Astronaut Jessica Meir Photographed a Purple Aurora From 255 Miles Up With a Nikon Z9
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir photographed an aurora glowing green and purple over Kyrgyzstan on September 7, shooting from the International Space Station at an altitude of 255 miles with a Nikon Z9 at a 15mm focal length. The frame catches the green band riding the curve of the atmosphere, purple rays climbing above it, and the lights of Central Asian cities scattered across the dark below.
Canon's EOS R8 Mark II Shoots up to 40 fps and Adds In-Body Stabilization for Less Than $2,000
Canon has announced the EOS R8 Mark II, a 24.2-megapixel full frame mirrorless camera that adds 5-axis in-body image stabilization while retaining up to 40 fps electronic-shutter shooting. The camera is expected to ship in late October for an estimated $1,899 body-only price.
Hands On First Look At The New Canon EOS R8 Mark II
Today, Canon announced a new full frame body added to the EOS lineup, the Canon EOS R8 Mark II camera. And I got my hands on one for an early look.
I’ve written so many reviews and/or news pieces for Fstoppers over the years that, generally speaking, whenever a brand comes out with a new camera, I feel like I pretty much know all there is to know before ever even picking it up. But I do have blind spots, and I’ll admit that I was never fully versed on the original Canon EOS R8 and where it sat in the Canon ecosystem.
The Undeveloped Film Market: The People Who Buy Strangers' Mystery Rolls at Estate Sales
In late 2014, a lot of 31 undeveloped film rolls that had turned up at an auction in Ohio made its way to a photographer in Boise, Idaho named Levi Bettwieser, who started processing them one at a time. What rose up in the developer was a young American soldier's private record of World War II, shot on rolls that had sat exposed but unprocessed for roughly 70 years. Someone loaded those cameras, pressed the shutter, and then, for reasons no one will ever know, never got the film developed.
The Most Portable Darkroom I've Ever Used: REEL Paper 8 Field Test
Does the REEL Paper 8 from Vintage Visual really let you make prints up to 12x16 inches from virtually anywhere? I took this unassuming photographic tool into the heart of the Nantahala National Forest to find out.
I suppose life is full of “what ifs” and “could’ve beens.”
In the autumn of 2022 I converted my vehicle into a camper and sold my house to see what photographs waited for me out on the open highway.
The 20mm Zoom That Might Replace Your 24-70mm
Sigma just put a 20-60mm zoom against a rattlesnake at sunrise in the Sonoran Desert, and the lens walked away as the star. A 20mm wide end, a variable f/2.8-4 aperture, and a body compact enough to forget on a hot desert climb make this a different kind of everyday zoom.
Sony FE 400mm f/4.5 and 600mm f/6.3 Hands-On: Super-Telephoto Reach Without the Weight
Shooting wildlife from the passenger seat of a car usually means wrestling with a massive lens that takes up half of the cab. I recently took a slow cruise through the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive to put two new, unreleased Sony GM lenses to that very test.
Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive is an amazing 11-mile loop packed with gators, herons, and ospreys, but you’re mostly confined to your vehicle. Usually, capturing wildlife in this scenario means dealing with the significantly greater weight of traditional Sony 400mm f/2.8 or 600mm f/4 primes.
The First Full Frame DSLR Was a $7,000 Flop Almost Nobody Owns
The first full frame DSLR ever made didn't come from Canon, Nikon, or Sony. It came from Contax, a nearly century-old brand tied to Zeiss glass, and the camera that earned that title may also be the one that ended the company for good.
The Five Beginner Photography Mistakes You're Probably Still Making
Most beginners think a better camera or a clever editing trick will fix their photos, when the real problem is usually a set of habits nobody warned them about. Five of those habits show up again and again, and correcting them costs nothing but time and attention.
The Three Habits Quietly Stalling Your Photography
More tutorials, a newer camera, and more hours in Lightroom will not make you a better photographer, no matter how much you spend chasing them. The traps that eat up beginners' time are easy to spot once you know them, and almost impossible to see when you don't.
Fujifilm Updates the instax Pal 2 and Link WIDE 2 With New Capture and Print Tools
Fujifilm has announced the instax Pal 2 digital camera and instax Link WIDE 2 smartphone printer, updating the Pal with an optical viewfinder and adding a new Photo Mixer collage feature to the WIDE printer.
The Secret No One Tells You About Lighting Great Night Portraits
Want to photograph portraits that don't look like deer caught in headlights or someone telling campfire ghost stories? While we might obsess over the Milky Way, the stars, or even light painting, most photographers don't figure out how to take fantastic portraits of people in their night or astro-landscape photos—something that looks polished, dramatic, and intentional. Here's how.
Why We Smile in Photos: The Surprisingly Recent History of Saying 'Cheese'
By the early 1840s, a daguerreotype portrait no longer took a quarter of an hour. Faster plates and brighter lenses had cut a studio sitting to under a minute, short enough to hold a pleasant face without much strain. Yet for the next 60 years, almost nobody in front of a camera smiled.
Seven Photography Mistakes That Are Holding Your Photos Back
Seven habits kept your photos from looking as good as the ones you admire, and most of them have nothing to do with your camera. The fixes are small, immediate, and free.
The Six-Phase Editing Order That Fixes Most Beginner Mistakes
Most beginners think editing is where a photo gets fixed. The truth is closer to the opposite: the edit accounts for roughly 20% of the final image, and the shot you took in camera carries the other 80%.
Three Silver APS-C Lenses That Punch Above Their Price on Fujifilm
Viltrox released three APS-C lenses for Fujifilm in silver, the 9mm f/2.8, the 15mm f/1.7, and the 25mm f/1.7, and each one fills a focal length and aperture gap that Fujifilm's own lineup leaves open. The mix of speed, sharpness, and a light body makes these worth a serious look if you shoot street or travel.
Faster Lens or Better Body: Which Actually Fixes Low Light
You shoot a conference in a dim ballroom, your shutter speed drops too low, and every frame comes back with a little motion blur. The fix costs real money, and the choice between a faster lens and a better camera body decides how you spend it.
How Photographs Helped Create Yellowstone, the World's First National Park
The 1872 law that created Yellowstone runs only a few hundred words and never mentions a photograph. By the time President Ulysses S. Grant signed it on March 1, prints of the region and a painter's field watercolors had reached Washington and were being used to sell the idea. The pictures entered the campaign before the vote, then left almost no trace in the formal legislative record.
Why Your Rushed Photos Are More Than Just Snapshots
We’ve all been there. You’re out somewhere, with a camera in tow, but the purpose isn’t photography. Maybe you’re walking with family or friends. Maybe you’re running to an appointment. You don’t have the luxury of setting up a tripod or spending fifteen minutes working a composition. You take some extra frames from varying angles or perspectives, just to be safe. But when you get home, you may find you have an editorial problem you didn't plan for.
The Habits That Separate Working Photographers From the Rest
Talent gets discussed constantly, but the photographers who keep landing work tend to share a set of habits that have nothing to do with raw skill. The difference shows up in how they practice, prepare, and handle the people around them.