Yongnuo recently released a 50mm F1.8 auto focus lens to compete with the very popular Canon version. The Canon 50mm F1.8 is already considered a bargain lens, so with the Yongnuo coming in at half the already bargain basement price, can it possibly perform equally or even better?
The humble memory card is perhaps one of the most overlooked and neglected pieces of gear. It has the incredibly important and difficult task of accurately, quickly, and securely recording and storing all the data our cameras capture and it must do so time and time again.
A few months ago I wrote about Pixsy, a new online service, which promised to facilitate the process of dealing with copyright infringement. I have since been invited by the folks at Pixsy to give their Beta software a run through. After a few weeks of testing I am ready to share my opinions on this unique service!
Camera manufacturers are still cramming ever more pixels into their sensors. Canon has recently announced that it is releasing a 50MP full frame camera which has left many speculating about its technical limitations due to sheer physics. One solution of course is to move up to a larger medium format sensor but prices can be prohibitive for many.
Photography, for many of us, is a very personal ambition. As with any art form we pour our blood, sweat, tears, and heart into every project be it a paid or unpaid venture. Many of us put so much emphasis on the success of our creations that we are afraid to share them with the world. Many great pieces of work go unseen because of this irrational fear we hold.
As you prepare to devour your nachos and chase it down with a couple beers you may notice something a little different about the Super Bowl today. University Of Phoenix Stadium, hosts of Super Bowl XLIX, have upgraded the old metal halide lights throughout the stadium and replaced them with LED light fixtures.
In late 2014 at an auction in Ohio, Levi Bettweiser of the Rescued Film Project, stumbled upon one of his greatest finds. Up for bid were 31 rolls of 70 year old undeveloped film from World War 2 shot by an unknown soldier and photographer. The Rescued Film Project is an effort to find and salvage undeveloped film from as early as the 1930's.
Rokinon/Samyang have been throwing around cryptic teasers hinting at the fact that a new lens was coming in January 2015. "3 digits and they are all odd" read one of their promos. Everyone's best guess to date was a 135mm but we really had no information about it, that is, until now.
Not quite in full effect just yet but out of the blue it appears that Vimeo is slowly implementing 4K streaming capability. It is a feature which has been hinted at and many have been waiting for. Philip Bloom and James Miller break it down. The trend towards 4K is undeniable and last month Vimeo announced that it was becoming a 4K capable platform.
With the year drawing to a close, and the new one just around the corner, it is at this time many of us reflect on what has happened and what we plan to achieve. Year after year it is the same story. We make a couple resolutions, we give it a good go for a few weeks, and then we fall back into some old routines that keep us from making progress.
You read that right. It was rumoured late last year that Google was playing around with the Android camera API to include raw capability, and then we reported that this feature was rolled out with the latest 5.0 Lollipop update on many Android devices, but now we finally have an app that lets us access this feature and use it to our hearts content.
There is a new image format called BPG (Better Portable Graphics) designed by the French programmer Fabrice Bellard and it promises to deliver better visual quality at half the file size of JPEG! Can BPG unseat the aging but popular JPEG format?
Remember that time you planned a business and it worked out perfectly? Neither do I. Starting a business, any business, is a daunting task. The reality however is that most of us overcomplicate the starting process and do some severe damage to our business before it ever takes off. Let’s put things into a bit of perspective.
Johnson and Johnson has recently released a new app called "Donate A Photo" with a rather simple premise. For every photo you upload the company will donate a dollar towards a charity of your choice. Now you can turn all those selfies and pictures of your cat into donations that help make the world a better place.
Atomos, known for their field recorders, has recently announced a new portable power solution. The Power Station, as it is called, has the ability to power up to 3 devices simultaneously and features hot swapping. The device is powered by Sony L-series batteries, but adapters for Canon LP-6 and Nikon EN-EL15 battieries will be available.
We have all been there at one point or another. The thought of picking up a camera and having to take more pictures seems less than appealing. Shooting the same thing over and over, dealing with frustrating clients, or simply not getting the results you had hoped for.
Supermodel Coco Rocha and photographer Steven Sebring have teamed up to release an interactive book, The Study Of Pose, chronicling over 1000 poses captured from 100 different angles in an experimental 360 degree rig. It is an ambitious project that has resulted in a massive, and certainly quite heavy, book with over 2000 pages.
Over the years Yongnuo has built quite a reputation as an affordable and competitive product to the big names. Now nearly a year after their last trigger update, Yongnuo is announcing its latest version the RF605 trigger, which comes with some nice features that may pursuade you to upgrade if you are holding on to the old versions.
In the fight against online image theft there is a new player and they are coming into the arena with a bang! Pixsy is a new copyright infingement software that looks to help photographers around the globe tackle an issue that plagues the industry and for the most part goes unresolved.
Finding clients is a challenge all by itself so when we are fortunate enough to have some in our corner it is a natural reaction for us to go above and beyond the call of duty to keep them happy. While this is admirable from a customer service point of view it is not always feasible to say yes to every request. Here is how I have learned to overcome my fear of saying “no” to a client.
Svitlana Sangary, a California attorney, has recently been dubbed the "fake lawyer to the stars" after it was revealed that she photoshopped herself into an entire album of star studded images that were on her website for public display.
A few days ago Apple released a new promo video titled "Perspective" which aims to send the message that Apple sees things differently. In an ironic twist, band OK Go is claiming that Apple has stolen the concept from their recent music video "The Writing's On The Wall".
How many times have you heard the saying "if you want it done right you've got to do it yourself"? Well, that is not always the best mindset. This business we are in is all about collaboration, and the sooner you embrace what others have to offer, the sooner you will put out work that is competitive. Collaboration has many benefits that can take your work to the next level.
Quitting gets a bad rap. There is a certain stigma attached to the quitter as if they have somehow failed. We offer them compassion instead of congratulations. We imagine they are haunted by countless "what if's" and regrets. We muse that perhaps there were circumstances beyond their control.
Posing models is a challenge all on its own but adding a curvier model to the mix requires some extra considerations. Not all of us have access to the tall and thin models that grace the covers of countless magazines and in recent years there is a strong push towards representing a more average body type through the use of plus sized models.
Most of us approach our pricing with some apprehension and anxiety. It is a topic of much discussion and debate among creative professionals, but with a little ingenuity, you can break away from boring pricing and use it in a way that will excite your client and build a brand identity!
David Jay, founder of Shoot And Share a platform for photographers to share high resolution images with their clients, made a rather interesting comment on social media the other day. He proposes you ditch the rights to your work in celebration of freedom and claims it will make you a happier photographer and the world a better place!
Auxiliary Magazine is all about the alternative. They go against the mainstream to bring you the beauty of sub-culture which they have been proudly doing for 5 years and through 32 issues.
One of the biggest frustrations I had when starting out photography was striking a good balance between all the aspects that went into creating a good image.
Do you want agency grade models in your portfolio but can't quite cut through the competition vying to test with the same talent? Do you want agency grade models in your portfolio but can't afford the agency rates?
Cosmopolitan Magazine has released its July issues and they all have one thing in common; Katy Perry. She will be gracing the covers of all 62 international editions of the magazine making her the magazine's first ever global cover star. No doubt that this is a landmark achievement for Katy Perry but is it also a clever strategy to further cut costs by the magazine industry?
One of the biggest frustrations any new professional photographer has is obtaining clients. I’m going to assume that at this point you have sufficiently nailed down your technique, you’ve built up a decent portfolio, and you have a website that is easy to navigate and shows off your work. So why are you not getting replies from your prospective clients?
Commercial shoots are often complex creatures that take a lot of planning and prep work. You'll need the help of your peers to pull off many of the concepts your clients demand and you will need to keep your wits about you as you try to squeeze the entire process into the fast paced deadlines of the business world.
The iconic Windows XP wallpaper "Bliss" is widely considered to be the world's most viewed image. Though most of us are familiar with the beautiful image that has graced our computers at one point or another, not many are familiar with the story of how it came to be, and fewer yet that it is in fact a real image captured on film!
A while ago I wrote an article summarizing some of the key tools which are required when shooting apparel for commercial clients. That article served it's purpose to demonstrate the vast number of supporting tools we use on a daily basis, but the magic really happens when we roll out the lights.
