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This custom DIY shoulder rig will turn your camera into a video making monster for $200

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If you shoot video with DSLR or mirrorless cameras and you want to get serious, you really should consider a shoulder rig. They basically turn your camera from being Bruce Banner into The Hulk. You get so much more stability, capability and control. They’re more versatile and dynamic than a tripod or even a monopod. But they’re also often expensive.

Filmmaker, Tom Antos put together his own DIY rig to turn his Sony A6500 into the perfect shoulder mounted camera. As well as giving you the steadiness and manoeuvrability of a much larger camera,  they also help to overcome the shortcomings of smaller DSLR and mirrorless cameras. Like, decent quality audio, lighting, larger screens and battery life.

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These 5 hidden Photoshop tips and tricks will help speed up your worklfow

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I’m a big believer in post workflow efficiency. Whether working with stills or video, one can never seem to get their workflow fast enough. And these days, we all spend far more time at the computer than we’d like. I know I do. I spent countless hours in Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere and other applications getting things just right.

This video, from photographer Jake Hicks shows us 5 great tips to help speed up our own workflow in Photoshop. These are some of Photoshop’s lesser known tips and techniques, that can make a big difference to your workflow.

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Instagram adds native profile support for stalkers to see who follows back

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One of the biggest complaints about Instagram has always been that you can’t easily see who follows you back. Or at least, it’s one of the oldest complaints, if not the current big one. We’ve had to rely on a series of third party apps and websites to help figure out who’s following us back.

Personally, I don’t follow people just to get people to follow me back, but I am sometimes curious about which of them are. It’s a nice little ego boost when somebody you respect and admire follows your work. Now, Instagram are finally giving us the ability to see who follows us back.

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Lensbaby release new Sweet 80 lens and new Creative Bokeh Optic

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In the past, I’ve not really been big on the whole Lensbaby thing. But, having now tried a few of them in person, I can safely say they’re winning me over. The “Sweet” range of lenses I particularly like for their aesthetic, especially when paired up with a Composer. Now lensbaby have launched a new Sweet 80 lens for the Composer II that looks fantastic.

Also announced today is the new Creative Bokeh Optic. A simple 50mm single element design that allows you to to get some pretty cool bokeh effects. It works with the Composer series, or legacy Muse, Control Freak or Scout lens bodies.

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Instagram will screw up your nicely laid out grid of thumbnails

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The grid. That element of your Instagram profile in which your entire history of images are nicely laid out in a nice 3 image wide layout. A layout that users have known and loved for years. A layout they’ve strategically chopped up and posted their images to accommodate. Well, it’s all about to change.

No official announcement seems to have been made as yet. But, a few users have started to notice that their Instagram app layout is a little different. Whether they’re just testing the water, or it’s a new look that they’re rolling out is unclear. But Twitter is definitely not impressed.

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Upgrading to iOS11? Use this website to convert your HEIC photos to JPG

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Other than the dual stabilised cameras, one of the biggest bits of photo news surrounding the new iPhones and iOS11 is HEIC. HEIC is a High Efficiency Image File Format. Essentially this means it can hold a lot of data in a relatively small amount of space. For mobile users with limited storage, it’s fantastic. But, right now, there aren’t really any desktop apps that fully support it – at least on Windows.

Desktop support will probably be coming at some point in the future. For now, though, this handy web based converter is stepping in to fill the need. Heictojpg is an online converter into which you feed your iOS11 HEIC files, and you get nice, friendly, and compatible JPG files in return.

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The $995 Profoto A1 speedlight is now official and here’s the first review

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The Profoto A1 speedlight we told you about a few days ago is now official. And yes, it’s just as expensive as we expected. At $995 buyers will have a pretty high level of expectation from this little flash. But it looks like it will stand up to the job just fine, and fits nicely into the existing Profoto ecosystem.

It looks to be about what you’d expect from a speedlight made by Profoto. But, what’s particularly interesting about it, is the shape of the head. But not only the shape, it appears to essentially have its own built in MagMod style accessory system. This review from photographer Neil van Niekerk walks us through the unit, its specs, features and capabilities.

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Canon are bringing out a modular camera system

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The idea of a modular camera isn’t all that new. And I don’t just mean being able to bolt on a microphone or a lens. Pretty much all of RED’s cameras are modular. You buy a “brain” and then you get all the associated bits and attachments to actually be able to shoot with it.

Now it looks like Canon are getting in on the modular action, although in a different sector of the market. In this short interview at IBC2017, Cinema5D talk with Marcel Hess from Canon Germany. They ask about some odd looking devices contained within a glass cabinet. It turns out that it’s a rather intriguing new camera. Well, parts of one.

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Samsung is building its own 1,000fps camera to fight back at Sony

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After Sony’s 1,000fps smartphone camera announcement earlier this year, other manufacturers are playing catch up. Sure, the new iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X shoot 1080p at 240fps, but it’s not 1,000fps is it? Samsung are hitting back, though. According to Etnews, the Korean electronics manufacter are now developing their own 1,000fps smartphone camera sensor.

It’s expected that this sensor will come in the next generation of Galaxy S phone. The design differs from Sony’s slightly. Sony positions the DRAM between the pixel and circuit sections of the sensor in a new 3 layer stacked CMOS configuration. Samsung, on the other hand, bonds the DRAM to a traditional 2 layer CMOS. This allows them to create the technology without infringing upon Sony’s patent.

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Automotive photography isn’t just another subject. It’s a way of life

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Many of us own a car, or will at some point in our lives. Even if we don’t, we may have access to nice cars, and almost certainly know somebody who owns one. For a large proportion of photographers, cars are just another subject at which we point our cameras. But for petrol headed photographer, Easton Chang, they’re not just another subject, they’re a way of life.

The Art of Style and Speed is a short film about Chang and his passion, created by SmugMug Films in collaboration with RGGEDU. In it, Chang talks about his inspiration and what car photography means to him. We also get to see behind the scenes on some pretty cool photos.

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