It just goes with the territory, the wider that you want to shoot, the more distortion and correction you have to be comfortable with – or do you? Venus Optics, maker of the Laowa branded lenses out of China has announced their new 12mm lens, a focal length that would typically feature significant distortion issues, which they boast as having almost no distortion along with a constant F/2.8 aperture. The Chinese-based optics company is launching the lens through a Kickstarter campaign.
Funny, considering their last last lens sale ended just a short time ago, but Olympus has some new killer savings on many of their fantastic line of F/1.8 prime lenses. Headlining the sales is the 75mm F/1.8 with a sweet $200 savings. Also notable, Sony’s budget a5100 APS-C mirrorless offering is also on sale again. …
The Fujifilm announcement earlier today that they would be officially discontinuing their PRO NS 160 Sheet film in Japan is just another reminder of the limited time we have left with the films that we have all grown to love. In the last 4 years alone we have lost some of the most iconic and legendary films, likely never to be truly replaced. So let’s take a quick look down memory lane at some of the discontinued emulsions that helped shape our our past.
Inspired by Bill Cunningham and Scott Schuman, William Crooks has developed his own take on street portraiture through his Wac Avenue series. “Originally, photography was simply a means of documenting the visually expressive individuals I would spot while walking through the small downtown of my home Greenville, SC. This grew into a passion for street portraiture and I found myself spending nearly every weekend scouring the streets for stylish strangers.” Crooks said of his experience.
Today, BenQ is announcing their new PV270 monitor aimed at photo and video editors. To that end, they’re claiming consistently accurate color in the monitor that they’re also stating covers 99% Adobe RGB, 100% Rec. 709 and a 96% DCI-P3 colour gamut with IPS Technology.
While many manual focus lenses obviously lack AF mechanisms, they surely make up for it with cool features like fast apertures–and that’s the case with the new Samyang 35mm f1.2 lens. Aimed at APS-C mirrorless camera users, those with Sony E, Micro Four Thirds, Fujifilm X series and Canon M cameras will be able to use this new lens. The new Samyang 35mm f1.2 boasts Ultra Multi Coating, two aspherical lenses as part of nine glass elements in seven groups. These are designed to minimize aberration and unnecessary light dispersion. Plus, it’s got a 62mm filter threat–which is fairly large for an APS-C lens based
We’ve done tutorials before on how to shoot better portraits with a 35mm lens and a 50mm lens, and these days it’s possible to create visually appealing photos with something as wide as even a 24mm lens. Modern optics have improved that much to the point where anyone can look good when shot with a 24mm lens–but you need to be the one that makes them look great. Part of this has to do with how you approach the situation while another part pertains to making your creative vision work in the scene.
“I wouldn’t describe myself as an amateur photographer but I’m not a professional one either, I work full time as system administrator in IT, and giving photography a lot of my free time.” states photographer Leonid Litvac, who does a lot of portraiture. For Leonid, photography became his muse a few years ago. Then he tried to get into portraiture and found it tough in the beginning. Like many portrait photographers starting out, he didn’t realize that it was all about communication. But later on, he figured it out.
Photographer Roy Rozanski is a 37 year old photographer who hails from Israel. He calls Tel Aviv his “main hunting ground” because it contains “a highly versatile street life packed full of different vibes, sounds and smells. This fact is impressive on its own especially for such a small city in comparison to some other big metropolis.” Through his work, he tries to find stories and to that end ignores all the more artistic entities that many other shooters see.
Photographer Michele Palazzo should be a very familiar one to you all. He sometimes goes by the alias Street Fauna and he’s also widely known for a specific image he shot during a blizzard here in NYC. Michele’s work has been compared to paintings, and his recent work showcasing NYC in the rain are no different. Michele prefers shooting during bad weather as he finds it more interesting. “I like extreme conditions especially in NY where they can be very extreme.” states Michele. “The rain and the water in the streets make everything shine, lot of reflections, light it’s bouncing everywhere creating amazing contrasts and plus umbrellas! I love umbrellas, like little tents where people find refuge from the elements.”