News / Features & Articles

Just posted: Our six page review of the now-less-expensive Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4. Adobe has released and halved the price of the latest version of its workflow and image editing software, and we've prepared an in-depth review exploring the changes. Along with Book and Map modules, and a revised editing workflow, Lightroom 4 brings Raw file support for a number of recently announced cameras, including the Canon EOS-1D X and Nikon D4. Are the changes in Lightroom 4 worth the upgrade for current users? Find out in our detailed review.

Camera Zoom FX is a camera control and image enhancement app for Android-based phones, currently available at a 40% discount ($2.99). It offers a wide range of functions including image processing effects and enhancement filters. Boasting a slick, intuitive interface Camera ZOOM FX is one of the most popular photography apps in the Android Marketplace. Joanna Carter of theappwhisperer.com takes a look. 

Book Review: Visual Stories - Behind the Lens with Vincent Laforet. As Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Vincent Laforet transitions away from still photography and more towards film and video, he looks back at his photojournalistic and commercial career in this engaging book, published late last year. Adam Koplan takes a look. 

Not long after samples of the Fujifilm X10 became available reports started surfacing of 'white orbs' or 'white discs' appearing in images. We mentioned this phenomenon when we included the X10 in our pre-Christmas roundup of high-end enthusiast compact cameras, and Fujifilm has subsequently released a firmware update that promises to address the issue. So does firmware version 1.03 banish the dreaded 'white orbs' for good? Click through to find out. 

Following the refresh of Nikon's pro-level DSLRs, we asked four professional photographers to give us their take on the D800 and D4. We spoke to a group whose work and expertise spans a wide variety of genres and styles to see what they thought Nikon has got right and wrong about the 16MP D4 and the 36MP D800. Their insights aim to add context to our previews of the cameras and give a fresh perspective on Nikon's latest full-frame offerings.

When Vivian Maier died in obscurity in 2009 she left behind a huge collection of photographs, taken over several decades. A new collection of her work, 'Vivian Maier, Street Photographer' showcases the breadth of her hitherto unrevealed talent. Barnaby Britton takes a look.

Controlling depth of field is of great importance when photographing subjects at a close distance. Nature photographer Erez Marom continues his series on macro photography with a discussion of the challenges this presents when shooting at extreme magnifications. He examines problems common to both beginners and experienced macro photographers and shares two approaches that allow you to overcome shallow depth of field.

Edward Weston was one of America's most celebrated photographers. Published to mark the 125th anniversary of his birth, Edward Weston: One Hundred Twenty Five Photographs showcases his work through both photographs and excerpts from his journals and letters. Adam Koplan takes a look at this lavish limited-edition collection.

Award-winning photographer Dan Chung explains why he thinks there's no future for traditional photojournalism. As a staff photographer for the Guardian and Reuters, Dan has been touring the world's trouble-spots for more than a decade, supplying images to newspapers and websites all over the globe. But although he made his name as a stills photographer, he's been shooting increasing amounts of video both for the web and for TV. We asked him why.

Until recently, LCD was the only technology used for digital camera displays. This is beginning to changes with the emergence of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technogy. OLED offers a series of advantages over LCDs, particularly for photographers. Whether it's the display panels on the back of the Olympus PEN E-P3 or the microdisplays used as electronic viewfinders in Sony's SLT-A77, OLED is starting to make an impact on the camera market. Ron Mertens, editor-in-chief of OLED-Info, explains some of the advantages and disadvantages of this type of display, and gives an insight into some of the latest developments in this emerging field.

In addition to its powerful editing capabilities, Photoshop's actions and batch processing tools can help increase your productivity by performing tasks with little or no user intervention. Photographer and author Ellen Anon explains how to make the most of this automation, taking you step-by-step through the process of recording individual actions and incorporating them into automated routines that can be applied to multiple images in a single go.

As well as starring roles in films such as 'The King and I', and 'The Ten Commandments', Yul Brynner was an accomplished photographer whose subjects were some of the most acclaimed actors of the 20th century. 'A Photographic Journey', in London's The Little Black Gallery showcases some of his most famous images, and Matt Golowczynski went along to take a look.   

Professional photographer Carsten Krieger introduces the practice of landscape photography, looking at the various equipment choices and composition options that any budding landscape shooter should be familiar with when embarking in this popular genre. He also explains the importance of pre-trip research and planning to put you in the right place at the right time.

'We have to prepare a camera [for our loyal customers],' said Sigma COO Kazuto Yamaki when we spoke to him at the CES 2012 trade show. In the interview, he explained: 'I personally feel bad that some of our loyal customers couldn't [afford] the SD1' and promised that, in addition to making 'exciting' future products, the company would do all it can to reduce manufacturing costs. Yamaki also explained the approach it has taken with it Digital Neo lenses for mirrorless cameras. Click here to read the full interview.

We spoke to Tom Hogarty, Lightroom's Principal Product Manager, about the changes being previewed in the latest public beta of Adobe's processing workflow software. The beta version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 introduces a wide range of additional functions, tight integration with a third-party vendor and significant changes to some fundamental image editing tools. Hogarty explains how these features came about, their impact on Lightroom users and what Adobe hopes to learn from user feedback during the beta process.

CES 2012: Light field camera maker Lytro has been demonstrating early versions of potential features during a shooting event at CES. The event gave journalists the chance to use the cameras and try the 'Advanced Light Field Mode' that the company is experimenting with. We went along and have written this report about what it's like to use a Light Field camera.

CES 2012: Hands-on shots of the Canon PowerShot G1 X and Nikon D4 mark the start of our CES coverage. The Pepcom Digital Experience event at the start of the huge CES 2012 tarde show provided a chance for us to take an even closer look at two of the most exciting cameras to be announced in 2012 so far: Nikon's professional D4 DSLR and Canon's enthusiast-targeted G1 X large-sensor compact. We'll be publishing our usual stand reports and full show coverage over the coming days, but we thought this would help whet your appetite for the rest of CES 2012.

Adobe has released a public beta version of its Photoshop Lightroom 4 workflow and image editing software and we've prepared a comprehensive article looking at the changes it brings. Available immediately for free download from Adobe Labs, the beta features a books creation module, increased support for video files, soft proofing capability and a Google Maps-powered geo-tagging module. What do these changes mean for new and existing Lightroom users? Find out in our hands-on preview.

Matt Golowczynski introduces food photography as an opportunity for creativity. Capturing successful images of food doesn't need to be complicated, he says, and doesn't require any specialist equipment. Have a read to see what potential subject matter might be lurking in your grocery bag.