When you’re a one man video shooting band, keeping your subject sharp and in focus can be a huge pain. If you don’t have a focus puller following you around, or fancy remote control focus systems, it’s a constant struggle. That’s why we often see cameras locked off on tripods and sliders with static subjects that rarely move. But there are some techniques you can use to keep your subject sharp and in focus when filming solo....
I’m a landscape photographer. And I’m part of a crazy lot. I had this realization during a sleep deprived afternoon. My hazy mind was trying to get me through the rest of the day. It was also trying to comprehend how I arrived at the miserable state I was in. It wasn’t hard to come 5 reasons why we landscape photographers definitely have a screw loose. 1. WE WORK CRAZY HOURS Good light happens when it happens....
Thanks to cameras like the Hasselblad X1D and Fujifilm GFX 50s, there’s been a lot of fuss over medium format the last couple of years. And while those two cameras have helped to drive down the cost of getting into medium format, it’s still not cheap. So, is it worth getting into? This video from LensProToGo looks at some of the advantages of medium format, and how they might be able to help you as a photographer and a business....
The new Sony A7III is undoubtedly the hottest topic in the photography world right now. As a “basic model” costing under $2,000, it’s insane how well it performs and the features it contains. It contains many of the same features found in its more expensive A7RIII and A9 siblings, and is a significant upgrade over the previous model A7II. Amongst the upgrades, the first is the sensor. While the resolution is roughly the same, the A7III sensor is a newly developed Exmor R CMOS sensor with BSI (back-side illumination) technology....
Once you have decided whether your phone is mojo-friendly — enough speed, power, and memory — you might consider the following mojo tools. Microphones for mojo work For this article, we looked at a number of Sennheiser microphones, some that I’ve been using for mojo work for almost a decade, and a couple of relatively recent additions. A comparative list of microphone options from a number of manufacturers can be found in The Mojo Handbook: Theory To Praxis (Routledge), my latest book....
World Pinhole Day is coming up on April 29th. So, if you’ve been thinking about taking part, and want to do it digitally, but aren’t sure how then this one’s for you. Brought to us by Matt Coakley at Blue Mantle Films, this video walks us through the process from start to finish. It’s a very simple process, and the whole video’s only a minute and a half long. Easy to do, and costs pretty much nothing....
Photographer Mathieu Stern tests out a lot of weird lenses. From modern CCTV to 135 year old large format lenses, nothing is too large a challenge. Many modern lenses have adapters available for all kinds of camera system. Not so much with older or more obscure lenses. So, how does he fit all these to his modern DSLRs? In this video, Mathieu’s going to let you in on one of his tricks....
People think that because I expect the worst and try to prepare for it, that I’m negative. That’s not it at all. I’m not a negative person; I’m cheerfully cynical. If I expect the worst and it doesn’t happen, I’m happy because things went better than I expected. If I expect the worst and it does happen, I’m happy, because I can tell everyone, “See, I told you this would happen....
A few weeks ago, we got excited about all the new features in Lightroom CC’s “massive update”. The loved the long-overdue upgrades such as more profiles, faster import, and a better user interface. But, and this is a big but (BUT even), it didn’t take long before the community started experiencing problems that left them quite upset. Today, the software company apologized for the quality hiccup, and better yet, released a bug fix update that resolves these issues....
After hitting the record revenue of $1.84 billion in Q3 of 2017, Adobe has done it again. They broke another record and reported $2.08 billion income in Q1 of 2018. Although many photographers are unhappy with the subscription-only model, it seems Adobe is still doing just fine. Even more than fine. Adobe has announced the record revenue of $2.08 billion, and $1.23 billion of that came from Creative Cloud in the Digital Media Segment....
Adobe has launched new beta versions of Premiere Pro, Premiere Rush and Audition designed specifically for the Apple M1 ARM-based chipsets. Remember, they are beta versions, so not everything is fully working yet, but the new Adobe updates are designed to take advantage of the improved performance and energy efficiency that Apple’s new M1 systems offer. As with Photoshop, these are large applications that are going to take a lot of re-writing to be able to take full advantage of the M1 chipset....
Adobe has today released new updates for Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic and Lightroom for Windows, Mac, Android, ChromeOS, iOS and iPadOS. But as well as this, it’s also available now as a native application for both Apple’s new M1 Arm-based systems as well as Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 machines. Adobe says they’ve rebuilt Lightroom for both Apple M1 and Qualcomm Snapdragon (for Windows 10 – this doesn’t affect the Android version) based systems to take advantage of the new performance and efficiency benefits of the Arm processors....
And then there’s the other use, as a mobile dash cam for law enforcement. Perched on the officer’s shoulder, the drone would be ready at a moment’s notice to fly up and survey the scene. Or to allow the officer to safely see around corners, over walls, or behind other obstacles. And all available at the behest of a simple voice command. A personal drone sure would be handy. There are plenty of tiny drones out there already, but building in this kind of capability is going to take some work....
If you’re one of those who’s jumped on the new iPhone 12 smartphones, be ready to take very good care of it because if you kill the camera, there’s no inexpensive repair option. It will have to go back to either Apple or one of the few (expensive) authorised repair centres, iFixit has discovered in some more extensive testing of the new iPhones. A leaked internal Apple training guide suggests that this is intentional on Apple’s part, and also indicates that it’s true of all four models of the new 12 series iPhones, as they have to be tested through Apple’s proprietary software – although iFixit has only seen issues with the iPhone 12 so far....
Big photography shows happen all around the world. Some are much bigger than others, but are even the big ones worth going to? It’s a question I see asked quite often online, especially at the moment. The Photography Show is the biggest one here in the UK and it’s on next month. I’m going, and I’d probably still be going even if I weren’t covering it for DIYP. For me, they are worth it....
Advertisements NASA discovered the comet in March with the NEOWISE mission. Across the Northern Hemisphere, stargazers and astrophotographers alike can enjoy a glimpse of this interstellar object. Officially designated Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), it is one of three comets discovered this year. Earlier in 2020 the two other comets, Comet SWAN and Comet ATLAS, were discovered. They were showing promising signs of eventually becoming bright enough to see with the naked eye, but both eventually fizzled out....
Atomos first announced their Neon Series production monitors almost 18 months ago. They were announced at Cine Gear 2019 and were true 10-Bit display. Not only were they monitors, but they were recorders, too, which at the time potentially offered 8K resolution 60p in 12-Bit ProRes RAW. Although right now, they offer 4K DCI 60p. We’ve not really heard much about them since then, but now, Atomos has announced that the official launch of the Neon 17 and Neon 24 displays, with shipping beginning this month....
We’ve met a camera that lets you take photos in virtual reality, but there’s now an app that took things a step further. Augmented Reality Photo Studio lets you go to real-life locations and shoot virtual portraits. It’s certainly an interesting concept and it can be great for location scouting and trying out lighting setups. In the videos below, you can see the presentations of the app. Bear in mind though that there are some girls in bikinis, so you might not want to watch it at work....
It feels a little odd to see that Autodesk are actually selling something for a change. Normally they seem to be acquiring companies and software like Monopoly property. And PIXLR isn’t really much of an exception to that. Autodesk acquired the popular photo editing app in 2011. Now, six years later, they’re selling it on to stock photography provider, 123RF. It’s not surprising that a stock image company has started to take an interest in editing apps....
Hard drives are something that all of us have. Some of us just have the one our computer came with, while others will have a whole mountain of them. I’m in the latter camp, although I do try to keep things to a minimum. Every few years I replace all my storage drives as faster, cheaper, larger capacity drives are released. So, every few years I’m in the market for new drives....
