Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Pillars of Creation is undoubtedly one of the most iconic photos that NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has ever taken. The Hubble mission has cost approximately $16 billion, so have you ever thought that the magnificent Eagle Nebula could be captured from your own backyard, with a modest telescope?
Well, astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy (previously) did. So he set up his telescope in his backyard, pointed it at the Eagle Nebula, and ended up with his own take on the iconic Pillars of Creation.
Colorization of old images is a topic of discussion among historians, photographers, and retouchers. Some love it, some hate it, but it seems to me that no person is indifferent about it.
If you ask me, I love colorized photos when they’re done with great skill and historic accuracy. And Tom Marshall of PhotograFix (previously) certainly has it both. The topic of his latest project is the street life of 19th century London – a set of photos taken in the mid-1870s. Tom carefully colorized them, giving them a new dimension and making them look as if scenes from Charles Dickens novels came to life.
Astronomy Photographer of the Year has a real treat for all astrophotography fans. The 2022 contest has just announced its shortlists, and just as always, there are so many stunning photos in the selection.
The Harvest Moon rising behind Glastonbury Tor in the United Kingdom, the Milky Way mirrored by the highest national highway in the world in Tibet, a partial solar eclipse over Italy, the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy captured exactly 270 years after its discovery… You’ll see all of that and more among this year’s shortlists!
Unless we choose blur for creative artistic expression, most of us want our photos to be as sharp as possible. However, it may sometimes be difficult or even impossible to achieve, which is especially the case if you’re brand new to this wonderful hobby of photography.
But Julia Trotti has you covered. In her latest video, she shares six reasons for blurry photos and how to fix them. And since I have my own experience to share, I’ll add one more at the end.
If you’re like me, you largely prefer matte prints over glossy ones. And if you use an instant camera, you’ll get the super-shiny prints that you wish were matte.
Dave Knop a.k.a. knoptop will help you to make your wish come true. He suggests three methods for mattifying your shiny polaroid prints, with one of them being pretty unordinary. And as a bonus, and I’ll also suggest one of my own ideas.
A solar eclipse is always a great opportunity for some stunning shots. Just look at this one… Or this one! While we’ll only see one more solar eclipse here from the Earth this year, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) gets to see more.
On 29 June, SDO captured the moon passing in front of the sun, forming a partial solar eclipse. It was only visible from the spacecraft’s vantage point, but NASA shared the image and animation with us here on Earth.
When you look at all those beautiful portraits, you may want to start shooting and editing them yourself. But then you realize that it may be more challenging than it seems. Thankfully, portrait retouching is a skill you can learn, and photographer Sean Tucker is on a mission to help you on this creative journey.
Sean has just published a series of six videos that guide you through portrait retouching techniques, tips, and tricks. There is nearly an hour and a half of video material for you to watch, learn, and follow along.
Instagram really, really wants you to post Reels. It wants it so much that all your videos are now automatically being turned into them.
At the moment, some users are unable to post videos unless they’re in the Reels form. Social media consultant Matt Navarra spotted it first and shared a screenshot on Twitter. And Meta later confirmed – all videos are taking the new form.
Chi Modu captured some of the most iconic photos of the 1990s hip-hop stars. The late photographer’s estate recently got in another legal battle, this time against Universal Music Group (UMG).
UMG allegedly used one of Modu’s iconic images of Tupac Shakur in a 2019 blog post. The estate claims that the copyright info was removed and they’re now suing UMG for copyright infringement.
Magnum Photos has joined the NFT craze and announced its very first collection. The renowned photoagency celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and the collection is a part of the celebration. As you can imagine, it contains plenty of incredible photos from Magnum’s archive. And that’s not all – it’s only the first out of three NFT collections planned to be released this year.
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