For many photographers who are primarily outdoor shooters and don’t have their own studio, finding an indoor space to shoot on a budget can be difficult. With the winter months fast approaching, shooting outdoors is going to become an even greater challenge. Here are six places you can find indoor space to hone your studio photography skills, for free or cheap, while you wait out the winter.
Sigma continues to make a splash with their line of Art lenses. The newest addition to the line, the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens was just announced on Monday, and today Sigma released the price for the lens, coming in at $849. The lens is already available for pre-order on B&H.
Nikon has officially announced the newest addition to their lineup of DSLR cameras, the D810A, designed specifically for astrophotography. The camera appears to be a modified version of the D810 camera announced last June, but with a few new features that are designed with astrophotography in mind. Soon to be the only camera of its kind on the market, the D810A will likely be the camera king of astrophotography.
Whether it pains you to see hundreds to thousands of dollars of expensive equipment be destroyed in an instant or you experience some kind of morbid pleasure from it, after you start watching this compilation of drone crashes it will be difficult tear your eyes away. From wild rams who decide that they would rather not be filmed to spontaneous quadcopter failures to the classic “oops, there’s a power line there,” the video shows a multitude of different ways to crash a drone that will make you wince.
GoPro released updates v02.00.00 for the HERO4 Black and HERO4 Silver cameras yesterday. The updates bring a smattering of new features to the cameras, notably higher frame rate video modes, a Time Lapse mode, auto image rotation, and the ability to add HiLight Tags during playback using the LCD Touch BacPac, as well as other smaller features. All of the new features are supported by the HERO4 Black camera, while the HERO4 Silver sees a slightly more limited expansion of features from the update.
In the latest episode of The Grid, freelance sports photographer Dave Black and freelance lifestyle and environmental portraiture photographer Erik Valind (who will be an instructor at the upcoming Fstoppers Workshops in the Bahamas) share their views on 10 of the big, often intimidating questions facing rising photographers in the industry. Throughout the episode, Black and Valind share valuable advice for any photographer hoping to enter the fields. While the two photographers come from vastly different backgrounds and work in different areas in the photography industry, their discussion reveals both similarities between varying fields within the overarching photography industry, as well as the differences in approaches that can equally lead to success.
Software corporations Adobe, Autodesk, and Corel filed to sue the apparel retail company Forever 21 for software piracy. In the filed complaint document, the software corporations claim that Forever 21 has, "(a) copied and reproduced certain of the Adobe Products, Autodesk Products, and Corel Products; and (b) circumvented technological measures that effectively control access to the Adobe Products, Autodesk Products, and Corel Products (collectively, the 'Access Control Technology').” Forever 21 also allegedly continued to use the software even after being contacted by Adobe. The software corporations are suing for damages due to the piracy of the software, profits derived by Forever 21's alleged use of the software, and other damages.
It is commonly said that people are either right-brained or left-brained, meaning they are either creative, image-driven people, or they are analytical and science-minded. A collaboration between Chinese scientists challenges this notion. Their project, "Beautiful Chemistry," shows a diverse range of stunning chemical reactions and phenomena that blur the line between science and art. Macro-videography of various chemical reactions, filmed in 4K resolution, gives us a new perspective on the otherworldly events that occur in the test tubes of scientific laboratories.
Photography equipment is expensive, and regardless of whether we are amateurs or full-time professionals, losing your equipment to theft or damage could be catastrophic. A single event (be it theft, natural disaster, etc.) could completely devastate your business and leave you without means of income to recover the loss. Fortunately, DSLR Video Shooter has recently published a video and article aimed at helping those photographers who currently have uninsured equipment find a plan to protect themselves in case of such an event.
Last year a group of time-lapse photographers organized by Shiseido Ruiz produced a video of the New Year's Eve ball drop and other events in Times Square, New York City that made Vimeo's Staff Pick. This year, Ruiz and his crew decided to step up their game and headed back to the rooftops around Times Square to produce an even better one. In a feat of artistic and logistical achievement, The Timelapse Group managed to produce a stunning and truly unique film of the NYE festivities in Times Square that will make your jaw drop. In an interview with Fstoppers, Ruiz provides a look into what it takes to produce a time-lapse film of this magnitude.
Joey L. is a photographer best known for his stunning personal work creating portraits of the peoples of Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, and other exotic places of the world. He uses studio lights on-location to achieve his unique and dramatic look for his portraits of these exotic people. Consequently, he is frequently asked about what lighting gear he takes with him for those kinds of shoots. Recently, Joey made a video and blog post outlining three major options for portable studio lighting for photographers with varying budgets who want Joey L.-esque studio lighting on the go.
Last week Facebook rolled out a relatively minor update, but it may be one that has important consequences for your business' exposure on Facebook. Taking a break from changes to the the ever-evolving newsfeed algorithms (changes that have steadily decreased pages’ organic reach), this time Facebook switched their focus to the search capabilities of the social media platform. With the new changes, the Graph Search tool is now capable of searching through posts for content and keywords. What does this mean for your business page? Well, it appears that with a little diligence, your posts could see an increase in organic reach through this new feature.
When I first read about how TGI Fridays was going to use drones in their restaurants as part of a marketing stunt in Adweek, the first thought that popped into my head wasn’t “That’s a great idea!” It was “That’s going to end badly.” Sure enough, less than a month later, TGI Fridays made the news when one of the drones used in the marketing stunt hit a photographer.
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a web series of invented words with the self-described mission to “fill all the holes left in the language and give them each a name.” If it sounds poetic, that’s because it is. The videos produced by author, designer and “video guy” John Koening are narrated with somber poetry that aims to “capture the aches, demons, vibes, joys and urges that roam the wilderness of the psychological interior.” One recent entry into The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is especially relevant to photographers and videographers. Vemödalen: The fear that everything has already been done.
Visualization of sound frequencies using physical media is nothing new. We’ve seen it done by Martin Kilmas with his “Sonic Sculptures,” and we have seen videos in which a stream of water appears to be frozen in space (done by matching the sound frequency to the camera’s frame rate.) However, this is the first time I have seen so many of these tricks put together in such a high quality and artistically filmed video.
