After three years with my current camera setup, I know every nook and cranny of my DSLR and accompanying lenses. Despite this, there has always been one component that took longer than I care to admit to properly understand. The diopter. Here to share what a diopter does and what purpose it serves in your workflow is the always-energetic Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens. In the two-minute video, twenty seconds of which is taken up by self-promotion, Morgan covers what a diopter is, what purpose it serves and how to change it to fit your eyesight....

A while back Adobe announced that they will release a Lightroom update which focuses on speed. That announcement was met with deep disbelief (see the comments here), and even when Adobe released it’s latest Lightroom CC 7.2, responses were lukewarm. But a real-life test done by Nasim Mansurov of photography life shows that Adobe is finally starting to listen to their customer base. I am not surprised as more and more alternatives are trying to fill the gap in Lightroom user’s hearts....

Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram in 2012 proves to be a good decision even seven years later. According to a recent report, Instagram earned around $20 million in 2019 from ads only. In other words, that’s more than a quarter of Facebook’s overall 2019 revenue. Facebook owns several apps, including its Messenger, as well as extremely popular Instagram and WhatsApp. However, the company doesn’t disclose revenue for each of them separately in its earnings reports....

Well, this is something you don’t see every day. Journalist Tori Yorgey was reporting from Dunbar, W. VA. for local news channel WSAZ when she was hit live on-air by a vehicle passing behind her. She was covering a water main break caused by bad weather that brought with it plenty of snow and ice and while getting ready to answer a question from the news anchor Tim Irr, a light coloured truck turned into her as it came to pass behind her....

This is an incredibly geeky topic, but it’s a subject I find absolutely fascinating. It involves how flashes communicate with the camera and reverse engineering the “language” they use to talk with each other. In this video, Roger Nieh of Science’n’me takes a look at the Canon flash protocol using an oscilloscope to eavesdrop on that communication. What makes the Canon system so interesting, and Nikon’s AWL system is that they don’t use radio....

Since its initial announcement last month, many Ricoh fans have been waiting to be able to get their pre-orders in for the new Ricoh GR IIIx digital camera. Well, now, they can and it’ll cost you around $999. Over the GR III it sees a longer focal length, new face and eye-detection AF, improved in-camera editing and a bunch of new accessories. The body of the camera hasn’t changed at all, and it still looks and feels largely the same, except when you shoot with it, you’ll have a slightly narrower field of view, going from the 28mm equivalent on the GR III to a 40mm equivalent on the GR IIIx – which is said to deliver “a new, innovative perspective perfect for dramatic, inspiring street photography”....

Rode has announced the new Rodecaster Pro II, the successor to 2018’s popular Rodecaster Pro live mixer aimed at live streamers and podcasters. The Rodecaster Pro II isn’t just an incremental update over the original, though. Rode says they’ve redesigned it from the ground up to create “a completely new beast” featuring ultra-low-noise, high-gain Revolution Preamps and the ability to accept instruments as well as microphones. It has a super low input noise level of -131....

If you’re thinking about picking up the new Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 for your smartphone photography needs and you’re a bit of a tinkerer, you might want to rethink that decision. This isn’t new news and was recently posted on XDA Developers, but it’s news that appears to have escaped the photography community so far. It seems that if you unlock the bootloader on the new Samsung Galaxy Fold 3, Samsung will disable all of your cameras....

Samyang has today announced the release of its newest autofocus lens, the Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 FE II. It’s an update to the first autofocus lens Samyang ever produced. So, this will be what Samyang meant by “RE:BORN of the 1st” in its teaser a few weeks ago. According to the press release, The Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 FE II is the smallest and lightest amongst large aperture 50mm lenses with the Sony FE mount, coming in at 88....

One of the biggest problems for many video shooters is getting decent audio in the camera. The in-camera mics in most cameras aren’t exactly great, and so you need to go external. Sennheiser’s XSW-D range makes getting external audio into your camera easy, and it does it wirelessly over 2.4Ghz. We spoke to Sennhesier at IBC 2019 to find out more. The XSW-D range is designed to work as simply and quickly as possible....

Serif has launched a new major version of Affinity Photo – its first since initially launching in 2016. Affinity Photo 2 introduces not only a massive amount of new features to the application but is also part of a whole Affinity Creative Suite, similar to Adobe’s Creative Cloud, incorporating multiple applications. Probably the biggest difference between Affinity and Creative Cloud, though, is that this is still a one-off purchase with no subscription....

It feels strange to be watching a COOPH video that actually has a presenter talking to the camera, but that’s exactly what we have here. COOPH approached London-based street photographer Alan Schaller. You might remember Alan from one of SmugMug films’ features last year. This time around, he’s offering up seven tips for shooting more effective black and white street photography. 1. Go out and limit yourself to just shooting black and white on purpose Alan suggests spending a month just shooting in black and white in order to help you see the world in black and white more easily....

Shooting macro is one of the most interesting photography topics one can attempt. Aside from seeing a whole new tiny perspective on the world, there are so many different ways you can do it. You can buy an actual macro lens, or you can use a regular lens with extension tubes or reversing rings. You can even mount two lenses back to back. Or, you can do what Micael Widell did and use a 3D printed adapter with a microscope objective....

Something came to my attention recently thanks to some feedback from close friends. This was called “Fixing the Keystone” or “Keystoning” and it simply means making sure that your verticals are vertical and horizontals are horizontal. A very simple concept and also one which architectural photographers will have been on top for decades. Here’s how you can fix the problem in just a few clicks! As a portrait/fashion photographer, it might not actually be something you think to fix when you’re caught up in the moment....

When you travel to iconic and popular locations, it can be hard to avoid clichés when taking photos. But does it mean you should skip photographing these places? Of course not. In this video, Chris Sale teams up with Tom Maple to give you some tips on shooting at places that have been photographed thousands of times before. Chris and Tom visit three locations in the Lake District and shoot together....

Are protective lens filters a necessity or a nuisance? Every photographer has their answer to this question, with their own reason to use (or not to use) them. If you still didn’t come up with your decision whether to use filters or not, Photographer Phil Steele could help you with this comprehensive, objective video. First of all, he discusses which type of filter could be the best for you, and how to determine the ideal price....

Sigma has today announced the addition of three new full frame lenses to their Cinema line. The 28mm T1.5, 40mm T1.5 and 105mm T1.5 are the newest high-speed cinema lenses from Sigma. This brings the total lineup of Sigma’s full frame high-speed cinema lenses to ten. With the addition of the three new lenses, eight out of the ten are now a super fast T1.5 aperture, with only the 135mm and 14mm lenses sitting at T2....

Here is a bit of interesting news, a letter that Sigma distributors just sent to their retailers tells that Sigma is stopping to make some of the Sony mount Sigma lenses. A reliable source within the industry tells us that Sony is actually quite a small business with Sigma, so they are letting this line go. There are curently four lenses that have stopped production: Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM MacroSigma 70-200mm f/2....

Last year I had written an article about why I don’t shoot at conventions. A lot of it was for logistical reasons (not enough space, the time pressure, no guarantee that the spot you wanted to use won’t be taken up by others when you want to shoot, etc). But some of it was for creative reasons. The primary one being that when you have all of these factors that are forcing how exactly you have to shoot it doesn’t leave a lot of leeway for creative interpretation....

I was actually reluctant to create this video in the first place because I know it’s been done a million times, and the advice you get tends to be extremely general. So, my goal in this tutorial is to provide actionable steps that you can take. The very first step is to identify your niche. This is easily the biggest mistake that I see new photographers making – and also something I did wrong for a long time....