The ‘Learning by doing’ philosophy first emerged back in the 1930s and is a valid paradigm. In photography, this probably means ‘Learning by mistaking.’ I see daily articles with titles like “four mistakes landscape photographers should avoid”, or “avoid these mistakes to become a better photographer“. As a teacher, I think that this approach is 100% wrong. Actually, quite the opposite; I would advise photographers to make as many mistakes as they possibly can....

The importance of presidential photography cannot be understated in today’s visual world. Although the bulk of photography since the inception of regular presidential photography in the 1950s still consists of “grip and grin” photo ops, White House photographers have sought to capture a more intimate look at the leader of the free world. Press access to the President varies by administration (a criticism that dogged the Obama administration), but White House photographers have access to private or top secret moments that are a vital part of the historical record – from 9/11 to the assassination of Osama bin Laden....

There are plenty of ways to enhance colors in Photoshop. Nathaniel Dodson of Tutvid shares five tips that will help you make the colors more prominent, or in other words – make them “pop”. The tips are different and you can use them for various types of photos, no matter if you work on portraits, landscapes or some other kind of images. 1. Using Lab mode Go to Image > Mode > Lab Color....

ProGrade Digital has announced a new memory card reader and this one’s designed for mobile creators to let them quickly copy and shift files two and from their Android and other portable Type-C USB devices. It supports UHS-II microSD and SD cards on the USB 3.2 Gen 1 protocol (which is way more than UHS-II SD cards need), letting you transfer to and from laptops and mobile devices at maximum speed....

Shooting outdoors at night scares a lot of people, or they simply don’t enjoy it. They’re worried that their gear can’t stand up to the job or that their abilities can’t. When the sun goes down, their kit goes away. The day’s over, what’s the point? It’s dark, it’s miserable, and you have to ramp up your ISO to ungodly levels, and the “rules” seem to go out the window....

Other than privacy concerns, it looks like Facebook’s and Ray-Ban’s camera glasses have also sparked creative ideas. Famous British photographer Rankin has recently shot the world’s first magazine cover using precisely this little gadget – both as a prop and as a camera. A post shared by rankin (@rankinarchive) Rankin used Ray-Ban Stories to photograph actress Anya Chalotra for the latest edition of Hunger Magazine. The young actress, best known for her role of Yennefer of Vengerberg in The Witcher, was posing for the cover while also wearing a pair of these smart glasses....

There has been so much written about the technical specs and raw performance of Apple’s M1, particularly as compared to its Intel-based Mac counterparts but also Intel-based Windows PCs that it’s enough to make your head spin. But a chart with numbers only tells you so much. Real-world performance is often a little different, especially as new software is released that becomes more or less optimised for one platform vs another....

The pandemic has changed the way we live and work. In recent months my workflow had to adapt to this new reality. Even the type of work I do changed a bit. With that, the demand to carry out all the creative and production processes from “home or studio” is ever stronger. And to do this, you have to adapt and renew yourself and your workflow. So I did. These are times of change, complicated, but there are also new opportunities....

Fujifilm’s f/1.0 lenses have been rumored for a while now. But it looks like we’re finally about to see one of the rumored fast lenses. According to Nokishita, the Fujifilm XF 50mm f/1 R WR will be announced soon. Nokishita tweeted that an article titled “Fujifilm has officially announced the XF50mmF1 R WR” was published on overseas news sites. However, there’s not much more that we know about the launch date and the price....

After Nikon and Canon announced their light and affordable entry-level full-frame mirrorless cameras, it looks like Sony is in the game to do the same. According to numerous recent rumors, Sony is about to launch its own entry-level full-frame mirrorless to compete with Canon EOS RP and Nikon Z5. Sony Alpha Rumors has heard from several sides that Sony is about to launch the new camera in mid-September. The only thing that could mess up the plan is, of course, the coronavirus, but SAR’s sources claim that the camera is in the works and planned to launch this fall....

On April 21, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 91st birthday. Many people found a convenient way to pay a tribute to Her Majesty, but a famous singer Rihanna did something that her fans saw as disrespectful. The singer posted several photos on her Instagram where the head of the Queen of England was photoshopped on Rihanna’s body. The photos are weird, to say the least, and most of her fans reacted pretty fiercely....

Filmmakers, rejoice: thanks to a court case from 2019, you may no longer need to get a permit and pay fees for commercial shoots in national parks. D.C. federal judge has just made the decision, ruling that it’s unconstitutional for the National Park Service to require a permit and charge you with fees. It all started in late 2018 when director Gordon Price was shooting his feature film Crawford Road....

At last year’s Photokina, Samyang showed off “the world’s widest lens for full frame DSLRs,” and now it’s officially announced. The Samyang 10mm f/3.5 is not a fisheye: it’s a rectilinear lens and Samyang promises that it offers “zero distortion.” The new Samyang 10mm f/3.5 is a manual focus lens, designed for 50MP high-resolution DSLRs. When attached onto a full frame DSLR, the lens provides a 130° field of view, while it will be 104-108° on APS-C bodies....

Since Fuji opened up its X mount to third parties, those third parties sure seem to have jumped on it. And they’re not just manual lenses that happen to use the mount, either. We’ve seen a few autofocus from Tokina, Zeiss, Viltrox and even a zoom lens from Tamron. Well, now it looks like Samyang’s jumping into the fray with what looks like a 12mm f/2.0 autofocus lens for Fuji X....

Western Digital has today announced the new SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE modular SSD ecosystem targeted toward creatives. It comprises the PRO-BLADE SSD Mag, available in 1-4TB capacities that offer speeds of up to 3,000MB/sec, the PRO-BLADE Transport USB 3.2 Gen 2 (20Gbps) reader for speeds up to 2,000MB/sec, and a PRO-BLADE Station desktop SSD enclosure that holds four SSD Mags at once with Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps) speeds. Western Digital says that the new versatile NVMe SSD mag allows users to quickly scale storage on location or in the studio, with up to 3m of drop protection and 4,000lbs of crush resistance for durability in those random location environments in which we often find ourselves....

Light is key to photography. Of that there is no doubt. But typically when we shoot portraits, particularly in the studio, many of us will opt for strobes. They’re tried and tested, they give us plenty of light and you can stick some huge modifiers on them. But it’s absolutely possible to shoot portraits with continuous light, too. Making the switch from strobes to continuous, can feel a little daunting, though....

In an interview with Imaging Resource, Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki has announced that there is a new delay with Foveon sensor development. It sounds like the same old story we’ve been hearing since 2018, but it seems as if it’s not so much the technical challenges that Sigma is facing now. The technical development issues that have caused delays in the past seem to be resolved for the most part....

Image quality, weight and value for money. We have come to accept that most lenses are strong in only one or two of these three factors, that I personally focus on when researching lenses to buy. Sometimes though, we stumble upon a great lens design which is strong in all three. One of the prime examples of such a design is the “nifty fifty” – the 50mm f1.8 lens construction that many lens manufacturers provide....

Over the past few months, Skylum has teased a few key features of the upcoming Luminar 4. It’s all about making photo editing automated, easier and much faster than before. After showing you how its AI-powered features work, Skylum has now officially released Luminar 4 and it’s ready for preorders. Luminar 4 comes with a refreshed interface and workflow. As Skylum explains, the company’s latest software “shifts from being a tool-based approach to one that is purpose-based....

One of the big problems with shooting timelapse, especially at night, is that it can get very boring, really quickly. So, often, astro timelapse photographers will leave their cameras snapping away while they go for a nap. That’s what Matthew Vandeputte did at the end of May while shooting timelapse on a road trip through Utah. Meteors are quite common to capture at night, along with the usual aircraft, but capturing one exploding is a much rarer event....