explainer

With the recent excitement surrounding the release of the film Oppenheimer, there have been lengthy discussions about the best way to watch it – mostly because of something called an aspect ratio and the way that it affects the viewing experience. This is a term that is used widely in film, and it’s just as important for photographers to understand.

Although many photographers approach it in different ways, understanding white balance is a key to getting better at photography. Like other camera settings, it’s possible to have your camera set white balance automatically, but it doesn’t always produce the best results.

Lens flare can appear as spots or streaks of light and color or as a washed-out hazy look in your photographs. Some photographers and filmmakers like to use it creatively, but it usually shows up as an unpleasant surprise that can ruin your picture.

When watching movies, some viewers like to look for errors, such as finding evidence of cameras and crew in the final cut of a film. One situation that should be ripe for spotting mistakes is when a scene includes mirrors and reflections. However, as YouTuber Paul E.T. shows in a pair of videos, filmmakers have incredible tricks to make cameras disappear.

In this article, we are going to take a look at rim lighting. As you might guess, rim lighting is used to light a portion of the edge of your subject. While it is most often used as part of a multi-light setup, it can be used on its own for dramatic effect.

When it was first introduced, many people sharply believed that autofocus would never have a clear place in the photography industry, puns intended. Why have a machine guess where to focus when you can just turn the focusing ring yourself? Today, autofocus systems are among the primary selling points for new camera and lens technology.

Lens filters are one of the most affordable yet also most versatile accessories you can stow in your lens bag. Some of them, like polarizers and UV filters, are practically ubiquitous in modern-day photography, used both to lend images a unique look as well as to protect your costly gear.

There’s a reason why my iPhone is often the only camera I’ll carry with me. Its imaging quality allows me to take good photos without having to carry any additional gear.

One of the most basic and common terms in the world of photography is the focal length of a lens. In this guide, we will dive down deep into what focal length is and how it works.

An intervalometer is an important tool for photographers that is useful across a range of photography genres and techniques, including timelapses, focus stacking, and long exposures.

We’ve all heard the term "dynamic range" when reading the latest and greatest offerings of camera manufacturers -- "this camera has the highest dynamic range in its category!" We understand that a greater dynamic range is generally a good thing to have.

Photographers use a range of different filters on their camera lenses for different effects and purposes, and one of the most common filters found in a camera bag is the standard UV filter.

If you've ever noticed an unsightly colored fringe or halo on objects in your photographs, you've seen chromatic aberration. It's a common problem in photography and can detract from an otherwise good image. Fortunately, there are ways to minimize or even eliminate it, both before you hit the shutter button and after when editing your picture.

Leica. The name conjures notions of luxury, history, quality, and precision. This especially applies to Leica’s M-mount lenses. While some of Leica’s latest camera bodies like the M11 have gathered praise, the lenses have set the industry gold standard.

We all have been there at some point in our photographic journeys: Our cameras, set to AUTO, pointing and clicking, saving JPEG images that we perhaps edit a little and put in an album to archive. Maybe we throw on an Instagram filter to fancy it up for social media. Then we forget about these images for a while.

If you work with stock photos, you might already be aware of Unsplash, one of the largest and most popular sources of free online images. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the service, this explainer will walk you through what exactly Unsplash is and how it works.

When browsing Instagram, it could be tempting to take a screenshot of a Story, particularly since the content is always changing, advancing to the next Story after only a few seconds. If you give in to that urge, you might wonder if the owner of the account gets notified about your interest and that you saved an image from their story or feed.

Most digital cameras from the 2000s and 2010s are equipped with an optical element called an optical low-pass filter (OLPF), also known as an anti-aliasing (AA) or blur filter. As the name "filter" suggests, this optical element filters out some information coming from the imaged scene.

There are many types of camera lenses out there, and it can be a bit confusing and even frustrating trying to sort it out because not every lens will be right for the type of photo you are trying to capture in a particular situation.

Many photographers are nostalgic for film. It might be the smell of the darkroom as you wait for your print to develop, the physically mechanical nature of shooting photos, or the skill required to bring home a decent photo.

If it seems like there’s more new photography technology than what you can keep up with, you are probably correct. However, don’t let that deter you from learning the industry standards and terms within it. One of those terms that you’ll likely come across is the digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera, which has been the leading type of camera for still photography throughout the past decade.

There is a constant push for faster and lighter technology across different industries, including laptops, smartphones, drones, cameras, and more. In the photography world specifically, mirrorless cameras have appeared on top of the race to overtake DSLR cameras as the industry standard camera for still photography.

It's incredibly satisfying to capture awe-inspiring aerial shots with a drone, and while seeing the world from high above is always intriguing, some pilots make an exciting flight as big of a part of the experience as the beautiful scenery that's being highlighted.

A DNG file is a high-quality image format that is quite common even though it's a relative newcomer compared to some file types such as the TIFF format, which is decades older (2004 vs 1986, respectively).

Film set the photographic standard in more ways than one. The contact sheet, for example, once an essential aspect of the film process, has survived the transition to digital. Although it serves a slightly different purpose these days, the contact sheet can help you see the results of a shoot and make your best photos easier to share.

TIFF is a fairly common file type and is often requested by print agencies since it was made with printing in mind by a company that developed desktop publishing apps. TIFF has been around for a long time and is very versatile, handling black and white, various color spaces, such as CYMK, RGB, and even spot colors with ease.

When using manual focus, it’s difficult to tell exactly where your plane of focus is. It’s possible to make a guess using your eye, but you can still be slightly off and end up with an image that is out of focus. Similar to how histograms take the guesswork out of exposure, focus peaking uses an algorithm and a simple visual aid to help take the guesswork out of manually focusing your lens.

If you didn’t believe your grade school math teachers when they said you’d use graphs in the real world, you’re about to. In photography, histograms can seem intimidating, but they are incredibly useful tools that are much easier to understand than they appear. Learning about histograms will help you understand exposure, post-processing, and the overall structure of a photograph.