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How to shoot dramatic food photography with cheap used camera gear

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Photography has been in the digital age long enough now that even a used $200 or less DSLR can produce some pretty amazing photography – when placed in the right hands. And with many restaurants closed, a lot more folks are eating at home, where you don’t need to be subtle with your smartphone to snap your dinner.

In this video from The Bite Shot, Joanie Simon shows us some great ways to shoot dramatic food photos using her $200 used Canon Rebel T2i (EOS 550D), originally released back in 2010. So, if you’ve got an inexpensive DSLR hanging around, or maybe you’ve spotted one or two online you’re thinking about getting for your kids, this is a good way to improve those skills.

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Blackmagic’s Atem Mini Pro offers split-screen preview, native live streaming and direct recording to SSD

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Blackmagic Design has just announced the new Atem Mini Pro, a streaming-focused update to the popular live streaming switcher announced at IBC last year. To go along with it, the Blackmagic Camera 6.9 update for the Pocket 4K and Pocket 6K adds direct support for the Atem Mini Pro, letting you remotely control and match up to four of the cameras from the new live production switcher.

Blackmagic CEO and co-founder, Grant Petty went on a live stream earlier to make the new announcements. If you haven’t seen the Atem Mini yet, Grant goes into a pretty in-depth overview of what the original does before talking about the new Atem Mini Pro about 15 minutes in.

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Photographer uses video chat to take photos during coronavirus quarantine

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Social distancing and self-isolation have pushed most of our social interactions online. We teach, learn, have meetings, and hang out with friends and family… all via video chat. But New York-based photographer Nikola Tamindzic has also found a way to use video chat for photoshoots. His project I am here, and you are where you are is a series of “quarantine portraits.” They were shot all over the world while neither the photographer nor his models left the safety of their homes.

We chatted with Nikola a bit about his project. He told us more about the idea, his shooting process, and how it has helped both him and his models cope with isolation. And of course, he also kindly shared some of the images he’s shot so far.

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How to light and shoot portraits of yourself or your family in your home

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There are lots of videos out there on lighting and shooting portraits, but they often show huge studios, with the kind of space that no reasonable person would have available in their home. That observation was pointed out to photographer Nathan Elson on a video he posted shooting self-portraits at his studio. So, he’s made another one, to show how you can use smaller equipment to get a similar look in a small space in your home.

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Mental health help for photographers (and everyone else)

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As amusing as some COVID-19 memes and tweets have been (not to mention a welcome break from the endless news cycle), we want to be very clear about the importance of taking care of your mental health right now. A lot of us are feeling particularly isolated, lonely, anxious and, at times, a bit hopeless. The seriousness of what is transpiring around the world is not something to be taken lightly, and we want to encourage a conversation within the photography community.

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Sony establishes $100 million global relief fund for those affected by the coronavirus crisis

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In an attempt to help those affected by the coronavirus crisis, Sony has established a global relief fund of $100 million USD. The company has issued a statement regarding the fund, saying that it’s aimed to support those around the world affected by the COVID-19 virus.

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Canon patents a pop-up EVF to allow for larger rear LCDs

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I’m genuinely amazed that this isn’t already a thing, but Canon has filed a patent for a pop-up electronic viewfinder. It really does make a lot of sense, because it means that there isn’t normally something sticking out the top of the camera when not in use, and when it is in use, you still get the entire back of the camera for your LCD – what appears to be the main goal of the patent.

The patent only shows a point & shoot – perhaps this is an idea for a future G7X Mark IV – but there’s no reason why something like this couldn’t potentially appear in some of Canon’s EOS M lineup, too, or possibly even in an entry-level full-frame EOS R body.

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Alicia Keys says she was “manipulated and objectified” as a teenager by “sleazy” photographer

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Sadly, we’ve heard of more than a few cases of photographers harassing their models. Thanks to the Me Too movement, more and more of these incidents have been uncovered. In her latest book More Myself: A Journey, famous singer Alicia Keys revealed what she went through in her teens. She says that she was a subject of a “sleazy” photographer’s manipulation when she was only 19 years old.

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Astrophotographers: The Moon, Venus and Jupiter will form a smiley face in the sky next month

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It’s almost like a great cosmic “It’ll be ok”, but next month, on May 16th, to be precise, a crescent moon will sit in the sky beneath Jupiter and Venus to form a smiley face amongst the stars. The scientific term for such an event is an occultation and in this case, it happens when the moon is positioned between Earth and Venus.

The timing of such an event might seem like a sign from above, but they’re not as uncommon as you might think. It was visible in 2008 from Asia and 2012 from Australia to North America. But they are easy to miss, only being visible for a short period after sunset.

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