Articles from Adam Ottke

"La La Land" seems to be Hollywood's favorite film of the year. From the extraordinary opening dance scene on a Los Angeles freeway junction to the final dream sequence, it is doubtless an example of some of the best cinematography this year. If you're wondering how some of it was pulled off, check out these short behind-the-scenes clips to see how Hollywood really works its magic these days.

Developing your own film might be the cheaper (and more amusing) way to go, but with all the preparation and lab space required, that simply hasn't always the best option. Ars-Imago's Lab-Box hopes to solve these problems in a small, light-proof container that enables you to develop your own film at home or even while traveling – yes, it's that easy and compact. The best part: it's not all that expensive, either.

Today is the day that Sigma fills out its Art-series lens lineup to offer what could easily be considered everything you'd really need since its most recent release of the 85mm f/1.4 Art. Four new full-frame lenses cover the gamut from an ultra-wide, ultra-fast 14mm f/1.8 Art, a similarly fast 135mm f/1.8 Art portrait lens, to the wedding photographer's favorite 24-70mm f/2.8 Art and sports shooter's 100-400mm f/5-6.3 Contemporary "compact" super-zoom. If you've been waiting for that next Sigma lens, odds are it's one of these.

Keeping your gadgets charged on the go is essential if you travel a lot and expect to get any work done on the road. Thanks to the millions of battery packs that are out there, charging your phone is easy enough. But what if you need to keep your laptop charged while off the grid for a day’s shoot or while on a long flight without an outlet? Omni 20 is one of the only, and most recent, solutions that will charge anything you throw at it, including that ultra-powerful new MacBook Pro.

A few months ago, I started a passion project of mine: FilmObjektiv.org. Film Objektiv was started with one goal in mind: to get more people shooting film. We do this by renting film cameras at low prices for longer periods of time, by providing prints at a low cost, and also by serving as an online and educational resource to help film shooters find everything they'd ever need. It's this last part that still needs some work, but it's well on its way with this new pricing guide for film labs across the country. Still, I could use your help.

For me, storage is a huge pain. On one hand, it’s simple. Buy a bunch of hard drives, back everything up, repeat. But I want to simplify it further. I hate having one system that’s speedy for in-office editing and another that’s slow, but network-connected. I couldn’t find anything that offered both a network connection and fast thunderbolt-like speeds when attached locally until I came across QNAP’s TVS-871T networked-attached storage solution that also features dual Thunderbolt connectivity.

I recently traded my Nikon DSLR for an unbranded mystery camera for a few days to test out an entirely new concept: camera as a service.

Popular online photography community 500px launched a new global photographer directory that allows consumer and business clients to search for photographers of all disciplines and locations around the world to fulfill their custom imagery needs. Already 50,000 strong, the service is open to any photographer and allows for listings under multiple genres of photography.

What happens when you lose track of a few extra boxes of some film cameras, and then find them again a few years later? You sell them, of course! And that's exactly what B&H is doing with a number of Fujifilm GF670 cameras that Fujifilm found in its American warehouse. It's still a fairly recently produced camera, but seeing as it was discontinued in 2014, this is likely the last chance you'll have to get a new one. 

The Leica M10 is the latest iteration of digital German rangefinders. The M10 features a similar 24MP CMOS sensor to that of the M-P (Typ 240), expanded ISO performance from ISO 100-50,000, an improved viewfinder, new three-button back panel design, and more for a discount over the Typ 240.

Even after its death, if was there ever one film stock that was the color film, it would have to be Kodak's Kodachrome The last roll was famously given to Steve McCurry, who essentially built his career with the film. To say that was a sad moment for lovers of film would be a gross misrepresentation. This was something that was lost. It would – could – never come back. Or could it? A recent conversation between The Kodakery and a number of Kodak executives including Kodak CMO Steven Overman lead to a glimmer of hope for the resurrection of everyone's favorite color film.

Despite the company's unfortunate demise with the advent of a number of technologies that were simply cheaper and better, there's something to a Polaroid photograph that you can't get anywhere else: that tactile, one-copy, 3x4-inch film image seconds after taking the picture. Of course, companies such as Fujifilm with Instax or even Polaroid with some recent releases have seen a comeback with instant-print cameras or mini mobile printers, but now Zink's zero-ink prints come out of a compact digital camera in the iconic 3x4-inch format for the first time with the Polaroid Pop.

Now available for pre-order, Fujifilm announced an X-Pro2 Graphite Edition kit that comes with a matching 23mm f/2 lens as well as a standalone X-T2 Graphite Silver Edition body to complement the standard black bodies of the brand's flagship cameras. The X-Pro2 features a darker, gunmetal-like grey color, while the X-T2's graphite silver color is more reminiscent of the standard metallic of classic film cameras. The new editions promise to add increased protection to the body and unsurprisingly come at a couple-hundred-dollar premium over their standard-edition counterparts.

You could say a lot of things about the Space Hero Mission, but the concept of exploration of this world is unmistakable. The whimsical combination of the character of an astronaut with the seemingly endless exploration of the natural ends of our planet here on Earth takes the normally arduous task of worldwide expedition and makes it more relatable. As the mission has recruited dozens of participants to serve as models in their unique space suit, there is still room and time to be a part of this fun project and get your own photograph taken while inside a space suit.

Luminar is Macphun’s latest editing platform, and it’s the company’s first try at an all-in-one solution that can go head-to-head with Adobe Lightroom and Apple’s discontinued Aperture programs. Still in beta, Luminar recently received an update that helped improve speed and fixed over 300 small bugs, making it nearly ready for its public release on November 17. So, how does it hold up to platforms such as Lightroom?

Adobe Sneaks is the software company's behind-the-scenes sneak peek into ongoing projects that could eventually — if we're lucky — find their way into one or more products. This year at MAX, Adobe previewed a number of tools that should excite virtual-reality editors, desktop designers, and audio editors working on long-form speech formats.

For better or worse, Apple ditched almost every port on its latest MacBook Pro lineup, opting instead for a single audio jack and four Thunderbolt 3 ports with the new USB-C connector. While there are inherent advantages to such a setup, it is true that users will need to invest in a series of adapters to connect their devices. Starting today, through December 31, nearly all of Apple's adapters and cables featuring USB-C are discounted 24-52 percent, depending on the cable.

Adobe concentrated its Creative Cloud 2017 updates heavily in newer media areas as it announced an After Effects improvement to render 3D elements up to 20 times faster, a Premier Pro update that automatically detect and create settings for different types of virtual reality content, and a new project, Project Felix, to aid in the creation of photo-realistic images by combining 2D and 3D assets. Meanwhile, cloud-based document collaboration across Creative Cloud, universal search in Photoshop, and other new features improve usability across a number of applications.

If it works, GearEye's new RFID tagging system for your gear could change the way you pack for your shoots forever. Thin stickers in three versions allow you to tag all kinds of gear from memory cards to camera bodies and lenses, while an additional accessory scans a nearby area to verify if those items are in your bag, ensuring you never forget a piece of gear (and, alternatively, ensuring that you're never carrying more than you need).

On one hand, it’s understandable to be territorial over the features in our technology and sensitive to change. But technology inherently demands change — and that change is demanded at the fastest rate possible. We can complain about it all day long, but if we stop complaining at the whims of our feelings and start thinking logically, we can and should start to feel better as we realize the true nature of our so-called upgrade-cycle and innovation-searching frustrations. In reality, the only thing lacking innovation is our expectation.

We have two, fantastic reasons to be happy today in the form of two, long-awaited lenses. First, Nikon announced an update to its flagship 70-200mm f/2.8 professional zoom that features fluorite lens components, an electromagnetic diaphragm, and a slew of other quality and durability improvements. Meanwhile, a new PC 19mm f/4E tilt-shift also features Nikon's latest electromagnetic diaphragm and fills a wide-angle tilt-shift gap where Canon has held an advantage for years.

Audi took advantage of Monday night's presidential debates with its "Duel" ad spot. Nearly the entire clip plays in reverse, allowing the chronology of the true story and how the action unfolded to the point at which you began to unravel itself in an action-packed scene. The rewound clip -- fit for a 007 film -- features quite the production, complete with excellent, blockbuster-born sound effects to sell every punch and shattering glass shard. But it doesn't take much studying to see this was hardly as easy as rewinding an otherwise-normal action sequence: it took great audio to create this spectacle.

GoPro has brilliantly teased us with its careful, controlled releases of Karma drone videos. Today, they've launched the new Karma alongside a pair of Hero5 cameras that are as wonderful to see as the Karma itself. Advanced stabilization looks impressive in the videos (see the mountain biking scene at 1:53), but something to note is how cinematic the image quality now looks. It won't be as easy to tell GoPro footage from other high-quality cameras. And about that Karma: does $799, remote, backpack case, and gimbal handgrip included get you excited?

Astrophotographers have a tough job, balancing the use of electronics and star-gazing apps with the ability to keep their eyes adjusted for the night sky or the dark ground that surrounds them as they shoot. I have wrapped my phone in red cellophane plenty of times. While some apps (many of which were recently pulled) allowed for changing the bluish cast of your device's screen to something more amber, Apple's iOS 10 update is the first time the company has included a way to make everything on your screen an actual shade of red.

Adobe recently released a new version of its Lightroom Mobile app that takes advantage of the raw image support in Apple's just-released iOS 10. Taken on an iPhone 6S running the developer GM seed of iOS 10 (10.0.1), these images show just how good your mobile photos can now be. You'll need to have the latest versions of iOS 10 (running on an iPhone with a 12 MP camera) and Adobe Lightroom Mobile to do this yourself, but we're providing comparison files for testing purposes for those without such access. Tell us what you notice.

Some things are too good to be true. But every now and again, the world offers you an opportunity to feel like you got the lucky ticket for two on an all-expenses paid vacation to Disneyland. This isn’t quite that good, but I don’t know many people who would say, “No,” to a free iPhone, let alone one that can make you money. Here’s how you can have cash left over after upgrading to an iPhone 7…

In an industry where product differentiation is tough because everyone has to meet similar standards, G-Technology continues to show that it can innovate on top of simply promising higher-quality products. Through partnerships with companies that creatives work with every day (such as RED Camera and Atomos), G-Technology continues to help filmmakers and photographers at every step of the creative process from capture to delivery.

Peak Design’s last Kickstarter for the Everyday Messenger was the most successfully funded photography product on the crowd-funding platform. With two days to go, its latest for the Everyday Backpack, Tote, and Sling just beat that record with nearly $5 million in pre-orders. These are my first impressions after a week with a pre-production version of the highly anticipated Everyday Backpack.

It’s hard to pick a component of gear that’s most important for editing your color-dependent photo and video work. But it’s easy to say that a great, accurate, wide-gamut monitor is near the top of that list. NEC recently gave us a chance to review a monitor of theirs that's popular for its balance of features, size, and mid-range price for its tier: the EA275WMI-BK.

Although its business practices have shifted more than once since the Facebook takeover, most of us still love Instagram for its ease of use, reach, and simplicity. But today's app update makes little sense... today. On one hand, the new pinch-to-zoom update is extremely late. The iPhone had this feature since inception (granted, cell phone photos were hardly a thing prior to 2007). On the other hand however, Instagram’s linear photo resolution of 1,200 pixels already comes rather close to the native horizontal resolution of larger phones like the iPhone 6 Plus. Zooming into these photos optimized (read: downsized) for these displays looks absolutely dreadful. What are they thinking?

A number of websites offer multimedia content to content creators for their projects through an easy-to-access online portal. But as well as those sites serve the many that use them, they all have one thing in common: they set the price for all content. Letting photographers, videographers, and musicians set the price for their own work, Pond5 is an exception in a set of businesses between which it is increasingly hard to differentiate.

Nikon has announced the AF-S 105mm f/1.4E ED. Yes, that wide aperture is real. And yes, at $2,196.95, it's as expensive as anyone thought it might be. The good news is that optical quality is supposed to be at the top of its segment. With a relatively long focal length of 105mm, the f/1.4 maximum aperture is impressive regardless of the price. Also featuring Nikon's latest nano and fluorine coatings, this is bound to be a new favorite lens for many portrait and wedding photographers.

In the same style and featuring many of the same advancements (such as Peak Design's MagLatch) as the original Everyday Messenger bag, Peak Design is back, this time with four new bags based on a backpack (in two sizes), tote, and small sling design. If you want to get in on the best prices, you still have time to save an additional 10 dollars on early bird pricing. But the campaign is already more than 15 percent fully funded, and it's moving fast.

We spend thousands of dollars on the best cameras and lenses, but we often forget about the smaller accessories that come between us and our subject. Switching out your eyepiece for something better is an extremely underrated and cheap improvement you can make, and from special coatings to magnifiers, you actually have a few more options than you may have known.

As photographers, we have a never-ending, ever-perpetuating growth of photos piling up on our hard drives. Inevitably, whether that work is professional or personal, our photos end up taking space on cloud storage accounts that we keep upgrading whenever we reach the limit. But what if you could cut the size of these files in half without losing any visible quality? You could save a lot of headache, not to mention, money.