In years past, major agencies that managed federal land weren’t consistent in charging fees for commercial photography and filming on those lands. In 2000, a new law directed the government to develop a consistent fee structure for all federal lands, and the government is still working to iron out what those fees will be. The
Photography News
The Chinese brand ZY Optics has just released its Mitakon Speedmaster 85mm f/1.2 lens for Canon RF and Nikon Z. It’s a fast manual portrait lens for $680. The lens, previously available for other mounts, features 9 elements in 6 groups, an 11-bladed aperture, a minimum focusing distance of 3.28 feet (1m), and a filter
Analogue Wonderland has just announced Analogue WonderBox, a new subscription service that sends a curated set of 35mm films to analog photographers every month. “Every week we get questions from folk getting into film photography – either for the first time or returning after a couple of decades in the digital world – asking for
Heads up! If you’re a college student, MasterClass is offering to give you a full year of access to its high-quality courses (including in photography) for just $1. The subscription is ordinarily valued at $180 and this deal is only being offered today (Thursday, September 17th). MasterClass features online courses on a wide range of
ZY Optics has unleashed its latest “Speedmaster” lens. Designed for the Micro Four Thirds system, the new Mitakon Speedmaster 17mm f/0.95 III combines ultra-fast optics with a 34mm equivalent field of view and packs it inside a lens that costs just $400. Like most of the Mitakon Speedmaster lineup, the lens is surprisingly small given
Apple just announced the new Apple Watch Series 6. While the design of the watch has remained virtually unchanged from Series 5, there are a number of innovative features that set it apart. First off, there’s a new watch face (one of 7 in the new watchOS 7) powered by Lumy that photographers will appreciate:
[embedded content] San Francisco was blanketed by an apocalyptic orange sky last week due to the smoke from wildfires across California. This 24-second time-lapse shows what it was like to take off from the city and climb into the thick smoke layer. The images were captured by Alaska Airlines flight #3458 as it took off
Dutch photo artist Erik Kessels has sparked outrage with his latest art installation, titled “Destroy My Face.” Kessels covered the ground of a skate park with portraits of women who have had plastic surgery and then invited skateboarders to shred them up by riding over them. Kessels began installing the “interactive” exhibition on September 7th.
The popular iOS camera app Halide says it saw a huge increase in downloads this week by people needing a better way to capture orange skies from wildfire smoke. In response, Halide has donated a day of sales toward wildfire relief. As wildfire smoke blankets the West Coast of the United States, many smartphone users
The Library of Congress has invited all Flickr users in the United States to submit photos of “their experiences living through the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.” The best images will be added to a special online photo pool and some will be preserved in the LOC’s permanent collections. The announcement was made two days ago on
California Governor Gavin Newsom has quietly signed a new law that exempts freelance photographers and some other types of independent contractors from the controversial AB 5 law that forced a huge range of freelancers to become employees. AB 5, which was signed in September 2019 and which took effect in January 2020, was designed to
[embedded content] The latest release of the popular FiLMiC Pro video app for both iOS and Android comes with a much-requested feature: the ability to output a clean HDMI signal. With this update, iOS and Android users can easily turn their phone into a “broadcast” camera for livestreaming or even use it as a webcam.
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have just captured the world’s first 3,200MP photos using an image sensor array that will become the heart of the world’s largest digital camera. While higher res photos have been stitched together before, these are the largest single-frame digital photographs ever captured. The sensor array
Earlier today, Microsoft announced two new tools that will help identify manipulated photos and videos. The first is a metadata-based system, and the second is a “Video Authenticator” that will analyze photos and videos and provide a “confidence score” that tells you whether or not the media has been altered by AI. The metadata system
Skylum has announced a new, AI-first version of its Lumiar photo editor. Dubbed Luminar AI, the program takes all of the machine-learning tools from Luminar 4, adds some more, and puts them all into a new app and plugin that’s all about “reinventing” traditional photo editing. Skylum has been adding AI-powered features to its more
Over the past couple of years, the barrier to entry for full-frame has dropped significantly—starting with the $1,300 Canon EOS RP, and followed by the almost-as-cheap $1,400 Nikon Z5. But it seems Canon may be planning to release an even cheaper EOS R camera in 2021. This report comes from our friends at Canon Rumors,
A couple of days ago, Canon Australia announced that it would be shutting down its online store, essentially ceasing direct sales on the continent. Why? According to Canon, they want to “support local retail partners” by sending customers their way. The announcement was published on September 1st, and it’s a notice of sorts: on September
Canon Australia has announced the PIXMA PRO-200 professional photo desktop printer, a successor to the highly-regarded the PIXMA PRO-100. The new PIXMA PRO-200 features an expanded range of color reproduction thanks to a new 8-color dye ink system that “enables high-image quality and high-productivity printing of artistic photographs,” Canon Australia says. The new system features
Rode’s Camera Shop, a 109-year-old camera store, burned down last week during rioting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sparked by the shooting of 29-year-old African-American man Jacob Blake by a police officer. The store first opened in 1911 and became a fixture in the community for over a century as a place to buy camera gear and
In a surprise announcement this morning, Sony unveiled the new LA-EA5 lens adapter: a Sony A-mount to E-mount adapter that promises E-Mount autofocus and burst shooting performance when using Sony’s older A-mount glass, including lenses without a built-in AF motor. The LA-EA5 is a surprisingly compact adapter, given everything it’s promising. The adapter allegedly delivers
Google today launched new features in Google Images “to help people use images on the web responsibly.” The features should benefit photographers, as they help people both identify photos that can be licensed as well as find out how to properly license them. Licensable Badge Google Images’ new “Licensable” badge, which had been in beta
If the sheer number of Instagram bots with profiles that read “buy 5,000 likes RIGHT NOW!!!” are any indication, selling fake likes, followers, and comments on Instagram is big business. But it’s also risky, as one fraudster from Belarus is finding out first hand. In a statement posted yesterday, the social media giant announced that
Xiaomi has unveiled its third-generation of under-display cameras for upcoming smartphones. Instead of a notch or cutout, the edge-to-edge display will have a camera that’s nearly invisible under the screen while retaining the standard quality of front-facing cameras. “This brand-new technology is able to perfectly disguise the front camera under the phone’s screen without ruining
Hundreds of astronomers, satellite operators, and dark-sky advocates recently joined forces to call out a problem that impacts all three groups: the growing number of SpaceX ‘Starlink‘ satellites in orbit, and how these ‘constellations’ could actively hurt scientific progress and have a ‘fatal’ impact on some forms of astrophotography. If you’ve been following PetaPixel for
1940s NYC is a new online interactive map created by NYC-based software engineer Julian Boilen. It’s like Google Street View, except every photo taken shows New York City between 1939 and 1941. “Between 1939 and 1941, the Works Progress Administration collaborated with the New York City Tax Department to collect photographs of every building in
After a series of leaks over the past couple of days, DJI has officially unveiled the DJI OM4: a folding 3-axis smartphone gimbal with a bunch of intelligent features and a novel “quick-snap” magnetic mounting system for your smartphone so you don’t have to fiddle with clamps each time you want to use it. The
The famous Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan is being accused of “predatory” and “exploitative” behavior after it purchased artwork by Black photographers indirectly (and at a steep discount) through a fundraiser to exhibit the photos without the artists’ permission. HuffPost reports that the Whitney had purchased artwork by Black photographers through the collective
Sculpted busts give us an idea of what ancient Roman emperors looked like, but what if they had posed for photo portraits? That’s what designer/cinematographer Daniel Voshart explores using AI and Photoshop in his Roman Emperor Project. After gathering 800 images of busts found online, Voshart used the neural-network tool Artbreeder, historical research, and his
If you use Instagram as a way to view photographic inspiration, you may be pleased to know that the service is rolling out a new “Suggested Posts” feature that brings an endless scroll of photos and videos tailored to your interests. Previously, scrolling to the “end” of your Instagram feed would display a “You’re All
GuruShots, the “World’s Greatest Photo Game,” has announced the winners of its “Inspirational Architecture” challenge, which received thousands of entries and over 36.4 million votes. The “Top Photographer” winner of the contest is Matthias Arnold of Germany. The “Top Photo” winner is Horvath Tomi of Hungary. Photo by Horvath Tomi – Hungary. The “Top Photo”