Well, it looks like Yongnuo finally jumped on the Lithium Ion battery powered flash train. Releasing its first Li-Ion powered speedlight, the YN686EX-RT, the new Yongnuo is designed for the Canon RT system. The flash was first mentioned a couple of months ago, but now it’s available to buy. The YN686EX-RT features a 2000mAh Li-Ion battery, capable of producing over 750 full power flashes on a single charge. It integrates a 2....

Canon has just released EOS Webcam Utility Beta software that lets you turn your DSLR, mirrorless or PowerShot camera into a webcam. With most of us working from home now, the demand for webcams has increased immensely, so this solution could be great if you just want to use the camera that you already have. Tatsuro ‘Tony’ Kano, executive vice president of the Canon U.S.A., says: The software is still in beta, so if you decide to use it, Canon is seeking your feedback on Canon Community forum, where you can also find some useful tips....

I don’t know if it has anything to do with the current situation, but Instagram seems to be working hard on improving its web-based experience. After enabling direct messaging from a browser, Instagram now lets you watch live streams from your computer, too. Users started to notice that Instagram live streams have become available through a browser. For all of us who are staying at home, I believe this can come in handy....

Over the past several decades, the Bowens mount has become the ubiquitous modifier mount for lights. Created, naturally, by Bowens decades ago, before they went bust, it seems to have been adopted as the defacto standard for the photography industry – and even video lights like those from Godox, Aputure and others have taken up the trend. But Godox actually has their own modifier mount, used on the Godox AD300Pro and AD400Pro strobes as well as the new ML60 continuous LED (review coming soon!...

Photoshop is full of shortcuts and tricks. Even professionals discover something new from time to time, and get surprised how come they didn’t know it before. Colin Smith from Photoshop Cafe shares seven tricks hidden in Photoshop’s interface, and some of them are hidden in a specific way: in plain sight. These features have been in front of your face all along, but you may not have noticed them. As Colin himself says, these aren’t “Photoshop hacks,” but “engineered tools and settings that make your life easier....

Filmmaker Sam Newton first caught our attention with his tongue-in-cheek song Camera Man. But when it comes to his funny videos, it gets even better. He recently called out PeterMcKinnon in another hilarious music video. And guess what happened: Peter saw it, loved it, and even made his own video about it, which brought Sam over 25,000 subscribers in three days. Okay, here’s how it all started. Sam made a rap song about his favorite YouTubers, Peter McKinnon being one of them....

If you take your craft seriously, the odds of having heard these words are quite high. Audiences associate good images with great cameras, and for the longest time, this (almost) accusation has bothered photographers who felt their skills were downplayed. The interesting bit is that we’re walking towards making the “great cameras = great photos” equation true! And they fit in your pocket. Before I started for real with photography and cinematography – more than ten years ago – I used to play with a Sony compact camera....

For those who haven’t heard of it before, “I’m Back” produces a range of digital backs for various analogue film cameras. After several successful Kickstarter campaigns in 2017, 2018 and 2019, I’m Back is, not surprisingly, back. This time they’re bringing the “I’m Back 35”, which offers compatibility with more camera models as well as manual mode shooting. Not surprisingly, the new version is up on Kickstarter and runs until May 31st....

Digital backs for old film bodies has been a dream for a lot of people who want to resurrect their favourite cameras of yesteryear. There have been a lot of promises and a lot of hype for various products over the years, too. One project who seems to actually be doing it, though, is I’m Back. It’s been an interesting journey for I’m Back, and you can see how that journey has progressed from 2016’s initial idea to now on their website....

Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand, fast! It’s only been public for five minutes and already some of the biggest Canon proponents are slating the new Canon EOS R mirrorless camera. “R is for Resign,” says EOSHD’s Andrew Reid. And I have to be honest, I see his point. Although the first DSLR to shoot video was the Nikon D90, it was Canon’s 5D Mark II which really paved the way for serious video in small form factor cameras (thanks, Vincent!...

At the time of my takeover of the Visit Faroe Islands Instagram account, my own account was around 5k followers. To briefly run and manage a page that has surpassed 100k was a great learning experience. Here’s a few things I learned along the way that might help others At that level, you will naturally have a larger base of people exposed to your work, meaning more opportunity for polarized reactions....

19 year old Courtney Marie Mulkentine from Gympie, Queensland, posted photos of her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend to Facebook and removed them after Mulkentine received a phone call from the victim, but by then it was too late. After pleading guilty to “using an electronic carriage service to harass or offend”, the Australian teenager has been banned from using social media for six months, after the act of “revenge porn”, an increasingly common and worrying practice....

For me, finding portrait locations is fairly easy. But most of my shoots are in rural locations and I am able to pick locations well in advance. But sometimes you don’t have that luxury. I’ve experienced that, too. You find yourself in a town or city with a subject, and no particular location planned. So, you have to use your wits to find somewhere on the spot, even in what might initially appear to be the least photogenic of places....

Leonardo da Vinci was the ultimate ‘autodictat’ (someone who taught himself everything). He had no formal schooling, yet he didn’t let that get in his way. He was the world’s keenest observer— he would just look around himself, take notes, and followed his curiosity. He stayed like a child his entire life— never stopping learning, writing notes, or sketching. He is one of the most celebrated artists of all-time, and for good reason....

How do you avoid the dreaded ‘identikit’ landscape image problem? You know, when you think you’ve found an epic location and then check Instagram and discover hundreds of almost the same but possibly better images? What you need is a new method of location scouting, and in this video photographer, Dave Morrow walks us through a few ideas on how he finds amazing locations that aren’t already all over everyone else’s feeds....

Sure, it’s wonderful to own top of the line Nikkor and Canon glass. But incredible engineering and precise alignments of optical components aren’t always needed. Sometimes you just need to have fun. And for those moments, cheap toy camera lenses are a wonderful opportunity to explore the playful and unknown. In his most recent video, photographer and man behind The Weird Lens Challenge, Mathieu Stern, gets his hands on four toy lenses that all cost less than $30 and quickly explains the unique characteristics of each....

Do you use a monopod? It’ definitely a useful tool for photographers and filmmakers, and it comes in handy when we can’t use a tripod. Jordy Vandeput from Cinecom gives you a few tips how to make the use of monopod creative in the videos. In his brief tutorial, you will see five ideas to maximize the use of your monopod and make it useful in different kinds of situations....

Have you ever gone somewhere expecting to take some amazing photos only to get there and be so uninspired you don’t even take your camera out of your bag? It can happen for so many reasons and to most of us at one point or another. The important thing is to not beat yourself up over it but find ways to break through this undesirable condition. Here are a few reasons why it’s happening....

Shooting outside in bright sunlight scares many photographers. I always see people saying to not go out and shoot portraits when the sun’s high in the sky. To wait until golden hour and shoot in the sunset, or only go out on a cloudy day. Well, I think that’s nonsense. There’s so much you can do with bright contrasty sunlight. In this video from Shutterbug Magazine, photographer James Patrick shows us five great tips for working with it....

At the high end, smartphone cameras get better and better with each new release. It’s almost as if every time a new one hits the streets, DxO Mark declares another new “World’s best” smartphone camera. So Marques Brownlee put five of the best head-to-head in this blind test, for us to determine the winner. The phones compared in this video are the iPhone X, Huawei P20 Pro, OnePlus 6, Pixel 2 XL and Galaxy S9+, all of which have very highly rated cameras....