It’s pretty easy to get bored with a new camera. At the end of the day, it’s doing about the same thing the old one did, but without the magic of your old camera. Or so you think. But is that really the case? Probably not.
Google just started selling a new camera, but it’s not what you think. Google Clips is a digital camera, but it doesn’t have a screen or any way to change settings on the camera. You can’t even put an SD card in it. So what’s its party trick? It can take photos for you, automatically.
With the number of times I’ve switched from Canon to Nikon and back again, you’d think I have a case of G.A.S. (gear acquisition syndrome). You’d also probably think I took a bath financially each time I did it, but that’s not the case. With some clever shopping and some careful selling, I was able to keep my losses to a minimum and in some cases, actually made money on gear that increased in value. Here are a few tips to make sure that you don’t take a huge financial hit when buying and selling your gear.
It’s always been said that there are two types of people in this world: those who have had a hard drive crash, and those who will have a hard drive crash. To that, I’ll add another two: those who’ve dropped a phone into a toilet, and those who will drop their phone into a toilet. Or oven. Or puddle. Or snow. That’s why it’s important to have a backup plan. A new article in the New York Times breaks it into the simplest of terms for even the greenest of photographers.
Intel revealed more details about its new 8th generation CPUs with AMD’s RX Vega M graphics, and if you’re a VR video producer, avid gamer, or just a lover of fast laptops (like all photographers), you’re going to want to wait for this tech to hit your favorite laptop.
So it’s January and you still haven’t taken the Christmas tree down yet? Perfect. Now’s a great time to play with one of the little-used but most fun modes of that new camera you got for the holidays. And if you didn’t get a camera, you can use the mode to breathe some new life into your old camera and photograph the things you (or in this case, my son) got as gifts. Friends, I’m talking about multiple exposure mode.
Two days after Donald Trump’s inauguration, I posted a tweet about his use of a low-resolution, potentially unlicensed image being used as his header image on his preferred weapon of choice, Twitter. On technical and professional levels, it was a fail (you can see it at the top of this article). I should have realized it was a sign of things to come.
So your kid just started playing pee-wee football, or maybe you are a portrait photographer who just landed a sports gig. Maybe you’re shooting your first assignment for the college newspaper. In any case, while sports photography isn’t for the faint of heart, here are four technical tips to get you started on the right path.
It’s that time of year again, where your Instagram feed is flooded with everyone’s best nine photos, courtesy of sites like 2017 Best Nine. And while it’s great that there’s an algorithm that can count the likes and spit out the “best” photos, there’s some merit to making a yearly compilation of photos that you like best rather than some software.
If you’re one day hoping to market your magnum opus of a movie to Netflix, better gear up.
Garmin, the same manufacturer who probably made your first GPS unit that’s now collecting dust in the glove box of your car, also makes cameras. I didn't know this until I cruised the 360-degree video section of B&H Photo looking for something to replace my 2017 Samsung Gear 360 that I was not so happy with (note to Samsung: a stitch line that moves is a dealbreaker). There it was, sitting under a glass case, the Garmin VIRB 360.
It’s the equivalent of a presidential Twitter feud, but for the photography world. Everyone’s favorite Anderson Cooper lookalike Tony Northrup released a video on November 4 about the benefits and downsides to shooting raw files versus JPG files, and in this video dispensed some advice on when to shoot raw files and when to shoot JPG files (and when to shoot both). Naturally, this elicited a strong response from everyone’s favorite (only?) Fro, Jared Polin of “Fro Knows Photo” fame, who is known for his shirts indicating to the world that he does indeed shoot raw. All the time.
If you’ve ever been to a photo event in New York City or taken a pilgrimage to B&H Photo, chances are you’ve noticed the man in the trench coat with the old news photographer’s camera – bellows, big flash, and all.
Reflex is a new brand aiming to give 35mm film photographers a new camera option instead of going with a dated SLR design (the 13-year-old Nikon F6) or buying in the used market. But it’s not just a rehash of the classic film SLR design. Users can change film using a special “I-Back” system, and even change out the lens mount quickly and easily.
In a showdown of competing presidential (and vice-presidential) photographers, the White House released new official portraits of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday. The two portraits were shot by two different photographers, and it’s evident in the style of each photo. The question is, which photographer did it better?
Here’s a good case to save all of your raw video and photo files on every shoot: It could one day be used to reveal the truth when a government official lies.
A photojournalist is often called upon to photograph a scene at a moment’s notice. It can be a car accident one day, a music festival, the next and a protest the day after. With that in mind, there are two useful lenses that every photojournalist should carry in their bag to cover such a diverse range of photographic opportunities.
360-degree video is a great way to tell immersive stories. Until recently though, the experience hasn’t been all that accessible. Just to view 360-degree content the way it was meant to look, you’d need an expensive headset like an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive and a fairly beefy computer to run it on like a high-end Alienware or something with a powerful graphics card. This meant that while VR content was being produced in droves, few people were experiencing it the way it was meant to be. That’s about to change. Oculus just announced a standalone VR headset called the Oculus Go.
The word “unprecedented” gets thrown around a lot these days, and it looks like once-renowned camera manufacturer Yashica is the latest company to use it to describe the new digiFilm Camera Y35 camera they just launched on Kickstarter.
I love 360-degree video. I've spent a bit of time with a few different brands on the market. While there are many things I love about the medium, the actual cameras aren't one of them. I don’t rave about them the way I do about perhaps a Nikon DSLR or Fuji mirrorless. That's because the manufacturers of these 360-degree cameras aren't making it easy.
When shooting assignments in the past, whether portraits, weddings, or journalism, I’ve always been one to carry two bodies to give myself options. I like to be able to access two different focal lengths at a moment’s notice. In the past, it would not be uncommon that those bodies would be two DSLRs of the same brand, usually Nikon or Canon. But now it’s something that is uncommon for me. You see, I now roll with a DSLR and a mirrorless body to allow myself maximum flexibility. And perhaps it’s something you should try, too. Here are a couple of reasons why.
Regular users of Snapseed have been in for a shock this week as version 2.18 rolled out across Android and iOS devices. The redesigned app featured a lighter-colored interface and a new “Looks” bar that seeks to emulate Instagram’s now ubiquitous filters menu.
The Syrp Genie Mini is a neat little tool to add a little motion to your time-lapse project (or a smooth pan to your video projects). But in a new post from the folks at Syrp, it turns out it’s pretty good for a home-brew 360-degree timel-apse rig, too.
While a hurricane may not damage your photos stored in the cloud, they can certainly take a toll on many memories stored the analog way: in printed photos and family albums. Many in the path of Hurricane Harvey are returning to find their memories destroyed by the rain, winds, and water. For some though, there’s still hope to recover some of their printed photos that may be amongst their damaged belongings, and there are a few steps that people can take to help their chances of saving precious moments that were damaged by the storm.
I’ve been to the New York State fair for more years than I can count. It’s a great time. There are carnival rides, animals, music, and lots to photograph. Oh, and of course, corn dogs. But in recent years, I’ve found myself carrying less and less photographic gear to the fair and just enjoying the moment. Except that I wasn’t really enjoying the moment because I wasn’t making photos. That's why this year I decided to challenge myself to make different photos of the same event.
As photographers, we’re often on the bleeding edge of technology, and these days, the bleeding edge often includes an app for that. However, manufacturers are increasingly relying on apps to control their hardware at the expense of dedicated physical controls — and it’s a practice that must stop.
Facebook has put a fresh coat of paint on its app with an overhaul to some of the graphical elements. One major change of note for photographers is that profile photos that appear alongside comments and in the newsfeed will now be circles instead of squares.
Multimedia professionals rely on solid tools to get the job done, and those tools have typically been Apple’s Mac lineup. But as Apple shifts its focus more to its MacBooks and iPhones, it’s neglected a tiny, but important product: the Mac mini.
It’s possible that Snap has more than just spectacles on the brain (er, head?). Reports are floating around that Zero Zero Robotics, makers of the Hover Camera Passport drone, approached Snapchat’s parent company for funding.
There’s a quiet 360-degree battle being fought behind the scenes at Apple and Adobe when it comes to your favorite non-linear video editing tools, Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro. Some recent hires hint at an expanding 360-degree video portfolio at both companies.
Fake news is pretty common these days, and it got that way because, sadly, many believe what they read even if it’s not rooted at all in the truth. Now, researchers from England have shown that many people will also believe what they see. even if it’s fake.
The first solar eclipse in almost a century will be visible across the entire United States on August 21 this year. That means if you’re looking to catch a photograph of it, it’s time to gear up. When I was a younger (read: greener) photographer, my first instinct would be to point the camera at the sun and let it rip. That’s a really bad idea. You’ll want to prepare both your own eyes and your camera to shoot this rare event properly.
New cars have cameras everywhere – in addition to the almost-ubiquitous backup cameras that will be required standard equipment on all new cars next year, newer cars have front-facing cameras that enable a host of safey-related features. But what if you could use that camera for photography? Turns out that you can, with a little bit of ingenuity and some hacking from Volvo engineers.
University photographers often end up rubbing shoulders with some pretty famous alumni, and that privileged position sometimes offers the chance to shoot some compelling portraits of said celebrities. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always mean you’ll have a lot of time to bust out the strobes in the studio. Sometimes, all you have is 90 seconds, a speedlight, and a hallway.
The photo came out of the camera like that, I swear! Not really, and now there’s a website that can prove it.
