Studio photographers. They’re an odd bunch. And they don’t get much odder than multi award-winning photographer, Simon Ellingworth. Of course, I’m kidding, he’s a lovely guy. But he’s often asked why he has bricks in his studio covered in black gaffer tape. In this short video, he explains why. To put it simply, bricks can be very handy in the studio. They’re heavy and can easily help to support things like foamcore panels, reflectors and other items when you just need to throw something down quickly and have it stand up unaided....

Have you been feeling a bit stressed out recently? If so, take a look at this amazing video created by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). The video shows 29 different species of jellyfish, pulsating gently to music as they swim around in the water. It’s 10 minutes of total calmness and has a sort of meditative quality to it. “From tiny, delicate drifters, to giant deep-sea denizens, jellies come in a variety of beautiful and mesmerizing forms,” says MBARI....

Rode has launched a new range of Vlogger Kits aimed at vloggers and smartphone filmmakers. The kit comes in three flavours. There’s a Lightning-equipped iPhone kit, a Type-C USB based Android kit, or a universal kit that works with both (although you’ll need your headphone jack adapter cable). Each kit includes a mini tripod, a phone bracket, microphone, windshield, light, lighting gels, and all the extra cables and bits you need to get up and running quickly....

Even though Tom Cruise wanted to make the first movie in space, the Russian film crew beat him to it. Actress Yulia Peresild, director Klim Shipenko, and veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov recently arrived at the International Space Station, where they will shoot “The Challenge,” the first-ever feature film in orbit. The trio took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this Tuesday onboard a Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft and the drama began even before filming....

Samyang Optics has announced their new AF 75mm f/1.8 FE lens for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras. Weighing in at a mere 230, this makes it one of the lightest portrait lenses on the market – and Samyang claims to be the lightest specifically at 75mm. This is the 5th member of Samyang’s “Tiny but Almighty” AF series lenses, which Samyang says are the result of market trends and the growing needs of users....

Samyang has officially announced the new Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 FE lens for Sony E mount full-frame mirrorless. It’s the latest addition to their “Tiny Series” lens lineup and as the name suggests, it offers a 24mm field of view with a wide f/1.8 aperture. It weights only 230g and measures only 71mm from front to back, but this is an autofocus lens, not manual. The lens features a new “Custom Mode” with an LED indicator designed for photography....

The stunning ‘Brecon in Winter’ by Will Davies was chosen by the judges as the overall winner of the 2022 Landscape Photographer of the Year award. The stunning image shows the view towards the west of the Brecon Beacons in Wales from the Pen y Crug hill fort. “I love this area in winter,” Will says, “the mountains somehow feel and look grander and wilder in the snow. The weather was not looking promising as I hiked up in the dark,” he explains, “but luckily the sun broke through right at sunrise, just long enough to get this shot....

Fujifilm is holding not one but two events in New York City this September. The first is the X Summit event on September 8th, where they’re expected to launch a new camera. Two days later, on September 10th, they’re hosting a free Fujikina “interactive festival” event for anybody interested in photography to come and celebrate the 10th anniversary of Fuji’s X-Mount system. The X Summit event is likely to be the announcement of the long-awaited Fujifilm X-H2 mirrorless camera with the company’s shiny new 40-megapixel 5HR X-Trans CMOS sensor....

Whichever business you decide to start, it will require an initial investment, and photography is no exception. Before you jump into the murky waters of being a professional photographer, there are some items that you must invest in. In this video, John Branch discusses seven essentials that you absolutely must buy before you start your own photography business. Having a camera probably goes without saying, so John talks about other gear that you must have....

Landscape photography marketing is one area that photographers often find particularly hard. But if you want your photography business to grow, you have to know how to market yourself and your work. When discussing work with my colleagues, the topic that always arises is “how did he or she get that job?”. In my workshops, I always talk about two major points in my landscape Photography Marketing workshops. Landscape Photography Marketing in a nutshell The first is that your photography level is often of little importance when it comes to your marketing....

The Helios 44-2 is one of my favourite old lenses. This, along with the Jupiter-9 are my two most used manual focus lenses for stills and video. The Helios 44 line started in 1958. Its initial design is a copy of the Carl Zeiss Biotar 58mm f/2, and was produced by KMZ for the M42 mount. Since that first version, it’s been through several iterations as technology has advanced. In this video from Manny Ortiz, we see the Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 lens in action on a Sony A7RII....

Shutterstock has been one of the world’s leading microstock agencies for more than a decade now. Like other microstock sites their business model is a simple one. Sell a lot of image licenses very inexpensively, focusing on quantity and bulk sales. For many photographers, that’s not always been an ideal situation. A vast archive of images leaves little room for yours to be noticed. They want to help improve things, though, with the release of a new plugin for Adobe Photoshop....

There’s two things you can be fairly sure of whenever Nikon or Canon release a new DSLR. The first is that you’ll need to wait for Adobe to update ACR/Lightroom to be able to read the raw files. The other is that some Sigma lenses will have compatibility issues, and need a firmware update. And so, Sigma have released an advisory for certain Art and other lenses when being used with some of the newer Canon bodies....

It’s been quite a while since Skylum announced Luminar Neo, its brand new editing software. And now, it’s finally out and ready for you to install and use. You may wonder what it is, what it does, and who is it for. How does it compare with Luminar AI and Luminar 4? Stay with me, I’m going to tell you more in this article. Editing tools Ivan Kutanin, the CEO of Skylum, says that there is a fine line between the photo you took and the photo you imagined....

Much has been said over the years about Sony’s Eye Autofocus system and it was one of Sony’s biggest selling points for portrait photographers for a long time. Even after Canon and Nikon finally jumped into the world of mirrorless cameras, Sony still seemed to be on top when it came to their autofocus system. But now that Nikon and Canon have had their systems out for a while and they’ve been working on them, does the same hold true today?...

Sony has released the much-anticipated new V2.00 firmware to add the S-Cinetone picture profile preset to the Sony A7S III mirrorless camera. This now basically brings it in line with the Sony FX3, but with a built-in EVF and a significantly lower price point. The new firmware also adds the Active setting to Steady Shot when shooting with S&Q Frame Rate enabled. There are a few other little fixes in there, too, including FTP transfers as well as USB tethering to the iPhone (although iOS 14 isn’t supported yet)....

Although pretty much everything was revealed through leaks already, Sony has now officially announced their new Sony ZV-1 compact camera. Essentially, it’s a Sony RX100 V, but with design changes and features that make it particularly suited to vloggers and YouTubers – a not-insignificant chunk of customers for cameras like the Sony’s RX100 series and its competitors. Hoping to draw some of those customers away from the likes of Canon’s G7X Mark III, the 20-megapixel Sony ZV-1 has a flippy out LCD (not flippy up or down), minimised button layout and improved internal microphone, but with a hotshoe on top and a 3....

Imagine a website that convinces its users to upload free content and builds social signals (e.g. likes and view counts) to make the site addictive. Then imagine the company using the usage data as a referral mechanism to make money without compensating the content producers. It’s not Facebook, it’s Unsplash, and it’s terrible for photographers.Advertisements Now imagine a huge website provider partnering with Unsplash to distribute the photography for free, and basically send the message that photography has no value....

Murad and Nataly Osmann’s #followmeto project has become wildly popular all over Instagram, causing many to follow suit with images of their own, adding to the ever growing hashtag, and even garnering the attention of National Geographic. While the Osmann’s journey plays like pure fantasy to most of the world, Taiwan couple Forrest Lu and Agnes Chien have shown us some more realistic goals with their hilarious parody during a recent holiday to Hawaii turning things more into #dragmeto....

I’m guessing you took thousands, if not more, of photos and videos in 2022, because with a smartphone in our pockets, it was just so easy to do. And like most people, if you thought about backup at all, you did what was easiest. You signed up for the automatic backup programs on Apple and Google, which made copies of the photos and videos on your phone, and placed them into the “cloud” for a monthly fee....