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Archive for December, 2017

Grand Canyon time lapse records rare cloud inversion

30 Dec

In search of some tranquility on this last Friday before 2018? Well, Skyglow project collaborators Gavin Heffernan (of Sun Chaser Pictures) and Harun Mehmedinovic have just the video for you. They captured remarkable time-lapse footage of a cloud inversion in Arizona’s Grand Canyon. This event occurs when an upper layer of warm air traps the cold air in the canyon, and the canyon fills with rolling fog and clouds for a spectacular sight.

Turn down the lights and experience a few minutes of peaceful clouds that are reminiscent of ocean waves – and don’t forget to turn up your headphones for the full effect.

Via: Laughing Squid

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Adaptalux’ miniature lighting studio gets Laser, UV, and Arm-s lighting arms

30 Dec

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Adaptalux Studio, the miniature lighting studio launched on Kickstarter in 2015, is on the receiving end of some new special effect lighting attachments called the EFX Lighting Arms. The new lighting arms bring three special effects to Adaptalux Studio: Laser, UV (ultraviolet), and Arm-s (super-bright with a TIR lens).

As with the existing Adaptalux arms, these new EFX Lighting Arms plug directly into the Studio and are flexible enough to be arranged in nearly any position. Adaptalux explains that its UV EFX arm features a purple anodized connector, while the Arm-s has a silver finish connector and the Laser arm has a red finish connector, helping distinguish them from each other and existing arms.

The UV EFX arm features a UV LED coupled with a UV Band Pass Filter, the latter of which is able to filter out 99% of visible light, according to Adaptalux. The Arm-s EFX arm, meanwhile, has a super bright white LED joined by a built-in TIR lens, which “greatly improves the amount of light reaching the subject,” the company explains. Finally, the Laser EFX arm features laser diodes with a focus-able lens to produce a red beam of light.

Adaptalux has 48 hours left in its EFX Lighting Arms Kickstarter campaign, where it’s already raised about $ 16,000 more than it needed to bring this idea to fruition. But funded or not, backers have 2 more days to get a single pack of either the Laser Arm or Arm-s Arm for a pledge of $ 50, a single pack with the UV Arm single pack for a pledge of at least $ 70, or a triple pack with all three arms for a pledge of $ 160.

Here are video intros to all three of the new arms, embedded for your viewing pleasure:

Shipping to Laser/Arm-s single pack backers is expected to start next April, while UV single pack backer shipments are expected to start in May 2018. To learn more or put down your pledge before the campaign ends, head over to Kickstarter.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Best Beginner Photography Articles 2017

29 Dec

If you’ve been reading over the last couple of days you may have seen these already:

  • The Best Landscape Articles on dPS in 2017
  • Top Portrait Photography Tips of the Year on dPS in 2017
  • Most Popular Post-Processing Articles of 2017

Now, let’s get some help for those new to photography. If you just got a new camera as a gift and don’t know where to start – these are for you!

Best Beginner Photography Articles 2017

  1. 10 Must-Use Bird Photography Camera Settings for Beginners
  2. Avoid These 5 Common Camera Setting Mistakes Made By Beginners
  3. How to Shoot in Manual Mode Cheat Sheet for Beginners
  4. The dPS Ultimate Guide to Photography for Beginners
  5. 4 Beginner Tips for Creating Dramatic Portraits with One Flash
  6. Beginner’s Guide to Metering Modes on Your Camera
  7. 5 Easy Ways to Drastically Improve Your Photographs for Beginners
  8. Photoshop Versus Lightroom: Which is Best for Beginners?
  9. 25 Things I Learned as a Photography Newbie
  10. 3 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Photography
  11. 5 Camera Settings Every New Photographer Needs to Know
  12. 5 Things Every Newbie Photographer Must Learn and Practice
  13. Bought Your First DSLR? 6 Tips for Learning How to Use Your New Camera

The post Best Beginner Photography Articles 2017 by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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2017 in review: a look back at September

29 Dec
Hey look, it’s our whole planet, just a tiny speck floating in a vast nothingness. This image is courtesy Cassini, a spacecraft we sent to its demise in September. Photograph copyright NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

September is the month when we finally accepted that 2017 was really happening and it wasn’t all a bad dream. We also found out what it looks like when you don’t heed the advice given in a thousand articles about photographing the eclipse. Spoiler alert: you get melted aperture blades.

As they are wont to do, more than a few photos went viral. That ridiculous lawsuit over the monkey selfie finally ended, may we never type the words ‘monkey selfie’ again, and we talked to photographer Justin Hofman about his much-shared photo of a seahorse clutching a Q-tip. Oh, and Cassini plunged toward Saturn and burned up in its atmosphere, but it was supposed to do that. Thanks for all the cool photos, Cassini!

What’s old is new again – and for sale at Nordstrom right next to the handbags

The Sony RX10 IV and the Fujifilm X-E3 were the most notable conventional cameras launched in September. A little company called Apple also announced some new photo-taking-devices: the iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X. To top it all off, RED announced more details about its Hydrogen One phone, which actually doesn’t cost much more than an iPhone X.

On the other end of the technological spectrum, Polaroid rode the analog nostalgia wave with the OneStep 2 instant camera. What’s old is new again – and for sale at Nordstrom right next to the handbags.

See all September content

Hands-on with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 IV

The RX10 IV, as the name suggests, is the fourth in Sony’s series of 1″-type sensor, long zoom compacts. The Mark IV is the first to offer phase detection autofocus alongside a series of changes designed to boost the speed and capability of the camera, for both stills and video shooting.

See our Sony RX10 IV hands-on

Hands-on with new Fujifilm X-E3

In early September, Fujifilm took the wraps off the X-E3. Successor to the X-E2S, we’ll admit that the X-E3 took us rather by surprise. After the release of the X-T10 and X-T20 we had assumed that the rangefinder-style X-E line was all but dead.

See our Fujifilm X-E3 hands-on

iPhone X: What you need to know

Apple’s iPhone X wasn’t much of a surprise by the time Tim Cook told us all about it, but there’s still a lot going on inside the all-screen-all-the-time device. Here’s a recap of the major photography-related highlights.

Learn more about the iPhone X’s photo capabilities

Monkey selfie, monkey do

Ah, monkey selfie, the story that just wouldn’t go away.

Read the full article

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Instagram rolls out ‘Recommended Posts’ feature, and users aren’t happy

29 Dec

Instagram is testing and rolling out features at a quick pace. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Facebook-owned photo sharing app started letting users follow Hashtags in addition to Profiles. And now, after testing the feature with a limited number of accounts, Instagram has confirmed to TechCrunch that “Recommended Posts” are being rolled out to everybody’s feed as I type this.

According to TechCrunch, the feature adds a “More Posts You Might Like” section to the bottom of your feed. But even though this feature isn’t meant to replace posts by people you follow, the response from users who have had the new feature thrust upon them is… expected. Many took to Twitter to voice their displeasure at this latest ‘indignity’ perpetrated on their feeds:

And there are plenty more where these Tweets came from. Still, just like the infamous switch from chronological order to algorithm, chances are good Instagram won’t bow to the pressure or even give users an option to disable the new feature. To paraphrase Bob Dylan: the feeds, they are a’ changin.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Apple apologizes for iPhone performance issues, offers discount on battery replacement

29 Dec

In a “letter to our customers” posted on its website, Apple took a more active stance in the iPhone slowdown ‘scandal’ that has been making headlines over the past week. The company once again explained why it was reducing performance on older iPhone models, but the letter went a step further, apologizing to customers for the lack of transparency and offering a few potential solutions to placate angry iPhone users.

The letter first describes how batteries age, and explains that the company changed its power management system to reduce “unexpected shutdowns” on iPhone 6 and SE models last year. (Apple did the same with iPhone 7 models recently).

In response to negative feedback from customers (and perhaps lawsuits) Apple will be reducing the price of replacement batteries by $ 50 (to $ 29) for out-of-warranty iPhones. Furthermore, the company plans to release an iOS update that will, “give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance.”

The battery replacement program will begin in January and run throughout 2018. More information will be posted soon on apple.com.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Apple facing several lawsuits over intentionally slowing down old iPhones

29 Dec
Photo by Robin van der Ploeg

Earlier this week, we shared the news that Apple had admitted to slowing down older iPhones—an accusation originally leveled at the company by several Redditors and bloggers who found their phones’ performance had been cut in half, and would only return to full performance with a battery replacement.

This admission, in which Apple defended this ‘feature’ as benefiting users, has now sparked several lawsuits.

Background

Last week, Apple confirmed that older iPhones—specifically iPhone 6/Plus, iPhone 6S/Plus, and iPhone SE—were indeed being slowed down on purpose, but denied any malicious intent (e.g. trying to trick people into upgrading to a newer iPhone).

Instead, in a statement to The Verge, Apple said the ‘feature’ had been implemented, “to deliver the best experience for customers” by preventing sudden shut downs or damage to the internal components that can be caused by an older battery trying to provide peak current it just can’t handle anymore.

This explanation makes sense, and several technologically savvy commentators online (and even some readers in the DPReview comments) speculated that other companies likely do this same thing. But the lack of transparency—essentially only admitting that this was being done after being called out publicly—left many Apple users upset… and a few of them are doing something about it.

And Now

According to USA Today and The Verge, several lawsuits have been filed against Apple over this iPhone throttling. In the United States, suits have been filed in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York among others, but the lawsuits over this admission extend as far as Israel, according to Reuters.

One of the first, a proposed class-action lawsuit in Los Angeles filed last Thursday by two consumers, claims breach-of-contract because users never agreed to allow Apple to slow down their iPhones.

The latest suit, filed by five iPhone users in New York, New Jersey, and Florida, seeks class-action status and accuses Apple of fraud, deception and breach-of-contract for not notifying users that it was slowing down old iPhones. The lawsuit states that, had they known batteries were to blame for their phones slowing down, these plaintiffs would have chosen to replace their batteries instead of purchasing a new phone.

Apple has not released any comment on the lawsuits filed thus far.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Canon and Sony dominate Lensrentals’ most rented gear of 2017 list

28 Dec

Lensrentals has released its most rented gear of 2017 list, and the results are very interesting. You can check out the full list here, but we thought we’d point out the three things that immediately caught our eye.

1. Sony’s claim that it’s beaten Nikon to take the #2 position in sales of full-frame interchangeable lens cameras (ILCs) is backed up by the rental data. According to Lensrentals, for the first year ever, Sony has out-rented Nikon and “is slowly closing the gap to Canon.”

2. That said, Sony’s top renting piece of gear—the Sony a7S II—only reached the number five spot behind four Canon products; the Canon 24-70mm F2.8L II, Canon 70-200 F2.8L IS II, Canon EOS 5D Mark III, and Canon EOS 5D Mark IV took the numbers one, two, three, and four spots, respectively. Canon may not have released anything overly exciting this year, but there’s no doubt it’s still the best-selling camera brand in the world.

3. Finally, the last bit that caught our eye is that a battery—Sony’s NP-FW50, which was recently replaced the the NP-FZ100 that our own Richard Butler loves so much—took the number 6 spot, beating out some seriously popular gear like the Canon 50mm F1.2L and Canon 6D. This just foes to show: upgrading the Sony a9 and a7RIII to the much bigger FZ100 battery was an absolute necessity.

To see the full list and breakdown, or dive into a few other categories like last year’s most-rented list or the most popular new equipment rented in 2017, head over to the Lensrentals blog.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Most Popular Post-Processing Articles of 2017

28 Dec

If you’ve been reading over the last couple of days you may have seen these already:

  • The Best Landscape Articles on dPS in 2017
  • Top Portrait Photography Tips of the Year on dPS in 2017

Next up in this summary is post-processing.

Most Popular Post-Processing Articles of 2017

    1. 5 Common Post-Processing Mistakes to Avoid
    2. A Step by Step Guide to Processing Portraits in Lightroom
    3. Basic Portrait Post-Processing Workflow Tips to Help You Save Time and Stay Organized
    4. Don’t Fear Photo Post-Processing – Shooting is Only the First Part of the Image Creation Process
    5. How to Match Your Image Processing Using Reference View in Lightroom
    6. 4 Tips for Post-Processing Images on the Road
    7. Overview of the Intuos Pro Wacom Tablet and the MobileStudio Pro for Post-Processing
    8. How to Choose the Right Monitor for Photo Editing
    9. Overview of Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 for Windows by ACDSee
    10. Image Editing Software Review: PortraitPro 15
    11. How to Speed Up Your Photo Editing with the Right Lightroom Workflow
    12. How to do Non-Destructive Editing in Photoshop
    13. How to Merge and Combine Images in Photoshop
    14. How to Remove People from Your Photos Using Photoshop
    15. How to Create a Rim Light Effect Using Photoshop
    16. The dPS Ultimate Guide to Getting Started in Lightroom for Beginners
    17. Tips for How to Think and Use Lightroom More Artistically
    18. How to Understand the Lightroom Tone Curve
    19. 3 Handy Lightroom Features I Discovered by Accident
    20. Review of Macphun’s Aurora HDR 2018
    21. How to use Macphun’s Luminar for Beginners
    22. Luminar The Ultimate Lightroom Plugin

Whew, that is a lot, but it’s a big category with lots of options now available to you for processing your images.

Can you help us with a quick poll? Since there are so many new photo editing software options – please fill in any that you are using below. It will give us a better idea of what to cover in the upcoming year! Thanks for your assistance and for reading.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

The post Most Popular Post-Processing Articles of 2017 by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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The Best Promotional Alternatives To Social Media For Photographers

28 Dec

There is a love/hate relationship the majority of us have with social media. We promote our work there, but we also waste a huge amount of time on it.  What are the best alternative to social media then? Where can we publish our work in order to gain visibility and, why not, some paid projects? Let’s step back for a Continue Reading

The post The Best Promotional Alternatives To Social Media For Photographers appeared first on Photodoto.


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