Sometimes, aimless scrolling through your Facebook feed has its purpose. While I was doing it a few days ago, an amazing light photo stole all my attention and made my jaw drop. After admiring it for a while, I decided to get in touch with Sergey Savenko, the young photographer who took it. So, I am sharing this surreal photo with you, as well as some details Sergey kindly shared about it....
Remember the animation showing how focal length impacts the portrait? When you shoot with different focal lengths and your subject takes the same space in the frame, you’ll get a certain amount of distortion. As a matter of fact, this is one of the reasons why camera “adds ten pounds”. In this video, Koldunov Brothers demonstrate how geometry of the face and body depends on the distance from the camera....
As virtual reality becomes more available and widespread, there are more interesting applications of this technology. Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) at Stanford has created a VR experience that lets you put yourself in someone else’s shoes. In their project, they use VR to show you what it’s like to be homeless. The name of the project is Becoming Homeless: A Human Experience. It was a part of a study carried out by Stanford, which included over 500 participants....
Tokina has launched two new lenses for Fuji X-mount. Tokina atx-m 33mm f/1.4 and atx-m 23mm f/1.4 are fast AF primes for APS-C models, and they should come in handy in a variety of shooting situations. Tokina atx-m 23mm F1.4 X offers 35mm equivalent focal length, and atx-m 33mm F1.4 X offers approximately 50mm equivalent focal length. This makes both lenses quite versatile and useful for different genres such as street photography, portraits, and landscapes, to name just a few....
The natural consequence of a wedding often seems to be divorce these days. And, as photographers, we have to adapt to the times. So, it makes sense for us to jump on these opportunities when we can. Like photographer Tom Byrd, professional divorce photographer. Of course, Tom Byrd isn’t real. Nor is his profession as a divorce photographer. And while this “Mini-Mocks” video from Comedy Central is very amusing, it does make me think of some of the seemingly strange photography jobs I’ve seen over the years....
On Saturday 1 July, £600 worth of cameras and equipment were stolen from inside my rucksack, itself packed into a larger suitcase, during a Tunisair flight from Tunis to London Heathrow whilst they were checked into the hold of the plane. Like any discerning photographer, or indeed sensible human being, the idea of checking my cameras in rather than keeping them with me in hand luggage was unthinkable, but as it turns out, I didn’t have a choice....
This article aims to look at how we as photographers ‘understand’ light. It may seem obvious to many of you, but to a vast majority of us, it’s simply not quite that easy. But what does it truly mean to understand light? Do we really need to understand light to take great photos? The simple answer is no…. but I guarantee it will help. A self-taught generation Many of us have opted to be very heavily invested in our passion for photography....
An ocean expedition exploring the depths of the Atlantic Ocean captured a video that looks like a cartoon turned real life. The cartoon is SpongeBob SquarePants, to be exact. The video shows a square yellow sponge and a pink starfish right next to it. Familiar, isn’t it? The video was captured by a deep-sea camera launched off the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer. One of the scientists, Christopher Mah, was watching the live feed when he saw the interesting sight....
The “free” image website Unsplash – a site that remains as controversial as it is popular – has released what it describes as “the most complete high-quality open image dataset ever”. The “dataset” in this instance is essentially the keywords and search metadata of a whole bunch of images that can be downloaded in one big lump. There are two datasets available. The “Full” version contains information for over 2 million images from more than 200,000 photographers around the world and is available for non-commercial use only....
Instagram is becoming more and more relevant to photography and video clients, to the point where a respectable Instagram following is part of how clients choose potential creators for paid jobs. Brand sponsorship, affiliate marketing, complimentary products for review and influencer access are also a few of the side benefits to growing a large Instagram following with high engagement. As a visual medium, Instagram is uniquely tailored to the advantage of photographers and videographers who produce visual content for a living…so how do you grow organic followers and engagement on Instagram?...
Advertisements 1. Body Shape and Angle With both men and women we are at our widest if we stand dead straight on to the camera so to avoid looking larger than we are simply angling the body slightly so it’s more of a side profile and then bring your face back to the camera. This is such a simple technique that can really make a huge difference not only in full sun or shade but if used during a window-lit portrait session combined with your in camera crop you can actually highlight areas of the body you want to draw the viewer attention to....
When I first started shooting DSLRs back in 2002 there were really only two options for cleaning my sensor. Either I had to box everything up, ship it to Nikon, pay like a $80 fee (plus shipping both ways) and in three or four weeks I’d get my camera back with a maybe clean sensor or I had to learn to do it myself. Back then, we didn’t have the array of sensor cleaning tools available today, either....
When you were a kid, you may have toyed around with taking things apart. Then, putting them back together again. For me, more often than not, the put-back-together part ended with some spare parts. The lack of which did not seem to impact the assembled piece though. Watch the GoPro Hero 5 undergoing the same procedure. JerryRigEverything takes a brand new GoPro Hero 5 apart. Usually, those videos are made so you can learn how to replace damaged parts, but sadly, GoPro does not sell spare parts for the Hero5....
When Madonna sang Strike A Pose, she probably did not image a model that can strike 25 poses over 30 seconds. Vogue would have been quite a ridiculous song if she had to go that fast. But the model that Sick Chirpse got on video take is able to change poses faster than the strobes recycle, and this is about 1 pose second. (+ a little dance between poses)...
Computer generated graphics has been in our lives for quite a while now. We can’t accurately predict what it will bring in 35 years, but we can go that far into the past and see where it all began. This video from BBC’s show Tomorrow’s World demonstrates the beginnings of CGI in 1982. The witty presenter Michael Rodd explains and illustrates what it looks like to transform a 2D image into a 3D model on the television screen....
My wife, Vicki, and I are full-time portrait and wedding photographers. When we aren’t shooting these things, we like creating dramatic images of people in fantastic surroundings. One of our favorite locations to photograph is the desert Southwest of the United States. We have made many trips there in the past and always have a great time photographing models in some of the unique locations to be found there. We just recently returned from a trip photographing four models in and around Moab, Utah....
Westcott has just announced a new strobe and an accompanying wireless trigger. The Westcott FJ400 is a portable 400Ws AC/DC strobe with less than 1 s recycle time at full power. It’s launched along with the FJ-X2m is a universal trigger which pairs with virtually any camera brand, so you don’t need a brand-specific trigger. The FJ400 is a 400Ws strobe with AC/DC battery. As I mentioned, it recycles at full power in under one second (0....
What if you had the same camera, lighting and subject matter as everyone else. A groundhog day for a photographer so to speak. If we all have the same gear what would make you different? “Imagine you had no way of visually showing someone any of your work, and they ask you to describe what you’re about, not your genre, but what is the essence of what you’re trying to achieve?...
Many newbie photographers believe that the better camera they buy, the better photos they’ll take. However, spending a bunch of money on your first camera could be a huge mistake if you’re new to photography. So, before you go and spend plenty of cash on your first camera, watch this video by James Popsys and rethink your decision. As James points out, many newbies are putting too much focus on the camera when they want to step into the world of photography....
It’s now 2021, and the Fujifilm X-T20 was released in 2017, uses Fujifilm’s X-Trans III sensor technology, and has been superseded by cameras like the X-T30 and X-S10 (both X-Trans IV). So why would it be the camera I recommend to people in 2021? Let me explain… Image Quality: The first thing of note is the image quality output of the X-T20. It has great dynamic range, great rendering, and at 24mp, has plenty of megapixels to play with....
