Photography News

The Canon EOS R6 Mark III sits in the middle of Canon's mirrorless lineup, yet its feature list now overlaps with both the higher-resolution R5 Mark II and Canon's Cinema EOS bodies. If you shoot stills and video for a living, that overlap decides how many bodies you buy, carry, and maintain.

 

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Picking a camera system for video locks you into a mount, a lens lineup, and a manufacturer's release schedule for years, and the features a brand ships early tend to shape how you work long after the purchase. Panasonic's Lumix bodies rarely dominate filmmaking gear talk, even though several capabilities now drawing attention elsewhere have lived inside them for a long time.

 

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At $400, the Panasonic Lumix S 40mm f/2 is one of the least expensive ways to put an official autofocus prime on an L-mount body. A 40mm sits between the standard 35mm and 50mm choices, and a lens this small and cheap has a good chance of becoming the one that never leaves your camera.

 

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Views over valleys - pretty straightforward isn't it - get high, find a valley, point the camera and take the picture. If only it was that straightforward – let's look at some of the other things you should consider when photographing vistas: 

  1. Check the weather

Firstly, and most significantly, the weather. Check weather forecasts (Check them on-line twice a day - as they change regularly) and don't assume that a sunny day is best. It depends upon the area and time of day - low, raking sun across a misty early-morning landscape can be fabulous, as can afternoon sun, casting tree shadows and picking out dry-stone walls across rolling fields. However, a landscape topped with a stormy sky can similarly look really impressive. The only type of skies to avoid might be a plain grey overcast, which gives both no detail in the sky and no texture across the land; or a clear blue sky in the middle of the day, which offers little modelling to the landscape. Blue sky with clouds allows cloud shadows to break up the otherwise flat lighting.

  2. Check the direction of the light 

The direction of light is also important, shooting distant views can look very flat and uninspiring with the light behind you. Far better to have cross-light coming from the side or contra-jour lighting. Even with stormy skies, better cloud shapes can occur when the light is shining through them. So either get to know the area – and the best times of day, or take a map and compass. 

Clear conditions can allow impressive detailed views over many miles, which with good lighting and texture can be effective, on the other hand, misty or hazy lighting conditions can provide an ethereal, delicate landscape and emphasise the depth within the scene.

 

 

3. Consider an ND Grad Filter 

If your landscape shot includes the sky, you might find that an ND graduated filter will help you control the contrast between land and sky. A polarising filter can darken blue skies and often can cut through slight haze – giving better clarity and even reduce the hazy blue cast, warming up the image at the same time. A good way of excluding excessive sky and foreground is to stitch a series of pictures to create a panorama.

 

4. Think about foreground and midground interest as well as the background

One of the biggest problems with distant landscapes is maintaining enough interest through the photo, whilst the distant landscape might be interesting in itself, if there is nothing in the foreground, or no way for the viewer to be visually led into the photograph, it will lack impact. Always be on the lookout for foreground detail, which might be a tuft of long grass, a rock, gate or barn. Good mid-ground interest, perhaps a set of overlapping dry-stone walls, a spotlit copse of trees, or even – at a larger scale, a set of overlapping hills.

Even the getting high bit need not be all climbing. Again take a look at your maps, many good landscape views are accessible by road, or by level paths from high roads. Even one of the most famous of all landscapes, inspiration point in Yosemite National Park, is best taken from the car park! However, there is still a certain sense of achievement of having carried kit and tripod up a fell to be rewarded with a stunning view.
   

A judge in Hartford wanted to know how the computer had made a set of plaster teeth semi-transparent so they could be laid over an autopsy photograph of a murdered woman's breast. "Judge, you got me," the state's forensic odontologist answered. "I don't know how they do it, but they do it," he said, and then, "I think we really need an engineer."

 

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There’s a special role that affordable lenses play in the grand scheme of things, especially those that don’t compromise too much on optics. This new lens, while smaller than most of its kind, is sure to open many doors.

 

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The Sony FE 24-50mm f/2.8 G and FE 20-70mm f/4 G both promise a smaller standard zoom, and each one asks you to give up something different to get there. If you carry a camera into the mountains for hours at a time, the choice between extra width, extra reach, and an extra stop of light shapes nearly every frame you bring home.

 

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Most people start landscape photography already believing a few things: you need a wide angle lens, a tripod goes everywhere with you, and a strong portfolio might eventually pay for itself. Those beliefs decide what you buy, where you travel, and how you judge your own progress, and several of them don't hold up once you've spent real time in the field.

 

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A macro image of water droplets on moss, called October, by ePz member KristinaZvinakeviciute, has been awarded the Photo of the Week accolade.

This is a superb close-up image with great lighting, and the soft, warm glow at the top of the frame gives the whole scene a dreamy feel. The tiny drops cling to the moss capsules and pick up the colors of their surroundings, while the creamy bokeh in the background adds extra interest.

The shallow depth of field keeps the central stems and drops nicely sharp, with the rest of the moss softening into green tones. It’s a beautiful macro image.

Every Photo of the Week (POTW) winner will be rewarded with a Samsung 128GB PRO Plus microSDXC memory card with SD adapter, providing top-tier storage for all your creative needs across multiple devices. But that's not all! In January 2027, we'll crown our 2026 Photo of the Year winner, who will take home the ultimate prize of a Samsung Portable 1TB SSD T7 Shield, courtesy of Samsung. See the terms & conditions and prize procedure for more information.

It’s time to shoot, submit, and showcase your best work for a chance to win these incredible rewards! Want to be our next POTW winner? Just upload an image to our gallery where you'll also find all of our past POTW winners.

Adapting a vintage lens to a mirrorless body gets you inexpensive, well-built glass with a look modern optics rarely have, and it also brings purple fringing, darkened corners, and lines that bow at the edges. Every one of those flaws can be pushed around in Lightroom, so each one becomes a decision about how much of the old lens you keep in the final file.

 

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You arrive somewhere beautiful, raise the camera, and every frame comes back looking like a postcard someone else already took. Too much to look at can stall your composition faster than too little, and the fix often starts with seeing less of the scene through a viewfinder, a long lens, or an in-camera crop mode.

 

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Cross polarising effect is where you use a pair of polarising filters - one on the camera and one on the light source (behind the subject) to show stress in plastic which appears as wonderful multicoloured pattern. It used to be quite difficult as the filter needed for the backlight needed to be large and polarising gels are not only hard to find but also quite expensive. But there is a modern-day solution and it's staring right at you! Your LCD computer monitor. Yes, this can be used as the light source and even though you didn't realise - it has the polariser built-in.

You'll need to use a camera with a polarising filter either attached or positioned in front of the lens. Of course, you'll need a monitor and a steady support will also be useful. A tripod is ideal but it could be something as simple as a pile of books just so long as the camera is set to the correct height.

Some clear hard plastic items - filter cases, plastic cutlery, plastic glasses, cassette and cd cases or geometry sets are a few options - will also be needed as well as something to hold the plastic item steady in front of the computer monitor. Where possible ensure your items are scratch-free as these can spoil the effect. 

 

Step-by-step cross polarisation photography instructions:

1. Turn the monitor on and remove any desktop clutter and change the screen saver to a neutral colour. The other option is to create a plain mid-grey image about 800x600 pixels and call it grey.jpb. Drag this to the web browser to display it and then hit the f11 key to display the browser full-frame without menus. And then hold down the ctrl key and tap the + key until the grey image fills the monitor window.

2. Position the plastic item in front and in the centre of the monitor. A clamp is a useful tool for this but really, whatever you use just has to get the area you want to photograph in the centre of the monitor.

3. Attach the polarising filter to your camera and position the camera in front of the plastic so all you see is an area of the plastic with the grey image totally filling the background. If you can't get close with your camera use the lens at its telephoto setting to fill the frame and avoid edges of the monitor showing. If you still can't get close enough you will have to crop off areas you don't want later.

4. Rotate the polarising filter and watch the colours of the plastic become stronger and the grey goes darker. If you have it set up correctly the grey monitor will go totally black, and the colours in the plastic will be brilliant.

You can use any exposure mode and shooting at the metered setting should be fine. Underexpose a little if you want even more dramatic colours.

For an extra level of abstractness bring a second item even closer to the lens to make the whole image have a multicoloured filter. By experimenting you can often find undiscovered gems.

Canon rates the EOS R6 Mark III at up to 8.5 stops of stabilization at the center of the frame and 7.5 stops at the periphery, depending on the lens. The footnote under that number says it was measured under the CIPA 2024 standard with an RF 24-105mm F2.8 L IS USM Z at 105mm. The footnote leaves out that the camera was bolted to a vibrating platform roughly two meters from a printed chart, in a room held near 23 degrees Celsius, and that the rating comes from at least 200 frames shot at every shutter speed in the test.

 

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Inflatable LED lights are one of those ideas that sound gimmicky. A soft, glowing tube you inflate like a pool toy, then use to light a portrait or paint with color in the dark. It's the kind of gadget that could easily be all novelty and no substance. I wanted to answer a simple question for myself: do these things actually deliver usable results, or are they just a throwaway item destined for the back of a drawer? I tested the Neewer GC30C Inflatable LED Light to find out. 

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Most fall edits in Lightroom go the same way: you open a frame full of yellow leaves, push vibrance and saturation, and end up with something that looks worse than what came out of the camera. Warm hues clip and smear fast, and a heavy hand turns a glowing tree into a flat neon blob.

 

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Most of your time with a camera happens under ordinary skies at ordinary places, yet the landscape images that get the most attention online are blazing sunsets over famous viewpoints. That gap shapes what you think a successful outing looks like, and it can make the scenes you actually encounter feel like second best.

 

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Fisheye lenses for medium format have been close to nonexistent, so if you shoot a Fujifilm GFX or Hasselblad body and want that look, you've usually had to adapt glass that doesn't cover the sensor properly. AstrHori's new 8mm fisheye goes after that gap with a circular image and a field of view wider than a full hemisphere.

 

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For decades, a photography career seemed to hinge on one or two pictures, the frames that appeared in every magazine profile and forum thread until they became shorthand for the person who made them. If you've ever wondered whether your own work needs that kind of breakout image, your answer affects how you shoot, how you edit, and how you share everything else.

 

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The latest winner of our popular daily photography theme which takes place in our forums have been chosen and congratulations go to TonyMat1 (Day 10 - British Wildlife).

 

Daily Theme Runners-Up

If you didn't win this time, keep uploading your images to the daily competition forum for another chance to win! If you're new to the Daily Theme, you can find out more about it in the Daily Theme Q&A. 

Well done to our latest runners-up, too, whose images you can take a look at below.

  Day 11

Movement

[COMMENT_IMG]direct|339957|339957_1791700337.jpg[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 12

Mood

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|349646|3964186[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 13

Self Portraits

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|51734|3862047[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 14

Coast Out Of Season

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|63105|3047608[/COMMENT_IMG]

  Day 15

Fungi

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|32898|1931258[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 16

Fallen Leaves

[COMMENT_IMG]direct|18094|18094_1792171270.jpg[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 17

Autumn Macros

[COMMENT_IMG]direct|320788|320788_1792222263.jpg[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

You’ll find the Daily Themes, along with other great photo competitions, over in our Forum. Take a look to see the latest daily photo contests. Open to all levels of photographer, you’re sure to find a photography competition to enter. Why not share details of competitions with our community? Join the camaraderie and upload an image to our Gallery.

A Canon patent application published in Japan on October 16 includes a complete optical design for a 70-200mm f/2 zoom covering a full-frame sensor, a combination Canon has never sold in any mount. The design, Example 9 in the filing, holds f/2.06 from 71.65mm to 194mm.

 

The filing, JP 2026-168807, was first reported by Canon Rumors. Canon filed it on April 4, 2025, and it contains 11 numbered examples. Eight are f/1.46 zooms: two cover roughly 51-83mm, one 44-83mm, two 36-83mm, and three 36-48mm. Examples 9, 10, and 11 cover about 72-194mm at f/2.06, f/2.5, and f/2.3.

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