With long days and shorter nights, summer is a good time to consider getting into solar astrophotography. The Sun is also heading toward the active phase of its 11-year sunspot cycle and promises to make the Sun more interesting than the featureless cueball look of the sunspot cycle minimum. Solar astronomers use the count of visible sunspots as a measure of the solar activity, and sunspot cycle #25, as counted by astronomers, looks like it will be peaking sometime around 2024. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by David Kodama)

Photo By Hi il Lee Today’s Photo Of The Day is “Statue Of Nature” by Hi il Lee. Location: Utah. Want to get your images in the running for a Photo of the Day feature? Photo of the Day is chosen from various galleries, including Assignments, Galleries and Contests. Assignments have weekly winners that are featured on the website homepage, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To get your photos in the running, all you have to do is submit them. The post Photo Of The Day By Hi il Lee appeared first on Outdoor Photographer. Original linkOriginal author: Staff

Film has seen a major resurgence in popularity in the last few years, and Fujifilm's line Instax line of cameras and printers has been a runaway hit for the company. The newest option in the lineup is the Instax Mini Link 2, and this excellent video setup guide and review takes a look at everything you can do with the printer and the sort of quality and experience you can expect from it in usage. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

It used to be that continuous lighting was either way too hot or simply not powerful enough for lighting portraits, but LEDs have come quite a long way in recent years, and they are now a viable alternative to strobes in certain situations. This great video examines the two options while showing off a unique light that can do both. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Congratulations to Marti Phillips for winning the recent Spring In Bloom Assignment with the image, “Springtime, Hyde Park.” See more of Phillips’ photography at martiphillips.smugmug.com. View the winning image and a selection of submissions below. And be sure to check out our current photography assignment here and enter your best shots! The post Spring In Bloom Assignment Winner Marti Phillips appeared first on Outdoor Photographer. Original linkOriginal author: Staff

The post The Camera Diopter: What Is It, and How Can You Use It? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan. Have you ever looked through your camera’s viewfinder only to discover a blurry image? If so, your camera diopter is probably set incorrectly. Luckily, it’s easy to fix. In this article, I explain how you can reset your camera’s diopter so your viewfinder always looks sharp. I’ll also explain how you can use your diopter to shoot without glasses or contacts. (That way, you never have to worry about bad vision ruining a photoshoot!) Let’s dive right in. What is a camera diopter? A diopter controls a lens system in your camera’s viewfinder, and it...

The Australian company has updated their 19-inch display after five years, essentially bringing it in line with today’s tech. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Stephen Kampff)

The post Weekly dPS Photography Challenge “No Words” appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime. This is an interesting one! Carol Kelly Cooper in our Facebook group suggested we have a theme with no theme and that we let the photographs (up to 5) tell the story! (Make sure you include the #dpsweeklychallenge and #dpsnowords tags in your shared entries on social media. “No words. Take a photo that is worth a thousand words. Tell a story, capture a mood or a moment or an emotion. But don’t explain the photo in comments… I once took a photo of an old wooden park bench sitting in the grass in front of an old faded barn. Many people...

Photography, like any other art, is a highly subjective pursuit, and as such, it can sometimes be a bit difficult to know if you are doing well or what you can do to improve. So, what is it that makes a good photograph? What does it mean to be a good photographer? This excellent video essay explores those questions and offers some useful insights. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Photo By Mattias Hammar “This is the first macro shot that I was really happy with,” photographer Mattias Hammar of Gothenburg, Sweden, confides. “A blue damselfly defending the forest. The photo was taken beside a forest path close to a lake. When I passed, I saw 20 to 30 damsels buzzing in an area covered in tall green grass. I spent an hour failing to get a nice shot of these evasive models before this moment happened. I started to close in on this fellow who didn’t back down. While I was shooting, a light gust of wind brought a small straw in front of him. He reacted by using his legs to transfer it from right to left. I got...

In the final part of my four-part series, I want to focus on the one person who can make or break your photography business: you. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Pete Coco)

For wildlife photographers, super-telephoto lenses are the key to capturing close-up, engaging compositions of subjects safely and respectfully. The advantages of super-tele primes compared to zooms are generally better image quality and constant maximum apertures, but that performance comes at a price, not only in dollars but also in size and weight. The options for super-tele primes were once very limited and typically very expensive, but in recent years, lens makers have introduced more compact and more affordable choices for mirrorless camera systems. Innovations in optical design, along with some compromises in maximum aperture, have allowed manufacturers to offer alternatives that are easier to buy—and to handle in the field. Here’s a look at the super-telephoto prime lenses available today for mirrorless...

The new Apple MacBook Air has arrived, and it brings with it a newly designed chassis, a new chip, a bigger screen, and a whole range of other new features and improvements over the already highly respected M1 MacBook Air. So, how does Apple's ultra-portable laptop perform with all these upgrades? This excellent video review takes a look at everything you can expect from it in practice. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Most of us over 30 have at least one box of old photo prints in a closet somewhere, and digitizing them is a worthwhile if tedious task. The Epson FastFoto FF-680W scanner seeks to make quick and easy work of that task while still producing high-quality results, and in this review, we take a look at what you can expect from it in practice. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Photo By Matt Meisenheimer Today’s Photo Of The Day is “Nowhere to Hide” by Matt Meisenheimer. Location: Torres del Paine, Chile. “Dramatic storm light isolated this lone lenga tree against a backdrop of the Cuernos of Torres del Paine,” describes Meisenheimer. Want to get your images in the running for a Photo of the Day feature? Photo of the Day is chosen from various galleries, including Assignments, Galleries and Contests. Assignments have weekly winners that are featured on the website homepage, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To get your photos in the running, all you have to do is submit them. The post Photo Of The Day By Matt Meisenheimer appeared first on Outdoor Photographer. Original linkOriginal author: Staff

Were you wanting to do some HDR work in Luminar Neo? It's about to be offered as a paid extension. HDR Merge compiles multiple exposure-bracketed images into a single HDR image. It can merge up to 10 photos and deliver an increased level of color enhancement, making the final result look as close as possible to what the eye sees. HDR Merge is scheduled to be released on July 28, and the preorder starts today. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Mel Martin)

One of the things the pandemic taught us is how important it is to diversify one's income streams, particularly when events entirely outside our control can put those streams in serious jeopardy. The nice thing about photography, though, is that (depending on your genre at bit, admittedly) there are a lot of ways to make money from images besides simply shooting for a client who then pays you for your services. This great video essay features an experienced photographer discussing the importance of income streams. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Fujifilm's X-H2S is the newest camera in the company's popular X Series line of mirrorless cameras, and with it come a variety of improvements and new features, most notable being a new sensor. This awesome video review takes a look at the camera for photography purposes, including the performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

Content-Aware fill was one of the most useful advancements in the history of Photoshop, allowing you to quickly and effectively clean up distractions in images without having to do loads of tricky work to make the result convincing. While it does not work for every situation, its usefulness stretches farther than you might think. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to use Content-Aware tool to efficiently and convincingly remove distractions in images. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Alex Cooke)

A bit of panic leads to a fun diversion. Today, we pose a hypothetical question. [ Read More ]Original link(Originally posted by Christopher Malcolm)