It's going to be virtual, but for all of us based in different places in the world, this is great news. They're showcasing everything new, so you can be an early adopter and work more efficiently and learn something new. Keanu Reeves, Annie Leibovitz, and award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay will be participating too, so it's going to be interesting and entertaining.

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I never understood the appeal of Macs until I dipped my toe in the water with my first Macbook Air in 2011. I'm still using that laptop today where in the same time period many PC laptops have come and gone, but sadly, that may not be the case for Apple desktops and laptops that you buy today.

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The post 5 Ways to Diversify Your Photography Business appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Karthika Gupta.

Photography is an incredible art form that really gets your creative juices flowing. There are so many elements to making a great image, and the beauty of it is that so much of photography is really subjective.

Sure, there are some technical requirements that you might need to pay attention to. But these days, even those are somewhat relaxed in the name of art.

That said, there are a lot of things that you need to consider and pay attention to if you want to make photography your full-time career, or even make a living out of creating images. It is hard to start out and get consistent work in a sea of photographers. The fact that there is really a low barrier to entry in terms of starter gear results in a lot of competition. Plus, much of photography education online is free (or almost free), so there is nothing you cannot learn about photography on your own, right?

Being able to call yourself a full-time photographer and being able to make a living out of photography is not that easy. Markets are constantly changing; customer tastes are evolving and prices for good photography are also shifting. Unfortunately, you will always find someone who is willing to do a job for less money. That is a reality, not only for photography, but for almost any business out there.

Wedding photographers haven’t had it easy over the last six months, but small, short-notice weddings mean that photographers often need to be able to travel light and move fast. What gear would you take as a bare minimum to shoot a wedding?

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Gene Nagata a.k.a. Potato Jet was pretty excited when the Canon EOS R5 was announced but the dramas surrounding recording limits caused by overheating have become a significant factor. Nagata, along with fellow YouTuber Armando Ferreira, has spent some time testing it alongside the new a7S III from Sony and put the two cameras through their paces before coming to a decision as to which one he wants to add to his arsenal.

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When you work on building a lighting setup for a portrait, you likely think about it from the perspective of adding different lights and modifiers. But as important as adding light is, knowing where and how to take it away is just as crucial to shaping your subject. This great video will show you how to use v-flats to create negative fill and improve the look of your portraits.

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The JPEG file format is one of the most ubiquitous formats on the web, but the actual technology that powers the compression is old. A new method, based on machine learning, might change what photography really looks like.

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As photographers, we frequently find ourselves shoulder to shoulder with another photographer focusing on the same subject, but what if that subject is the other photographer’s model? Is it ok to stand close enough to take the same or similar shot, or is that cheating, or worse, theft? Just how much photographic imitation is ok? A member of a local photography Facebook group I belong to recently posed this question. A heated discussion inevitably ensued.

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Does taking a snapshot and taking a photograph means the same thing, or is there a vast degree of skill differentiating between the two? In this piece, I explore the answer.

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Sony's G Master lenses are the best the company has to offer, but Sigma's Art series often offers comparable performance at more affordable prices. If you are looking for a top-notch portrait lens and wondering which is right for you, check out this helpful video comparison between the Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM and Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lenses.

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You can create realistic and interesting, randomized backgrounds in Photoshop using a little known script. Here's how.

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The post Great Android Apps for Adding Glitch Effects to Your Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.

In digital photography, glitches are usually avoided at all costs. However, there are some who welcome the whimsical aesthetic of glitch art. Here are four of the best Android apps that can be used to add artificial glitch effects to your images.

What is glitch art?

Generally, the word glitch refers to a visual or audio malfunction occurring in a media format.

Music, video games, and digital photography; all technology can succumb to glitches. While often viewed as an unwelcome occurrence, glitches have, over time, garnered a growing amount of creative interest. That’s where glitch art comes in.

Glitch art embraces the glitch as an artistic event spawned by the development of technology.

Glitch art is created by artists who embrace the nature of the glitch for its aesthetic and audible qualities. By either intentionally creating glitches or capturing them as they occur organically, artists elevate the status of the glitch from a technical irritation to an intriguing insight into the technology we surround ourselves with.

The post Macro Photography for Beginners appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Barrie Smith.

The advent of digital photography swept away one of the most challenging problems in image capture: how to shoot macro without a pile of specialised gear. Now you can get down, dirty, and close in the image capture business, and make macro the digital way with a 100 percent success rate.

The post Decline in Camera Sales Continues While Sony Outpaces Nikon appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

Nikkei has unveiled the 2019 sales and market share data for digital cameras, and numbers are looking bad across the board:

In 2019, camera units sold dropped by over 22%, which mirrors last year’s 22% decline, and suggests that the shrinking digital camera market won’t stabilize anytime soon.

Nikkei also revealed individual market share numbers:

Canon is the industry leader (45.4% market share)Sony is now second (20.2% market share)Nikon comes in to third (18.6% market share)Fujifilm claims fourth (4.7% market share)Panasonic nabs fifth (4.7% market share)

Last July, we reported on market share data, and the biggest news was Nikon’s decline. If you compare the 2019 data (above) to last year’s data (here), you’ll see that Nikon has descended yet again, dropping from the second spot to third (to be replaced by Sony, which increased its market share after a 2018 downturn).

The post How to do Long Exposure Photography and Light Trails at Night appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Barry J Brady.

Before I understood how photography worked, I was always intrigued by light trails in images. I never understood how that happened. When I began to study photography, one of the first assignments I did was an advanced course on night photography. I decided I would try and capture some light trails.

I set up my camera, made sure the settings were correct and waited. A few cars went past, but my timing was off and the shots were not great. I continued to wait. After about an hour of trying and experimenting, I got the shot I was looking for. It was like magic to me.

The car was not in the shot but the lights seemed to float in mid-air. I was hooked. This was something that had mystified me for a long time, yet I had managed to get it right. What was so mesmerizing for me was that the image I saw on my LCD screen was not what I saw in real life. The camera had managed to capture a scene that my eyes could not capture in the same way. This seemed amazing to me.

The post How to Create Dramatic Portraits in Your Garage appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Nick Fancher.

The setup

If you want to take dramatic portraits on a black backdrop (without even needing a single light), a garage is your new go-to spot.

This is the simplest (and most makeshift looking) setup that I use. As you can see in the image above, all I am using is a piece of black foam core, folded into a “V,” set inside a garage on a sunny day.

While you can accomplish this setup on overcast days, having a sunny day helps to increase the brightness of everything outside the garage, thus increasing the catch light in the model’s eyes. The sunny daylight scene outside the garage essentially acts as a giant reflector, which illuminates the area under the subject’s chin to soften shadows.

The reason why a garage is great for this kind of setup is that it allows you to place your subject closer or further away from the bright, outdoor light, depending on how much light you want in your subject’s eyes or how even you want the light to appear.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Looking Up appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

This week we’re going to go with ‘Looking up’ and yes, you could spin that more than one way! Things are looking up, or looking up, as in pointing straight up (or near enough) with your camera! What will you choose and how will you portray your choice?

‘Up’ – Building tree houses.

Or maybe ‘looking up’ along a city street (I nearly said ‘busy city street’ but we certainly have less of those right now!) Maybe ‘looking up’ could be your positive frame of mind on the current state of the world, etc? How will you depict that?

If you’re in isolation at home, maybe this article will help to give you some ideas, work on a theme of ‘looking up in or around your house’ We’ll share some as we go, through the week, in the Facebook group and on our Instagram

Looking Up

Great! Where do I upload my photos?

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favourite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. We’re interested to see how you revisit the images that you’ve taken before now in this re-edit challenge!

The post 5 Creative Uses for a Fisheye Lens in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

The search for that unique angle that sets your photography apart from the rest is a common aspiration for most photographers. In today’s article, you’ll learn creative uses for a fisheye lens that will give your photos the wow factor.

A fisheye lens is a unique lens with niche qualities that set it apart from other kinds of lenses. Read on and discover what you can do with this type of lens.

Kinetic light painting is one of the examples of creative uses for a fisheye lens.

What is a fisheye lens?

A fisheye lens is essentially a super wide-angle lens. However, it has more properties than this. This type of lens will cause distortion in your photo which, when correctly applied to your image, will enhance the photo. One of the key characteristics of this lens is the curved shape of the optic at the front of the lens. This means that you won’t be able to use a regular lens cap for this lens. It’s possible to get a fisheye as a prime lens or a zoom lens.

Prime lens: The majority of fisheye lenses are prime lenses. They come with a typical aperture of f/2.8 and a focal length of 8mm or 15mm, depending on whether you have a full-frame sensor or a crop sensor camera.Zoom lens: Zoom lens fisheyes have a smaller aperture at f/4, but allow you to change the focal length. This can give you even more creative options, as at the widest focal length your photo will be circular with a black frame.

1. Create distortion on the horizon line

One of the obvious creative uses for a fisheye lens is to create distortion on the horizon line. You can use the lens to make the horizon line curve upward or downward.

The post 5 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Karthika Gupta.

Photography is an art form that just gets better and better as technology improves and people invest in themselves. Like any other craft out there, the more you commit to working on your skills, the better you will become. There are lots of simple and easy ways for you to improve your photography. Here are a few you can try today to help you become a better artist tomorrow!

You can never miss the opportunity to photography a yellow house.

1. Start a daily practice and set up unique challenges

One of the best things I did for my photography and my mindset when I was just starting out was set up a daily practice.

Oftentimes, we are our biggest critic. We feel that the lighting has to be perfect, the subject has to be perfect, and the situation has to be perfect for us to create art. But that is far from the truth. In order to improve your photography, or anything for that matter, all you have to do is practice. Practice regularly and consistently.

If daily practice is not possible, that’s okay. Don’t let that stop you from creating consistently. Find a schedule that works for you and stick to it. Give yourself challenges like photographing food, photographing pets, macro photography, and more to get out and simply create. This will also help you train your eye to see images before you even take them.

The post Become a Better Photo Editor with the New Lightroom Mobile ‘Discover’ Feature appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.

Every time you see a photo that strikes you as beautiful, brilliant, or breathtaking, you are only witnessing the tip of the iceberg. In nearly every case, the photo is the end result of dozens, even hundreds, of edits made by the photographer. From simple cropping and white balance to in-depth editing like curves and color mix, these edits are what turn an ordinary image into a work of art.

Unfortunately, such edits on a photo have been impossible to see. But, thanks to the recent addition of a ‘Share Your Edit’ feature in Lightroom Mobile, you’re now able to view the behind-the-scenes edits made to images.

Nikon D750 | AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II | 200mm | 1/4000s | f/22 | ISO 100

One of the best ways to grow as a photographer is to learn from others. Find out what works for photographers you admire and respect, and then adopt those techniques into your own workflow. This is the foundation for almost any trade, craft, or artistic pursuit. Yet, for photographers, this knowledge is often locked away behind a door. People can see the end result, but not the process.

The Discover feature in Lightroom Mobile solves this by giving you access to a worldwide community of artists who have willingly shared their editing process. There are hundreds, even thousands, of photo communities online that let you view pictures and share your own. However, none of these—not Instagram, Flickr, SmugMug, or anything else—let you see the editing process. You can only see the final image, which isn’t much use if you want to know how the photographer edited their photo to actually create the picture.