So before my regulars start to suspect that I’ve been kidnapped and forced to write this against my will, yes this is indeed a lighting setup article that involves natural light! But don’t worry, we’ll quickly skip over the easy, beginner daylight setup and move on to the adult version that combines gels and strobes later on. So, if you’re suspiciously U.V. averse to the point where you could star in an Anne Rice novel, don’t worry, stick around to the end and I’ll have something a little more visually engaging for you there....

I’m currently writing a series of blog articles on photography composition. The two previous articles on composition covered are The Rule of Thirds in photography and Leading Lines in photography. I thought this time I’d cover symmetry and include some of my own symmetry photography examples to illustrate this. Now… I cannot speak for others but in my opinion, symmetry is key in photography. Of course, it needn’t be present in all photography but it’s hard to deny the strong and positive impact it has on any photograph....

The actual title for the latest video tutorial by Phlearn is “How to create a Packaging Design Mockup in Photoshop”, but it’s so much more than that. There is no doubt that the ability to create product packaging mockups is valuable. Maybe we’re doing it for ourselves, or maybe it’s for a client. But it’s something many photographers and designers have done at some point or another. But, the techniques shown in the video go far beyond simply adding logos to a brown box....

Can artificial intelligence tell how good your photos are? Well, in its “Spark the Renaissance” photography competition, Huawei is about to use AI to rate your images, with a little help from a real photographer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX5EiyXBosk According to Huawei’s press release, this competition will “spark a renaissance in photography.” CMO Huawei Western Europe, Andrew Garrihy, explains that the company has trained the AI in the Huawei P20 Pro to understand what makes an amazing photo....

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope brings us a pretty incredible and rare “blast from the past.” In a recent photo, the telescope captured three different moments in a supernova explosion that happened more than 11 billion years ago. In “universe years,” that’s merely childhood, which is certainly incredible. However, Hubble’s snap is special for something else too: shooting a supernova as it happens isn’t exactly an everyday sight. To take this shot, Hubble relied on a phenomenon called gravitational lensing....

Astronomers estimate that there are 100 million lonely black holes drifting through our galaxy. Despite such a huge number, they’re virtually invisible and extremely difficult to detect. But now, for the first time in history, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has managed to help scientists to identify one of these lonely wanderers. They used Hubble’s data to identify and even measure the mass of the black hole wandering through our galaxy....

The reaction I’ve gotten from people watching my latest #shotonaniPhone Photowalks video episode has been across the board. “What camera did you use to shoot this? It looks amazing.” That was the first comment. My sentiment too. This is related to the one key new feature of the latest iPhone, which is “Cinematic Mode.” It allows the photographer to blur the background as we do in Portrait Mode for iPhone stills, or by shooting with a small F stop on our cameras....

My photography started as a hobby, which became and passion and led to me becoming a professional. Mainly being self-taught, I was one of the first in my field to use portable lighting, and I now light all my subjects; from nature, portraits to architecture and of course motorbikes! I cover Motocross race meets throughout the UK and provide track days for amateur photographers to learn how to light and shoot fast moving motorbikes....

On March 21, 2017, the United States implemented a ban on bringing certain electronic items in your carry-on luggage from 10 airports based in the MENA region. This affects direct flights to the US from these airports. Shortly after the US announced their ban, the UK followed up with a ban of their own, affecting airports in 14 carriers flying into the UK. Items include: CamerasLensesiPadsLaptopsAny electronics larger than a cell phone....

When setting up a studio, one of the more difficult decisions that a newer studio shooter must make is which backdrop to get. More often than not, it’s which backdrops (plural) should they get? Photographer Joe Edelman is going to make it a real easy decision for you with this very informative video. You don’t need to get a whole bunch of backdrops, especially when you’re just starting out with studio work....

Being a professional photographer certainly requires some skills beyond photography. But this Craigslist ad for a family photographer certainly adds another layer to it. Other than photographing for social media, editing photos and probably posting them too, this family also looks for someone to be a “Mother’s Helper.” The ad was posted on Craigslist, looking for a photographer in New York. He or she would work as the family’s Social Media Coordinator, either full-time or part-time....

Sticking to one or two genres and specializing in them is not a bad thing. But are we going a bit too far with it? Are we putting ourselves into boxes and worse: allow other people force us stay in them? In this fantastic video, Sean Tucker reminds you why you should get out of the box, ignore the genres and “labelmakers” and just shoot what makes you happy. If you need a pep talk today, this video is a must-watch....

Infinite Tools have just released a powerful update to one of their most versatile Photoshop plugins. Infinite Unify 2.0 is the latest update from the innovative company that provides creative solutions for photographers and retouchers looking to streamline and speed up their Photoshop workflow. Infinite Unify gives photographers the power to tackle variations in skin tone, colour casts from mixed lighting, or other distracting elements in a fast and easy way....

Instagram announced yesterday that users will, from now on, be able to search the platform using keywords. It’s great news for all of you who want to increase your visibility on the platform, considering that it used to be possible to search only hashtags and accounts. However, the new option is limited only to certain countries, and we can say that it’s also not quite there yet. Speaking to The Verge, an Instagram spokesperson said that the company considers “a number of factors” when determining what the post is about....

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of Mahsa Amini protests in Iran. They started when the country’s morality police arrested the young woman for allegedly violating the country’s hijab laws. She later died in custody, supposedly from being severely beaten. The protests have already had many terrible consequences for the people of Iran, and now comes another one. Iranian government agency indicated that the country would use facial recognition to target and identify women who “fail to observe hijab laws,” among other things....

The International Space Station holds a whole lot of camera gear. Especially Nikon camera gear, as a recent tweet from astronaut Alexander Gerst illustrates while cutting the hair of fellow astronaut Sergey Prokopyev. Behind them are two walls filled with various camera equipment. But have you ever wondered how much it costs to actually send it up there? When the tweet was posted to Reddit, user ultrahello mentioned that it costs around $10,000 per pound to deliver items to the International Space Station....

Canon’s EOS R and EOS RP cameras haven’t quite seen the widespread adoption that they’d hoped for amongst users, although it looks like they might soon get a little assistance from RED. Newsshooter reported a teaser for the new RED Komodo camera. It was mentioned that RED would be posting about the new camera soon, after having recently announced the Hydrogen 2 smartphone. Very little is really known about it, but looking at a teaser image posted, it’s going to have a Canon RF lens mount....

Sometimes it takes only a day or two to return stolen camera gear to its owners. But other times, it takes a bit longer. Ten years longer. A decade after her DSLR was stolen from her apartment in downtown Winnipeg, marine biologist Kristin Westdal got it back. And the funny thing is – she is now giving it away. As CBC writes, Westdal recently had a surprise knock on her door....

The picturesque town of Positano in Italy is one of the most popular photography destinations in the world. But, if you’re planning a visit and taking photos for commercial purposes, be prepared to pay a pretty expensive fee. Starting from mid-November, the municipality of Positano is imposing a €1000 (almost $1200) of tax for all photographers who want to capture the town’s panorama for commercial purposes. It will be even worse for videographers, who will need to pay €2000 for the shooting permission....

Sony has recently announced a fancy compact superzoom camera, the Sony RX100 VI. It looks identical to the RX100 V, but it boasts a 24-200mm equivalent zoom range and comes with a couple of improvements. Kai Wong had a chance to play with the new vlogging camera from Sony, and he brings you his first impressions of this latest piece of gear.Advertisements Like its predecessor, the Sony RX100 VI is aimed at young people a....