Two giants in the world of photography – SmugMug and Flickr – have become one. In a surprise move announced Friday, SmugMug has bought Flickr from Yahoo (owned by Verizon) for an undisclosed amount. The two platforms do have obvious similarities, with both built around uploading and hosting your photos online. However, SmugMug is intended more for creating a personal photography website, while Flickr adds a strong element of social media and community to the mix. So, what does this…
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The Ultimate PC Build for Photography Needs
Thanks to the super high-resolution sensors we see today in digital cameras, a fast computer is absolutely essential for an efficient post-processing workflow when working with RAW images. If a few years back a standard PC or a mid-range laptop were good enough for post-processing images, 30+ MP RAW files can put a huge burden on processing power and make a high-end machine seem obsolete. In addition, most commercial software targeted at professionals has also gotten pretty heavy, requiring more…
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Essential Tips for Photographing Theater Performances
Theater photography involves providing images that are concise and maintain the integrity of the light and the vision of the director. Over the last several years, I’ve worked with local theater groups in our area to provide promotional images and headshots, as well as archive images of their productions. Archive images are used by the actors, set designers/builders and costume designers to represent their work. I have learned during these last few years to apply time saving-techniques such as the…
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How to Take Family Portraits on a Budget
I want to share with you some useful tips for taking family portrait photos on a budget, including how I got into the satisfying world of portraiture after years of taking random (and disappointing) snapshots. Hopefully, this post will interest family photographers who want less expensive equipment, and any beginners to photography who simply want to capture nice photographs of people. Many amateurs cannot spend lots of money on quite expensive photography gear and do not have time to travel…
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DJI Mavic Air Review
This is a detailed review of the DJI Mavic Air drone used for aerial photography and videography. As I was deciding on what gear to bring for a trip to New Zealand earlier this year, my biggest dilemma was whether to take a drone with me or not. The thing is, while I love the idea of being able to take images and videos from unique vantage points, my biggest struggle with drones so far have been their large sizes…
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What Is the Limiting Factor in Your Photography?
Everyone has a limiting factor. Everyone has some reason why they aren’t taking exactly the photos they want, 100% of the time. The best photographers in history didn’t capture a perfect result (or even something good) each time they clicked the shutter, and neither will you. But your ordinary or bad work is perhaps the biggest gold mine of information you have at your disposal, and it would be absurd to overlook it if you’re trying to improve your work…
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TerraMaster D2-310 Hard Drive Enclosure Review
Depending upon the number of images or videos you have, you might need to rely upon external hard drives for much of your daily photography work. The biggest issue, though, is that this can result in a significant slowdown compared to editing photos via an internal drive, especially SSD or flash storage. What are your options? One possibility is to use an external hard drive enclosure capable of RAID configurations, letting you speed up your storage or mirror the information…
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M.2 NVMe Drive Overheating and Failure Issues
Without a doubt, the release of ultra-fast M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD drives has played a huge role in not only the IT world as a whole, but also in the photography community, where more and more photographers are choosing to build their own machines in order to speed up their photography workflow. Using M.2 NVMe drives for storing Lightroom catalogs, RAW files and cached data can speed up performance considerably, which is why many photographers, including myself, have been choosing…
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Low Light Photography Tips
Low light photography is not necessarily just night photography, as many people assume. There could be different amounts of light coming from various sources and whatever is less than daytime light outside, I consider low-light. Indoors photography without much ambient light (as in many of our homes) as well as the light that is barely visible to our eyes at night, is also considered to be low-light. In this article, I will provide tips on how to take pictures in…
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Behind-The-Camera Shy: Tips for the Timid Photographer
If you’re at all like me, circumspect and bashful, then taking candid portraits of strangers can be intimidating, if not something you avoid altogether. Candids of everyday people are what drew me to photography in the first place, so to get over my reticence I came up with the following strategies.
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Using Manual Focus Lenses on Nikon DSLR Cameras
One of the greatest features of single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras is the interchangeability of their lenses. From super-wide fisheye to ultra-telephoto, interchangeable lenses have given SLR cameras the versatility to tackle almost any photographic challenge, and enabled 35mm film SLRs to dominate the market for “serious” photography for decades, until the advent of digital SLRs (DSLRs) beginning around the year 2000.
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What is the Sunny 16 Rule in Photography?
One of the more common exposure tips in photography is called the sunny 16 rule. Although it dates back to the early days of photography, and some would argue that it is obsolete at this point, most photographers still hear about this rule while learning about exposure. So, what is the sunny 16 rule, and does it still matter for taking pictures today?
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Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E VR AF-P Review
In this in-depth review of the Nikon AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR lens, we will take a close look at what this full-frame lens has to offer when used on modern Nikon DSLR cameras, go over its features and compare it to its predecessor. The Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E VR AF-P was announced in July of 2017 as a major update to the existing 70-300mm lens design, optimized for high-resolution camera bodies, and armed with the latest optical technologies. Sporting…
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Getting Motivated Again After a Newborn
Having a child cannot be described, it can only be experienced. Having a child will bring you joy in ways you never anticipated, but will also test your resilience skills like never before. Having a child will change you physically, and mentally. So what’s the relation with this and Photography Life? Nasim recently posted a Guest Post Contest. As I was going through the Suggestions section, I felt none of these articles would have been useful for me 1.5 years…
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How to Photograph the Milky Way Bow
In this article, we will take a closer look at how to photograph the Milky Way bow. I wrote this guide from the point of view of a person who has largely taught himself. During the last four years, I have also had the invaluable help of a fellow night photographer. I made all the mistakes and then tried a lot of corrections while I learned and worked to inspire others to try it out, too. I will admit to…
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Automation is Coming – How Will it Affect the Developing World?
Automation? Developing world? This is supposed to be a photography blog, not The Economist! I know. I know. Have patience, dear reader, and it will come together soon. And I promise there will be photos. Let me explain: I have a fascination with photographing Pakistan’s working class. I was born and raised there and have a tremendous amount of respect for the resilience, work ethic and ingenuity of the common people. Whenever I visit, I try to capture elements of…
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Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM Review
Introduced in 1999, the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM has long been regarded as a benchmark in Canon’s lineup in terms of image sharpness and focusing performance. At the time of its introduction, the EF 300mm f/2.8L IS replaced the very successful EF 300mm f/2.8L USM which was one of Canons best lenses. With this update, Canon gave the EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM a wholly new optical formula with one fluorite element and two UD-glass elements along with…
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Recommended Camera Settings for Landscape Photography
It is crucial to set your camera properly if you want to take the highest quality landscape photos. However, with the large range of menu options and settings found in cameras today, it isn’t easy to find the optimal setup. This article covers the best camera settings to use for landscape photography, including many options that are “set it and forget it” parts of the menu that you rarely will need to adjust. Keep in mind that all of these…
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Gnarbox 2.0 SSD Announcement
Having just reviewed both WD My Passport Wireless SSD and the original Gnarbox, I came to the conclusion that both were half-baked solutions (with each having its own list of pros and cons) due to all the performance, hardware and software issues I encountered. It looks like while I was busy reviewing the Gnarbox, the team behind the product was already busy releasing the next iteration, “Gnarbox 2.0 SSD”. After looking at the details of this major release, it appears…
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Photographing the Long-Necked Padaung Ladies
Two ethical issues might obstruct your visit to Kayah State in Myanmar to visit the “long-necked ladies” of the Padaung Tribe. First, you might not wish to visit a country whose army is committing genocide against its Rohingya minority, never mind that you are at the far end of the country from that sadness. But, your tourist dollars are supporting the guides, restaurant owners and their staff, and all the other people who rely on them for their livelihood. And,…
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