Removing anything in GIMP is easy when you know the steps… and practice! When planning this GIMP tutorial, I had a choice; simple or complex. Simple tutorials abound all over the internet on how to remove objects of all kinds. I thought to myself, where’s the fun in that! So, I decided to create a more challenging type of GIMP edit where you’ll learn how to remove someone from a complex background!...

Water is one of the most versatile subjects one can photograph. The very nature of water, though, means that it’s wet, so it can be messy and potentially dangerous. Working with it to shoot portraits in a home studio especially so. It’s not impossible, though. You just need to plan ahead, prepare properly, and perhaps have a friend along to help out. As photographer Gavin Hoey demonstrates in this video, it can be done with very minimal equipment....

Levitation is an often visited subject for both stills and video. It’s often done with human subjects using some fancy Photoshop compositing work. But it can be done very simply with every day objects, too with just simple fishing line. Photographer Jay P. Morgan showed us what he keeps in his tackle box a few weeks ago. In this video, he goes a little more in-depth into how to actually use it all to suspend objects....

It’s that word again. Exposure. It doesn’t keep a roof over your head, it doesn’t pay the bills or put food on your table. But can you capitalise on it and turn exposure into income or provide any other real benefit? New York based fashion and portrait photographer Jeff Rojas believes so, and in this video, he’s going to offer some insight and advice on his thought process when he’s asked to work for free “exposure” – which he says happens weekly....

If you’d like to try interesting photography experiments, when is a better time than now? If you’ve always wanted to try making cyanotypes, Mathieu Stern will show you his process of turning digital images into cyanotype prints. You probably already have at least half of the necessary items, and you can order the rest online so you don’t have to leave home. You will need 2-component cyanotype setA dropperA foam brushA mixing tray and a developing tray (or improvise with Tupperware containers)Watercolor paperA printing frame (an ordinary picture frame will do as well)Transparent acetate sheetWaterSunlight or a UV lampHydrogen peroxide (optional)...

Polarisers are one of the few filters that still hold an advantage for digital cameras. Pretty much everything else can be done these days much more easily in post. Even the effect of neutral density filters can be simulated – although it’s still not quite the same. Polarisers are common amongst landscape photographers, although not so much with portrait photographers. But they can be very useful, as the Koldunov Brothers demonstrate in this video....

Hoya has today launched two new filters. Well, to be correct, one new filter and one new filter set. The single filter is the Hoya Starscape filter, which cuts through light pollution when shooting astrophotography. The set is the new Hoya ProND Filter Kit, comprised of 3, 6 and 10 stops neutral density filters, designed for both photography and filmmakers. Hoya Starscape Light Pollution Cut Filter The Hoya Starscape is designed specifically for nightscape photography....

Yes, you read the title correctly. Well, almost. If I’m being completely honest actually I used four small wearable LED lights, and admittedly it was a fairly small castle. But you’d be surprised how little light you need with modern mirrorless cameras, a long exposure and a fairly high ISO. These little LED lights really can pack a punch in certain situations (mainly in complete darkness!). The most difficult part honestly was finding someone insane enough to hike up to a ruined deserted castle in Winter with me and stay out after nightfall to photograph the stars....

Two of the most commonly used adjustment layers within Photoshop are arguably the Curves and Levels adjustment layers. But if you’re new to Photoshop and you’ve never used them before, you might feel a little intimidated by them. Or perhaps you’re used to the basics of them, but don’t really understand their full power. In this video, Aaron Nace at Phlearn walks us through the basics of how they work, the differences between the two, and how we can use them effectively in Photoshop to adjust the contrast, brightness or even colour of our photographs....

Falling off a high location is one of the most common causes of selfie-related deaths. And last week, a desire for a perfect snapshot took away two more young lives. Vishnu Viswanath and his wife Meenakshi Moorthy wanted to take a selfie at Yosemite National Park when they were trying to photograph themselves and the spectacular view at Taft Point. 29-year-old Viswanath and 30-year-old Meenakshi were Indian expats living in California, AP News writes....

Insta360 has a reputation for producing some pretty fantastic 360 cameras. The Nano S for iPhones has proven to be particularly popular. But it left Android users asking “What about us?”. So along came the Insta360 ONE, which works with both iOS and Android. Today, though, Insta360 has announced the new Insta360 ONE X. The new Insta360 ONE X bumps up the 4K resolution of its predecessor to 5.7K and adds new FlowState Stabilisation for smooth, rock-steady footage....

You may remember a recent report saying that Instagram will allow users to post hour-long vertical videos. Well, Instagram has just announced IGTV, a standalone app created solely for this purpose. It’s aimed particularly at users who watch videos on their phones, so all videos are in the vertical format and the company believes that “this is the future of video.” In the announcement, Instagram writes that people nowadays are watching less TV and more digital video....

After adding some new features picked up from Twitter and BeReal, Instagram is finally launching something that’s actually useful. Among the platform’s set of new features, there are now those that will enable you to regain your account in case it gets hacked. Having a social media account hacked is a nightmare for every creator, and I know more than just a few people who’ve been through it. Whenever I open Instagram’s Twitter to see new announcements, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of people commenting about having their accounts hacked and not being able to retrieve them....

After allowing you to delete comments in bulk, Instagram has now expanded this possibility to… well, everything. From now on, you can go back and delete a whole bunch of your photos, videos, reels, stories in just a few clicks. Instagram has added a new section to your profile called “Your Activity.” To access it, go to your profile, tap the menu in the upper right corner and you’ll find it right there....

Instagram is introducing a new feature that will limit the audience of the Stories you share. From now on, what you share in Stories can be displayed only to your close friends if you feel like sharing more personal stuff that’s not for everyone’s eyes. https://www.facebook.com/InstagramEnglish/videos/298465497539979/ If you want to share a story only with the specific audience, you can now create a Close Friends list. To add people to it, go to your profile and tap on “Close Friends” in the side menu....

It’s not a secret that TikTok is one of Instagram’s biggest competitors right now, if not the biggest. As if copying TikTok’s features (twice… no, three times), Instagram is now paying creators up to $35,000 to post Reels. We had a hint of this feature earlier this year, starting with some kind of “monetization program” Mark Zuckerberg announced. He said that Facebook (now Meta) would pay $1 billion to all types of content creators through the end of 2022....

Well, this is kind of a surprise, but also not. It’s not surprising that Instagram (and Facebook) would be capable of trying something like this, but it’s a bit of a surprise that they actually went through with it. According to a new iOS 14.5 notice in the Instagram and Apps users are promoted to ask permission to track user data on the device to improve ads. The initial statement seems all well and good, but when we get to how Instagram and Facebook say they use this data, one of the arguments given for both apps is to help keep it “free of charge”....

Intrepid, the creators of the wooden 4×5 large format camera have now announced their new 4×5 enlarger. It mounts to the top of a tripod and is designed to be used in conjunction with the 4×5 large format camera you already own. This brings the cost down to a ridiculous £119 (~$155). It launched on Kickstarter yesterday and it’s already 300% funded. An enlarger for 4×5 negatives typically starts running into the high hundreds of not thousands of dollars....

Apple has just been awarded a new patent that depicts views from the iPhone’s dual cameras showing up on the screen at the same time. Called the “Digital Viewfinder User Interface for Multiple Cameras,” it would allow the user to control the two cameras individually. A similar patent was filed by Apple in 2015 but was never used on the iPhones released after that year. Perhaps it had something to do with the processing power it would take to apply the concept....

Ink floating in water is one of the most hypnotizing things to watch. It’s a favorite subject of many photographers and videographers, and guys from Macro Room have raised it to a new level. They have created a video using a fish tank with water, some ink and a couple of objects. And they did such a great job, it will be hard to believe there aren’t any computer generated effects....