With 2018 soon coming to a close, it’s time once again for us to go over the photos we’ve taken this year and share our ultimate favorite on Flickr for their annual Your Best Shot contest. Yes, you only have one shot at this, so make sure it counts — especially because there are prizes at stake this time.
Panasonic and Olympus both make fantastic Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses, and right now you can save some serious money thanks to these merry deals. You can grab the Panasonic GX85 with two lenses for just $497.99. That means you can save $502 on this deal alone. The Panasonic Lumix G7 with a 14-42mm lens can be snapped up for $497.99, the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II with 14-42mm lens is $499, while the newer MK III body with the same lens is just $599. There are massive savings to be had on top quality glass too.
We’re expanding the Phoblographer staff even more! Hi folks, we’ve brought on a new Tech Writer and the Phoblographer is still looking at expansions. So if you’re interested, please apply to the positions below.
There seems to be a certain stigma that follows cheaper lenses around these days that really isn’t warranted or deserved; and it is something that really needs to change. There really isn’t such a thing as a bad lens anymore. Whether you’re looking at wide angle lenses, telephotos, or even super telephotos, you’re going to be able to get great glass for little outlay. When it comes to cityscape photography the wider the lens the better, after all you want to capture as much of that stunning vista as possible, and fortunately there are some great wide angle lenses available that offer outstanding value for money.
We’re deciding that we’re trying something brand new on the Phoblographer’s Instagram channel in the form of live interviews–and our first will be with Urban Geometry Photographer George Byrne. George Byrne creates large-scale photographs that depict everyday surfaces and landscapes as painterly abstractions. Borrowing from the clean, vivid clarity of modernist painting, he also references the New Topographics photography movement via a subject matter firmly entrenched in the urban everyday.
There are so many amazing deals this holiday season on everything from cameras to lenses, and Lightroom presets to Photoshop overlays. The camera deals this year are absolutely amazing. You can get the incredible Sony A7R II for $1,598, the Fujifilm X-T2 with 18-55mm lens for $1,399, a Panasonic GX85 with two lenses for a ridiculously low price of $497.99, and the Nikon D750 with battery grip for $1,396.95. The Buy One Get Two Free Lightroom Presets Bundle for $39, and the Photoshop Buy One Get Two Free overlays bundle for $39 offer outstanding value too.
Images on the web have been increasing in size throughout the years, and the displays we are viewing these images on have followed suit accordingly. High resolution desktop monitors and large mobile phone displays have become the norm, but unless you’re paying for the fastest internet plan, chances are these large images online will still take a second to load. This is where the recently launched browser utility Squoosh comes in. An open sourced project created by the fine folks over at Google Chrome Labs, Squoosh promises to “make images smaller using best-in-class codecs, right in the browser.”
The Christmas and holiday deals keep on rolling in, and this time it is Canon who have dished up some awesome camera deals and discounts on top quality lenses. If you have been eyeing a Full Frame 5D Mk iV you can save $500 on one right now. The 6D Mk II with battery grip is just $1,299, and the Mirrorless Canon M50 with two lenses is a steal at $829. There are also savings on glass too. The 70-200mm f2.8 L IS II USM is down to $1,799 (Save $300), the Canon 100mm f2.8 L IS USM has a discount of $200 making it $699, and the outstanding 24-70mm f2.8 L II USM can be yours for $1,599!
The Nikon z7 finally has support from Capture One 12 after the recent update, and so we’ve added this to our Nikon z7 review along with a comparison against what we did when editing in Adobe Lightroom. Editing in both programs when it comes to the Nikon z7 is interestingly different. Both programs showcase that the Nikon z7 is a very capable camera but the way that the editing happens is much different. In addition to that, both programs are capable of delivering much different looking images.
With the number of portrait photographers proclaiming that they only shoot in natural light perplexingly on the rise, one begs to question why someone wouldn’t want to have full control over how they lit their portrait subjects. This is something that photographer Craig Beckta addressed in his latest video, where he shares the seven reasons why he believes flash is better for portraits than natural light.