What are the key tips to shooting great news photography? This video by award-winning Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj, an experienced Asia hand, shares his seven ideas on how to shoot news photos that engage audiences and tell a great story. Damir Sagolj’s golden rules are: Anticipate Research Reach Out Prioritize Practice Interact Be Invisible Watch […]
The full-frame debate is a topic I love to cover on THEME. There are no clear answers. On whatever side you’re standing, pros and cons are more or less evenly balanced. One of the beauties of today’s photography is the many options we enjoy. Each and every photographer finds an appropriate system, tool and style. […]
It’s a new industry in itself: the market for what’s not here yet. The camera industry in particular plays with the hopes, doubts and expectations of photographers. In part because ever new improvements, functions and promises make believe a photographer’s work improves proportionally to the money spent and technical improvements gained. Fact is, chances are […]
Another most telling afull-frame dug out by Nikon Rumors, and forgive me if the recent full-frame focus on THEME is beginning to bore you. But a press release by Nikon Germany suggests the world’s number two camera maker is to focus on the full-frame FX format. Nikon says its “current” full-frame portfolio consists of the […]
Glorious title, isn’t it. Had been swirling around my head for the past few days. The other morning I looked up DP Review for my ritual daily kick of gear news and gossip, and well, the latest news item was titled What Just Happened? Whatever. I feel morally eligible to use the title as well. […]
Maybe the wrong place to post this, but it’s a bit of a headache. We have the most beautiful camera gear lying around. Some years ago, before our son turned teenager, he was excited about cameras and took great pictures. His way to frame and choose subjects/objects was as unusual as intuitive. Add his passion […]
By BENGT NYMAN Camera manufacturers insist on proprietary lens mounts to favor the sales of their own lenses. Proprietary autofocus communications and algorithms contribute to this protection. Even proprietary electronic shutter controls do. However, this is all about to be turned on its head. Nikon has probably been restricting when and how Sony can enter […]
By ANONYMOUS* WTF, just read an article you tweeted Dan, about a National Geographic photographer “capturing the aura of the Scottish Highlands with the iPhone 5S“… What a brave new tool for brave new photography… Worst of all, I can’t even tell if these images are really shot with an iPhone or not!! Paid by […]
By BENGT NYMAN First a thank you, DxO, for introducing the expression P-Mpix — or Perceptual Megapixel — for describing the sharpness of a lens. It elegantly translates the older one-dimensional line pairs per millimeter measurement into a two-dimensional resolution matrix directly comparable to the MP specification of a camera image sensor. I believe that […]
By BENGT NYMAN Photography is no longer a matter of preserving the visual image of an important person, or even about preserving the wedding day or the evolution of a newborn into and through childhood. Nor is it a matter of taking a picture of a friend, but rather a picture of ”now” as instant […]
Interesting thoughts by Australian philosopher Damon Young on why ever-present photography is a problem. Not too long ago historic events happened — and not even a single selfie was taken by anyone. These days, whatever insignificance happens, it’s selfies and constant photographic recording of everything everywhere. Even better, from the comfort zone of your home […]
Right, that’s a title implying, “18 Things You’ve (Probably) Been Doing Wrong.” Anyways, here we go: Back to Basics: Photography is first and foremost about aperture and shutter speed. That’s what defines images. Modes? Bracketing? HDR? Multiple exposures? Time to go back to the roots. Settings, D’oh! The camera remembers, you don’t. Forgot again you […]
Agnostic Lloyd Chambers — a respected authority on Leica and quality photography — might have hit the nail on the head the other day with his thoughts on Leica gear becoming neck jewelry. Well those are not his words in the short editorial Hit Rate and Image Quality and Reliability and Price, the Camera World […]
By GAIL MOONEY I created quite a stir when I posted the article How Motion Is Changing the Future of Photography on my blog. What surprised me most about the comments I received from that post was that most folks just couldn’t begin to imagine the future that I was contemplating in my writings. With […]
Stick with DSLR? Switch to mirrorless? This is not another David vs. Goliath debate. But how come DSLRs still outsell mirrorless, even though mirrorless offers that convenience factor and optics are on par with the very best DSLRs. DSLRs, however, focus and track like no mirrorless, they offer wider depth of field leverage and have […]
Everything ends up on YouTube these days. Politics, private lives, even funerals. And, of course, photography. Once we used our cameras exclusively for stills. A camera without video function can’t be sold anymore these days — even though many photographers could live happily ever after without 1080p et al. The mechanisms behind this trend away […]
He may have even changed the way we use and look at photography, but by encouraging people’s deeply confessional urge to show and share themselves in every possible situation Steve Jobs taught us to forget about enjoying real life moments. Smartphones are amazing. Not less amazing is the colossal loss of interpersonal relationships. Wasn’t photography […]
Not that THEME is the philosophizing photographer’s site. But we like to dwell upon things that are contrarian at times and not always mainstream. You should find on THEME what you don’t always find on other sites. This horse, however, has been beaten to death many times already — the question what’s more important: sensor, […]
By BENGT NYMAN Film resolution and later image sensor resolution used to be the limiting factor driving the design of the equipment used in photographic image capturing. For example, we take the continuously variable zoom lens for granted. It was once necessary to accurately frame just the part that we wanted to become our image. […]
This is in part a continuation of B. D. Colen’s thought-inducing The Subject Is Black and White, dealing with the question that a color photograph may or may not distract from the subject. Without light — or wavelenghts for that — everything is black, right? Let’s assume every person sees black as is, as black. […]
It’s an age-old question dividing photographers again and again. What’s more important. The photographer or gear. We all know the answer. The photographer. Or is it? When the shot does well, it’s the photographer. When it sucks, it’s the camera. All things being equal, the better photographer will usually get better shots while better gear […]
By DIEGO GIUDICE After five years without visiting the USA, last month I had the opportunity to fly for a few days to San Francisco, California. I always enjoyed the U.S., among other things because I could catch up with a vast variety of newspapers and magazines of the highest quality, a fact that over […]
Am a bit busy these days and shooting a Samsung NX300. Not a shabby camera at all! But how does it compare to others — and more importantly, could NX be a system for you? You’ll soon have it answered right here on THEME. But first: As we all know, a robust DSLR does really […]
In my earlier days I worked as a tour guide, traveling the world to finance my studies. On one tour to Vietnam an elder man was in the group. He was the one who seemed to enjoy the trip the most. This was all pre-digital times, but while the other tour members were busy with […]
Negativity has become the new favorite pastime of many photographers. Instead of going out and enjoying our cameras, we’re glued to the computer screen and comment on stuff that has nothing to do with our lives. We neither contribute anything positive to society nor are we able to look at ourselves in the mirror and […]
Remember, you read it here first, a week before it was on all the other sites: the ominous X Vario’s name confirmed. But this post is not about unabashed self-promotion. Many photographers obviously want a “Mini M” that Leica marketing suggested. Leica could sell tons of slimmed down M with interchangeable lenses, EVF, image stabilization, […]
Chicago’s Sun-Times recently laid off its entire staff of 28 full-time photographers to replace them with iPhones. Seriously. According to a Sun-Times memo “reporters begin mandatory training on iPhone photography basics following elimination of the paper’s entire photography staff. In the coming days and weeks, we’ll be working with all editorial employees to train and […]
A Leica Mini M full-frame EVIL that is. As we know now, thanks to the Leica cock up teaser suggesting that a miniaturized Leica M will see the light of the day on June 11, 2013, Leica calls all its cameras an “M.” The M is a Leica M, the X2 is a Micro M, […]
I thought long and hard whether to post this photo on the front page. It’s not the average welcoming screen on the Web. Thing is, am currently on assignment in Bangladesh. Maybe I’ll post a few images later on. But what’s there to post when one sees a photo like the one by Bangladeshi activist […]
Well the title should rather ask, “What’s the Perfect Camera Bag?” The choice of a camera bag is as personal as gear a photographer is working with. Some need no bag at all. For others, purists, even a strap is an overkill. Yet others again depend on several lenses, flash, spare battery and charger to […]
