While I’m waiting for the crowdfunding campaign for my darkroom timer project to reach its completion (7 days to go), I’ve been busy with a few other projects. One of them you’ll find here in this article: an LED conversion to my friend‘s Durst Laborator 1200 enlarger. Advantages of having a LED head: Reliable light source with low power consumption.With the right LEDs, no red filter will be necessary under the lens....
In this article, I am planning to discuss the way I use my DJI Mini 2, a cheap drone that many people dismiss as being a toy for beginners in order to get photos and animations that stand out. While spreading my belief that with great knowledge you can overcome the limitations of your gear & budget. I don’t know if this ever happens to someone else, but sometimes I leave home thinking that I would go in one place and end up in an entirely different one....
Part of the joy of landscape photography for me is standing around and waiting for the light to change. You put your camera on its tripod, compose a shot and wait, taking photos every few minutes, whenever the sky or light or whatever looks interesting. I caught the tail end of a storm in Santorini, Greece, with heavy clouds blowing over right at sunset. An hour or so later and it was blue hour, with streetlights and buildings lit up....
There are many situations where it’s hardly imaginable to take photos without a tripod. But there are several types of them, and you may find it hard to choose the one that best suits your needs. Or you’ve already bought it only to realize it isn’t really ideal for you. This is why photographer Joe Edelman breaks down the types of tripods and their uses, which should make it easier for you to make the decision....
Each of us has our own style and our methods for editing photos. There are a few ways for color grading, and we can do it in different software. I have stumbled upon an interesting video from Eye Stocker for color grading in Photoshop. It uses only Solid Color Adjustment Layers and “Blend If” mode. It was published on April Fool’s Day, but it’s no joke – it works pretty well....
Softboxes are wonderful tools for product photography. They allow you to get nice soft shadows, and beautiful edge highlights to make your product shine. But if don’t own them already, and all you plan to shoot are a few photos for eBay, it can get expensive. There’s light stands, flashes, the softboxes themselves, possibly reflectors and other doohickies. This video from commercial photographer Leo Rosas shows a fantastic technique to create an “invisible softbox” using lightpainting techniques....
In a slight departure from the reviews of old and weird lenses typically seen on Mathieu Stern’s YouTube channel, this tutorial shows how to create animated before and after sequences as animated gif or video files from within Photoshop. I typically hop into After Effects to make short animated gifs, purely because it’s what I’m most comfortable with, but doing them from within Photoshop can definitely make life easier. You can never have too many techniques in your arsenal, especially when it comes to Photoshop....
Most of us shoot portraits with bokeh behind the subject. But what if we reverse the position of lights and the model? In this video, photographer Mark Wallace shoots portraits with front bokeh to create more playful indoor portraits. All you need is a camera, a model and a string of Christmas lights. It’s a simple trick and gives really good results. This technique in a way emulates the look of being outside....
Birefringence is an effect that causes psychedelic rainbow colours to appear in otherwise transparent materials. Such as the magnifying glass in the pictures above.But actually, it’s a little more complicated than that: Birefringent materials (mostly crystals) split an entering light ray into two rays that are both polarized with the vibration directions oriented at right angles to one another, and traveling at different velocities. When placed between two crossed polarizing filters, such materials appear in bright colors....
Before you raise your torches and pitchforks, this is not another post about how focal length affects your subject, or whether you should “zoom with your feet” or not. I’m sure you’ve already seen how changing focal length and/or distance changes perspective, but this video answers an important question – what can you do with this information? Jay P. Morgan shows examples how changing your focal length and getting closer or further away from the subject affects the relationship between the foreground and the background....
An underwater volcano erupted in the South Pacific, first on Friday and then again on Saturday. the violent eruption was captured from space, showing the eruption releasing a massive ash cloud and sending a shockwave around it. And from what it seems, this could be the biggest volcano eruption ever captured from space. I saw the satellite video on Instagram, shared by a photographer I follow. I immediately wanted to learn more, as the eruption filmed from space looks darn epic....
One of the shortcomings of smaller image sensors is obtaining adequate exposure in dim lighting situations. Anyone used to sub full-frame cameras or just dull kit lenses has felt this pain. To gain appropriate exposure you’ll either have to bump up the ISO, shoot with the lens wide open, add physical light sources to the scene, or just get use a camera with a bigger sensor/better ISO performance. I decided to just find a brighter lens....
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the creative benefits of using ND (Neutral Density) filters in photography. This can be viewed here. Although I love ND filters they can require a larger initial investment which could be a barrier for people who want to play around with long exposures photography. What if there was another option that let you adjust the strength of the light reduction which costs less and still offers decent image quality?...
I’m going to get it out of the way right at the start. Having watched the trailer, I want to go and see this movie. This trailer tells us absolutely nothing about what the movie’s about, but every cut pulls me in more. Until the guy starts talking at the end of the trailer, I’ve no idea that the movie is “an AI horror thriller”. But these are the kind of trailers I grew up with....
I am in no way a professional photographer: my gear includes a Nikon D5200 body, with the Nikkor 18-55mm VR II kit lens, the Nikkor 55-300mm VR zoom lens, and the latest addition, the Nikkor 50mm 1.4G prime lens. My favorite combo is still the Nikon D5200 body + Nikkor 18-55mm VR II – no offense to the other lenses. The reason why I decided to write this article is because I have seen a lot of newbies considering the kit lens as just a piece of glass with no merits at all....
Illuminati is a triangle that measures light and color and transmits them to a smartphone. We stopped by the Illuminati booth at Photo Plus Expo 2017, and had a chat with the founder – Mike Okincha. According to Mike, Illuminati will be shipped to backer in a week or so, and available in stores for the holidays with a price tag of $299. Illuminati takes constant readings while it’s on and display them on an iPhone or Android app....
When it comes to composition, there are generally two schools of thought. The first is to strictly obey the “rules” they’ve read or been taught. The other is to simply go with your gut and what feels right. This video from Advancing Your Photography featuring photographer Huntington Witherill leans more towards the right. While Huntington talks us through some very specific thoughts and processes, he says there’s no formula or list of things to do that will guarantee a good composition....
For those of us that don’t live in locations that are prone to tornadoes, it can be difficult to imagine what they’re really like. Sure, many of us saw the 1996 movie Twister, but that’s just a movie, right? Surely it’s not that bad in real life? Well, this footage, apparently shot with a lowly DJI Mavic Air 2 by Tornado chaser Reed Timmer shows that yeah, they’re pretty bad....
No matter how hard some influencers try to debunk the myth of “the perfect body,” there will always be those who promote it. Heck, even Instagram itself seems to prefer skinny, model-like women over us regular gals. The platform recently banned users from sharing Celeste Barber‘s semi-nude parody photo. It wouldn’t be a problem if the original image of a model Candice Swanepoel weren’t left untouched. After the scandal, Instagram quickly came under fire for “fat-shaming” and “double standards....
Last year, Apple announced the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus with displays offering a wider colour range. They also announced that the cameras built into these phones would be able to take advantage of that. Most image sharing platforms however, do not. They typically convert the images to sRGB upon upload. Worse, some even strip out colour profiles completely. Instagram, though, have just updated Instagram to now support the wide colour range the new devices can offer....
