I’ll never forget the 1st time I encountered it after moving to New York City. I was on the train, working for a wedding photographer in Coney Island. An irate man, clearly a lifelong minority resident, made his frustration with my presence quite known. “Go back to Manhattan where you belong, white girl.” I was both deeply saddened and deeply grateful for this exchange. It was horribly uncomfortable but, it’s about time that feeling gets flipped on white folks regularly, we are all overdue on that front. It was also an important wake-up call as the rural hick chick from farm country, Pennsylvania. It was my first exposure to how deeply divided and segregated the city still can be, to how much more complex the issue is than most of us ever realize, especially as photographers. I knew as an emerging photographer, I was no more capable of affording Manhattan rent prices than this man was. But also, my moving to Brooklyn also impacted him by making a neighborhood where he probably spent his whole life, less affordable for him. So how do we bridge this divide?
Indian travel photographer Prathamesh Dixit shares his passion for documenting adventures in the hope that intrepid travelers become inspired to do the same. I am Prathamesh Dixit, a full-time travel photographer based in India with an experience of over five years. The opportunities I had along the journey involved some amazing places such as Venice, …
Instant cameras have made a huge comeback in recent years, and with it, so too has printing photos seen a resurgence in popularity. This is certainly a welcomed trend considering pretty much everyone has a camera in their pockets at all times these days, but the photos we take are seldom printed and instead find themselves stuck in digital limbo, never to be looked at again. The novelty of seeing a physical print come out of an instant camera never gets old, with people instinctively gathering for selfies whenever someone busts out an instant camera. Canon is hoping to tap into this market with the newest product in their IVY product line: the Canon IVY CLIQ+. The IVY CLIQ+ is an easily pocketable instant camera that also doubles as a mobile printer, allowing you to take photos and create prints on the fly using ZINK Zero Ink Technology. To add to the novelty factor, the ZINK prints have a peel-apart back that turns them into stickers as well. Does the Canon IVY CLIQ+ live up to the hype?
When done right, shooting in natural light can yield some gorgeous results, especially for portraits. But the main challenge with it is it’s constant light, so you have to make adjustments and adapt your shooting style and settings to account for that. Today’s photography cheat sheet especially addresses that with some tips on two styles you’ll typically do in natural light portrait photography.
Portrait photographers that work in a studio are going to adore the Nikon Z 85mm f1.8. I have to admit that every time a Nikon unit came in for review, I sort of sighed. We often get these great lenses in that are stellar all around but limited only by a questionably archaic and perplexing camera system. Why did we have to have a single CFast card slot? Why didn’t they choose to make their lenses turn the same way to a camera that everyone else does? But most importantly why can’t the autofocus system be what it is with their DSLRs? At least with the Nikon Z 85mm f1.8, that won’t matter much if you’re working on using it for portraits. It exhibits exceptional image quality in every way imaginable. And it also has the build quality to back it up. So while Nikon has worked incredibly hard on these lenses that are nearly class-leading, they can only go so far.
Sony has done a tremendous job of fleshing out its camera line up. No matter what budget you have, there are Sony cameras for you. The three Sony cameras we have featured in this roundup are all fantastic options for photographers who like to get out into nature, and who want to capture the splendor of the world around them. All of the cameras have fantastic image processing chips, sensors that are capable of capturing incredible details, and levels of dynamic range that leave the competition in the dust. If you’re looking for Sony cameras that are well suited to landscape photography, head on past the break to see three of our recommendations.
As with all forms of art, going to galleries and museums is one of the best ways to view the most iconic photographs in history. An ongoing exhibit at the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) promises to bring exactly this experience by highlighting some of the most notable works from the early days of the medium to the best of contemporary photography. If you’re going to be in San Diego in the coming months, you might want to squeeze in a side trip to this photo exhibit.
“Astrophotography has never been easier to get into than ever before!” New Jersey-based photographer Daniel Stein rightly reminds all of us in our recent chat with him. True enough, many today’s cameras are powerful enough to capture the grandeur of the night sky which is typically hidden in plain sight. Some of you may remember him for his impressive astro snaps on Polaroid, an unbelievable feat given that the medium is something you won’t expect photographers would be using to shoot star trails and Milky Way photos. But those are just a few of the tricks he has in his sleeve. As an astrophotographer who shoots in both film and digital, Daniel is in a great position to inspire and encourage us to give the craft a try with whatever camera we have.
Phase One has been trying to claw away at the dominance of Adobe’s Lightroom and Photoshop in the photo editing space for a while now. When Phase One released Capture One 12 last year, huge strides were made over previous editions, and the software became more compelling than ever. All of the staff here at The Phoblographer switched over to Capture One 12 because of the greatly enhanced results we were getting from it with our own images. Capture One is incredibly powerfully; there’s simply no denying that it can do more than Lightroom can, and it can get more out of RAW and DNG files, but Capture One 12 still wasn’t perfect. Phase One has been hard at work, and they listened to the feedback that poured in from users around the globe. Their efforts to create the ultimate photo editing software have culminated in Capture One 20. Have Phase One done enough to make Capture One 20 more accessible and easier to use? Find out in our review.
As a photographer and a journalist, I always find it hysterical that folks geek out hard about the image quality that cameraphones deliver. Granted, it has improved and just gets better with each generation. But so too does that from dedicated cameras. This doesn’t at all invalidate the advancements that Sony made with the Sony Xperia 1. The phone aside, the cameras, app ecosystem, and functionality are all pretty good. If you’re a photographer with larger paws, I can completely see how the Sony Xperia 1 could be the option you want and need. But if you’re in the short bus like me, then it becomes a tad unwieldy. And if you’re a Sony Alpha camera user, don’t expect the same level of attention to imaging that you get from your a7 series device.