.
I'm generally not a fan of the opt-out model. It's an easy way to push unwanted features, changes, or price increases onto an end user, often without them noticing until it's too late. It's like someone slipping a steak into my all-vegetarian cart at the grocery store when I'm not looking. Unfortunately, Zenfolio just slipped a big T-bone into its users' carts.
