How Scientists Photograph the Deep Sea, Miles From Where the Sun Shines
In 2022, a camera on the floor of the Izu-Ogasawara Trench off Japan, 8,336 meters down, filmed a small translucent snailfish drifting through its beam. No fish had ever been filmed so far down. No sunlight has ever reached that trench, and the light that does exist down there, the faint blue flicker of bioluminescence, is nothing like the broad-spectrum white the camera carries. When the lights came on, they almost certainly gave that fish a kind of light it had never seen.
From XQD to CFexpress: Futureproofing Your Nikon DSLR for the Mirrorless Upgrade Ahead
Buying memory cards used to be a simple decision: match the slot, pick a speed class, done. That's no longer the case, and not just because of price. Every memory purchase has become a longer-term investment rather than a one-off consumable buy, and getting that decision right matters more than ever. But what does this mean if you're thinking of upgrading your camera, for example, shooting on a Nikon DSLR with an aging XQD slot now, but with a mirrorless upgrade already on your mind?
Six Life Lessons Hiding in Street Photography
Street photography looks like a hobby about cameras and light, but the habits it builds bleed into how you move through the rest of your day. Watch strangers long enough and you start noticing patterns in yourself, not just in the frame.
The f/2.0 Zoom That Outshines a 24-70mm G Master
A constant f/2.0 aperture across a full zoom range used to sound like a fantasy. Sony now offers it in a body smaller than the Canon equivalent, and the results push the limits of what a standard zoom can do.
Ordinary WiFi Can Now Identify You Without a Camera
Researchers in Germany have shown that an ordinary Wi-Fi network can pick a specific person out of a crowd with near-perfect accuracy, no camera involved. In a test with 197 people, the system recognized individuals in seconds, from different angles, no matter how they walked.
Insta360 Is Building Two Mirrorless Cameras, and One Will Have a Shape You've 'Never Thought of Before'
Insta360 is developing two mirrorless cameras at the same time, and its CEO says one of them will have a shape you have never thought of before. He also says that camera could change the way we take pictures, moving past the old routine of framing, focusing, and pressing the shutter.
This Tiny 28mm Lens Turns Your Leica Into a Pocket Camera
Brightin Star launched a solid brass manual focus 28mm f/2.8 pancake lens last year, painted in gloss black lacquer. My first impression when I saw the publicity photos wasn’t its incredibly small size. It should have been, but I was distracted somewhat by that high-gloss black lacquer with gold and red engraving. It looked a little garish. That aside, a tiny, stealthy lens is what we street and travel photographers love, so I eventually decided I should test it out.
Hands On With The FX2 From a Non-Sony User Perspective
The FX2 has been one of Sony’s most discussed cameras since its launch. So today, I got my hands on one and decided to take it for a spin.
The First Photograph of a U.S. President Is a Contested Honor
In October 2017, a silver plate about the size of a paperback sold at Sotheby's in New York for $360,500. It is the earliest surviving photograph of anyone who has ever been President of the United States, and the man staring out of it had been out of the office for fourteen years by the time the lens cap came off. The question of who was photographed first is messier than a single plate suggests, and every leading candidate carries an asterisk.
The Darkroom Skill That Changes How You Shoot Digital
Modern cameras can produce a stunning image in minutes, which makes the darkroom look like a relic worth skipping. That assumption deserves a second look, because the skills a darkroom demands carry straight back into the field, whether you shoot film, digital, or both.
Five Habits That Separate Good Landscape Photos From Forgettable Ones
Light shapes every landscape photo you take, whether the sun is blazing or hidden behind heavy cloud. Getting a handle on how it falls on your subject is the difference between a flat frame and one with real depth.
Who Should Actually Buy Micro Four Thirds
The Micro Four Thirds crowd doubles your depth of field on every shot, and depending on what you shoot, that either ruins the image or saves it. That single trade-off decides whether this system belongs in your bag or stays on the shelf.
Photoshop's New Blemish Tool Keeps Skin Texture Intact
Photoshop's newest blemish tool doesn't just erase spots. It removes them while keeping the skin texture underneath exactly as it was, which is the part that has tripped up automatic retouching for years.
How NASA Blindly Aimed a Camera From Billions of Miles Away
Imagine trying to photograph a moon the size of a fist while flying past it at 45,000 miles per hour, using a camera you cannot see through, cannot focus by hand, and cannot even talk to in real time. Every instruction you send takes hours to arrive. By the time you learn whether a shot worked, the target is long gone, and there is no second pass. That was the daily reality for the people who ran the cameras on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.
Review of the Haida NanoPro X in 1 Ultra-Low Reflection Magnetic Filter
For those who like long exposures, a variable ND filter is often not the best choice. If you're filming, the variable ND is a must-have. It allows full control of the exposure. Unless your camera has a built-in ND filter, the Haida X in 1 filter set can be a great choice. I took a closer look.
A couple of years ago, Haida released the VND-CPL NanoPro II, a variable ND filter with a built-in polarizer. Both can be set separately, and it offers a 3-7 stop ND range. I've been using the filter ever since with great satisfaction.
Why Pointing a Light at a Wall Beats a Soft Box Every Time
The softest, most usable light in a room often comes from the simplest move: pointing a single fixture at a white wall and turning it all the way up. Get this foundation right and the rest of your lighting becomes a matter of small refinements rather than a fight against the space.
The Lightroom Slider That Kills the White Halo on Mountain Edges
Adobe's August update for Lightroom Classic added a pair of sliders that quietly change how you build masks. Feather and edge controls now sit inside every AI mask, and they let you push a selection in or out until the edge sits exactly where you want.
How to Edit Harsh Midday Sun in Lightroom Classic
Editing a landscape shot in harsh midday sun sounds like a losing battle, yet you can pull a flat, overexposed frame into something with depth and direction. The trick lives almost entirely in your masks.
Budget Real Estate Photography Gear That Actually Holds Up
A $1,000 camera body, a $160 tripod, and a $12 umbrella can carry a full real estate photography business. The gear that separates clean interior work from amateur shots costs far less than most people assume, and much of it gets skipped entirely by people starting out.
'Lunch Atop a Skyscraper': Unraveling Photography's Most Famous Mystery
Eleven men sit shoulder to shoulder on a steel beam, more than 800 feet above Manhattan, eating sandwiches and lighting cigarettes as if the drop beneath their boots were nothing more than a curb. There is no safety line, no net, no visible fear. It is one of the most reproduced images of the twentieth century, and almost everything the average person assumes about it is wrong.