Looks like July will be exciting for Sony shooters, at least in terms of third-party lenses. After Tamron’s announcement, it seems that Sigma is also about to launch something new. It’s not just one Sony FE lens, but four of them: two zooms and two primes. They include 35mm f/1.2, 45mm f/2.8, 12-24mm f/2.8, and 24-70mm f/2.8, and they are reportedly coming later this month. The report comes from Sony Alpha Rumors, although the primary source isn’t known....

One of the questions I see pop up often through various portrait groups on Facebook is “what softbox do I buy?”. After they settle on an octabox, it’s invariably followed up with “How big should I go?”. Personally, when it comes to Octaboxes, I’ve always been of the belief that the bigger the better. But, that’s just because I like nice big soft light. And, if you’re using a flash capable of filling it, why not?...

A walk on the trash mountains My eyes are filled with tears, because of the smoke. The plastic-particles in the air are itching in my lungs. I am climbing this mountain with my two friends. The ground under my shoes feels funny. It softly cushions my steps, like fresh and loose soil, but I also tangle my feet every now and then. It is an awkward mass, this mountain of pressed trash....

Regular as clockwork lately, SmallRig has announced yet another new Matte Box. What makes this one different from the SmallRig 3575 Mini Matte Box Lite, the 2660 Lightweight Matte Box, the 3196 Mini Matte Box or the 3680 Mini Matte Box Pro exactly? Well, this one’s modular. It’s the SmallRig 3556 Modular Matte Box, and it comes in a bunch of different kits depending on your needs. Thread adapters are available to mount it to 67mm, 72mm, 77mm or 82mm lenses as well as the option to mount it to standard 15mm rods....

In this video photographer and content creator Peter McKinnon explains why he’s completely changed his mind about what images you should be sharing on social media, and how it relates to your portfolio and overall work. Peter says that several years ago he used to curate his Instagram feed extremely carefully, only posting his absolute best work, making sure the grid was pretty much perfect, flowing with the seasons of the year....

Advertisements Gear 1 180cm parabolic umbrella on a 500Ws monoblockWind machine2 hand painted backgrounds2 bricks Setup The color concept One thing was important for this photo: we wanted to take it away from the polished studio look and bring it more towards an art workshop feel. The model wore red clothes and makeup. In Photoshop the colors were adjusted and her skin tone brought down a bit to really make the red pop....

Nokishita has posted a tweet of a registration of a new Sony camera in Asia. The camera is codenamed “WW271448” (which offers zero clues as to what it is) and according to Sony Alpha Rumours, it is indeed going to be a “high end” E mount camera. Exactly which E mount camera it’s going to be is unknown, but with the A7R IV and A9 II so recently released, their replacements are unlikely to be coming soon....

Sony has launched a new Visual Story app for iOS aimed squarely at wedding and event photographers. Or at least, ones that shoot Sony cameras. It allows for easy editing, gallery creation, cloud storage and web delivery solutions to get your images to your clients as quickly as possible. Visual Story is a free app for Sony & iOS users. It utilises automated image transfer from compatible Sony mirrorless cameras to the cloud, after which users can instantly edit and deliver digital albums to their clients....

Sony World Photography Awards (SWPA) recently announced finalists and shortlists of its annual contest. However, some images of Hong Kong protests have been removed due to their alleged “sensitive nature.” This has caused a backlash in the community, accusing competition organizers of censorship. One of SWPA Documentary category’s finalists is Hong Kong photographer Ko Chung Ming. His gallery named Wounds of Hong Kong contains ten images of the aftermath of the country’s pro-democracy protests....

With all the hype over the Leica/Sigma/Panasonic L mount alliance, it’s easy to forget about the Leica M mount. But not everybody’s forgotten about it. French startup PIXII SAS has announced their new Pixii camera. It’s a new digital rangefinder camera, based around the Leica M mount, and the specs have been released. PIXII founder, David Barth, says that “the digital camera hasn’t changed much since the 90s” and that the Pixii will take advantage of the proliferation of smartphones....

One of the most common things I see today, especially from newer photographers is posting far too many images from a session online. We’ve all seen it, and probably all done it at some point. You go to a photographer’s page, look at their photos, and you see 50 images from one shoot, followed by 50 from another, then 50 from another. While we’re proud of many things we create, this can really dilute our most impressive work....

If you’ve only got one job to do then you’d better do it, no matter what obstacles get in your way. Like 20 odd runners for example. This cameraman at the World Athletics Championships was so engrossed in the event he was filming that he didn’t notice that he’d wandered onto the main running track. Spectators watched open-mouthed as the oblivious cameraman stood on the track, back to the oncoming runners....

Sony World Photography Awards has recently revealed stunning shortlisted and commended photos from their 2018 competition. They reached the record-breaking number of submissions, with nearly 320,000 images from all over the world. That’s a whopping a 40% increase in entries compared to the previous year, and I’m sure the judges had a difficult task of making the selection of the best photos. In this article, take a look at some of the best images that compete for the title of Photographer of the Year....

When we think about websites, search engine optimization (SEO) is often top of mind. How is Google ranking you against other similar photographers? Are you showing up on the first page of search results? There’s no doubt SEO is important for every photographer to consider. However, there are some big misconceptions when it comes to SEO. “Photographers first need to nail other aspects of their sites,” says website designer and PhotoShelter certified consultant Alex Vita....

When it comes to editing on location, particularly video, the biggest challenge is finding laptops with enough grunt to really let you get the performance you need to work through things quickly. And while there are some great laptops out there for this kind of work, you do start to feel those bottlenecks after a while. ASUS has a response to that, though, with the new ASUS StudioBook S W700, a laptop offering an Intel Xeon CPU, up to 64GB RAM, up to 4TB M....

If you don’t know much about audio choosing a microphone can feel a little overwhelming. It’s like learning a whole new language full of omni-this and cardioid-that. But it really doesn’t have to be so complicated. Sennheiser’s Simon Beesley walked DIYP through choosing the best microphone for the job at hand. So which microphone will cover all of your needs? “It’s a very good question,” says Simon, “realistically it depends on what you’re going to do, the type of working environment....

I first saw the DigitalFoto Ares 4th axis stabiliser a little while ago, but I really wanted to see one in person to see how well it performed. When we found out DigitalFoto were going to be at IBC 2019, we decided to pay them a visit so we could take a look. They also had something new with them, too, the Thanos Pro stabiliser kit, which includes a vest and arm system for stabilising those really heavy camera rigs....

Those who know me are aware that I’ve been talking about getting a drone for ages! Years, in fact. Put off by the many restrictions and rules that went hand in hand with owning and flying a drone, my biggest concern was that I just wouldn’t use it enough. I thought that it would be mostly unused, sitting on a shelf gathering dust, but when DJI announced the Mini 3 Pro, the time was finally right to jump in and place the order....

If you’ve been a predominantly natural light shooter then the prospect of adding a flash or strobe to your images could feel a little daunting. Suddenly your way of controlling light just doesn’t seem to work anymore, and it can be incredibly frustrating just trying to get the beautiful subtle effect that you’re probably going for. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Adding a hint of strobe to ambient or outdoor natural light is a great way to take your images up a notch....

I never even suspected that the solution might be this simple. I don’t have an EOS R5, but I figured if it was this easy to get around Canon’s time limits on the EOS R5, somebody would have tested it already. But it turns out that the EOS R5 (and presumably EOS R6) overheating limits can be beaten by a simple clock change in the camera’s settings. The folks at Hong Kong-based production company, Vision Rouge suggested the idea of changing the clock and a user by the name of yourboylloyd on the Magic Lantern Forums decided to see if it really was that straightforward....