I remember when I started shooting RAW and discovered Lightroom back in 2011. I was thrilled and overwhelmed by all the possibilities that were suddenly before me. And even though I wasn’t all that new at photography, it sure felt like it since this was a whole new world. If you can relate, Nigel Danson has a video for you. He gives you seven simple Lightroom tips that you should definitely know if you’re new to photography, shooting RAW, or Lightroom....

On the page dedicated to vegans’ concerns, Ilford explains that their film and paper products contain gelatin. If you’re a vegan or vegetarian, you know that there are alternatives to gelatin for preparing food. So, why can’t it be substituted for something else in film and paper products? Well, Ilford explains that gelatin has unique characteristics which prevent the film from becoming fragile, slow and with a short life. These characteristics “act as a membrane matrix for the silver crystals but also interact with the crystals as they are formed....

Landscape images with a strong narrative add a dimension to a scene. Very often, the viewer can relate to the story and the emotions it conveys. Elements in the photo that contribute to the narrative also spark the viewers’ imagination. There is much truth in the saying: “A photo is worth a thousand words.”Advertisements There are plenty of ways to add a storytelling element to a landscape scene. Let’s have a look at some of the tools we have....

The Sony A7c is shaping up to be quite an interesting camera. This vlogger-and-creator oriented full-frame camera comes in a very small body that appears similar in size to Sony’s A6x00 series cameras. It doesn’t quite bump the Sigma fp it off its “world’s smallest full-frame mirrorless” pedestal, though. A few photos of the new camera are out there, but now we also have some of the specs. For such a small camera, they seem quite impressive, too....

Sony has released a new Version 2.00 firmware update for the Sony FX3 mirrorless cinema camera. The new update adds some of Sony’s professional cinema line features into the camera, including additional LOG shooting modes, the ability to import your own LUTs as well as timecode sync for when you’re shooting multiple cameras. The new LOG shooting modes with LUT monitoring, Sony says, “create a smoother post production workflow by enabling Cine El, Cine El Quick and Flexible ISO modes for recording with the S-Log3 gamma curve”, letting you get a more useful preview of your shot while maximising the dynamic range of the recording itself....

Sony has announced a long list, covering pretty much every product type they make, that will see an average 14% price hike coming on February 1st. The company cites a range of factors, including the cost of raw materials, manufacturing and distribution – all “external environment” issues beyond their control – as the cause for the price increase. The company lists is Bravia TVs, Blu-Ray players and recorders, sound bars, home theatre systems, and more, including “digital single-lens camera, digital single-lens camera α [E-mount] lens, digital video camera, digital still camera, professional camcorders”....

Well, if Sony are introducing a new Alpha A9 camera aimed at sports and wildlife shooters, you just know they’re going to announce a lens to go with it. And that they have, with the new FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6GM OSS lens. It’s a full frame lens, featuring a double linear motor and Direct Drive Super Sonic wave Motor to keep it quick, accurate and quiet. Advantageous for both sports, wildlife, and video shooting....

American astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada successfully completed NASA’s first spacewalk since March. The spacewalk lasted a whopping 7 hours and 11 minutes and served to complete several objectives on the outside of the International Space Station. NASA live streamed the entire space walk. It’s not just an incredible thing to watch, but the astronaut’s helmet cams managed to shoot some amazing footage of our own planet Earth in the process....

For one thing, softboxes create a smoother light – less hotspots (yea – those are the bright, burnt our noses in your photos), anther is smoother shadows. Most professional models are shot with softboxes to get that glamorous, look. Softboxes are also great for macro shots – they produce even diffused light. The only trouble starts when you head down the road to the store and want to get one of them nice wonders....

The Tamron 35-150mm f/2.8-4 Di VC OSD is a compact and versatile zoom lens for full frame DSLRs. Although it was announced earlier this year, Tamron has only now revealed the pricing and availability. This lens comes in two mounts: Canon EF and Nikon F. Its main characteristic is that it’s a relatively compact and lightweight lens suitable for general use. The optical design employs both low dispersion glass and aspherical elements, which help to reduce chromatic and spherical aberrations throughout the zoom range....

Jay Hutton, a member of UK reality show Tattoo Fixers, has recently created a public backlash after a photographer shared the offer he received from Hutton’s representatives to photograph Hutton’s wedding. The tattoo artist and reality TV “star” is allegedly looking for a photographer for his upcoming wedding – and he’s paying in exposure.Advertisements According to the screenshot the photographer shared, Hutton’s representatives sent him an “offer of a lifetime....

Lav mics are one of the most commonly used and versatile microphones out there. But when you don’t want them seen in the final film, you can often be facing a pretty tough challenge to hide them, especially when you don’t want the microphone placement to negatively affect the quality of the audio. In this video, Darious Britt of D4Darious shows us ten ways to hide a lav mic while keeping your audio clean, along with a bunch of tips for attaching them....

The other day I was lucky enough to catch some Northern Lights over my hometown Stockholm. It is quite rare to see them here, especially on a full moon night, and with all the light pollution from the city. The experience of seeing and photographing Aurora Borealis inspired me to compile a video and this article with my 10 best quick tips to catch the northern lights with a camera....

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are all around us. I firmly believe the future of photography is computational, and we currently have a whole range of companies fighting to make the best progress in AI. Here at DIYPhotography, we’re putting various elements of AI head-to-head to determine the best software on the market. We recently covered AI Noise Reduction, and today we move on to Sharpening. The contenders for today’s fight are Adobe Photoshop, Topaz Photo AI, ON1 Photo Raw 2023, and Skylum Luminar Neo....

Recently, there were rumours that the upcoming Canon EOS R5 mirrorless camera would cost an eye-watering $6,700. These rumours were then quashed as the source of the “leak” admitted that they pretty much just plucked the number out of thin air and had no idea what the actual cost would be. Now, more in line with Canon’s confirmation that the EOS R5 will essentially just be a mirrorless counterpart to their 5D DSLR product line, Canon Rumors is reporting that the price is definitely going to come in at under $4,000....

We love Kickstarter here at DIYPhotography. It has brought many great photography accessories into our lives. True, sometimes it failed, but for the most part, Kickstarter is a great platform to get a product out there. And for this, we think Kickstarter is pretty cool. What Kickstarter is not cool for, is when the platform is abused. We got an email telling us that a new campaign for the Crack Light is actually a one-year-old product that you can already buy for a significantly less than the Kickstarter campaign asking price....

Perspective distortion seems to be one of the most confusing topics in photography. There are all kinds of erroneous “facts” about it. Like focal length being that which distorts your subject, and not the distance to the subject. Well, this video from This Place puts that myth well and truly to rest and also illustrates why “zooming with your feet” is the dumbest phrase in photography. Yes, there are optical distortions in lenses, but those have nothing to do with the focal length....

The Mars 300 is a new entry-level wireless video transmitter. So why would you need or use one of these? Well, there are a few different use cases for wireless video transmitters. The one I use them for the most is for bigger projects where not everyone who needs or wanted to see what is coming off the camera is in a position do so. For example, you may have your client who is paying for the whole shoot on set and they don’t want to be just sitting around doing nothing as people run all over the place....

Zhiyun has today announced the new Zhiyun Smooth Q2, their newest teeny tiny gimbal for smartphones. Replacing its two-and-a-half-year-old predecessor, the Smooth Q, the Q2 comes with some great advancements over the original. Surprisingly, though, Zhiyun’s launching it on Kickstarter. It’s always odd to me when an established company launches a product on Kickstarter, but it can also make some sense. Selling any product is about letting your target market know the product exists, first of all, and your target market might have never even heard of you before....

Portable power has become a big deal over the last few years as more photographers and filmmakers are discovering the joy of getting out of the studio and shooting on location. And thanks to new battery tech, gone are the days of noisy generators (for some of us anyway). This one from Omnicharge, though, definitely ranks up there amongst the beefiest I’ve seen, though. It’s the Omni Off-Grid Power Station and it’s an absolute monster, capable of delivering up to 1500 Watts of continuous power....