After returning to live in Tokyo 2012, photographer Philipp Zechner notice a shift in the behaviour and attitudes of the people there. Gone was the optimism that had long ruled the country, replaced by fear and uncertainty for the future, and Philipp decided to document what he saw in a project titled Tokyo Radiant. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the devastating earthquake that shook Japan in 2011, which destroyed many towns in the coastal regions of the north east, eventually leading to the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant....

People always go on about 3 point lighting setups. They’re a staple amongst photographers, cinematographers, and even CG work. Or people talk about shooting with just a single light source. The two light combo, on the other hand, is often neglected. Personally, 2 lights is the route I take most often in my own work, for both photos and video. In this two and a half minute video, Nerris from the A-Team walks us through five different lighting setups....

Sometimes it can be great to flex your skills and show off your lighting prowess, but we can often run into the danger of the image being more about the lighting technique rather than the look of the final image itself. This is something I always try and hammer home when I’m teaching new techniques. Is there anybody here old enough to remember the horrendous HDR portraits of the early 2000s?...

Have you ever felt stressed, shitty, and overwhelmed with life — and went out with a walk with your camera, and instantly felt much better? For me, photography is all about self-therapy. I’ve used the camera as a tool to overcome my stress, my social anxiety, and as a way of creative self-expression. Photography isn’t about making pretty photos Photography isn’t about making pretty photos I think as photographers, we often make the mistake of thinking that photography is about making good photos....

Note: As of August 26, 2019, the most incredible home-built camera rig award goes tomingul’s 8-Degree-Of-Freedom robot! It takes up an entire room and can be given gcode to perform some amazing camera effects. My rig isn’t as cool, but much more mobile and simpler to build. Camera sliders are fun tools to use for making dynamic timelapse videos, and they come with some cool features. This is a clever little gadget that moves like a camera slider but folds much smaller....