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The Top Gear Related Articles from 2015
As much as we hate to admit it, we photographers love gear. We want the latest greatest lens, camera, bags, and gadgets. While we can’t always afford new things, nor do we need them, it’s nice to know what’s available when we are ready to upgrade.

Let’s look at some of the top gear related articles from the last year, 2015.

Cameras and General
- 6 of the Most Essential but Underused Camera Features
- How to Clean Your Camera Sensor and Lenses
- Gear Envy: Five Things to Consider Before Buying Your First Camera
- 5 Lessons Learned Switching from DSLR to Mirrorless for Travel Photography
- The 20 Most Popular DSLRs Among our Readers
- The 19 Most Popular Compact System and Mirrorless Cameras with Our Readers
- Mirrorless, DSLR or Point and Shoot: Which Camera is Best for Macro Photography?
- Do You Really Need the Latest Greatest Gear?
Lenses
- The 20 Most Popular DSLR Lenses Among our Readers
- 7 Tips to Help When You’re Stuck with Only a Prime Lens
- Writer’s Favorite Wildlife Lens – Tamron 150-600mm
- Writer’s Favorites – 35mm Prime Lens
- Writer’s Favorite Lens: 50mm f/1.8
- Photographing Stars Using a Kit Lens
- How to Use a Wide-Angle Lens for People Photography
- Why Every Photographer Should Use a Manual Focus Lens
- 5 Ways a Telephoto Lens Can Improve Your Landscape Photography
- Comparing a 24mm Versus 50mm Lens for Photographing People
Other
- How to Select the Right Camera Memory Card
- 5 DIY Hacks to Have in Your Camera Bag
- dPS Writer’s Favorite Photography Gadgets
- How to Shoot in Low-Light Conditions Without Using Flash
- Essential Accessories for Landscape Photography
- A Beginners Guide to Light Modifiers
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The post The Top Gear Related Articles from 2015 by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
December 27, 2015
Most Popular Landscape Photography Articles on dPS in 2015
Landscape photography is a passion many photographers share. You don’t need a lot of special gear like lighting equipment, and you can do it anywhere.

The challenge is to make your photos a cut above the rest, so they stand out in a crowd. So, how do you do that? Well for starters you can read through the following articles and get some tips. Then plan a day and go out and shoot some landscapes.

In no particular order here are the most popular articles related to landscape photography on dPS in the last year, 2015:
1. 7 Landscape Photography Mistakes That Could be Ruining Your Photos
2. A Super Simple Way to Make Landscape Photos POP Using Lightroom
3. 5 Quick Reasons to Use the Nifty Fifty for Landscape Photography
4. 5 Ways to Create Dramatic Landscape Photos at Midday
5. Why I Switched From LEE Filters to Formatt-Hitech for Landscape Photography
6. 10 Essential Pieces of Gear you Need for Landscape Photography
7. How to Process a Landscape Photo in 5 Minutes Using Photoshop
8. How to Solve 5 Composition Conundrums Faced by Landscape Photographers
9. 8 Common Landscape Photography Mistakes
10. One Compositional Technique to Transform Your Landscape Photos
11. Tips for Creating Landscape Photos during the Golden Hour
12. 3 Simple Tips for Subtle Landscape Photography Post-Processing
13. 8 Tips for Fall Landscape Photography
14. 5 Tips to Take Your Landscape Photography from Good to Great
You can also check out the dPS ebook: Living Landscapes

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The post Most Popular Landscape Photography Articles on dPS in 2015 by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
December 26, 2015
Not Your Average Model Train: Self-Propelled Mechanical Toys

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

There are no batteries or power cords needed to propel this steam train and a series of other mechanical models, which come in kits of laser-cut plywood so you can assemble them yourself. UGEARS might just be the ultimate gift to inspire future engineers, with its creators aiming to gin up curiosity about about all of the gears, pistons and wheels that make things work.

We’ve become so used to playing games on electronic touch screens, the inner workings of our gadgets out of sight, that we might just lose touch with the mechanics that have been in use for centuries, the creators say. “UGEARS realized the idea of modular mechanical models in which everything is real. It’s absolutely fascinating to see the true mechanical miracle coming to life in your hands giving you a glorious feeling of creation.”

Available models include a steam locomotive with a rubber band engine and rail stand, a tractor, a harvester, a mechanical theater and a working safe. Each kit comes with a set of plywood boards with precisely cut-out parts and detailed step-by-step instructions – you supply the rubber bands. No glue is necessary to assemble the parts. A special version of the locomotive is available for just a few more days on the UGEARS Kickstarter, where you can also check out lots more videos of the products in action.

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Steampunk Flea: Mechanical Insects by Dimitry Valchev

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Mechanical Animals: 36 Steampunk Sculptures & Robots

Strange sci-fi creatures come to life with the use of skeletons, vacuum parts, watch gears and other found objects in these 36 steampunk animal sculptures.
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Robot Tattoos: Awesome Works of Mechanical Body Art

We give life to our robot visions in the most permanent means at our disposal: ink. Here are some of the most creative and well done robot tattoos around:
Click Here to Read More »»

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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WebUrbanist

December 26, 2015
dPS Holiday Week

We hope you’re already in full swing of your holidays and having a great time with family and friends. Just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know what to expect here in dPS over the next week or so, in case you got some new photography gadgets and are itching to try them out.

By Will Montague

From now until New Years – the best of dPS 2015

It’s that time again for me to dig through last year’s articles and find the best, most popular ones, for you. Starting off tomorrow with the hottest landscape articles of 2015, we’ll have a new topic each day, with several articles for you to read or review.

Starting off 2016 – getting back into the things slowly

After all the parties are over, we’ll get back to our regular schedule of two articles a day on January 3rd (Australia time). For the first couple days you’ll see the wrap-up of the Best Of series, and just one post per day from us, then it’s back to business as usual.

So expect some good reading coming up. If you have some time you can catch up on a few articles you may have missed or focus on learning a new, specific technique.

Also remember to keep an eye on our 12 deals page for some great photography deals.

By melissa brawner

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The post dPS Holiday Week by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

December 26, 2015
Don’t Miss Out: These 12 Photography Deals Will Disappear With 2015
Over the last 12 days we’ve presented you with some amazing daily deals on photography training resources in our 6th annual 12 days of Christmas.

The savings this year were our biggest yet and we had a lot of really positive feedback from readers who picked up some fantastic deals.

As in previous years we did get a few sad messages from readers who missed deals along the way asking if there was any way to get them.

As a result – today we’re opening all 12 deals back up again for one last chance.

So if there’s a deal you regret missing or you might have missed one of our emails – you’re in luck. Here they are!
- Deal 1: Natural Light ebook bargains!
- Deal 2: 85% OFF Cole’s Classroom Lightroom Course
- Deal 3: 101 dPS Lightroom presets for ONLY $ 10!
- Deal 4: The Ultimate Landscapes Bundle!
- Deal 5: 54% OFF Phil Steele’s Event Photography Course
- Deal 6: Photography Concentrate Composition & Light guides
- Deal 7: 104 NEW Hacking Photography Lightroom Presets for $ 10
- Deal 8: $ 5 Snapn Motion mini-guide
- Deal 9: dPS Portraits ebooks by Gina Milicia $ 7 each… or 4 for $ 21!
- Deal 10: dPS Photo Nuts Courses – 2 for $ 30!
- Deal 11: All dPS ebooks $ 10!
- Deal 12: Black & White Photo Artistry Course – 60% OFF!a
All these will be available until midnight US Eastern time on 31st of December, after that they will be gone for ever (just like 2015) – so get to it and grab yours today!

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The post Don’t Miss Out: These 12 Photography Deals Will Disappear With 2015 by Darren Rowse appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
December 25, 2015
Happy Holidays from dpreview!

As we celebrate our seventeenth anniversary (the site officially launched December 25th, 1998, when some of our staff were still in elementary school) I’d like to wish each and every one of our visitors a very Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays/Season’s Greetings/Merry Festivus* (*delete as required). It’s been a busy year here at DPReview, with our first live event, PIX 2015, which brought an amazing collection of photographers together in Seattle for two days of inspiring talks and demos, whilst also giving us a new appreciation for the sheer amount of work that goes into putting on an expo. You watch all the videos from the show – onstage and off – at the PIX2015.com/videos.

I’m incredibly proud of the work the team did this year. 2015 was the year we went big on video content, sending Barney off on adventures that took him from the Arctic Circle to Mexico for our new field tests (which he assures me was nowhere near as glamorous as it sounds). If you’ve not had chance to watch them I’d definitely recommend you head over to our YouTube channel to check them out. It’s not like there’s much else to do over the next few days, right?

Behind the scenes we’ve been working hard to update the aging content management system that runs dpreview, something that will finally allow us to start work on the site redesign that’s been sort-of-planned now for about 5 years. We hope to be able to share some of the changes with you early in the year (and get your feedback), and to start rolling out the new design towards the end of 2016. And don’t worry – if you like your DPReview just the way it is, you’ll be able to keep it (right now the most common complaint from new users is the black background / white text, but we know there’s enough of you who like it fine the way it is that we’ll offer the option to switch back to the old style). We plan to overhaul user galleries and Challenges too, but that probably won’t happen until 2017. Or 2018. Certainly before we hit our 20th anniversary.

Our other big priority for 2016 is to improve our reviewing processes so we can produce more camera, lens and accessory reviews. The camera market has seen significant changes over the last couple of years, with the death of the point and shoot market forcing manufacturers to concentrate on their high-end enthusiast products. This is great news for photographers, but has resulted in our in-depth reviews taking longer and longer as we devise new tests and dive even deeper to fully assess the performance of what can only be described as the most advanced and capable photographic tools ever developed for the enthusiast and professional.

I’m convinced we’re doing the best, most comprehensive, most photographically relevant camera reviews we’ve ever done, but we hear your feedback – you want more reviews, more quickly. And that means we need to fundamentally overhaul the process. We’ve already started, and I sincerely hope you’ll notice a significant increase in the volume of reviews we publish once we’ve implemented all our plans. Who knows, maybe we’ll beat 2015’s record three positive feedback messages (vs several thousand telling us exactly where we should stick our website/review/forum ban)…

And so, since my family is getting tired of waiting for me to stop working and drink some egg-nog I will leave you to enjoy the holidays, take some great pictures and maybe take a break between courses to visit our comments section and tell us how wrong we are about everything 🙂

Merry Christmas!

Simon

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

December 25, 2015
Deal 12: Black & White Photo Artistry Course – 60% OFF!

It’s the final day of our 12 deals of Christmas and we’ve saved one of our best deals until last.

Last year Sebastian Michaels smashed every dPS record with his Fine Art Grunge Composition course. This year he’s back, with this brand new Black & White Photo Artistry course!

… and you can save 60% on the regular price right now.

This course brings together all Sebastian’s best photo artistry approaches and techniques and expands on them within the specific realm of creative black and white.

You’ll discover the pro secrets for producing stunning works of photo art. Awesome, intricate black and white compositions fit for print and canvas. All while honing your photography skills!

Ready to create the most artistic photo works of your life? Grab this deal with a 60% saving today only!

We think it’s a brilliant final deal in the 12 dPS days of Christmas and well know you’ll cherish everything it will teach you.

Grab this deal before it is gone here.

PS: Sebastian has put together 3 amazing bonuses for dPS readers – scroll down his information page to see them – they make this an even better deal!

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The post Deal 12: Black & White Photo Artistry Course – 60% OFF! by Darren Rowse appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

December 25, 2015
Happy Holidays 2015 from dPS

It’s Christmas day in part of the world, where most of the dPS team is based. So Merry Christmas if you celebrate that – and Happy Holidays if you celebrate with another tradition.

Thank you for being a reader and fan of dPS, we appreciate you being here, and we wish you all the best, and the happiest times with your family this season.

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The post Happy Holidays 2015 from dPS by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

December 25, 2015
Prefab Hobbit Homes: Build Your Own Shire Dwelling in Just 3 Days

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Composed of vaulted panels covered with reinforced soil, these modular hobbit-worthy homes can be adapted to just about any site and constructed in a matter of days.

Produced in pieces by Magic Green Homes, then shipped to sites for assembly, each dwelling is made from prefabricated panels clad in green. The results looking much like something straight out of a Tolkien novel, but made out of shaped composite laminate, the same material approach taken to creating curves in some types of boat.

The process is designed for simplicity, eliminating the need for heavy machinery of specialized knowledge. Integral electrical, plumbing and ventilation channels come tucked inside the wall-to-roof modules as well, making systems installations easier as well.

Overlapping flaps allow builders to join the various parts together while the integrated layers of green on top further hide any seams, making each house look like a seamless (w)hole. An interior layer of waterproofing ensures the attached modules do not leak.

The overall modularity of this lends itself to easy incremental additions, expanding housing units over time. Designers or homeowners can also site the structures to blend into the surrounding landscape, much like the approach taken in underground homes and with many earthships. As with geodesic domes and other curved habitats, however, it may take a bit more than three days to decide how to finish and decorate the rounded interiors.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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WebUrbanist

December 25, 2015
Lighting Up the Dark Side: Star Wars Shadow Art Portraits

[ By Steph in Drawing & Digital. ]

Balls of aluminum foil transform into Darth Vader and irregular chunks of chocolate cookies covered in rainbow sprinkles become the Star Wars logo when a single light source is shined upon them in just the right way. Artist ‘Red’ Hong Yi of Malaysia created an entire series of Star Wars shadow art with a range of materials, from feathers to discarded computer guts.

The artist turns on a lamp and begins attaching her bits of materials to pieces of wire embedded in a base, watching the shadows on a plain white wall until her seemingly random compositions start to make visual sense. Some of the portrait are more complex than others; a Stormtrooper made of cotton is simple and graphic while a Yoda silhouette crafted of nothing more than a handful of leaves and weeds seems as if it could spring to life.

“It started with a spark of curiosity and then a lot of tweaks and experiments,” says the artist on her Instagram. “As an artist/designer, I’ve learned to not be afraid of experimenting and failing; you’ll get better at what you do with each step you take. Our responsibility as creators is to sit down and create again and again. May the force be with you!”

Get inspired with 24 more amazing works of shadow art, and follow Red Hong Yi on Instagram for more creations made from unexpected materials, like tea bag portraits and intricate arrangements of edible items.

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How would Zaha Hadid’s signature brand of futuristic bio-inspired architecture translate to the design of a lightsaber if she were a Jedi? The project …
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[ By Steph in Drawing & Digital. ]

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WebUrbanist

December 24, 2015