Sales 101 says that it is much more profitable to convert sales from existing customers than to retain new customers – but retailers have taken this to a fantastically annoying new level – to the point where I have to waste significant amounts of time and effort to ignore them. Continue reading for a few examples of the most annoying practices of modern retailers and a few strategies that you can use to avoid them....

I’ve been fascinated with the darkroom ever since I started shooting film. For years it was this mysterious thing that I’d never be good enough to justify having my own. It took making the complete switch to digital, and the rediscovering film a decade later that got me hooked. Having now built my own darkroom, I love seeing videos like these, and seeing what new information I can learn. Marc Silber has covered many wonderful analogue photographers over at the Advancing Your Photography YouTube channel....

With the massive range of gimbals and stabilisers out there and the number of different companies making them, you’d think we’d see something truly new and different on a regular basis. Instead, we mostly see iterations. Really good iterations, but they’re often quite minimal changes with just a bump in spec. Of course, there are exceptions. Here, though, we have the GravGrip, which is a very interesting take on stabilisation for smartphones and action cameras that has no motors, uses no batteries whatsoever and is small enough to slip into your pocket (really!...

Even before the whole global pandemic thing, vlogging was on the rise. This last year, though, seems to have caused a significant boost in the number of vloggers out there and many have taken to doing it on their smartphones. We’re on lockdown again here in Scotland and getting out with a bunch of camera gear to shoot videos isn’t exactly possible right now. So, I’ve been testing out some smartphone vlogging gear over the last few weeks during my daily exercise to see how well they hold up....

The leading drone manufacturer DJI has been facing difficulties lately. The company has reportedly made significant cuts among its staff. According to several sources, the layoffs will expand to as many as around 14,000 employees. Reuters spoke to some former and current employees at DJI, who shared more information about the layoffs. Reportedly, it all began way back in March, when the company cut two-thirds of the corporate sales and marketing team at its Shenzhen headquarters....

DJI has announced their new Matrice 300 RTK “flying platform” (big drone) and the Zenmuse H20 hybrid camera series, to provide “a safer and smarter solution” to their enterprise customers. The M300 RTK, DJI says, is their first to integrate modern aviation features, advanced AI, 6-direction sensing and positioning, a UAV health management system and an insane 55-minutes of flight time. Although geared more towards data collection and surveying for commercial and industrial use, it’s a potentially impressive platform for filmmakers, too....

I had a few hours to kill before work this morning. So I decided to head down to a public garden a few miles from my house. In the summer this place is full of colour, with roses growing everywhere, up trellises, along the walls, above your head. It’s an old Fort on the seafront, built to defend the city from French invasion. At this time of year, it was dead....

If you’re new to studio flash photography, you may be a little confused about how everything works. The types, sizes, and shapes of light modifiers, the light’s placement and distance from the subject… There’s a lot to learn, and in this article, we’ll focus on the distance of the flash from your subject. Does it really matter how far you place the light? Spoiler alert: it does. And in this great video from Adorama, Gavin Hoey will give you plenty of examples of how and why the flash distance affects your studio images....

For us in the northern emisphere, it’s that time of the year when nature changes and landscapes explode with color. Many photographers (especially landscape photographers) take trips in the fall and capture the changing world around them. Before you hit the road, it’s important to prepare, so that you can make the most of your photography trip. In this video, Nigel Danson talks about some mistakes he has made when planning photography trips....

If someone told me that a photo of cheese could send a person to jail, I wouldn’t believe it. And yet, it really happened. A drug dealer recently got busted and sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison after he posted a photo of cheese online. And I’m not using slang here, it was actual cheese. The suspected drug dealer took a photo of his hand holding a block of Mature Blue Stilton....

Edelkrone’s decision to start offering 3D printed versions of their products was an odd one, to say the least. Cool, but odd. It’s great for consumers with 3D printers who can’t justify the cost of the originals, but 3D printing still comes with many issues and frustrations. Overall, though, I think the concept is great. The first project in Edelkroke’s Ortak range, their line of 3D printed “co-manufactured” products, was the FlexTilt Head 3D....

Macro is a whole lot of fun, especially if you have a macro rail that lets you rack the camera to shoot a bunch of photos at different focal planes that you can stack together in post. We’ve covered macro rails on DIYP before, like this one from NiSi and they are extremely handy. Spinning that handle by hand, though, can be a slow and inaccurate process. Well, the DIY Fast Stacker 2....

The Leica Summilux-M 90mm f/1.5 ASPH lens was first rumoured way back in 2017. Since then, 26 have actually been made, according to the Leica Pocket Guide (1953-2018), and the rumours had been hotting up for a 2019 release. There’s still no official announcement from Leica yet, but the first photos have been leaked online, courtesy of Nokishita. https://twitter.com/nokishita_c/status/1201875153954779136 Other than the two images, there’s no other real information. The translation of the Tweet reads… Although many had anticipated a 2019 announcement for this lens, it looks like that won’t happen....

Some photographers are intimidated by the Curves tool at the beginning, but this is one of the essential and most versatile tools in photo editing. In this video, Denny of Denny’s Tips shows you four applications of Curves, and why it beats the other tools you can use for the same purpose. 1. Curves vs. Contrast You can use Curves to create many different looks: from the standard “S-curve” for a stronger contrast to the “faded film look” with lower contrast....

Fuji has announced its newest accessory for its range of mirrorless cameras, the TG-BT1 Tripod Grip. It’s designed for Fuji’s X series cameras to enhance mobility and ease of use handheld, particularly for video. It folds together as a handle, letting you use it for things like vlogging, with an array of buttons to let you control the camera directly from the handle and the legs also unfold to form a mini tripod....

Back in July, we heard something about the upcoming 33mm f/1 AF lens from Fujifilm. At the company’s Photokina presentation, it has officially announced this lens, which will be the first of its kind. The lens named XF33mm F1 R will be an addition to Fujifilm’s X-series of lenses, equivalent to 50mm on a full-frame body. As mentioned on The Verge, there was an attempt of the f/1 AF lens by Canon some 30 years ago, but that lens has been discontinued....

GIMP’s often toted as the main alternative to Photoshop for folks who don’t want to spend any money. GIMP has been around since 1995. In the last 22 years, it’s already seen a lot of progress, but it still doesn’t really hold up for most photographers in comparison to Photoshop. At its heart, GIMP relies on the GEGL image processing core, and while the software is entirely open source, a massive chunk of the work is done by just one man; Øyvind Kolås....

Gitzo is soon to launch a new travel tripod and backpack that will get travel photographers and eco-warriors very interested. Gitzo Légende is a travel tripod and backpack combo that was made partially from recycled materials, and they were made to last. But the best part is probably the unlimited warranty you get for both items. The Gittzo Légende tripod is made from 100% parts that are replaceable, which I find pretty impressive....

First leaked way back in January, Godox has now finally announced the long-awaited Godox V860III speedlight. As expected, the final specs match up almost exactly with those leaked in April, and it’s available for all of the systems Godox supports, including Nikon, Canon, Sony, Fuji, Olympus/Panasonic and Pentax. The new Godox V860III introduces a new feature for Godox speedlights; a modelling light. It also starts to unify the battery system amongst the Godox lithium-ion powered speedlights by using the same battery as the Godox V1, as well as the quick-release foot....

I guess we all know by now that Facebook collects our data. But in a recent article, the Wall Street Journal focused on the data collected by just analyzing your photos. As it turns out, you’re giving away much more information that you provide yourself. As a matter of fact, Facebook can even determine exactly where you are at a given moment. When you post a photo, it seems like you have all the control over the privacy....