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Say 85mm lens to a photographer and depending on that individual person you will get different answers. The reason is that for a long time, the 85mm was the de-facto portrait lens. It's still ideal for portraiture to be sure, but an 85mm can do so much more!
Read MoreWhen it comes to wide angle lenses, the field of view of a 24mm on a full frame sensor is both super popular and easy to shoot. Once you go much wider, one has to pay a lot more attention to angles and perspective exaggerations. On a crop sensor, a 24mm delivers pretty darn close to my opinion of the best "one lens prime" out there, the 35mm. In this review, we'll take a close look at Sigma's ART Series 24mm f/1.4
Read MoreThanks for stopping by. You've probably figured out by now that I am a huge fan of the products from Think Tank Photo. US based readers who order via the link on this site (click the link on the sidebar) can get bonuses when they go through me. For readers elsewhere, there's a large number of Think Tank Photo resellers and some keep a really good selection on hand.
Read MoreOkay people, calm down for a minute and put the knives down. I have no inside knowledge, I don't own a Google Magic Decoder Ring and I'm not part of some secret squirrel cabal. I do have over thirty years experience in software and that experience makes me wonder if we've seen the last of innovation in the Nik Collection.
Read MoreOn March 24th, 2016 I got to spend the day with Peter Hurley. Thousands of people have done so in classes and workshops, and I count myself as fortunate for having done so, but yesterday was different and special. Peter was in Toronto to deliver his Illuminating the Face workshop presented by Henry's Learning Labs, and I had the honour and pleasure to both introduce Peter to the attendees and to help with the setup and assist him over the course of the day. It was really quite amazing.
Read MoreThere are many ways to make photographic lenses as we all know, some more efficient than others, some better suited to particular use cases. One of the greater challenges in creating longer focal length telephoto lenses has always been balancing focal length with physical size and weight. Canon embarked on a limited series of lenses several years ago using a technology that they call Diffractive Optics. You can recognize a Canon DO lens by the distinct green line. Recently, the folks at Nikon have done something similar and released their own design using a new element mode called Phase Fresnel or PF. At the outset, it looks and sounds like DO. Since I am a huge fan of DO, I wanted to check out Nikon's Phase Fresnel system and they graciously loaned me one to try.
Read MoreWhen it comes to headshot photography, the name Peter Hurley always leaps to mind. Peter is widely recognized as a master of this realm, with books, videos, training and photography products consumed by thousands of people looking to learn from him.
Read MorePrior to the 2015 holidays, I had an opportunity to review a set of TTL radio trigger/receivers under the Cameron brand, an exclusive to Henry's here in Canada. Finding a set of radio controllers for hotshoe flash that supported three groups, four channels, TTL, manual flash and remote power control without breaking the bank has always been a challenge.
Read MoreWhen the Sigma ART 35/1.4 first appeared on dealer shelves, I put one on a camera very briefly and drew a few conclusions. In the store, focus was very quick, as quick as the Canon 35/1.4 I use regularly I thought. It was also very large comparatively speaking and felt very well built and a but heavy, that being a relative term for a guy who spends a fair bit of time waving fast telephoto primes around. I had no card in my pocket so didn't make any test shots and then time moved on. Recently there has been a resurgence for full frame shooters with interest in a fast 35mm, sometimes for street work and for others as their walk around lens. So I arranged with my local Sigma dealer to obtain one for a short review.
Read MoreGet $90 in bonuses when you buy Aurora HDR between March 1st and March 16th
Read MoreIf you are a user of the Profoto B1 strobe, there is a firmware update (D1) now available at www.profoto.com for the B1 that corrects a minor bug where the B1 might restart after being turned off using a Profoto Air Remote. Applying the update takes less than a minute. Download the update, plug the B1 into the computer via USB and run the update.
Read MoreFor those of us with some "tenure" in photography, the Pentax name will always evoke memories. Whether the ubiquitous M42 screw mount, or the tack driving Super Takumar lenses, to the monstrous and wonderful Pentax 67, that brand is bound to the history of photography. The advent of digital, along with financial challenges looked to be putting the boots to the once famous name, but a strategic acquisition by Ricoh has pumped new blood, and financial stability into the once damaged brand. Now, after years of rumours, Ricoh has announced the Pentax K-1, the first full frame Pentax branded digital SLR.
Read MoreI am predominantly a Canon shooter. I own over a dozen Canon lenses. I'm not switching anytime soon, but I've also been pretty hard on Canon because the things that matter most to me, well, let's say we don't appear to be really well aligned these days. One place we definitely align is the criticality of delivering a hybrid platform that hobbyists and enthusiasts can afford and benefit from. This is XXD space, until this announcement led by the superb Canon 70D. The 80D is an evolutionary step ahead, so let's see what's coming.
Read MoreWhen we make purchases, we all tend to spend a lot of time concerned about the price of acquisition and the buying experience. When I get a car, I interview the Service Department because I will see those folks for years and more often that the sales professional. Our camera equipment follows the same pattern. Quality of service is critically important.
Read MoreRegular readers know that I am an advocate of tablets for editing photographs. I have been a Wacom user for a long time, using the Bamboos, a variety of the Intuos and Intuos Pro line as well as two different sizes of the Cintiq. I have clearly spent more than enough money into this sort of device. In 2015, I first became aware of an app service called Astropad that would turn your iPad into a working tablet for editing purposes.
Read MoreIn this short video I explore creating panoramas inside Lightroom CC, the new boundary warp function and some basic final retouching
Read MoreReader Julie alerted me to an article on Ars Technica stating that the most recent update of the Creative Cloud Application Manager on the Mac was deleting files. I did some investigation and this is what I have discovered.
Read MoreYou simply have to get in on this deal. The awesome folks at ON1 have made the Lightroom and Photoshop plugins for Effects 10 available for FREE. Act right freaking now, before they figure out how awesome a deal this is. To get them, click the links in this post.
Read MoreWhile the entire ON1 Photo 10 suite is extremely awesome, I really want to credit the ON1 team. When I first saw ON1 Photo 10, just prior to formal release, i was impressed but noticed that there was no standalone Perfect Resize. Many of the functions were in other modules, but for me, and a lot of other pros, Perfect Resize had proven itself as the fastest and most consistent resizing tool on the planet, back to when it was still called Perfect Fractals.
Read MoreI've been a cheerleader for the original 1Dx since mine arrived just before the London Olympics. It built on the framework of the 1D Mark IV and the 5D Mark II to make a superbly capable professional camera. I loved it then, and it is my go to body to this day. When word started to leak that there was a new version imminent, lots of folks asked me what I thought. I was very clear then. The only thing that would make a Mark II extraordinarily compelling would be a significant increase in dynamic range. The Mark II was officially announced on Feb 1, 2016. Let's take a look at the announcement and see what Canon has done.
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