I get the charm of shooting video on an iPhone, especially since picking up an iPhone SE. It’s small, it’s always with you, and the video it can produce is pretty impressive. But where my SE has the advantage of a slew of cases available that let me hook it up to all kinds of other video shooting devices, many 6S/6S Plus users do not. The new Helium Core for the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus form factors not only aims to fix this situation, but takes things a step further by adding a whole bunch of 1/4-20 thread sockets allowing mounting your phone to pretty much any system you desire, as well as letting you to add microphones, lights, and other gadgets on top....

Florence, Italy, after dark. A Cadilac Seville pulls up on the deserted cobbled street outside the tiny entrance to the Gucci leather goods shop. Torn posters adorn the walls, a light in the window of the upstairs apartment comes on. You’d be forgiven for thinking this was an opening scene from a movie, but this is in fact all scale models, built by photographer Felix Hernandez in collaboration with Hot Wheels and Gucci, to celebrate Gucci’s 100th anniversary....

Every once in a while you come across a photographer who’s work really speaks to you personally. It might be the subject matter, artistic skill, technical perfection or just plane cool photography. In the upcoming Photographer Spotlight series, we are going to profile the work of a number of photographers along with question and answer sessions. We hope that their work will inspire you and that you might get a bit of insight into who they are and why they do what they do....

I wanted to write to you about photography contests — why I generally recommend staying away from them. First of all, if you enter your photo into a contest, you suddenly become a slave to the opinions of others. The most important person to please in your photography is yourself. Not judges. Not random people voting on your photos. Do you really care about what others think about your photos?...

Text-to-image generators like DALL-E have been available to the public for a while now, and so has DALL-E’s API. While it’s amusing to create surreal images with them, these tools come in handy in the real world, and PhotoRoom is one example of this usability. This photo editing tool now offers an AI-powered feature that turns your crappy phone snapshots into decent, or even great product shots. Just snap your photo, describe the context as you would with DALL-E or Midjourney, and watch the magic happen....

When you shoot some underexposed photos, brightening them up is usually not too much of a problem. However, making portraits brighter can result in desaturated, unnatural skin tone. In this quick tutorial, Aaron Nace of PHLEARN shows you how to brighten up a portrait and keep the skin tones saturated and natural-looking. And you can do it all in only two minutes. Start by opening the portrait you want to edit and duplicate the background layer....

Shadows are often the hardest part when creating composites. In my workshop I often get the question can’t we just take a copy of the model, duplicate that, make it black and use that as a shadow. My answer was always ‘no’ till recently. I am gonna show you a way how you can (often) use your model as a shadow. [editor’s note: we are huge fans of Aad Sommeling....

If you use guides in Photoshop, you know they can help you position and align the elements of the photo accurately. But do you miss these guides in Lightroom? If you do, it’s good to know Lightroom offers them, too. This option is kinda “buried” in the menu, and you may easily miss if you don’t know it’s there. This quick and easy tutorial by Scott Kelby will help you find it and use Guides in Lightroom CC....

It’s that time of year again – when we are overwhelmed by students and recent grads looking for gainful employment. As a business owner, it never ceases to amaze me how clueless some millennials are when it comes to applying for jobs and their expectations of the work world. If you are an arts student or recent grad and you want some honest tips to set yourself apart from your peers – please continue reading....

This is an interesting little product. Reclouder is a “personal hybrid audio recorder” that saves audio to an SD card but also automatically uploads it to the cloud. It’s a 2-channel recorder, meaning you just get left and right stereo sound, but it can take its input from 3.5mm mic sockets or through a pair of line/XLR combo sockets (one with 48v phantom power). At the moment, it still seems to be somewhere in the development stages but is expected to go the crowdfunding route at some point for a very reduced $129....

Refraction photography is an exciting subject that enjoys increasing popularity amongst photographers. You have probably seen refraction photos before, where an out-of-focus background appears sharply defined inside a crystal ball or a dew drop for example. In today’s post we will examine this phenomenon and learn how to take stunning photos, taking advantage of this fascinating effect. What is Refraction? Physically speaking refraction is a very broad term; it generally describes the process of light passing from one medium into another and the effects this has on its speed and direction....

Wouldn’t you love to be able to go and rent a Mavic Pro for free? Well, apparently now, you can. At least, you can if you live in the USA or Canada. DJI have teamed up with National Geographic for their My Mavic contest. The prize, somewhat obviously, is a Mavic Pro. Oddly, it says that rental is “world-wide” at the top of the page. The terms, though, state it is only open to residents of the USA and Canada....

It looks like we’re about to get two new Nikkor lenses for Nikon Z mirrorless cameras. According to the latest report, Nikon is about to announce Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.2 S and Nikkor Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S, and it’s rumored that they’re coming as soon as next week. So, let’s see what we know so far. Photo Rumors has found out about some specs and features of both lenses. According to this source, the 50mm f/1....

According to recent reports, we will witness an interesting acquisition, most likely this year. Two people familiar with the matter recently spilled the beans that Pinterest is in negotiations to buy VSCO. According to them, the discussions between the two companies are ongoing. Two people who claim to be familiar with the matter told the New York Times that Pinterest is looking into buying VSCO. Some talks have already been held, but there are reportedly more to come....

Everybody wants their wedding photographs to be interesting and special. This is probably why this couple chose to hire photographer CM Leung and shoot theirs in Iceland. It’s a beautiful country, which is why it has become such a popular wedding destination. But, the shoot turned out to be a little more different than the couple had planned for. During the shoot, a rescue helicopter buzzed over the bride and crew....

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland have developed a new advanced camera technology that can capture full-colour high definition (1280×720) resolution images at millions of frames per second. Yes, not just a million frames per second, but millions. Plural. The advanced camera tech developed by the team at Heriot-Watt University is set to receive funding to help it commercialise from Scottish Enterprise’s (SE) High Growth Spinout Programme. The inventor of the technology and associate professor at the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, Dr Xu Wang says it “uses a novel architecture and advanced mathematical algorithms to deliver high-resolution images across its full speed range” and that it “has been achieved at a notably lower manufacturing cost than other market products”, like the Phantom line from Vision Research, by being able to use off-the-shelf components....

There is a lot of old camera gear out there and I regularly see people showing off their “finds” on social media. Usually, though, it’s cameras or lenses. Often in decent working condition, too. Occasionally, though, they become repair projects, and following that process is fascinating. Less common, though, are anything photo-related that isn’t a camera or a lens… Like a tripod. Well, Markus Hofstätter found himself in possession of a 50-year-old Linhof tripod that had apparently been involved in a bicycle accident and was in pretty rough shape....

The Ricoh GRII was announced way back in June 2015. It contained a 16MP APS-C sized CMOS sensor with a 28mm equivalent lens and became very popular, especially amongst street photographers. Now, Ricoh has announced the development of its successor. Yup, you guessed it, the GRIII. While the focal length and maximum aperture stay the same, it does see some significant changes. The sensor’s gone up to 24MP, they’ve taken away the flash and it gets 3-axis IBIS....

Ricoh has announced a new Ricoh GR IIIx Urban Edition Special Limited Kit – bit of a mouthful. As the name suggests, it’s a new limited edition version of the GR IIIx which offers a metallic grey finish with a blue accent around the lens barrel along with some exclusive matching accessories. But it’s not just a pretty face. The GRX IIIx Urban, as we’ll call it from now on, also sports new exposure and focus modes that the standard GR IIIx does not have....

Ricoh has today announced the new Ricoh Theta X 360° camera. Like the rest of the Ricoh 360° range, the Theta X is an all-in-one camera featuring a pair of lenses and sensors. It seems to represent a pretty big step up from previous Ricoh Theta cameras in terms of user interactivity, thanks to a great big new 2.25″ touchscreen display that lets you preview your shot (a Ricoh Theta first!...