A career in commercial photography is a progression in learning. One that wains when complacency creeps in and thrives when pursuit of knowledge lives at its heart. Having a broad mind in both approach and equipment is the key to clearing your mind to be creative. Ironically, passion for technology and a yearning for nostalgia also contribute to the motivation to discover a new way to see the world around us....

Toy photography has always been quite popular, but never more so than in the last couple of years while much of the world has been stuck at home without any human subjects to photograph. We’ve featured a bunch of them here on DIYP and they’re just as fun to look at as they are to shoot. But what tools can help you in your toy photography journey? In this video, toy photographer Jared Middleton walks us through his list of 12 things you didn’t know you needed for toy photography, although there might be one or two on this list that aren’t really all that essential....

I just came across a very interesting set of interviews posted on Zorki Photo. In the post, photographer Stephen Dowling talks with the bigwigs at Ilford, Kodak, Film Ferrania and others. He wanted their thoughts on the current world of film potography. They all agree, the market is definitely growing. Of course, they sell film, so they’re bound to be naturally optimistic. But, we’ve seen an upsurge in interest for film related content recently here on DIYP, too....

Advertisements The 2019 contest received 327,000 entries from 195 countries and territories. They submitted their photos to Professional, Open, Youth and Student Focus competitions, with ten categories under the Professional competition. But this year, the Sony World Photography Awards is seeing some new initiatives. First, the works of Latin American photographers will be celebrated in a new category, Latin America Professional Award. Then, in conjunction with Sony China, the Awards have also launched the China National Student Photography Award, and you can more learn about it on the contest’s website....

It’s always interesting to see how photographers observe the work of other people from the industry. Digital Photography Review created a short video where they asked several well-known photographers who they would want to take their portrait. Some of the interviewed photographers include Brian Smith, Peter Hurley, Gerd Ludwig and Ron Haviv, to name a few. The answers they give are interesting and versatile. Some are funny, some serious, but they all show respect and admiration for the work of others....

Getting clean stable footage is often one of the more difficult challenges with video. Especially while you’re still figuring everything out. Recently, we showed you several tips for getting stable handheld footage. Even relatively smooth handheld footage, though can benefit from a little extra assistance. As technology advances, there are many ways to make your footage more stable. Using both software and hardware solutions. This video from YouTuber eevnxx goes through four of those methods to help get your footage as smooth as possible....

Yeah, I know, quit with the “X reasons to shoot Y” already, but here’s the thing, people are still interested in this stuff, and none of these types of posts are really trying to make you give up what you’re doing and completely rethink your photography life choices. They’re simply to give you more information, so that you can make more informed choices about what you want to do. I shoot film and digital, as does Mattias Burling who presents his 5 reasons to shoot film in this four and a half minute video....

Smart Objects are layers that contain image data from raster or vector images. If you’re new to Photoshop, you may not be accustomed to using it, but there are plenty of reasons to start working with them. This video from Adobe Photoshop will show you five reasons to use Smart Objects in Photoshop, but also some ideas when it’s useful to work with them. 1. Edit directly in Camera RAW If you embed a raw file as a Smart Object, then the entire RAW file is embedded into the document....

A few weeks ago, photographer Colin Smith showed us some useful Photoshop tricks hiding right before our eyes. Now he presents us with seven tricks that will make the workflow faster and more efficient when editing in Lightroom. These features are also practically hiding before our eyes, and they will make you think “how come I didn’t know about this before?” 1. Solo Mode If you’re editing photos on a small screen (like I do on my laptop), when you open all tabs in the Develop Module, you’ll have a lot of scrolling going on....

Back in the 1980s, fans weren’t allowed to bring their cameras to concerts, but a Depeche Mode fan had an idea. He threw a roll of film on stage during the band’s concert with his name and address attached to it and a plea to the band to take photos. It wasn’t only the idea that was cool, it was the band’s reaction, too. They picked up the film, took some photos, and later mailed them back to the fan....

Cactus has remained quite a small player in the flash scene since Godox came along with their powerful and portable lithium-ion powered strobes. But, small as they may be, they are a mighty force. They have the widest cross-platform compatibility of any brand out there and have become a favourite of Pentax and Sigma shooters the world over. But Cactus has always had one big problem. They only make speedlights....

It looks like there might be a lower-level DJI Mini 3 coming as a new listing for a non-pro model has shown up in the FCC database. Exactly what compromises might be made compared to the DJI Mini 3 Pro announced in May are unknown. But it’s not outside the realm of possibility, especially with the recent release of the cut-down DJI Mavic 3 Classic just three weeks ago. According to DroneDJ, there isn’t a lot of information in the filing....

The Sony A7III, the successor to the very popular and heavily discounted Sony A7II, was announced just a few days ago, but already people are getting very opinionated. A few are just going off the on-paper specs, while others have managed to actually get their hands on one and take it for a spin. So, let’s see what people think, and whether or not it’s the right camera for you....

Here at DIYP HQ, we are using a teleprompter to cut down on takes and have a more streamlined “talking head”. Using a prompter has significantly improved our workflow and cut down on recording and editing times. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to add a remote control to almost any tablet prompter software which will streamline your workflow even more. Teleprompters have come a long way since the introduction of tablets....

Adobe has today announced that Adobe Photoshop native to Apple computers using the new M1 chip has now been released. Adobe says that it delivers major performance gains for those using the new Apple systems, stating that a number of features are showing a 50% speed increase over previous generation systems during internal testing. That testing covered a “broad scope” of activities including opening and saving files, running filters and intensive operations like Content-Aware Fill and Select Subject, which Adobe says feel “noticeably faster” with some operations being “substantially faster” thanks to the new Apple M1 chips....

Adobe has just announced that beginning May 15, 2018, Adobe Creative Cloud will be available to K-12 students for $4.99 per license, per year. Using a single sign-on, students and teachers will be able to use their school ID to access apps including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Illustrator on any device. The company’s move came after their global research showed that jobs which require creative problem-solving pay higher are less affected by automation....

An Adobe Research paper titled Deep Image Matting, might just put an end to green and blue screen techniques. Adobe collaborated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, to develop a new system based on deep convolution neural networks. This system extracts foreground content from its background accurately and intelligently without any kind of blue or green screen background. Eliminating the green screen isn’t a completely new idea....

If you use Behance to showcase your work, you can now also use it to make some money from it. Adobe has released a subscription service on Behance that will allow you to monetize your work by selling access to premium content. If you’re familiar with Patreon or the Channel Membership on YouTube, this new Behance feature is something similar. This new service allows you to set your own subscription prices....

Apple has announced “supercharged” versions of its M1 processor. Perhaps not surprisingly, they’re called the M1 Pro and M1 Max. Apple says they’re the first Apple Silicon chips designed specifically for professionals with “groundbreaking performance” and “amazing battery life”. Apple claims that the new MacBook Pro models offer up to 13x faster graphics performance, 3.7x faster CPU performance, 11x faster machine learning and 21 hours of battery life. The specs seem significantly upgraded over the original M1, and the memory limit has finally been increased....

Many of us own a car, or will at some point in our lives. Even if we don’t, we may have access to nice cars, and almost certainly know somebody who owns one. For a large proportion of photographers, cars are just another subject at which we point our cameras. But for petrol headed photographer, Easton Chang, they’re not just another subject, they’re a way of life. The Art of Style and Speed is a short film about Chang and his passion, created by SmugMug Films in collaboration with RGGEDU....