Editorial Policies

Here you’ll find all our details on our privacy, editorial, and advertising policies.

Mission Statement

The Phoblographer works to bridge the gap between the art and the gear world in photography. As a result, our staff works to test camera gear in practical ways that photographers would actually use them. These include photographing weddings, paid gigs, and photographing purely for its joy. Further, we work to profile and spotlight various photographers from around the world. We aim to serve as a place for people to enjoy the art and craft of photography. We specifically work to provide balance within the photography world.

Founded in 2009, the Phoblographer’s staff has evolved in many ways. But our core tenets are:

Profiling inspiring photographers
Transparency
Delivering educated opinions on happenings throughout the photography world
Testing camera gear in various ways
Helping readers make informed purchasing decisions
Helping readers grow and become inspired to create photos
Emphasizing that plagiarism within the photo community doesn’t actually help it at all

These tenants have holistically been reflected throughout our coverage over the years.

Privacy Policies

The Phoblographer collects your email address when you subscribe to our newsletter or purchase a subscription via our App. It is used for delivering emails to you: both editorial and sponsored. We do not give your email address to third parties. We also comply with GDPR.

The Phoblographer does not sell or collect information about you or your browsing habits by visiting this website. In certain instances, though, we may poll the audience.

The Phoblographer also creates Sponsored Posts and series’ such as Xpert Advice with Fujifilm, feature round ups that are presented by brands, and more. In all cases, we clearly state this within the article. Depending on the deal entered into, sponsored posts are typically worked on by the Editor in Chief to ensure that the content is tailored to the audience. It’s a unique approach that ensures that readers get the most and benefit from the content. Some of these policies look like the following:

The Phoblographer’s various product roundup features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear we’ve fully reviewed. If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

This piece is presented in partnership with BRAND. We’ve independently and ethically reviewed all the products in this post already without sponsorship. And we worked with them to recommend a few key gems to you.

The Phoblographer’s Cheap Photo Deals designed to give you some of the best deals on photography gear we find. We spend a literal business day researching the most attractive camera deals, lens price drops, and all other sales. Some of the gear is brand new. Other times we’ll share used or refurbished products at good prices. Our Cheap Photo Deals are different from The Phoblographer’s thoroughly researched Feature Roundups. If we’ve tested a unit, we may link to our reviews and coverage in our Cheap Photo Deals. With our Feature Roundups, we’re guaranteed to have used the product — often exhaustively. The site may receive affiliate commission payments if you make a purchase. These help us keep the staff fairly compensated, the server bill paid, and us continually delivering content.

Welcome to the Rare Camera Store: a joint initiative of The Phoblographer and the wonderful folks at Blue Moon Camera. We work to bring you some of the coolest and rarest items for a great price.

The Phoblographer partners up with Blue Moon Camera for the Rare Camera Store initiative. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from folks who don’t touch the product. Sometimes you can’t trust eBay. But we trust Blue Moon for sure! Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Though we do not look at comments on articles often, we have a strict rule about constructive criticism only. We do not tolerate negativity.

The Phoblographer’s product testing process follows a strict guide that we use and constantly revamp internally. We don’t do technical tests. But instead, we strive to do practical tests. No photographer shoots photos of clients and tells them about pixel-peeping. We instead care about the moment and what’s creatively possible. The Phoblographer has been testing products for over a decade. Often, our reviews are updated due to changes through firmware updates, recalls, etc. Our reviews aren’t sponsored.

In many instances, we have completely stopped working with various companies. These are often because of a massive breach of our ethics. Grounds for why we would stop working with companies include:

Purposeful deception of the press and our editorial staff.
Support of Unsplash and their methods of deceiving photographers.
Practices that we deem very shady. These may include trying to pay for reviews from us or other outlets and range into many other things.

The Phoblographer does not take money for our reviewing gear. We abide by FTC laws here in the United States and take them very seriously.

The Phoblographer works to be transparent about whether or not we get to keep the gear that we’re reviewing or whether or not it’s provided for the loan.

The Phoblographer strives to be as diverse as possible throughout our hiring practices and coverage. More on this can be found within our media kit and within our interviews and various opinions.

In some cases, the Phoblographer’s staff will attend press trips. These are often fully paid for by the manufacturers. When our coverage centers around these trips, we will always have an editorial policy. Our reviews team receives feedback based on these trips from our editors and washes away all possible biases. In many cases, the Phoblographer does all we can to not attend press trips. But sometimes, it’s the only way to receive a product for testing.

The Phoblographer’s reviews team is taught explicitly about how to test certain pieces of camera gear. This includes working with autofocus parameters and factors that affect it. It also includes various intricacies around weather resistance.

Sometimes, we have syndicated content from other publications or had our content syndicated by other outlets. This is a rare practice for us.

Use of AI in Editorial Practices

The Phoblographer has looked at the world of independent journalism in the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and believes that we should transparently disclose our use of AI in our everyday editorial practices.

Our policies are simple: we use AI to supplement what humans do, not to replace.

Much of our reporting is done involving the ethical questions around AI in photography. This includes using it to help photographers with autofocus features, such as with wildlife, birds, athletes, and vehicles. In many situations, we find that AI is very helpful, especially for those who are visually impaired. Our entire Editorial team wears glasses that help them see better, and our Editor in Chief/Founder is legally blind. AI within cameras helps our staff create photos within our testing and tutorials.

In our various interviews with photographers, we tend to ask them about their thoughts on AI. These opinions are solely theirs, and we present them to you to provide different sides and thought processes on the matter.

We, first and foremost, do not use AI to replace our journalists. Instead, we use it to augment what they do. Depending on when this is read, it may include:

Headline generation – where the journalist is suggested what sort of headline might work better than the other. We choose whether or not to take the AI’s suggestions. A human journalist and a human editor work on the headlines. We create separate headlines for social media, SEO, and the website. AI makes suggestions to us. Sometimes we lean in line with what the AI suggests, while at other times we do not.
SEO practices – there are several platforms using AI that make suggestions based on databases of what will work for page ranking. We use these for certain articles but abide but our internal journalistic ethics and policies for most of these decisions. We do not work to cater articles specifically to Google algorithms as we feel that this is often pandering to misinformation. We use this in conjunction with an outside consulting service where we work with humans on doing this.
Copyediting – The Phoblographer has employed copy editors in the past for editing on many of our articles. In some sponsored series’, we’ve done this with editors who have always worked to provide restructuring to pieces. All of the site’s journalists are equipped with copy-editing AI that helps them make their articles read better according to its own standards. We choose whether or not to use its suggestions and edits. At least two humans work with the AI on providing edits to the articles after it is written.

Much of how we use AI is standard within the entire industry. However, we’re a smaller business and do not have the resources of much larger publications. Despite this, we have a big impact.

The Phoblographer does not use AI in the full creation of our reviews, news, opinions, product recommendation features, interviews, or tutorials.

Advertising and Affiliate Policies

The Phoblographer makes use of several advertising methods in order to pay for ever-rising expenses and to help the site grow. For example, monthly server expenses and newsletter distribution cost several hundred dollars each. We comply with GDPR.

Certain advertisers pay for the display of banner ads or for clicks on banners. In these instances, we don’t necessarily endorse any particular advertiser. However, we try to weed out scammers who buy ads through Google’s AdSense ads and offer bait-and-switch prices. If we see these or if readers notify me of such ads, we will block them from being able to display their ads on The Phoblographer.

Certain trusted photography-related retailers or service providers have affiliate relationships with The Phoblographer. As a result of these relationships, The Phoblographer receives a small commission when someone makes a purchase at an affiliate site after clicking on a link on ThePhoblographer.com.

For many years, the Phoblographer has actively entertained affiliate relationships with only third-party dealers. While our other affiliate relationship accounts are still open, we do not work to actively promote them so as to not give brand preference to any one manufacturer over the other. We find this is a breach of ethics.

In all cases, the products or services through which The Phoblographer receives an affiliate commission does not increase the price that The Phoblographer readers pay. In some cases, however, it may reduce that price. I work hard to get special deals and discounts for The Phoblographer readers and will pass along special coupon codes or offers that aren’t available (or may otherwise be unknown) to people who visit a retailer or service provider directly through its homepage.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We also work with Adorama, eBay, VSP, and Blue Moon Camera.

In many cases, affiliate companies provide The Phoblographer with loaner equipment or test gear/software for review The Phoblographer (sometimes for keeps); however, such review samples are provided with the understanding that The Phoblographer writers cannot and will not promise a favorable review of the product or service. All reviews are based on our honest opinions and requests for revisions will not be considered unless it is clear that an error in our use of the product or service was made.

This website also used VigLink to provide sponsored hyperlinks at one point.

If you require more information, please email editors@thephoblographer.com.