Professional full frame lenses are usually large and have fast apertures. In this episode of DPReview TV, Chris and Jordan argue that there’s a need for slow professional lenses – inspired by some of their favorite Micro Four Thirds lenses.
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The post Nikon Photo Contest 2020-2021 Officially Confirmed appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
The 2020/2021 Nikon Photo Contest has been officially confirmed by Nikon.
For both amateur and professional photographers alike, and now in its 38th Edition, the Nikon Photo Contest has been running since 1969. During its life, it has seen over 440,000 photographers enter the competition, and had over 1.71 million photographs submitted.
In 2018-2019 (the 37th edition), the Nikon Photo Contest celebrated it’s 50th Anniversary, with around 33,000 photographers from 170 countries around the world entering over 97,300 works!
Nikon states:
“The environment surrounding the image-making culture is constantly changing with the times, and it always inspires us with new perspectives. We are pleased to provide a place for creators to discover new creations by adapting to the latest methods and styles of expression and deliver important stories through the common language of imaging.”
To keep up with the competition details, head over to the official competition site.
What do you think of Nikon Photo Contest? Have you entered before? Will you be entering this year? Let us know in the comments!
The post Nikon Photo Contest 2020-2021 Officially Confirmed appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
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Tamron’s new 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 is a versatile zoom lens for full-frame Sony E-mount cameras. Well-suited for travel photography, it’s compact, lightweight and fast/quiet to focus. Despite its petite design, the lens feels well built and should also hold up against the elements, fingerprints and grime thanks to a moisture-resistant construction and fluorine coated front element.
It may not be Tamron’s most optically jaw-dropping piece of glass, but it seems more than capable of producing fairly sharp and pleasing results throughout the zoom range. Simply put, it’s a great lens for a casual sunny afternoon stroll.
See our Tamron 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 sample gallery
If you’ve been involved in photography for any time, you know there is a huge debate around full-frame cameras vs other sensor size cameras. Much like the Mac vs PC debate, or the iOS vs Android debate, this debate has shutterbugs riled up everywhere. Today, I am going to answer an important question from the debate, which is, are full-frame Continue Reading
The post Are Full Frame Cameras Better in Low Light? appeared first on Photodoto.
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DigiMedia Tech, LLC, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against yet another camera company, this time going after Nikon over its alleged infringement of three different US patents. This lawsuit follows similar infringement cases brought against Olympus, Fujifilm and JK Imaging, all of them also over the alleged infringement of digital camera technology patents.
DigiMedia Tech is a non-practicing entity (NPE) of IPInvestments Group, which received many US patents from Intellectual Ventures LLC in November 2019. Following the patent acquisition, DigiMedia Tech has filed lawsuits against several companies over their alleged infringement of these patents — in the latest one involving Nikon, the company claims infringement of US patents No. 6,914,635, No. 7,715,476 and No. 6,545,706.
The ‘635 patent was first filed in 2001 by Nokia Mobile Phones; it involves a microminiature zoom system designed for digital cameras. The ‘476 patent was first filed in 1999 and then again in 2005; it covers a ‘system, method and article of manufacture’ related to a digital camera’s ability to track a subject’s head. The third and final patent in the lawsuit, ‘706, was filed in 1999 and likewise covers head-tracking camera technology.
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The infringement lawsuit specifically names Nikon’s Coolpix A1000 as a model that allegedly infringes the ‘635 patent and the Nikon P900RM ‘and similar products’ as allegedly infringing the ‘706 and ‘476 patents. Among other things, the DigiMedia Tech lawsuit wants Nikon to pay ‘damages in an amount to be determined at trial for Defendants’ infringement, which amount cannot be less than a reasonable royalty.’
It’s unclear how much this could amount to, financially speaking. Likewise, Nikon hasn’t yet commented on the infringement lawsuit.
DigiMedia Tech’s decision to sue Nikon isn’t surprising in light of its recent activity. On May 29, the NPE filed patent infringement lawsuits against Fujifilm and Olympus, alleging that both have used digital camera technologies in select camera models that infringe on its US patents. Following that, DigiMedia Tech filed the Nikon lawsuit referenced above, then a similar complaint against JK Imaging, the company behind Kodak PIXPRO cameras, on June 24 in California Central District Court.
A full list of DigiMedia Tech’s lawsuits, including related documents, can be found through the Unified Patents portal.
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| A summary of each of the lawsuits DigiMedia Tech, LLC currently has against a number of camera manufacturers. |
The NPE practice of exploiting acquired patents has been heavily criticized for years. These companies oftentimes don’t actually practice the invention detailed by the patent and usually don’t sell processes or products related to them. These non-practicing entities instead enforce the patent rights against companies allegedly infringing them, doing so to obtain licensing payments or some other type of revenue, such as royalties or damages, on the acquired patents.
Though not all NPEs exploit acquired patents, there are those that do. Ones that operate aggressively and file large numbers of lawsuits in order to cast a wide net to see what they catch are colloquially referred to as ‘patent trolls.’
In 2011, the Hastings Science and Technology Law Journal published a large PDF document titled ‘Indirect Exploitation of Intellectual Property Rights by Corporations and Investors’ that details NPEs and the ways they may be used. The discussion is extensive and ideal for understanding the reasoning behind these lawsuits, stating in part that patent infringement lawsuits from NPEs may be, among other things, used by:
…a sponsoring entity against a competitor to achieve a corporate goal of the sponsor. A corporation or investor, by serving as the sponsor for an IP privateering engagement, can employ third-party IPRs as competitive tools. The privateer, a specialized form of non-practicing entity (NPE), asserts the IPRs against target companies selected by the sponsor. The sponsor’s benefits do not typically arise directly from the third party’s case against a target, but arise consequentially from the changed competitive environment brought about by the third party’s IPR assertion.
Of course, DigiMedia Tech’s own reasons for filing suits against these camera companies are unclear and it’s impossible to say whether there would be an indirect benefit for a competing company as a result of these allegations. As these cases are only days and weeks old, the outcome of each lawsuit is yet to be seen.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been very busy capturing images of the sun over the last decade. From June 2, 2010 through June 1, 2020, the SDO captured 425 million images of the sun. Per NASA, the team amassed about 20 million gigabytes of images of the sun in the past decade and with that data, NASA compiled 10 years’ worth of images into the amazing timelapse video above.
Using three primary instruments, the SDO captures an image of the sun every 0.75 seconds. One of these instruments, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. In the timelapse video published by NASA, we see photos of the sun captured at the extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 17.1 nanometers. This wavelength allows us to view the sun’s outermost layer, called the corona.
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Generally, the hour-long timelapse video features a compiled image from each hour of every day for the past 10 years. Although, there are a few exceptions. There are dark frames caused by the Earth or moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the sun. There was also a week-long outage of the AIA instrument in 2016. Any off-center images of the sun are due to periodic instrument calibration.
As you can imagine, the SDO has witnessed many interesting events during its period of observation. In the video above, at 6:20, you can see a prominence eruption from the lower right area of the sun from June 7, 2011. At 12:24, you can see the transit of Venus across the face of the sun on June 5, 2012. This event won’t occur again until the year 2117. On July 19, 2012, a brilliant display of looping plasma showed a complex event in the sun’s magnetic field, this can be seen at 13:06. About six weeks later, on August 31, 2012, the ‘most iconic eruption of this solar cycle’ occurred, witnessed at 13:50 in the video.
Jumping ahead to 36:18, you can view Mercury as it transits across the face of the sun on May 9, 2016. It is more difficult to spot than Venus, but you can learn more about it here. Mercury appears again at 57:38, as it transited the sun again on November 11, 2019. This will Mercury’s last transit until 2032. A full list of interesting events you can witness in the video can be found in the description on YouTube.
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| ‘An X8.2 class solar flare flashes in the edge of the Sun on Sept. 10, 2017. This image was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and shows a blend of light from the 171 and 304 angstrom wavelengths.’ Image and text credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO |
Scott Wiessinger (USRA) was the lead producer on the video above. Tom Bridgman (GST) was the lead data visualizer. Leading scientific writing was Mara Johnson-Groh (Wyle Information Systems). The music, ‘Solar Observer,’ was written and produced by Lars Leonhard.
If you’d like to learn more about NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, you can find a wealth of fascinating information by clicking here.
Earlier this year, NASA published a shorter video that covered 10 of the most important things scientists have learned during SDO’s first decade in space. You can check that out below.
Image credit: Images via NASA/GSFC/SDO
The post Starting with Off-Camera Flash in Photography: Techniques appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.
In my last post, I showed you what equipment you needed when starting with off-camera flash. This time, I am going to be looking at the technical side and what you actually need to learn in order to take great photos using off-camera flash.
This is the part where you need to really get to grips with how this all works. When starting with off-camera flash, this will be something that frustrates you. I’m not going to lie, it involves hard work and practice to get right.
In order to start, you really should have a good idea of how to shoot in manual mode, or at least a good awareness of aperture, shutter speed and ISO.
For someone new to off-camera flash, the technical aspects are the part that is the most daunting. Not only are you working with the camera in manual mode, but you are also adding things such as flash power and flash-to-subject distance. Then there is a model for an extra layer of pressure. That said, a good model is vital.
Finding people to pose for you while you learn is always hard. For this article, I managed to get an awesome model. She is incredibly patient and did exactly what I asked her to do every time. Here she is:
Honestly, a mannequin head is a great investment when starting with off-camera flash. I only paid £4 for this hairdressers mannequin on an Amazon flash sale. Using a mannequin really allows you to build confidence and test lighting setups without worrying about annoying friends, family or models.
You can always use other inanimate objects, especially if you are not interested in portraits, but a hairdresser mannequin is one of the best investments you can make to help you master off-camera flash for portraits.
With modern cameras, flashes and triggers, you can easily stick with letting the camera do all the hard work. Call me old school, but I think it is hugely important to learn off-camera flash manually. By doing this, it is easier to understand how everything works. It also means you are in total control of what is happening.
Just like learning to photograph in manual mode, using off-camera flash manually allows you to get the exact results you want every time. Even if you then go on to shoot in auto mode, you will have the knowledge to still get the shot when the camera plays up (which they tend to do when you need them to do it least).
As you shoot more, you will become more confident, so I would always suggest using an inanimate object whilst you practice. There is nothing worse for knocking your confidence than having your subject in front of your camera and having a total mental meltdown, because you changed the position of the flash but you can’t remember how to adjust the exposure in your camera to make it look right.
Unlike shooting in ambient light, where you only have three variables that can control the image, shooting flash ramps this up to five.
However, it is simply a case of working through them methodically. With practice, it becomes easier. However, your first few times, it may be trial and error (and possibly frustration).
The five variables are:
Let’s start with the two elements that are present in every photograph: shutter speed and aperture.
The main use of shutter speed when using off-camera flash is that you can darken or lighten the ambient light. This includes your background and any other light sources, such as room lights and candles, etc. By using your shutter speed, you can alter the amount of ambient light in the shot without altering any other variable.
The reason for this is that a flash will put out all of its power in the smallest fraction of a second (as quick as to 1/20000th second on some flashes). Your shutter speed will be less than this and, therefore, will not affect the power of the flash itself.
There is also one other thing that affects the use of shutter speed, the flash sync of your camera.
The flash sync is the maximum speed that you can shoot the flash at. This is usually around 1/200th of a second. There is a technical explanation for this and ways to shoot faster, but I won’t get into it within this article as I don’t want to overload you with information. Just remember, you cannot put your shutter speed faster than your flash sync.
When thinking about using the shutter in off-camera flash photography, the thing you need to decide is how much of the surroundings you want to include. If shooting portraits outdoors against a beautiful sky or backdrop, you may want to balance the exposure with the flash to make the most of the location.
However, if you are doing an indoor shoot with ugly or unflattering lighting, you may want to totally remove all ambient light. Shutter speed is your key to doing this.
Let’s look at this with a series of images.
In all of the images, the only thing I will alter is the shutter speed. Everything else will remain identical. The Aperture is f/16, ISO 100. My flash power is 1/4.
For the first shot, I set the shutter speed to the maximum sync speed (1/200th). As you can see in this image, the background is underexposed for effect and the model is lit by the flash.
As I slow the shutter, this time to 1/100th second, you can see the sky is lighter and the darker areas of the model that are not hit by the flash are less harsh. I have allowed one more stop of light into the camera, but only for the ambient exposure due to the speed of the light coming from the flash.
Finally, I slowed the shutter down to 1/60th to give the correct ambient exposure for the sky and using the flash as a fill for any shadows on the model.
Notice how the lighting from the flash has not changed. That is because aperture controls flash exposure.
You can also use your aperture or ISO to increase or decrease the natural light coming into the camera, but remember when you alter them, you will also need to alter your flash power too.
When starting out. The easiest way to think about things is that shutter speed controls the ambient exposure and your aperture controls your flash exposure. I know it is a little more nuanced than that in reality, but when learning, you want things to be as simple as possible.
We know that your shutter speed controls how long your camera shutter is open. Your aperture, however, controls how much light enters your camera, not for how long.
As flash power is too quick to be affected by shutter speed, you control it by changing the aperture. If the image is overexposed, you need to close the aperture down, and if it is too dark, you need to open your aperture up.
To show this in action, look at the images below. In all images, I will keep the shutter at 1/200th of a second and my ISO at 100.
Firstly, I set the flash at f/4. As you can see, the image is overexposed. This means I need to close the aperture a little.
Next at f/8, you can see I have closed the aperture down too far. The image is too dark, so I need to open the aperture a little more.
Finally, here is the shot at f/5.6. As you can see, this is the correct exposure.
As you can see, I have not changed any other exposure variable, just the aperture. Changing the shutter speed would have no impact because the flash discharges its power so quickly. Now I have locked in my exposure, my lighting will be identical every time.
Here is the same image shot with the same aperture and a shutter of 1/100th of a second. A you can see, the change of shutter speed has made no difference to the exposure.
Flash power is simply how much power the flash can put out. This varies from flash to flash.
In terms of getting started, a Speedlite is more than fine. It will mean not shooting in the brightest part of the day (unless you are in shade), but it is super affordable, and the best way to start with off-camera flash.
As with shooting in manual mode, you want to learn with your flash in Manual mode. This helps with consistency.
If you set your flash to 1/2 power, every single pop of that flash will be half power. This consistency is key to mastering flash.
In terms of power, you start with full power, which is sometimes also known as 1/1. This is the largest amount of light that your flash can produce. Most modern flashes work in small 1/3 stops, but to simplify things whilst you learn, you really need to concern yourself with the following outputs:
Each of these settings equates to 1 full stop of light the flash produces. So changing the flash from full power (1/1) to half power (1/2) reduces the amount of light coming out by one full stop. Changing it from 1/1 to 1/4 reduces it by two full stops, etc.
Remember, the stops it refers to are your aperture, as this is what controls flash exposure. If you look at the table below it will explain it more clearly.
| FLASH POWER | 1/1 | 1/2 | 1/4 | 1/8 | 1/16 | 1/32 | 1/64 |
| APERTURE | f/16 | f/11 | f/8 | f/5.6 | f/4 | f/2.8 | f/2 |
As you can see, if the flash at full power gives you a correctly-exposed image at f/16, half power will bring you down to f/11 and so on. This relationship is the key to mastering flash. Half the power = 1 stop of light.
Shooting a flash at full power is less than ideal. There may be some circumstances where you cannot avoid it, but it will kill your batteries quicker, take longer to recharge between shots, and, in some cases, it may overheat the flash, causing it to not work at all. Ideally, you want to be working at 1/2 power or less.
ISO is where you can make that happen.
By doubling your ISO, you allow one more stop of light into the camera. Therefore, you can reduce the flash power and still get the look you wanted. For example, an image at ISO 100 and a flash power or 1/1 will be the same as an image at ISO 400 and 1/4 flash power.
I have decided I want to shoot at f/8 and ISO 100. To do this, the flash has to be at 1/1. To get to 1/4, it means I will lose two stops of flash power.
To keep the same aperture, I turn my ISO from 100 to 400, therefore, giving me two more stops of light into the camera. The image is virtually identical
It is all a juggling act, and ISO is there to help you fine-tune. However, upping your ISO comes with more noise. But, most DSLR and mirrorless cameras can easily go up to ISO 800 and still be of great quality.
ISO can also help with getting the correct ambient exposure whilst keeping a required shutter speed – especially as light drops. A simple tip is – if you need to double your ISO to get more ambient light, drop your flash power by one stop to compensate.
I have saved this for last. This is the most technical when it comes to understanding flash (and involves the laws of physics).
The distance of your flash to your subject is governed by The Inverse Square Law. This law states:
The intensity of an effect such as illumination or gravitational force changes in inverse proportion to the square of the distance from the source.
https://www.diyphotography.net/visual-approach-inverse-square-law-affects-photographers/
Now, I am sure you are reading this thinking, what the heck does that mean? Well it means the amount of light is reduced by distance. See the diagram below courtesy of Wikimedia:
The easiest way to look at this in a photography sense is every time you double the distance between your light and the subject, the amount of light will be reduced to 1/4 of what it was.
What also happens is that every time you double that distance, you get more space to work in. This is really useful if you are doing a group shot. Again, whilst this is hard to explain with words, look at the diagram below.
Now we understand the inverse square law, we can use it to our advantage. All of the images will be shot on the same blue background.
For both images, I will set the exposure at 1/200th, f/16 at ISO 100. I will keep the exposure the same by changing the flash power. The model is 1.5m from the background.
I start with the flash close to the subject (30cm). You can see the background is black. This is due to the light being close to the subject. Therefore, the difference in exposure between the subject to the background is huge due to the inverse square law.
Now, as I move the light back, the difference in the power of light between the subject and the background is much less due to the inverse square law.
The distance between the model and the light is now around 2m.
To keep the exposure the same, I have had to increase the power of my flash a whopping 6 stops. In this example, it has gone from 1/128 power to 1/2 power to keep the same exposure.
As you can see in the image below, the final model and background are both well-exposed due to moving the light further back.
So hopefully, you now have a good understanding of the basics for getting started with off-camera flash. But let’s recap the basic points to remember:
There are more variables you can throw in, such as modifiers, high-speed sync, etc. but right now, that isn’t what you need to learn.
Master these basics and then push things further. The only thing I would suggest to add is an umbrella to diffuse the light and give more flattering results.
An article about starting with off-camera flash that tells you to shoot fully manual. You might be thinking “I can’t do this.” You can – you just need to practice.
It may sound daunting to some of you, but I promise it is easier than you think. I always compare starting with off-camera flash to learning your time tables. When you are learning them, they feel really difficult. Then it clicks, you suddenly understand it and you wondered why it took so long.
All together class, sing along. Two times two is four…
Do you have any other tips or questions you’d like to share? Please do so in the comments.
The post Starting with Off-Camera Flash in Photography: Techniques appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.
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Venus Optics has announced the release of the Laowa 9mm F5.6 FF RL, a lens that takes the title of the world’s widest rectilinear lens for full-frame camera systems.
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The lens features a 135-degree angle of view and is constructed of 14 elements in 10 groups, including two extra-low dispersion elements. It isn’t one of Venus Optics’ ‘Zero-D’ lenses, but it features ‘very low’ distortion, which makes it a solid option for landscape, architecture and real estate photography.
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| A comparison photo showing the difference between a 15mm and 9mm focal length on a full-frame sensor. |
In addition to the ultra-wide field of view, the lens also features an incredibly short minimum focusing distance — just 12cm (4.72”) and uses a five-blade aperture diaphragm. The lens measures 60mm (2.4”) in both length and diameter and weighs just 350g (12oz).
Below are a few sample images from Venus Optics:
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The Laowa 9mm F5.6 FF RL is available in Leica M, Sony FE, Nikon Z and L-mount. This marks the first time Venus Optics has designed a lens for Leica M-mount and to celebrate the occasion, Venus Optics is releasing the M-mount version in black and silver varieties. the Leica M-mount version costs $ 900, while the Sony FE, Nikon Z and L-mount versions costs $ 800.
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Fujifilm has issued firmware updates to the GFX100 and GFX 50 models, with the 100MP camera gaining the most significant improvements.
The GFX100 will gain the ability to output a Raw video stream that can be encoded in Apple’s ProRes RAW format by an Atomos Ninja V recorder. This provides a much wider degree of processing latitude than the gamma-encoded, compressed files the camera saves internally.
In addition, the firmware expands the camera’s USB control protocol, giving more control over the camera’s settings when shooting tethered, and allowing remote control of various camera features when mounted on a drone or gimbal.
Face and eye detection AF is said to be improved, as is the performance of phase detection AF in low light. New focus bracketing options have also been added.
Finally, the GFX100 gains the Classic Neg and Eterna Bleach Bypass Film Simulations introduced since its launch.
GFX 50S and 50R users also gain Classic Neg, along with the original Eterna Film Simulation mode in an update to their cameras. This update also adds the subtle skin-smoothing feature from the GFX 100.
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Fujifilm’s GF 30mm F3.5 R WR is a relatively compact, weather-resistant wide-angle prime lens for the company’s GFX medium-format cameras. It’s roughly equivalent to a 24mm F2.8 lens in full-frame terms, and in our shooting on both 50 and 100 Megapixel camera bodies, we’ve found it to be an impressive performer. From the Cascade foothills to Puget Sound, click through our gallery to see how it looks for yourself.