The arrival of 2016 brought an announcement of two major products from Nikon; one that had already been teased (the widely anticipated D5, in a brief press release in November 2015), and one which had caught the Internet rumour and forum communities by surprise (the D500). It is refreshing to see in this day and age of leaks and conjecture that Nikon could still keep something under wraps, and in some ways it is interesting that they left out the D500 from their […]
Adobe’s latest update to Camera Raw 9 (ACR) brought two eye catching features to the RAW conversion engine in Lightroom and Photoshop. Specifically, the ability to merge images into HDR and panoramic images from within ACR itself, while still within the RAW structure. The above image is an example of both; it is a panorama made out of several stitched HDR shots (although it was created outside the Adobe ecosystem). This introduction brought both those tools into the consciousness of Lightroom users, who […]
As photographers in the digital era, we spend a certain amount of time taking photos, and a certain amount of time editing those photos. The split between the two will vary from photographer to photographer, and some reckon they spend as much as 75% of their time editing images, and only 25% of their time actually taking pictures. As a result of the digital revolution, photographers frequently wind up with anything from thousands to hundreds of thousands of images sitting […]
Photography seems to go through trends. Camera clubs, and places like Flickr have at some point or the other, been overrun with examples of colour popping, HDR (more accurately, excessive tone mapping), and tilt-shifting (more accurately, tilting). But these trends aren’t always limited to image styles. One thing which seems to have grabbed the imagination of many photographers is the use of a dedicated button on the back of the camera to autofocus, instead of activating it through a half-press […]
It’s been a long while. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was writing about last year’s Exhibition, but here we are in the aftermath of Focus on Imaging 2012. In contrast to the hullabaloo last year over Canon’s last minute withdrawal, this year the noise was of a more positive nature. Although already previously announced, there were several as yet unavailable major new cameras for punters to get their hands on. Both Nikon and Canon had brand new […]
Photography is generally defined as the practice of creating pictures by recording light on a light-sensitive surface. Yet increasingly these days in photographic circles there is plenty of imagery being proudly presented – and warmly received – that on a personal level I would struggle to classify as “photography”. This is one of photography’s contemporary grey areas. It is a matter of debate how much manipulation can occur whilst still preserving a photograph’s status, and this threshold varies depending on […]
Every March in the UK, the “biggest annual imaging trade show in Europe” rolls into the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. I’ve never had reason to attend because despite it’s “biggest” billing, very little groundbreaking camera technology ever debuts at Focus, with all the big announcements and displays reserved for the bi-annual Photokina in Germany, and CliQ in America – the recent rebranding exercise of the Photo Marketing Association (PMA). Yet that changed last year when I switched tacks to […]
… Should be done while the sun is shining. Or so goes conventional wisdom anyway. Yet as photographers we should be aware to the photographic potential available to us when the sun isn’t shining, or when conditions are not ideal. When I think about landscape photography I am sometimes guilty of wanting – and waiting for – conditions to be nigh on perfect before I’ll venture out with camera gear in tow. It doesn’t help that even though I live […]
Technology is a wonderful thing. More powerful, cheaper, better… it’s a neverending upgrade cycle. Today many people have more computing power in their mobile phone than they did in their first desktop computer. In the same way, digital cameras are getting better all the time, and prices that were once astronomical (a six million pixel Kodak DCS660 would have set you back £18, 000 in 2000) are falling to levels that us mere mortals can afford without having to remortgage […]