Looking to improve your macro photography? This guide explores techniques for capturing sharper close-up images of flowers, insects, products, food, and more, along with recommended camera settings, lighting setups, lenses, diffusers, focus-stacking tips, and creative tricks to take your macro shots to the next level.
The world of photography is currently navigating a crisis of authenticity. AI-generated images are now indistinguishable from photographs. Judges and audiences alike can’t tell the difference. Even experts are getting it wrong.
When it comes to Android phones, Samsung is among the first to come up in conversation. The company built part of that cachet on the camera performance of its flagship Galaxy S series, but has long since abdicated the role of setting the pace for mobile camera hardware.
Having previously used both the Thypoch Simera 28mm f/1.4 and Simera 75mm f/1.4, I was expecting great things from the 50mm f/1.4. I've come to find that the Thypoch Simera series is characterized by clean, crisp optics and affordable prices. At $749, the Simera 50mm f/1.4 for M-mount is certainly far more attainable than the equivalent Leica lenses, but can it still deliver high-quality optical performance?
Yesterday, PetaPixel shared that a fully AI-generated film titled "Dreams of Violets" had been accepted into the Tribeca Film Festival. For some reason, there are people who insist this is the future of films. If that is the case, then congratulations: I hate movies.
The closest the United States gets to the Amazon rainforest is the southeastern part of the country, a biologically rich region consisting of forests and wetlands. Photographer Mac Stone has spent decades creating a visual dispatch there.
One of Britain’s longest standing and most celebrated press photographers presents an intimate look at three decades of images covering celebrity, entertainment, and major events in a new book.
A photographer has been granted unique access to Cambridge University’s famed May Balls for more than 40 years, and has documented this hidden world of late-night revelry in a new photography book.
As photographers know, light is extremely important. And for outdoor photographers, nothing affects the quality of light quite like the weather. Photographer Matthew Raifman wanted to build a weather app for people like him, photographers who want to know not just what the weather forecast is, but whether or not the conditions will be any good for photography. Enter Atmos for Weather & Photo, also known as Atmos.
The world-famous Tribeca Film Festival starts next week and will feature a "live action" feature-length film entirely AI-generated, a world's first.
Earlier this year, YoloLiv announced a brand-new Micro Four Thirds lens: the 18mm f/1.4. Not only was this special because new Micro Four Thirds lens releases are rare, it actually filled a need in the format. We were eager to get our hands on it and when we did, we noticed something weird: it didn't appear to be conforming to the standard.
The ArcBlue C42 is the world's first smart full-frame astrophotography system. It is coming soon to Kickstarter and features specs and features sure to excite enthusiastic astrophotographers.
TMax 400 came into the world in 1986, at the same time as its slower speed brother. You can think of them as near identical twins, in fact. Since its introduction, TMax 400 has helped define a whole new generation of black and white films with its tabular grain structure, high resolution, and sharp image details.
Lengthy photo and video editing sessions can take a toll on your body. Sitting for long periods in an uncomfortable, non-ergonomic chair is painful, bad for your long-term health, and it saps artists of their creative energy and flow. The Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2, the first full-body, adaptive ergonomic chair, promises to keep you comfortable whether you're doing a light editing session or working in crunch time.
A photographer believed to have taken the very first portrait of the British Royal Family has been honored with a blue plaque in the English city of Brighton.
The Smithsonian Institution, a group of 21 museums, 21 libraries, and other institutions and historical landmarks, has brought a curated selection of its massive archive to Unsplash.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda needs no further explanation. It's a challenging landscape to navigate, and numerous animals inhabit it. But its most famous residents are the mountain gorillas.
At first glance, it seems as if something has gone disastrously wrong for this javelin thrower. Fortunately, Estonian athlete Magnus Kirt is safe and well; the image is actually a clever photographic illusion that plays tricks on the eye.
Reports suggest that Axcel, the Nordic private equity firm that has owned Capture One since 2019, is working to sell the photography software company via auction.
Thypoch announced a new addition to its Simera-C series of affordable, compact cinema primes, the Simera-C 16mm T1.9. It is Thypoch's widest full-frame cinema prime lens yet.
On June 4, the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) is hosting a free educational webinar where the organization's CEO Thomas Maddrey, who is also a lawyer, will explain the difference between an employee and a contractor as it pertains to photographers.
National Geographic's new documentary film, "Time and Water," grapples with a challenging, profound question: How do you say goodbye to what you never thought you could lose? Through archival footage, photos, art, and science, Academy Award-nominated director Sara Dosa follows acclaimed Icelandic writer and poet Andri Snær Magnason as he confronts the death of his country's glaciers, the loss of his grandparents, and the kind of world he hopes future generations can experience. The story's next chapters are being written at this very second.
PetaPixel has been quietly updating its sample gallery for the last several months, but this week we added eight new galleries for Members to download, including extra-large folders of photos taken with the Panasonic Lumix L10 and the Sony a7R VI.
To paraphrase Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a photographer in possession of valuable equipment must be in want of protection against theft. It's just part of the reason why Apple’s AirTags have become so popular.
Polaroid's newest limited-edition 600 Film promises to be "completely new to instant film" and to deliver photographers something utterly unique and psychedelic. It's purple, very purple.
Even now in 2026, autofocusing lens design out of the Chinese manufacturers is still in its relative infancy. We have seen some excellent autofocus-equipped prime lenses from companies like Sirui and Viltrox, but who knew that a manufacturer known for making boutique manual-focusing M-mount lenses would be the first to market with a zoom?
Xiaomi has unveiled its latest T Series smartphones, the Xiaomi 17T and 17T Pro, both co-engineered with Leica.
Logging into his profile on the 35 Awards photo competition, Steve Scott Grogin received a notification telling him his photo of an alligator's eye had been disqualified from the Mobile Phone category. The reason? The organizers believed it had been taken with "professional camera equipment."
Leica, no stranger to new, luxurious colorways, has announced a new Metal Gray Paint finish for three Leica cameras, plus a Leica M-Lens.
An independent security assessment conducted by U.S.-based cybersecurity firm OnDefend found that there are no security-related reasons for blocking DJI's products from being imported and sold in the United States.
Lawyers for Nick Ut have filed a detailed legal submission to a court in France, which will hear a criminal defamation case brought against Netflix and the VII Foundation over claims made in The Stringer documentary.
Cinephiles in Southern California are in for a treat this weekend when the Palm Springs 70mm Film Festival gets underway.
Google's new Gemini Omni artificial intelligence (AI) model can do some wild things. The model's key promise is to create anything from, well, anything.
The Belfast Photo Festival is still over a week from starting in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but it has already instigated serious outrage among photographers. The Belfast Photo Festival will include a major interactive public exhibition that invites visitors to pick up a hammer and destroy "obsolete" cameras, and not everyone is on board.
Capture One has announced an upcoming price increase that will affect its entire suite of products, including Pro, All-in-One, and Studio, for monthly and annual subscriptions, plus perpetual licenses.
A unique camera made for war and developed by the German Luftwaffe is expected to sell for somewhere around $160,000 at auction next month.
This week on The PetaPixel Podcast, the team discusses a week's worth of news, including a controversial story where a Gallery in New York sold an AI-generated, colorized version of an Ansel Adams classic, the Sony a7 V's latest firmware update, and what might be the rarest digital camera ever made.
Over the last few decades, most photographers have believed that the more powerful the editing tool, the longer they need to spend behind a screen. Selection tools, color grading, and creative effects require layers of manual work and patience. A major update to one of photography’s oldest plug-in suites broke that pattern by taking the editing problems most photographers have accepted as unavoidable and building tools that solve them.
Halide Mark III, which was first previewed back in December 2024, has finally arrived. As developer Lux detailed earlier this year, the new major update to one of the most popular iPhone camera apps on the market promises an AI-free mobile photography experience and an all-new "Looks" feature.
A new biopic will focus on the life and work of photographer Claudia Andujar, best known for documenting the Yanomami people, one of Brazil’s largest indigenous peoples.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has announced that it has received a major gift of nearly 2,000 photographs, including important works by Nadar, Alfred Stieglitz, and Cindy Sherman.
Harman Technology, among the world's largest makers of analog photo films, darkroom papers, and photo chemicals, has announced new limited-edition, football- (or soccer-) themed packaging for two of its most popular 35mm films, just in time for the World Cup, which kicks off in just a few weeks.
A photographer was arrested after a woman told police how he failed to deliver photos from her daughter’s quinceañera nearly eight months after the event.
A trio of new Acer monitors each offers compelling features for photographers and video editors, especially the high-end ProDesigner PE320QXT, a 31.5-inch 6K touchscreen monitor with impressive color accuracy and HDR capabilities.
Digital asset platform Artlist is launching Artlist TV, a streaming platform that appears to be exclusively populated by AI-generated shows.
Low-budget horror movies aren't for everyone. But it's difficult to ignore Obsession, which just raked in over $30 million in ticket sales over the Memorial Day weekend, taking it to $80 million worldwide. Not bad for a film that was made for just $1 million.
A green fireball that came from space was captured on camera, briefly illuminating an erupting volcano in the Philippines -- making for spectacular footage.
Many photographers will remember the massive controversy Adobe found itself embroiled in nearly two years ago when photographers noticed just how invasive and overreaching the company's updated Terms of Use were. The company quickly reacted. VSCO is now finding itself in a similar position, as users are taking notice of some concerning language in the platform's Terms of Use.
The Calibrite Display Plus HL is now approved for use with Apple's display calibration workflow, making it the first colorimeter to work alongside Apple's hardware-based monitor calibration.
Photographing and writing an in-depth project enhanced the published product, says an award-winning independent photojournalist.
