Anybody getting into video soon realises that camera movement is the key to getting more interesting shots. Often the first investment made to get that movement is in some kind of inexpensive camera slider. Sliders can be amazing, but sometimes you just need more. Especially on location, sliders aren’t always the best option, sometimes you need a track dolly. In this video, Logan at Premium Beat shows us how we can make a simple track dolly for under $50....

The whole web seems to be buzzing with talk about The Mandalorian right now. After finally watching it, and realising it wasn’t a show about a “Half man, half Delorean“, I can see why. I’m not going to post any spoilers here, but if you haven’t seen it, and you’re at all a fan of Star Wars, you should. It’s probably the best thing they’ve done with it in a while....

Creating a soft and dramatic image doesn’t require too many complicated settings and gear. In this short video, photographer Jeff Rojas will show you how to do it with a minimalistic approach. All he uses to create wonderful, dramatic portraits is one light placed overhead. Gear As for the gear, this is what Jeff uses: Strobe: Phottix Indra 360 Trigger: Phottix Odin II Lighting Modifier: Phottix Hexa-Para Softbox – 59″ – Jeff points out that it creates very soft light....

Creating motion blur isn’t as easy or always as possible as we might like when we’re just rushing to get the shot. Sometimes we’re not rushing, but thing aren’t moving in quite the way we’d hope. Or maybe we’re just not very good at shooting panning shots with a moving subject. Whatever the reason, it is possible to achieve a similar look in Photoshop. In this video, Photoshop guru Unmesh Dinda at PiXimperfect walks us through why we need perspective motion blur and how it differs from regular directional motion blur, as well as how to recreate the look on the computer within photoshop....

One of the trickier aspects of shooting film is being able to share your work. If you have a lab develop your film, you can often have them scan it. But general lab scanning quality seems to have gone downhill over the last few years. Unless you’re willing to pay a fortune for it. If you develop yourself, then sending it off to scan can become even more expensive. Drum scanners are still going to generally give the best quality, but they’re a bit out of the budget of most photographers....

No matter how good the equipment we use to record audio, there’s always some room for improvement. Of course, we have to record it properly, eliminate background noise, echo, ground hum and pre-amp hiss, but there’s more to it than that. High-end voiceovers just have a feel about them that isn’t just a plain old voice recording. They have a warmth and richness to them. Getting that feel isn’t so difficult....

You know how a tiny, toy magnifying glass can burn little pieces of paper? Well, the camera lens is a not a small, toy, magnifying glass by no means, it is a powerful well-polished tool of optics and using it in the wrong way – say to photograph the sun during an eclipse – can be devastating to the camera sensor. The team at Everything Photography did a little experiment and showed what an unfiltered six seconds exposure would do to your sensor....

Bottles are always a fun and challenging photography experiment, especially ones that contain crystal clear liquids like vodka. I don’t buy vodka often and when I do, it rarely tends to stay full long enough to have any time in front of the camera, but Dustin at Workphlo has definitely put some thought into photographing this one using some low budget kit and very interesting techniques. If you’ve watched Dustin’s videos before, you’ll know he’s a fan of compositing when it comes to product photography....

Have you ever wondered how ultra slow motion videos get their sound recorded? They don’t just record the real sound and slow it down along with the footage. In this video, Destin Sandlin from Smarter Every Day walks you through the process of recording sounds for slow-motion videos. Particularly, for a tomato exploding at 60,000 fps and a few other fun slo-mo videos. To record his slow motion video, Destin uses a Phantom v2511 camera, which is capable of capturing 2/3 of a million frames per second....

I’ve never been a massive fan of the whole “Fix it in Photoshop” (or Lightroom, in this case) mentality, but it does undoubtedly offer its benefits, especially when the conditions under which you’re able to get the shot may be out of your control. In this video from Swiss landscape photographer and YouTuber, YuriFineart, we see a technique that allows us to go from a simple snapshot into something a little more interesting....

“Meet my friend Saurabh, he’s an amazing photographer from India and his work has been published in various reputed newspapers and journals worldwide like NatGeo, The Guardian, Lonely Planet, etc. Astonishingly, he’s a self-taught photographer and very passionate about his work” Recently, I was touring Europe to meet some friends and this was a kind of introduction I got in their social circle. Even, in India this is a common way friends and family introduce me to someone....

My daughter LOVES female superheroes and I LOVE making her superhero dreams come true. The other day she literally thought she was a superhero. She came home from school one day and told us that her friends had made fun of her because of her worn down shoes. To my surprise, she didn’t seem too affected, and so I kept asking for more details. After all, she’s a 5 year old who makes up a bunch of stories anyway, and I wanted to get to the bottom of it....

It’s not a secret that Instagram’s “Stories” function was inspired by Snapchat. At the moment, Instagram is testing another “Snapchatty” feature: the app is now notifying some users when someone takes a screenshot of their story.Advertisements Instagram hasn’t rolled out the feature for all users yet as it’s still in the test phase. As The Verge reports, some of their staff members have seen this on their accounts. When someone takes a screenshot of another user’s story, both sides get notified....

In its latest attempt to weed out inappropriate posts, Instagram has become even harsher than before. From now on, all “sexually suggestive” posts will be hidden from a wider Instagram community. They don’t even have to violate the Community Guidelines: it’s enough that Instagram considers them even remotely inappropriate. When a post goes against Instagram’s Community Guidelines, it simply gets deleted. Even if it’s famous artwork. However, Instagram claims that some posts might not be appropriate for its global community even if it complies with the rules....

We all know the power music can have from watching movies. A simple switching up of a soundtrack can completely sway a viewer to experience different emotions even when watching identical footage. In fact, research shows us that music has as powerful an effect on our brains as cocaine. So it’s no accident then, that Instagram is harnessing this power by allowing users to add a music track to their ordinary posts in the feed....

The film school debate never ends. It’s the same with going to school for photography, too. In both instances, there are large numbers of people for it, and just as many against it. But is it right for you? That’s something one can only really determine for themselves. There are both pros and cons go film or photography schools. The folks at Aputure take a look at film school in this video....

David Holz, the founder of Midjourney, recently admitted something we’ve already assumed: the company’s AI was trained on hundreds of millions of images without consent from their authors. This revelation has sparked outrage among both artists and privacy advocates. It has raised concerns about the ethical implications of such actions, as well as copyright issues that might emerge. Back in September, Holz gave in an interview to Forbes, revealing that his company didn’t seek consent from artists when using their work for AI training....

The Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board in Wyoming, USA is asking visitors to stop geotagging their images. We’ve seen a few times that natural wanders get destroyed or damaged after they become too popular. And with the latest campaign against geotagging, the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board wants to preserve nature and save it from this kind of destruction. In a video recently posted by Vox, we saw what happens “when nature goes viral....

Earlier this year, Olympus sold its imaging business to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP). And just when the future of Olympus began to seem bright, it turned out that JIP had other plans. According to the latest information, Olympus will no longer use its name with the camera gear. This information comes from different sources. 42 West spoke with Aki Murata, the Olympus’ President of the Consumer Products Group. In the interview, he said that the Olympus name will remain at the time of transfer....

It’s been two years since Kodak first showed off their modernized version of Kodak Super 8 camera. It combines analog and digital technologies and the official launch is still to come. In the meantime, they are showcasing the footage taken with their new-old Kodak Super 8. Take a look. The new Kodak Super 8 is made to give you analog and digital experience at the same time. It has a 3....