If you’re thinking of upgrading your kit with a new portrait lens, you might be indecisive which one to buy next. In this video, Manny Ortiz shows you what you can get with four different lenses: 35mm, 55mm, 85mm, and 70-200mm. He replicates the frame with each lens at the widest aperture to show you what to expect and what you’ll get with different focal lengths. 35mm Manny starts with the 35mm f/1....

‘Sometimes, the complexity of simplicity makes us fail to preserve the fundament of all we are and all we represent’. This is the opening line for the description of ‘SINGULARITY’, a mesmerizing macro video by award-winning photographer Roman De Giuli. And while it might seem contrived, it couldn’t be more true. That’s because this psychedelic adventure was captured with nothing more than glass components, various liquids and fabric dyes, all of which come together to create a visual feast for those who enjoy out of this world imagery....

In this article I am going to highlight 5 key things that I see portrait photographers doing that I consider to be ‘in need of improvement’ and although there are no hard-and-fast rules to photography, try to think of it as being similar to an instrument being slightly out of tune or a meal that’s perhaps a little too salty. These are glaringly obvious errors to the well informed but may not be so obvious to those who are just starting out....

You want a backdrop that perfectly matches your vision and that is easy on your budget? Photographer Lui Cardenas shares a simple method for painting your own canvas backdrop. You will need an idea, a couple of Home Depot items and some free time, and you can paint your own canvas backdrop just as you want. You will need: A canvasPaint trayAcrylic paintWatera textured roller + extension poleA sponge...

Introduction This guide will be a walkthrough on the basics of Milky Way photography. It is best for beginners, but even intermediate and expert photographers might find something new! Plus, I always find it never hurts to refresh yourself on the basics. Before we get to the good stuff, I’d like to start by saying that I hope you find this guide to be a bit different from the rest....

There’s not much cuter than baby animals and especially inquisitive baby animals. Viktor Čech placed his GoPro Hero 9 Black down on the ground in a part of the local wilderness in Turiec, Slovakia to see what it could spot and got quite the surprise when he went back to retrieve it and found that it had moved from where he placed it. Not only did it move, though, but it also captured who moved it....

According to a report on The Information Instagram has experienced a pretty major security bug which allowed user passwords to be displayed in plain text. The issue arose, ironically, over the feature which allows users to see exactly what personal data Instagram has collected about them. Yes, the “Download your data” feature could potentially let anybody download your data, if you access the feature on a public computer, thanks to the bug....

I’m not a massive fan of faking optical characteristics in post. I prefer to shoot it the way I’d like in the first place. But sometimes it’s not always possible. Sometimes you don’t realise until after you’ve got the image up on the computer that something is a little more in focus than you’d have liked. Shooting in the studio, for example, you’re often around f/8, to allow your subject some freedom of movement....

An efficient workflow is the most valuable tool in a photographer’s or filmmaker’s arsenal – probably more so than the cameras we shoot with. These days, that workflow largely relies on a computer. And for me, workflow efficiency means using a computer with multiple displays. A company called INNOCN recently reached out to ask if I’d like to try out their new PF-15 Pro 15.6″ 100% sRGB IPS touchscreen slim monitor....

There’s a small bit significant new feature coming to Adobe After Effects. It’s currently available in the latest After Effects Beta and I expect it’ll be coming to the final release once it’s all ready. Essentially, it lets you see exactly how much each layer in your composition affects your render time. This is a pretty massive feature, as it’s often difficult to figure out exactly which part of your composition might be slowing everything down without manually checking each layer on and off in turn....

Adobe has announced today a groundbreaking addition to After Effects: content-aware fill for video. The feature is powered by Adobe Sensei, the company’s AI platform which helps to remove various visual elements automatically. This feature has been available in Photoshop, and it makes it much easier for photographers to remove unwanted objects from images. But now, the same feature is coming to After Effects, making life easier for video editors, too....

Adobe has posted a short but to the point blog post stating that many older versions of Creative Cloud applications will be removed, limiting availability to only the two most recent major versions of each (except for Acrobat – which will only allow the latest version) and their minor updates. This is an attempt, Adobe says, to help keep users updated with the latest features as well as ensure critical bug fixes and security updates are applied....

As you can see, Goldmund doesn’t only teach you how to approach unknown girls and try to get them to bed. There are even the “Gear” and “The Technical Aspects” chapters, which I suppose teach you the most basics things about photography. I particularly like the “Success Stories” part. I wonder if Terry Richardson had some stories to share. Now we get to the book description, and it gets more serious: So basically, the book teaches you that photography is nothing but a tool to get to know hot girls and seduce them....

So back to the Peak Design bag. It’s a small grass-roots type of company whose origin story reads a little like the ultimate in start-ups becoming successful. San Franciscan spends a few months travelling and notices that most camera bags suck so he quits his job to start solving the problem. His strong values regarding quality and sustainability and hard work get the product designed and successfully to market via Kickstarter....

Ansel Adams was one of those people that becomes more and more fascinating the more you learn about him. Each bit of information you gained made you want to learn even more about either the man himself or photography in general. In a video recently uploaded to Advancing Your Photography’s YouTube channel, host Mark Silber interviews his son, Michael Adams, and looks at how Ansel discovered what became his biggest epiphany in photography....

It’s that time of year again when all the fanboys flock to San Jose for the annual iPhone announcement. This year, they’ve announced three new iPhones. There’s the iPhone XR (an iPhone X with one camera), then iPhone XS (an iPhone X with more fake bokeh), and the iPhone XS Max (an iPhone X with a big screen). They’ve received a new processor, of course, and some new computational photography features that’ll probably filter down to their other iPhones in some variety, too....

If you are even remotely interested in photography, I’m sure you’ve heard plenty of tips about how to improve at it. Some of them are truly golden and helpful, but there definitely are some that we should disregard. In this video, James Popsys shares nine of these photography tips he has been given, but which he believes you should ignore. So, have you also been given these tips? And do you follow or ignore them?...

We’ve already seen that astronauts can be darn good photographers. They show us what our world looks from “out there,” but it’s not just about the photographic skill. They feel the responsibility and motivation to document it. In this great video from MotivationHub, Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield talks about his images from space. He shares his motivation behind them and some more life wisdom that we all should listen to....

If you love astrophotography, here’s a real treat. Royal Observatory Greenwich has just announced the magnificent shortlisted images of its 2021 Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest. The photos were taken all over the globe, and even beyond: there’s even a photo of the sunset on Mars. So without further ado, let’s dive in and enjoy this gorgeous selection of images. Royal Observatory Greenwich organizes the contest in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, and it’s now in its 13th year....

I’ve heard of cyclones, I’ve heard of reindeer, but a reindeer cyclone? This is totally new to me. But it’s a thing, it looks incredible, and a drone pilot managed to capture this phenomenon from above. Science girl posted the video on her Twitter account, explaining what stands behind this unusual behavior. Science girl writes that reindeer behave this way to make it impossible for predators to attack individuals. In the middle of this “cyclone,” there are fawns, the youngest and the most vulnerable of the herd....