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Comparing Samyang’s new 85mm f/1.4 FE II against the Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM and Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art

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Last month, Samyang announced their newest version of their popular 85mm f/1.4 autofocus lens. The new Samyang 85mm f/1.4 AF FE II for Sony is smaller and lighter than the original, with improved autofocus in terms of both speed and accuracy. It also features new “custom switch” and focus hold button to provide new functionality. But how does it fare against the competition?

It would’ve been nice to see this put to the test against its predecessor, but in this video, Mark Duffy does put it up against the two leading competitors, the Sony 85mm f/1.4GM and the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lenses. The Samyang lens is significantly cheaper than both the Sigma and especially the Sony lenses, so let’s find out if it’s any good.

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The story behind how this amazing photograph of the “Fairy Tree” Milky Way was created

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Sometimes, you’re sitting on social media, scrolling away and something stops you in your tracks and you just can’t help but sit and stare. That was the case for me with this Milky Way photograph from landscape and commercial photographer Mark Duffy. DIYP reached out to Mark to find out more about it and how it was created.

Mark says that the tree at the centre of this image is known as a Fairy Tree in Ireland. That’s what they call a tree that stands alone in the middle of a field. It’s believed that they bring luck and possess mystical powers. This one though, Mark tells DIYP, is particularly special. He says it’s over 200 years old and perched on top of a 3,000-year-old cairn (an Irish burial tomb) overlooking his hometown of Dundalk and the Cooley Mountains.

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This beginner’s guide to using strobes will help you decide what to buy and how to use it

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Speedlights and strobes can be quite intimidating to new photographers who’ve never had personal experience with them before. Particularly strobes. They’re really not all that difficult to get to grips with. There is a learning curve, for sure, but it’s a fairly short one to get going with the basics.

Photographer Mark Duffy recently gave a tutorial on the basics of strobes in a live stream for UK gear distributor, Transcontinenta. Not wanting to limit the information contained within to just the live stream viewers, Mark’s also shared a copy of the stream to his YouTube channel for everybody else to enjoy, too.

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Here’s how you can light product photography using small LED light sources

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Lighting products is a lot of fun, but it can be quite tricky. Most lights we use in the studio for shooting products are huge. They’re often big strobes or LED panels, but sometimes you just need something small. Something you can fit into a small space and light up just a small section of a product, or indeed the whole of a small product.

In this video, photographer Mark Duffy shows us how he uses Spiffy Gear’s new KYU-6 LED lights to light up an Xbox controller for a little bit of small product photography.

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Watch and learn how light paint your product photography with LED lights and strobes

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Product photography can be a lot of fun, especially when you start to experiment with light painting. In this video, photographer Mark Duffy shows us how he does his long exposure product photography using the new KYU 6 LED lights and Godox MS300 strobes in the studio on a pair of trainers (or “sneakers”, for those of you in the US).

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This perfect day-to-night shot took over 18 months to make

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The beauty is in simplicity, but even simplicity takes a whole lot of effort and planning. Mark Duffy’s fantastic day-to-night image of a sundial is the perfect example of this. While it was composed from two photos only, it took Mark over 18 months to get it exactly as he imagined. So how did he do it? He shared a bit of the information about the photo with DIYP and revealed why it took so long to make it.

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How I shot the Gnarbox getting loaded in the speed of light

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I wanted to shoot a conceptual photo using long exposure to show the SD card flying out of my camera and into the Gnarbox*. I used the cool Spiffy Gear Lumee RGB light to achieve this.

Here is a quick breakthrough on how the show was made including the BTS, lighting, and gear used.

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Check out this beginner’s guide to layer masks in Photoshop

Layer masks are one of the most wonderful and powerful tools that have ever been added to Photoshop’s repertoire. Trying to imagine what life was like before them just seems kind of light a nightmare. I use them almost daily in my work with Photoshop, whether it be for photography projects or images to illustrate articles here on DIYP.

But they’re a little confusing for those still learning Photoshop, and there’s a lot more to them than most people think, too. Fortunately, landscape and commercial photographer Mark Duffy has put together this handy 17-minute guide going over everything you ever needed to know to get started with layer masks.

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