With spring arriving in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s time again for many of us to go outside in humid, buggy areas in search of creepy-crawlies. Macro photography is... peculiar, I admit that. But anyone who’s tried this genre also knows its allure. Navigate some technical hurdles and heed the mosquitos,...
Post Archive By Spencer Cox - Page 9
Don’t Confuse Effort with Results
It’s one of the most familiar stories that I hear: “You wouldn’t believe how difficult it was to take this photo. I captured it on the hardest hike of my life, but it was absolutely worth the effort.” And then the photo - though rarely a complete failure - just...
Sony RX0 II Announcement
Late last night, Sony announced the RX0 II, a new 15.3-megapixel action camera that looks very promising even for advanced photographers. With a 1-inch sensor and a fixed, rectilinear 8mm f/4 lens (24mm field of view equivalent) - and among the lightest ever weights for a camera of this sensor...
When to Use Bracketing for the Best Results
One of the most useful techniques in photography is called bracketing - in other words, taking multiple photos of the same subject with different camera settings. Commonly, bracketing is about changing your exposure: one photo at the meter’s recommendation, plus one under and one over. But exposure isn’t the only...
Equivalence Also Includes Aperture and ISO
I know, I know. After the 2012-2017 Great Equivalence War, photographers everywhere agreed never to utter that word again. Nasim’s famous quote, “Everyone is right, everyone is wrong,” has been etched both into the peace treaty and into the hearts of millions. However, as we near the two-year anniversary of...
Lightroom vs ON1: Should You Switch?
I’ve recently been looking at alternatives to Adobe Lightroom for photographers who are considering switching, and one name that keeps coming up is ON1 Photo RAW. Like Lightroom, ON1 is both a photo organizer and a photo editor, although it also differs from its Adobe cousin in some major ways....
Venus Optics Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D Review
One of the widest lenses on the market today is the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D, made by Venus Optics. Not only is this lens rectilinear (not a fisheye), but Venus Optics claims it has almost no distortion whatsoever. With so few 12mm lenses available today, anyone who needs an ultra-ultra...
Making Sense out of Chaos
The natural world can be a chaotic place. If you’re a landscape photographer, you’ve probably found yourself taking pictures of scenes that seem too disorganized and overwhelming to work right no matter what you do: forests, canyons, coastlines, and so on. You’re chasing the elusive gem of simplicity within a...
How to Take Better Black and White Landscape Photos
Landscape photography goes hand in hand with black and white. It isn’t just because of famous landscape photographers like Ansel Adams, but also because the intricate shapes that attract our attention in nature often “just feel right” in monochrome. Want to take better black and white landscape photos? This article...
Don’t Update EOS R Firmware to Version 1.1.0
Yesterday, I posted an article comparing the banding noise on today's mirrorless cameras. The results showed the Canon EOS R to have a bit more such noise than Nikon or Sony. However, one Photography Life reader, Todd (thanks!), noted Canon released a firmware update last week to fix horizontal linear...