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Nikon has announced, via a countdown on its website, it will be launching its next-generation full-frame mirrorless cameras on October 14.
Absolutely no information is given about the Z7 II and Z6 II cameras aside from their respective names, which eschew Nikon’s usual ’S’ naming scheme for the more Canon-esque ‘Mark II’ versions.
We’ll be sure to keep you up to date on the latest developments from Nikon.
The post How Expanding Curiosity and Knowledge in Photography Can Help You Improve appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
Maintaining curiosity and knowledge in photography is key to helping you improve your craft. Having a good grasp of your chosen subject material will keep you inspired and full of fresh ideas.
It’s easy to photograph what you find attractive. When you have a deeper understanding of what you enjoy, looking at your photos will have more depth and meaning.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the ways you can develop curiosity and knowledge in photography that will help viewers engage more with your photographs.
Start with what’s easy. Photograph what you love. When you do this, you’re already well on your way to creating more intimate photos.
Having feelings for your subject helps you see it differently than when you photograph something that looks nice but that you don’t care about. A snapshot made with feeling can be less technically correct but more engaging.
If you have more of a connection to, and concentration on, your camera, rather than your subject, you run the risk of taking technically-correct but otherwise dull photos. Curiosity and knowledge in photography must reach beyond cameras, lenses, and accessories.
Develop a curiosity for your subject. Learn more about it. You will learn to love what you photograph or you’ll grow indifferent. If you lose interest in your subject, find something else to photograph that captures your imagination.
When your imagination is captured, your photos are more likely to capture the imagination of those who see them.
Learning about a topic is easier than ever these days. We have millions of web pages, Youtube videos, forums, and podcasts online. These will teach you anything you desire to learn.
Then there are books, galleries, movies, and all manner of other visually stimulating ways to learn more about your favorite subject.
Open your imagination and you can learn anything you like. Combining your love of photography with becoming an expert on what you enjoy taking pictures of helps you improve.
With a more advanced understanding of the nuances of your subject, you’ll take more intimate, engaging photos of it. If you lack understanding, you’re more likely to miss seeing the subtle aspects that will make your pictures pop.
Even if you’ve been photographing the same subject for many years, I’m sure there’s something else you can learn about it. If you’re not sure that there is, start teaching someone. Once you start teaching about any subject you’re interested in, you’ll soon discover how much more you want to know about it.
Studying a subject until you’re an expert takes commitment. The best photographers know this by experience.
Look at portfolios of any truly successful photographers (not ones who’ve merely acquired large social media followings), and you’ll see what I mean. Their work displays the intimate connection that they have with their subjects.
This takes time and commitment to build. It does not happen quickly or frivolously.
For example, if you love the architecture of the city you live in and photograph it often, take some time to learn more about it. Study its history. Who designed it? Why does it have character? How has it evolved over time? Once you understand the answers to these and other questions, you’ll start to look at your neighborhood in a new light.
Use the internet. Visit your local library. Search out the work of other photographers who have a similar interest. Google is a great source of images. Type in any location and you’ll find others have photographed it and shared their images.
Find well-known photographers whose style and subject material you appreciate. Study how they compose their pictures. When do they take them? Look at the type of light that’s predominant in many of their photos.
You can research any subject you can think of. Taking time to do so on a regular basis will help you become a better photographer. You don’t always have to be out and about with your camera to learn to take better photos.
Taking photos frequently certainly does help you build camera skills, but photography is more than just about using your camera.
No matter how long or how often you’ve photographed a particular subject, it’s best to maintain a curiosity for it.
Explore new ways to photograph the same subject over and over. This should be a healthy challenge. If you find it repeatedly becoming a bit of a drag, consider starting to photograph something different.
The more curiosity you maintain, the more interesting your photos will be to others. Once you’ve covered all the more traditional approaches to taking pictures of a particular subject, a healthy curiosity will lead you further. Your creative journey can really come alive.
Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Think of ways to make new, fresh pictures that you normally would not take. Looking at the work of other photographers is one of the best ways to discover how you can do this.
Photograph your subject in light you normally wouldn’t use. If you typically work with a long lens, use a wide-angle lens next time. Explore alternative angles and different ways of seeing the same thing. You might surprise yourself with the results.
Be prolific. The more time you spend learning about your subject, the more you’ll want to get out and take photos of it. Frequently using your camera helps you remain immersed. This is also how to maintain healthy levels of inspiration.
Start with what you love. This makes learning easy and fun. Becoming immersed in a subject you are halfhearted about can lead to discouragement. Whatever subjects you photograph should be a pleasure to study and become an expert about.
Curiosity and knowledge in photography will improve the level of engagement viewers have with your art. Taking a serious approach to learning more and developing a more informed appreciation of your subject will elevate your photography experience.
The post How Expanding Curiosity and Knowledge in Photography Can Help You Improve appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
Sony’s current range of Alpha and RX-series cameras are packed with the company’s latest autofocus technologies. These include highly advanced face and eye-detection for both human and animal subjects.
Photographer and Rancher Alyssa Henry lives with her family on her ranch in Montana. A perfect location – and perfect subject-matter – to put Sony’s latest autofocus technologies to the test.
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This is sponsored content, created with the support of Amazon and Sony. What does this mean?
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Atomos has launched a HDMI-to-USB video capture card that allows any HDMI camera or recorder to be used to live stream or record to a PC or Mac. Connect is a tiny device that plugs directly into a USB port and accepts HDMI input to provide a video feed of up to 1080p at 60fps in up to 12-bit color.
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The device can accept 4K at 30p, and needs no additional drivers, software or power supply to work. And best of all, it costs $ 79. Unlike most capture cards, the Connect doesn’t use a USB out cable, so the full weight of the HDMI cable will be borne by the USB port on your computer, making this perhaps a solution when a short cable is in use or when the cable can be supported.
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Atomos is promoting Connect to use with its range of video recorders, but it can also work directly with any camera, or device, that can output via HDMI. The company points out though that when used with the Shogun7 users can switch between up to four simultaneously streaming cameras using the Shogun’s multiple-camera recording capabilities.
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The Atomos Connect is available now. For more information see the Atomos website.
Press release:
Melbourne, Australia – 28th September 2020 – Atomos is today excited to launch Connect, a convenient, reliable, and affordable bridge between professional 4K video capture and high frame rate UVC streaming over USB (up to 1080p60). Connect works with any HDMI device including the entire Atomos range. Simple to use, it has universal support from popular streaming platforms and at only $ 79USD is an affordable way for gamers, vloggers and education facilities to up their streaming game using the professional Atomos monitor-recorder ecosystem.
Convert, Connect, Stream
Connect bridges the Atomos world of professional recording and monitoring with popular streaming platforms such as YouTube, Twitch and OBS. Use your Atomos device for professional shot setup and recording and use Connect to simply convert the HDMI output to USB on the go for streaming on your Mac or PC. Connect accepts up to 4Kp30 video and is capable of up to 1080p60 output over USB – incredible streaming quality for the US$ 79 price point.
Plug and go like a pro
With a slim 0.5-inch profile, Connect is sleek enough to sit directly off your laptop or computer. No drivers are required and no power supply either, meaning it really is a simple matter of connecting your Atomos or HDMI device to your Mac or PC to start producing like a pro.
Shogun7 Connect – tame multicamera streaming
The Atomos Shogun7 allows you to monitor and record up to four 1080p60 streams simultaneously and then cue and switch in real-time with a simple touch of the screen. Additionally, the Shogun7 is able to accept asynchronous feeds (sources don’t need to be locked), allowing the user to use more affordable cameras for multi camera production. Adding in Connect, lets you output the switched feed for live streaming on your Mac or PC. This makes the Shogun7 Connect package one of the easiest and most affordable options for professional switching.
Transforms your Camera to a Pro Webcam
Even without an Atomos monitor-recorder, Connect transforms your HDMI camera to a powerful professional webcam. No drivers required, plug in Connect and go live instantly.
The Atomos Connect is available immediately for $ 79/€79 from the global authorised Atomos dealer network.
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Fujitsu Limited announced last week that Canon Inc. has ordered a new supercomputer. The purchase signals that Canon is progressing with its plans to develop products without the need for prototypes, thereby reducing development costs and increasing development efficiency.
The system Canon ordered includes a Fujitsu Supercomputer PRIMEHPC FX1000 unit. Canon has previously used Fujitsu PRIMEHPC FX10 and PRIMEHPC FX100 supercomputer systems. The new FX1000 unit includes class-leading technology from Fugaku, the world’s fastest supercomputer. Fugaku, a petascale supercomputer, was jointly developed by RIKEN and Fujitsu starting in 2014. Fugaku is scheduled to begin operation next year. When tested in June, it became the fastest supercomputer in the world. Fugaku has an expected theoretical computational performance of 648.8 teraflops.
Fujitsu Limited also announced that upon its completion, the supercomputer headed to Canon will play a critical role in Canon’s ‘no-prototype’ product development plans. The supercomputer will allow for ‘enhanced capabilities and scope of applicability of analysis in Canon’s product development process.’ Fujitsu and Canon anticipate the supercomputer to begin operations during the first half of 2021.
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| Sample image of a simulation created using an existing supercomputer. This is a simulation of a Canon inkjet printer being dropped while in its packaging. With the new FX1000, Canon will be able to perform much more complicated simulations of impacts and much more. Image credit: Canon. |
Canon’s ‘no-prototype’ initiative applies to the development of numerous products, including cameras. Canon is utilizing 3D CAD data in ‘analytical simulations to evaluate multiple facets of proposed products, including functionality, as well as ease of manufacturing.’ The PRIMEHPC FX1000 system, which includes 192 nodes, will allow Canon to produce larger scale analyses and simulations, including simulations with over 100 million total elements. The new system will also Canon to produce analyses of simulated airflow and electromagnetic waves.
In its coverage of this announcement, PetaPixel speculates that Canon is working hard to catch up to the fast and furious development cycle of Sony and its mirrorless cameras and that a new supercomputer can speed up Canon’s development cycles.
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| Fujitsu PRIMEHPC supercomputer have numerous applications, including aiding in establishing a product development and manufacturing cycle that isn’t reliant upon prototypes. Image credit: Fujitsu |
It stands to reason that if Canon can quickly simulate many iterations of a product it is developing rather than need to construct real-world prototypes, the revision process will be quicker. Further, leveraging a class-leading supercomputer may allow for deep analyses of products that may have otherwise taken Canon far too long or been outright impossible.
Ultimately, how the FX1000 supercomputer system will impact Canon’s product development cycles remains to be seen. The system should be operational in the first half of 2021, but of course, the development cycle of something like a new camera is quite lengthy.
Adobe has announced a new Advanced Color Grading feature will soon be available inside Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic.
The new Color Grading panel is inspired by the Lumetri Color panel used in Adobe’s Premiere Pro video editing software and replaces the previous Split Toning panel. Unlike Split Toning, which only allows you to adjust the highlights and shadows, the new Color Grading panel takes it one step further, allowing you to also adjust the coloring of the midtones.
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In addition to adding midtones, the panel is also redesigned. It now uses a three-wheel system, not unlike the color wheels often seen in professional video editing programs. Each wheel works alongside a slider to provide complete HSL control for highlights, midtones and shadows. There’s also a global color wheel for more general adjustments, as well as a blending slider to help boost or reduce your adjustments, depending on the look you’re going for.
Adobe doesn’t mention when we can expect to see this filter in Adobe Camera Raw, Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Lightroom Classic, but does say it’ll be showing off more of this new panel at this year’s virtual Adobe Max conference, which is taking place on October 20–22.
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Venus Optics has announced it’s now adding a Canon RF lens mount option for three of its ultra-wide cinema primes: the 9mm T2.9 ‘Zero-D’ lens, 12mm T2.9 ‘Zero-D’ lens and 15mm T2.1 ‘Zero-D.’
The 12mm T2.9 ‘Zero-D’ lens was released back in January of this year, while the 9mm T2.9 and 15mm T2.1 ‘Zero-D’ lenses were announced back in June of this year. At the time, the lenses were only available for Sony E, Canon EF and PL mount, but owners of Canon’s EOS R series mirrorless cameras can now get native versions of the lenses, negating the need to use the EF version with the EF-RF adapter.
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| Photo Credit: Photo by Phil Holland, provided by Venus Optics |
As part of the Loawa Zero-D’ line, all three lenses offer ‘close-to-zero’ distortion. All three lenses also feature industry standard 0.8 mod pitch gears for controlling both the aperture and focus.
As a quick refresher, below are specification summaries for each of the lenses:
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The 9mm T2.9 is constructed of 15 elements in 10 groups, has a minimum focusing distance of 12cm (4.72”), uses a seven-blade aperture diaphragm and weighs 247g (8.71oz).
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The 12mm T2.9 is constructed of 16 elements in 10 groups, has a minimum focusing distance of 18cm (7.09”), uses a seven-blade aperture diaphragm and weighs 675g (1.5lbs).
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The 15mm T2.1 is constructed of 12 elements in 9 groups, has a minimum focusing distance of 15cm (5.91”), uses a seven-blade aperture diaphragm and weighs 540g (1.19lbs).
All three lenses are available to purchase with the Canon RF mount starting today on Laowa’s online shop. The 9mm T2.9, 12mm T2.9 and 15mm T2.1 retail for $ 600, $ 1,500 and $ 1,200, respectively.
The post News: ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2021 Released appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
ACDSee has just launched its latest software:
Photo Studio Ultimate 2021, which improves upon ACDSee’s Photo Studio Ultimate 2020 and continues to compete with programs such as ON1 Photo RAW and Luminar as one of the best all-in-one photo editors on the market.
ACDSee’s software is consistently impressive; Photo Studio Ultimate 2020 contained an excellent mix of digital asset management capabilities, basic adjustments, and more advanced, layer-based edits.
So what does Photo Studio Ultimate 2021 offer over its predecessor?
Quite a lot, as it turns out.
For one, Photo Studio Ultimate 2021 features increased performance. ACDSee promises “up to 100% faster start up, up to 50% faster mode-switching, up to 100% faster working with keywords & categories, and more.”
After trying Photo Studio Ultimate 2021, it’s clear that this is true. While I wouldn’t refer to the program as fast, it’s certainly speedier than Lightroom, Photoshop, or Luminar.
Photo Studio Ultimate 2021 also offers a brand-new color wheel, which allows you to make precise adjustments to colors in your images. Using an eye-dropper tool, you can select specific colors in your image. And you can modify the selection by way of an intuitive color wheel graphic:
Honestly, this has to be one of my favorite implementations of selective color adjustments, and should give photographers plenty to have fun with.
But ACDSee didn’t stop there. In addition to the Color Wheel feature, you get a set of handy tone wheels. Here, with a few simple clicks, you can selectively tone the highlights, the midtones, and the shadows. This makes it easy to color grade your images and to create a stylistic look that’s truly your own.
Plus, Photo Studio Ultimate 2021 offers a nifty little Refine Selection feature. While previous versions of the software allowed for selections while editing, you can now contract, expand, and feather your selection for a more precise result.
Additional new features include:
So if you’re looking for a photo editor that includes complex digital asset management capabilities, powerful layer-based editing, and a whole host of new processing tools, check out Photo Studio Ultimate 2021.
You can grab it on ACDSee’s website for just $ 8.90 USD per month, $ 89 USD per year, or (if you’d prefer to make a one-time purchase), $ 149.99 USD.
Now over to you:
What do you think of ACDSee’s Photo Studio Ultimate series? And which of the new features are you most excited about? Share your thoughts in the comments!
The post News: ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2021 Released appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
The post Wide Angle Versus Telephoto Lenses for Beautiful Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Will Crites-Krumm.
An easy assumption to make, when shooting landscapes, is to use a wide-angle lens. After all, most landscape photographers favor wide-angle lenses for a reason: They naturally give you the widest view and allow you to get the full landscape into the frame, from the foreground to the horizon.
Wide-angle lenses also have the widest depth of field, so you get the whole landscape in focus. And their distortion enlarges objects in the foreground, letting you show off close-up details. The same distortion also emphasizes leading lines, enhancing your compositions and giving your image a more dynamic feel. But when you default to wide-angle glass, you miss many hidden opportunities offered by telephoto lenses.
This is the most basic difference between the two lens types:
Wide lenses give you a wide view; telephoto lenses give you a narrow view.
And while landscapes look great in their entirety, it’s a good habit to take a moment and look for details. These details are beautiful elements of the landscape that might get shrunken or ignored in the expanse of a wide-angle image. This is where your telephoto lens comes in. Its narrow field of view is perfect for trimming the extra elements and for focusing on small, beautiful scenes like the curve of a mountain, a reflection in a far-off pond, or the silhouette of a tree.
In the two images above, you can see this in action. They were both taken from Olmstead point in Yosemite National Park, one with a wide-angle lens and the other with a telephoto.
In the first image, the wide-angle lens shows off the total landscape. It includes both sides of the valley, the up-close textures of the rocks, and the far-off peak of Half Dome. In the second image, the telephoto lens brings the eye right up to the mountains, showing off their shapes and the details of the geology.
Another pair of images (below) shows this effect even more dramatically. The first image is not just a wide-angle image, but an aerial shot as well, taken from a small airplane over the Okavango Delta in Botswana. From this vantage point, all of the individual elements of the landscape become incredibly small and your eyes pay more attention to their arrangement than their individual shapes. In the second image, also from the Okavango area but this time on the ground, a telephoto lens is used to draw attention to the beautiful curves of a single Acacia tree.
The second major difference between wide-angle and telephoto lenses is the innate size of their depth of field.
Put succinctly, the higher the focal length, the narrower the area of focus. In practice, this means that when shooting wide, it’s much easier for you to get everything in focus, from the grass at your feet to the ridge on the horizon. This is especially true when you’re trying to use your lens’s sharpest apertures (the so-called sweet spot).
However, a narrower depth of field is much better for isolating your subject from the background, and this is where your telephoto lens comes into play. Try shooting a close-up detail at a wide aperture, using the landscape as a nice, creamy bokeh backdrop.
The two images above are perfect examples of this effect. In the first image, the wide-angle lens brings the whole landscape into focus, from the close-up sunflowers to the far-off mountains.
In the second image, shooting with a telephoto blurs out the flowers and mountains in the background, turning them into a nice soft background for the main sunflower.
It’s no secret that wide-angle lenses expand the sense of depth in an image by enlarging elements in the foreground and shrinking those in the back. This is great for creating images that make you feel like you could step right into the frame.
On the flip side, you run the risk of making towering, awesome mountains in the distance look like puny hills. Telephoto lenses, on the other hand, compress depth, causing objects near and far to appear more similar in size. A compressed sense of depth is great for abstracting a scene and bringing out its graphical qualities. Colorful forest canopies, layered mountain ridges, and curving sand dunes are all great subjects for this kind of shooting.
In the left image above, notice how the wide-angle lens exaggerates the size of the flowers in the foreground at the expense of the mountains in the background. The mountains are so tall that they’re shrouded in clouds, but the lens keeps them from looking quite as grand.
Pull out a telephoto lens, and you can zoom straight in on the mountain, showing off the contrast between the rugged outline of the peak and the soft wispy form of the cloud (right).
Here are two more images, both taken at the same location in Big Bend National Park, that show off this effect. In the first image, you can see that the wide-angle lens increases the size of the plants and rocks in the foreground while shrinking the large desert mountains in the background. In the second image, a telephoto lens flattens out the depth of the many desert ridges, calling attention to their graphic patterns and outlines.
Have a hard time remembering all these details? Here’s an easy way to summarize it with a simple idea:
Wide-angle lenses show off space, telephotos show off objects.
The wide-angle lens’s big field of view, ease of uniform focus, and depth-distorting abilities are great at showing off big, expansive landscapes. However, they take focus away from individual elements within the landscape in favor of showing the whole. Telephoto lenses are naturally the opposite: they’re great at showing off the size, shape, and intricacy, of detail of individual elements within the landscape. But their narrow field of view, small depth of field, and depth-compressing qualities make it hard to capture the landscape as a whole.
You can analyze this pair of images to see exactly how all of these techniques work together. Starting with the photo above, you can see how the wide-angle lens fits the whole landscape into the frame, from close-up rocks to far off peaks and sky. Because of the lens’s large depth of field, the whole landscape is in acceptable focus as well. The lens’s depth distortion is readily apparent, as well: the foreground rocks look very large, creating a pleasing sense of depth, and emphasizing the leading lines that draw the eye from the edges of the frame to the center. Overall, you get a very good sense of the space and the expansiveness of the valley.
This image was taken in the same place, but the use of a telephoto lens captures it in a very different way. The photo brings out a single element of the landscape; look closely and you can see this peak in the previous image on the top right. It allows the viewer to appreciate its subtle details.
Because of the telephoto lens’s narrow depth of field, the sky is slightly out-of-focus while leaving the details of the peak itself perfectly sharp. And most of all, the compressed sense of depth flattens the image, showing off the rocky mass of the mountain, and calling attention to the beautiful curve of the ridgeline. Overall, you get a great sense of the mountain as a solid object, rather than a bounded space.
The best way to know which lens to use is to get out there, look, and think. What part of the landscape are you most drawn to? Does the landscape’s expansiveness give it its character? Are there stunning details surrounded by less photogenic elements? Are you shooting spaces or objects?
That said, my personal strategy is to just shoot both, because almost any landscape has enough beauty that just one type of lens isn’t enough to get to all of it.
The post Wide Angle Versus Telephoto Lenses for Beautiful Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Will Crites-Krumm.