Photography News

The Viltrox AF 15mm f/1.7 Air lens offers a bright, wide angle view in a compact, lightweight body. At 0.4 lbs and just over 2 inches long, it’s easy to keep on your camera without adding bulk. For travel, architecture, or tight interior spaces, having a fast 15mm that fits in a small bag makes a difference in how often you actually bring it along.

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Many people assume that building a capable Micro Four Thirds kit requires investing in expensive pro-grade glass, but that’s not the only route. Affordable lenses can still give you sharp, versatile results without stretching your budget, and knowing which ones to choose can open up creative options you might otherwise overlook.

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MPB, the largest global platform for buying, selling and trading used photo and video kit, is proud to announce a renewed and expanded partnership with Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club as the Official Camera Equipment Partner for the 2025/2026 season. 

This new multi-year agreement builds on the success of MPB’s role as Official Highlights Partner during the 2024/2025 season. That collaboration delivered standout results, generating over 220 pieces of content, 51.9 million impressions and over 900,000 engagements.  MPB will now play a deeper role in connecting Albion fans to the stories and moments that matter. 

As part of the expanded deal, MPB will gain enhanced access to players and behind-the-scenes environments across the men's and women's teams. This access will power the creation of exclusive content that reveals the emotion, personality, and preparation behind top-level football – and the people who make it happen. 

 

This includes a new slate of series and features, such as: 

• Picture Perfect Moment – a social-first series spotlighting unforgettable and unseen moments from each match, both on and off the pitch. 
• Behind-the-scenes content at key club events, including Media Days and Official Team Photo Shoots. 
• Exclusive content collaborations with players from both teams throughout the season. 

 

MPB will also play a central role in delivering key moments directly to fans - from team news and matchday insights to pivotal VAR decisions and post-match highlights - through dynamic content shared across Brighton & Hove Albion’s digital channels. By capturing and sharing these high-impact moments, MPB helps deepen the connection between the club and its supporters, while continuing to tell its own brand story, one rooted in creativity, community and the power of visual storytelling. 

Commenting on the partnership deal, Matt Barker, CEO of MPB, said:

“Storytelling is at the heart of both football and photography - two worlds full of passion, drama and unforgettable moments. As a fellow Brighton-based business, we’re especially proud to continue our partnership with Brighton & Hove Albion and take on this new role as Official Camera Equipment Partner. It’s a brilliant collaboration that brings together two organisations rooted in the city’s creative and sporting culture, with a shared ambition to inspire and connect. We’re excited to go even deeper behind the scenes to bring fans closer to the club, and to share MPB’s mission with an even wider audience.” 

Russell Wood, Head of Commercial at Brighton & Hove Albion FC, said:

“We’re delighted to expand our partnership with MPB. They understand the power of great visual storytelling, and their creativity has helped us bring the club to life across digital channels. With this new agreement, we’re excited to build on that success and continue producing compelling content that resonates with our fans.” 

MPB’s support of the Brighton & Hove Albion Foundation will also continue, including camera kit donations and creative guidance to empower more people to tell their own stories through photography and film. 

As a Brighton-founded business, MPB is committed to giving back to its local community and championing inclusion, sustainability and accessibility in everything it does. These shared values remain at the core of the partnership, which celebrates what’s possible when creativity and sport come together.

For more information, please visit the MPB website.

 

Most of the time, when you're out taking photographs, even if it's a quick snap, make sure your shot has a strong point of interest as if it doesn't, you'll find anyone who looks at your image will look at the image, their eyes won't find anything to settle on and they'll simply move on to look at another shot. Without a focal point, there's nothing to draw them into the photograph so they'll simply lose interest with it. Of course, the more interesting the focal point is, the better your shot will be but there are a few other things you can do to make sure your focal point draws the viewer's attention.

 

1. One Main Focus Point

Images can have various points of interest but don't let them pull the attention from the main subject as your shot will just become confusing and the viewer will be unsure what to look at. Less attention-grabbing points of interest can be used on lines to draw the eye to a final resting point.

 

2. Lead In Lines

As mentioned above, by placing minor points of interest along a line you can guide the eye to your main point of interest. Straight lines such as fences or paths work well but other shapes, as talked about in our beginner's composition guide, can work equally as well. The spiral of a staircase will guide the eye up or down while positioning items along an S curve with the main point of focus at the end will lead the eye through the image. There's also the triangle where key features appear along the sides and points of the shape and when it's used correctly, you can create balance in your shot and also guide the eye through the photograph. Repetitive or symmetrical objects such as lamp posts lining either side of a street, a line of palm trees, statues or a series of arches can also be used to guide the eye to a single point.

 

3. What's In Focus

By using a larger aperture if you're working manually or by selecting Portrait Mode or Macro Mode if you're working close-up, which lets the camera know you want to use a larger aperture, you'll be able to throw the background out of focus, leaving all the attention on your main subject which will be sharp. By putting more distance between your subject and the background you'll be able to make the effect more prominent too. If you're a DSLR user, switching to a longer lens (zoom or prime) with wider maximum apertures will make it easier to get the blurry backgrounds you're looking for.

 

Photo by Joshua Waller 

 

4. Blur

When your main subject is moving, be it a pet, a person running, a car or bike, try using a slower shutter speed and pan with them, blurring the background into streaks but leaving them sharp. This will mean all focus falls on your main subject and the sense of speed is increased thanks to the horizontal streaks the background now has.

 

5. Size

A more obvious way to make sure you have one main point of focus is to fill the frame with it. This works particularly well when photographing flowers but can be applied to portraits too.

Photo by Joshua Waller 

6. Colour And Pop

Use contrasting colours or take it one step further and have a go at colour-popping, where you leave your main point of focus in colour and turn the rest of the image black & white. If you're shooting portraits, positioning your subject against a dark background will really make them 'pop' from the image.

 

7. Frame

By adding a frame you guide the eye to one main focal point in the scene that you want highlighting. You can also hide other objects you don't want to be in the shot behind your frame and it does have the added effect of just making your image more interesting generally.

 

8. Crop

If you have images on your computer that seem a little busy try cropping it to see if removing some of the elements makes it less busy and as a result, you get a main point of focus.
 

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Canon has released a set of lenses that carry the abbreviation VCM, short for Voice Coil Motor, a fast and silent autofocus system. The first three primes of this series are the RF 24mm f/1.4L VCM, the RF 35mm f/1.4L VCM, and the RF 50mm f/1.4L VCM. Let’s have a look.

The first lens with a Voice Coil Motor is the RF 24-105mm f/2.8L VCM. It’s a large lens, similar to the RF 70-200mm f/2.8L VCM. Both are similar in size and feature a built-in zoom...

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Finding the right camera for a single, high-stakes shoot can be a balancing act. When you’ve only got one night to capture a specific scene for a client, there’s no margin for error. Resolution, reliability, and adaptability all matter, especially when the final images will be printed at large sizes where every detail counts.

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Starting a photography business feels like stepping into a dream job where creativity meets entrepreneurship, but the harsh reality is that most new photography ventures fail within their first two years. The difference between thriving photographers and those who crash and burn isn't talent or expensive gear. It's avoiding these five business mistakes that rookie photographers make over and over again.

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Retro-inspired cameras aren’t just about nostalgia. They offer a tactile shooting experience and physical controls that many modern designs have lost. If you value the feel of metal dials under your fingers and a body that recalls film-era craftsmanship, the two models here are among the most talked-about options in that space right now.

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A 20mm full frame lens at f/1.4 isn’t something you pick up without a plan. It’s a specialty tool, one that opens up creative shots you can’t easily get with other focal lengths. The ability to capture dramatic wide scenes in low light without sacrificing detail makes it valuable for landscapes, interiors, and astrophotography. You also have the option to get surprisingly shallow depth of field if you work close to your subject.

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The Canon EOS R50 V takes a different approach from what you might expect at its price. It’s compact, lightweight, and aimed squarely at content creators who want strong video performance without hauling around a heavy setup. Its balance of portability and image performance make it worth a look.

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Shooting an A to Z photo project is a more versatile area of photography than you might first think. You can, of course, shoot items that begin with each letter of the alphabet, but it's much more fun and testing at times if you shoot things that are shaped like letters.

 

What Gear Do I Need?

As letters can be found in various locations at different heights and angles you'll probably want to take a zoom lens out on your journey with you so you can shoot wide and also at longer focal lengths without the added weight of multiple lenses weighing your bag down. 

 

The Search

Some letters will jump out of the subject at you with ease while others will take a little more thinking about. Make sure you carry a checklist to keep a track of letters you've captured and you may find it easier to think about one letter at a time rather than hunting for several in one go. 

This project will have you walking all over so wear a comfy pair of shoes and of you have kids, this is a great thing to get them involved in, too.

 

Some Suggestions 

Branches make good candidates and also rocks with holes in can make great 'A's or 'P's. Anything that looks even remotely like a letter will create a quirky and fun piece of photography. A lamp-post, for example, will make a great 'I' while the end of a bench looks like an 'L' if you look closely enough. Once you've found all of your letters, try turning them into one big collage that you can hang on your wall. You'll probably find yourself capturing the near and far, the small and large, the straight and the curved, in sunshine and shade so this project is a great way to challenge yourself and your photography skills.

 

 

A Twist On The Theme

The other thing that you could try with this theme is an A - Z of photography styles. B for Black and White, S for sepia, etc. This is probably suited to more experienced photographers who know more terminology, though.

Another more fun thing you can try is getting a group of friends to pose as all the letters of the alphabet or as mentioned above, capture objects that begin with each letter of the alphabet. If you've already tried an alphabet project why not take on a number challenge instead? 

Be experimental with this - there are no real rules other than that the photos must represent the alphabet in some way. You could make it more challenging by limiting yourself to inside or outside objects, for example. But most importantly, though, it's about having fun and enjoying your photography!

 

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It’s been an exciting few weeks for photography-gear enthusiasts, with product-announcement rumors coming in from every direction. But among all the speculation, as you might already know, DJI has officially entered the 360-degree-camera market with the launch of the Osmo 360.

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Shooting portraits in natural light, if you get it right, can be very rewarding. You can easily create beautiful, moody, and very natural photos—with just a camera in your hand and a willing subject in front of you. Here are some thoughts that may help you get the best possible results.

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Two cameras with similar specs can still offer completely different shooting experiences. The Fujifilm X-E5 and X100VI may share the same sensor and processor, but one offers the flexibility of interchangeable lenses while the other locks you into a fixed focal length. Choosing between them isn’t just about numbers on a spec sheet. It’s about how you want to shoot and how much versatility you need in the field.

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Every photographer has experienced that moment of envy scrolling through Instagram, wondering how certain portraits achieve that impossibly smooth, cinematic background blur that seems to wrap subjects in pure light. Here are five fantastic portrait lenses that will give you some of the smoothest and unique bokeh you've ever seen.

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A view of the Mekong River in Laos features a balanced composition and natural light.

Titled Mekong Views Laos and taken by Backabit, the photo places the river in the foreground, with trees along the banks and steep limestone cliffs rising behind. Additional layers of trees and hills extend into the distance, enhancing the sense of depth. The light is soft and even, bringing out detail across the scene. There’s a stillness to the image that feels grounded—calm, enduring, and true to the landscape.

Every Photo of the Week (POTW) winner will be rewarded with a Samsung 128GB PRO Plus microSDXC memory card with SD adapter, providing top-tier storage for all your creative needs across multiple devices. But that's not all! In January 2026, we’ll crown our 2025 Photo of the Year winner, who will take home the ultimate prize of a Samsung Portable 1TB SSD T7 Shield, courtesy of Samsung. It’s time to shoot, submit, and showcase your best work for a chance to win these incredible rewards!

A lens that can handle everything from wide landscapes to distant wildlife shots means you can travel lighter and react faster. You avoid carrying a bag full of glass and still have the range to shoot almost anything that catches your eye. That’s why a zoom like this matters if you want flexibility without the constant lens-swapping.

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Photoshop just got a wave of updates that could speed up your workflow and make certain edits far easier. The updates also add new AI-powered options that can handle more complex adjustments automatically.

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Some of the most respected names in photography didn’t just create remarkable images. They sustained that quality for decades. Their mastery came from consistent effort, not a single burst of inspiration.

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  If used correctly, the empty space you leave in your shots (negative space) can make your photograph more interesting and easier to focus on rather than trying to fill every inch of the frame with interest. Negative space can play several important compositional roles so here are a few tips to help you think more about making the most of what's not in your scene:  

 

1. Reinforce What's Important

The obvious role of negative space is to show the viewer of your image what is and what isn't important in your shot. If there's nothing else fighting for focus, their eyes will be able to settle on your main subject without searching the rest of the shot first.

2. Balance Your Shot

Negative space can make a shot appear more balanced and as a general rule, you need twice as much negative space to the area taken up by your subject. For example, if you shot a close-up portrait and your subject fills the right third of the frame, you'd want the two thirds to the left to be negative space.
 

3. Give Your Shot Context

Of course, there are times, such as when you're shooting environmental portraits where you want to make the most of the size of the place you're taking photos in, when the above rule won't apply.

With environmental portraits, it's often what's around your subject that gives the shot more interest so filling your frame with your subject would mean the context would be lost.

 

 

4. Space For Your Subject

If you do place your subject to one side of your frame make sure they're looking towards the area of negative space. The same goes for action shots where they're running through the frame as generally, your shot will be more compositionally pleasing if they have space to move into. Of course, if you're wanting them to increase the sense of speed or want to make people wonder what they're looking at, position the negative space behind them, almost pushing them out of the frame.

5. Negative Space Doesn't Have To Be 'Empty'

By using one colour in your background when shooting indoors or by throwing it out of focus if you're shooting outdoors, it won't become a point of focus for your viewer so all attention will fall on your main subject. However, sometimes adding blur to your backgrounds will leave your shot with less impact. For example, if you're out shooting portraits and behind your subject is a mountain scene, shooting with a smaller aperture so you get front to back sharpness will exaggerate the amount of negative space around them, giving the shot more meaning and impact as a result.

6. Exaggerate The Negative Space

Take the idea one step further and strip all the colour out of your shot, leaving just the shapes and space around them to tell your story. You could also remove all the textures from the shot by shooting silhouettes.

 

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