Articles from Jason Parnell-Brookes

It sounds counterintuitive, but heading out without your camera more often will make you a better photographer and not for the reasons you may immediately think. 

The Perseid meteor shower occurs from July 17 to August 24, and peaks on the night of August 12. In order to make the most of this spectacular meteor shower, I've put together a complete list of everything you need to know in order to get great astrophotographs of the event. 

I wanted to see if I could turn a 600mm telephoto lens into a makeshift macro lens. Did I manage to get any decent macro photos out of it? You tell me. 

In the past month, I've been reporting on the various camera brands that have been dropping the "master" and "slave" terms since the huge Black Lives Matter movement that surged after George Floyd's death. I can now confirm Leica is also dropping the terms. 

This week, I borrowed a $12,000 600mm lens and decided to shoot portraits with it. Random? Yes. Weird? Of course. But I learned some things I never would've experienced had it not been for this, so here's my review of the 600mm behemoth for shooting portraits. 

Camera trickery has been around since cameras were first invented. By using a technique to create a forced perspective, you can make everyday objects appear like they're part of the much larger world. 

Instead of waiting around for friends, or groups to go out on a photo walk, why not take matters into your own hands and try hiking alone to capture landscapes. After all, without anyone else around you can make the decision on when to shoot, and when to pack up. 

Flowers can be a wonderful opportunity for photographers to practice their camera skills. Whether receiving a bunch as a gift, or wanting to record the flowers in your own garden, there are a few things you can do to improve your flowery shots. 

No matter how good digital cameras get, there's always a group that loves the style and familiarity of how film photography looks. Now, Capture One launches their latest style pack to emulate those old rolls of film. 

After years of waiting, the Sony a7S III has just been announced. Building on the success of previous models, the new camera provides something special for filmmakers around the world.  

Too often portrait photographers obsess with key and fill lighting, and forget about the light that illuminates the background or rear of a subject. In this piece I discover the power of using the back light as my main light source. 

If you've just bought your first camera or have shot on your camera for a while but want to get off automatic modes, you can move to full manual mode in just 10 minutes. 

I've lived with the Dell XPS 15 laptop as my main computer for all my photo and video editing for the past year. Should you buy it for your photo editing? Here's my full review of what it's like as a creative content maker, warts and all. 

Comet NEOWISE has been hanging around in night skies around the world for a little while now, and most photographers who have been blessed with clear skies have captured at least one shot of the comet. Beyond getting a good exposure, how do you process your astro shots for the best effect? In this tutorial, I'll show you how I edit mine. 

Anyone who's shot Comet NEOWISE has noticed one thing: it looks a bit small in the frame when shooting on wider lenses. That's why with the help of some image editing, creating a composite where we replace the sky may be the best way to produce a stunning comet composite. 

Photographers are obsessed with improving their work through new gear purchases, extra lighting, and better retouching, but there's one trick that's often overlooked: the power of moving 12 inches. 

If your copy of Lightroom Classic has been painfully slow, or you're having trouble with images and adjustments loading in the Develop module it could be down to a few crucial settings. Tweak these and you could dramatically improve the speed of Lightroom, and your workflow. 

I'm an Adobe Lightroom user, and although I love the way Lightroom Classic works, I think there's still a lot to be improved on. From historical hangups to advanced features designed for busy professionals, here are some Lightroom features I wish existed. 

After COVID-19 hit many photography schools canceled face-to-face workshops due to the coronavirus pandemic. And though many have struggled through, Nikon School based in London have decided to shut their Nikon Centre for Excellence building. 

After the huge response to Black Lives Matter in the last month, camera companies have made it known to me that they have been dropping the terms "master" and "slave" from their photographic lexicon. Canon dropped the terms in 2017, while Nikon let them go in the early 2000s. Now, Fujifilm has joined them in dropping the use due to the negative racial connotations. 

Despite being a 45 MP stills and 8K raw video monster, is there a reason why you shouldn't buy the new Canon EOS R5 mirrorless when compared to the rest of Canon's mirrorless lineup? 

Comet NEOWISE is one of the brightest comets to visit earth for some time and can be seen right now in skies throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Here are some of the best tips for photographing it successfully. 

Canon has just announced their brand new mirrorless cameras, the EOS R5 and EOS R6 (Thursday, July 9th, 2020), and the R5 especially seems to blur the lines between mirrorless and cinema quality thanks to its huge specs. 

Pegged to be the mirrorless equivalent of the 6D Mark II, the EOS R6 could fall at the first hurdle when it comes to stills resolution and extra features that is simply lacks.  Fortunately for Canon, they’ve got a wide range of mirrorless cameras now, but the EOS RP still takes the crown for the most affordable full frame mirrorless camera.

The new EOS R6 is the more affordable little sister to the bigger, more expensive EOS R5, and though it lacks a few of its sibling’s features, it more than packs a punch.  A step up from the EOS R, the EOS R6 takes its heritage and runs with it.

The new flagship Canon mirrorless camera, the EOS R5, is here with 45MP stills and 8K movie recording. Is this the perfect camera for hybrid shooters that need high-quality photos and videos in one device?  The EOS R5 has so many groundbreaking features all packed into one tidy little 680 g package that it’s hard to know where to start.

After news came last week from Canon that it's officially dropped the terms "master" and "slave," so too has Nikon. In fact, if you thought Canon was ahead of the curve by dropping the terms three years ago, you're going to be shocked to find out when Nikon dropped them. 

Since the global response for Black Lives Matter, many industries, including photography, have been shifting for the better. So, it's welcome news that Canon has officially dropped their master/slave terminology. 

If you've ever shot on a budget lens, or composed a dark subject against a bright sky, you will have surely noticed color fringing — a glowing colored edge around any contrasted subject. Learn how to remove even the most difficult chromatic aberration in Lightroom Classic using some manual adjustments. 

Why is it that we get more reds, oranges, and yellows when the sun is at the horizon at either sunrise or sunset, and how does the sky remain blue during the day anyway? Let’s look briefly at the chief principles at play when it comes to changes of color at the golden hours. 

Why is it that certain sunsets stand out more than others? After all, it’s not every day we see a good one. Well, that depends on a few different things that must come together to produce the kind of sunsets we want to capture in camera. In this piece, I'll outline what to look for and when. 

In an age of ultra sharpness and perfect optical balance, our technically brilliant images can often lack charm. So in this tutorial, I'll show you how to use retro lenses on your modern digital camera for photographs that have a lot of character and harken back to the days of film. 

I recently found all my father's old analog lenses in the attic, including this 1960s 400mm f/6.3 telephoto. So I wanted to see how good it was for bird photography. 

Huge news arrives via Canon Rumors today as we hear the Canon EOS R5, R6, six RF lenses, and two teleconverters are due to be officially announced by Canon on July 9th 2020.  

New features added to Photoshop and Lightroom today might change how you edit your photos, but it entirely depends on what kind of images you make and what your current workflow is like. This is my review of the new features and whether you'll want to dive in or avoid them.