Two things have changed in determining the best bag for lugging around gear while traveling by plane--the type of gear a photographer travels with and the airline restrictions on carryon gear. These days there seems to be a need for more space for accessories required than actual camera and lens, what with more and more photographers traveling with laptops, card readers...
Common wisdom is what the collective mind creates to make sense of the world. It is a pool of "givens" based on experience and assumptions about how things work. While many aspects of the new Canon EOS 40D are evolutionary rather than a startling breakthrough, in other ways it creates a "new normal" that goes against some common wisdom we might share about...
Last year we reported that Fujifilm had promised to be the "last man standing" when it came to maintaining and introducing new films, and we are happy to report that their promise has been kept. With a recently introduced Fujichrome Provia 400 and a return of Fujichrome Velvia 50, the company continues to upgrade its chrome film line with new emulsions that improve...
Billed as a "large wheeled camera/computer case," the Pelican 283 (for short) can carry all your gear, and more, in a clever design that holds more than you could imagine in a carryon, wheeled case. In truth, when the entire bag is "together," it can be difficult to stow into an above-seat bin, my main criteria for a bag these days, and in fact the case is...
To get a handle on the issue at hand we first have to define a "pro photographer." In the simplest terms, a professional is someone who makes money at what they do. But pros can also have another day job entirely, or do the odd photographic job on nights and weekends to help pay the rent. Indeed, many pro photographers started working for nothing or next to nothing...
This issue is dedicated to lighting with reviews, how-to articles, and roundups of gear, all intended to get you thinking about the best way to illuminate your subject. At the most basic level exposure is about aperture and shutter speed--that's how light is controlled. But it is in shaping light, using modifiers for existing light and various types of bulbs, controlled...
One of the mysteries of photography is Depth Of Field (DOF). It combines various factors, including camera to subject distance, focal length of the lens and aperture in use. You calculate all of the above and know what will appear sharp and unsharp in the image. Those who use fixed focal length lenses have had the advantage of having a DOF scale on the lens, which yields...
If you run down the specs of the Nikon D40x D-SLR and compare them with the D40 you'll not find many differences. This is essentially the D40 with 4.1 more megapixels on the same size sensor and the ability to use ISO 100, rather than the ISO 200 lower limit on the D40. (To see the D40 review and specs visit www.shutterbug.com and type Nikon D40 into the Search box.) The...
While grammatically awkward, the headline on this column pretty much sums up how digital has changed our relationship with our prints. While many photographers have always made an effort to develop their own black and white film and make their own custom-crafted prints, quite a few less bothered making their own color prints, and only a handful might have developed their own color...
The digital trend these days seems to be film and silver halide print emulation. Not long ago we reviewed Alien Skin's Exposure software, which had push-button manipulation of digital images to make them look just as if they had been exposed on certain types of film. DxO's FilmPack, subject of a future review, offers similar image "looks." And at a recent...