Photography News

The garment industry in Bangladesh has long balanced on a thin line between progress and exploitation. It sustains millions of workers while feeding the global appetite for low-cost fashion, but it also hides deep inequality and danger for those inside the factories. Justin Mott’s latest assignment exposes this uneasy truth, showing what it really takes to tell these stories honestly and responsibly.

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Masking can make or break a landscape photo. It’s what lets you balance a bright sky against dark terrain or fix strange color casts without ruining the rest of the frame.

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Caring about validation can feel like weakness, especially in creative work. But when you’re learning photography, ignoring feedback can freeze your progress. Skill grows through friction, through seeing what others see in your images and understanding why something works or doesn’t. Confidence without calibration just becomes delusion, and the camera won’t forgive it.

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Wildlife photography often comes down to reach and sharpness. You need distance without losing detail, and that balance usually means testing limits—optically and technically. The OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm f/2.8 IS PRO lens aims to hit that balance, but how well it holds up once you start adding teleconverters is what separates an ideal setup from a compromise.

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Thanks to its warm, golden colours and varying weather, Autumn is a very photogenic season. However, the different locations you can shoot in coupled with weather and light changes can occasionally make setting the correct exposure tricky. With this in mind, here's a quick check list of ways you can ensure your exposure's correct every time. 

Photo by David Clapp

 

1. Use An ND Filter

Placing an ND Filter over your lens will balance the brightness levels of the ground and sky so that sky detail can still be seen without the ground appearing underexposed.

 

2. Check Your Histogram

Even though digital cameras do have good built-in meters you still need to keep an eye out for burnt-out highlights as you'll lose detail in these areas. A good way to check if your image is correctly exposed is with the histogram.

A 'good' histogram that shows an even exposure will peak more towards the middle and get lower to either end. If the graph is occupying mostly the left-hand side it means your image has more dark tones than light (underexposed) and if it’s shifted to the right, there are more lighter tones (overexposed) which means you could have really bright areas that look blown out.

Also, as a side note, when you playback your images there’s an option you can set that makes the highlighted areas 'blink' so you can pinpoint their exact location. Check your camera's manual for the instructions on how to do this. 

 

Photo by David Pritchard. 

 

3. Work On Overcast Days

Overcast days give you the perfect conditions for capturing autumn shots in woods and forests. Why? Well, on sunny days it can be hard to keep contrast to a minimum and you can end up with large areas of dark shadow and patches of bright, dappled sunlight that's broken through the forest's canopy.

 

4. Meter From The Right Spot

Positioning yourself so the yellow and orange coloured leaves can be backlit will add extra punch to your shots, but again, your camera can get confused by the variety of light sources around. As a starting point, you can meter for the mid-tones but it's best to take a meter reading from the leaves to ensure they are correctly exposed. Also, by doing so the background, which you'll want to be thrown nicely out of focus, should appear darker, allowing your subject to 'pop' from the frame.

 

5. Use Exposure Compensation

Mist and fog are common conditions to be shooting in at this time of year but you may find you have exposure problems once out in the field. This is because camera meters are often fooled into underexposing misty scenes so they come out looking very grey, rather than light and airy. You can fix this by using the + compensation option. How many stops you need to move up by will depend on the scene and how many EV steps you can go up by will depend on the camera you are using. 
 

   

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Feeding ducks is something everyone enjoys but next time you head off for your Sunday morning stroll around your local pond, pocket your camera as well as the treats you take for the Mallards and Swans.

 

1. An opportunity to get close to wildlife

As ducks are used to people visiting with goodies they're not usually skittish so getting close to them shouldn't be a problem. Even still, taking along a small bag of birdseed to scatter will keep the ducks in front of you for longer increasing the chances you have of getting a good shot.

Flat banks are the perfect location for photographing ducks as the low angle gives you a shot that has more of a duck's eye view. If you don't want to work hand-held, take along a light-weight tripod or beanbag to sit your camera on.
 

2. Which season is best?

Winter's a great time to head to the water's edge as the sun sits at a lower angle for longer which means you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn for softer light. You'll also get mist rolling over the water – perfect for silhouetting a bird against. For a bit of variety try shooting their reflections or look for interesting behaviour such as fighting or preening activities.

 

3. Need more details?

If you find their feathers are lacking in detail try adding a little fill-in flash. Just remember for birds such as Swans that have lighter feathers you'll need slightly stronger light. This time of year when lakes can be slightly frozen light will be reflected off the icy surface back under the duck, highlighting detail in their plume. For particularly gloomy days switch to a slightly higher ISO so you can use a quicker shutter speed. If you're out when the sky is rather bright keep an eye on your exposure if Swans are around as a white bird against a bright sky may mean your camera underexposes the shot.

For shots of birds in flight make sure you're on continuous focus and get the focus locked on the bird straight away. To freeze their movement in the air or when they're splashing on the water try a shutter speed of around 1/500sec but if you want to be a little more creative try to blur the motion of the wings with a slower speed of around 1/30sec.   

 

Ranking the greatest camera designs in history isn't just about technical specifications or optical performance. It's about identifying the pivotal moments when engineering brilliance, innovative thinking, and perfect timing converged to fundamentally change how we capture and think about photography. Here are five of the most remarkable camera designs in history.

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Blending texture into a photo can turn an ordinary image into something that feels handcrafted and imaginative, giving new life to the photos that never quite clicked, the ones sitting in your library that felt flat but had potential waiting just beneath the surface.

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If you’ve purchased a lovely camera, shouldn’t you buy a lovely, luxurious camera strap for it? That’s a rhetorical question—of course you should! If your camera is your pride and joy—something you’ve aspired to own for a while—and you finally bit the bullet and treated yourself, it’s fitting to give it a beautiful handcrafted shoulder strap. I’ve done this for a couple of my indulgent camera purchases recently, after discovering a surprising number of options when it comes to skillfully crafted leather straps.

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The Viltrox AF 14mm f/4 Air lens takes the idea of an affordable, ultra-wide option and turns it into something serious for both stills and video. You get the kind of coverage that captures everything in front of you without the heavy cost or bulk of most full frame wide lenses. Whether you’re shooting tight interiors, sprawling landscapes, or simply want the space of a wide frame for street work, this compact lens offers real versatility without much compromise.

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Let’s go back to basics and learn from Jason Wong, who provides some great examples and concepts about aperture that go beyond the common beginner advice of always shooting wide open for background blur. There are multiple factors, besides the aperture value, that result in a shallow depth of field, and it's worth knowing them to elevate your photography.

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Black and white photography lives or dies by how well you handle contrast. The right balance of tones separates lifeless gray from depth and emotion. When editing, three tools in Lightroom decide which side your images fall on: clarity, texture, and dehaze.

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Street shooting puts any compact camera to the test, and this one gets pushed in fast-changing light, dense crowds, and constant motion. You’ll see how it actually behaves in the places you use a pocket camera instead of a studio chart.

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As winter approaches we're going to see many more days of rain but this shouldn't stop you taking photographs. Instead, use the weather to your advantage to capture great raindrop patterns on windows from the comfort of your home.

 

1. The Beauty Of Variety

You may not have noticed, but raindrops are not always the same on windows. If it's heavy rain the drops tend to be large and blobby after a short shower the droplets are much neater and the best sort to photograph. They look the type you'd see on a spiders web, all almost perfectly round. Droplets can also act like miniature lenses and present an upside-down image of the background in each concave shape. If you adjust focus you can make these images appear sharper to become part of the creative picture.  But that's another technique!

 

2. Gear Choices

All you need for this technique is a camera with close focus capabilities which covers most types of cameras including compacts. Ideally, the camera should have some form of creative exposure mode that will allow you to shoot at different apertures. It would also help if you had a tripod to steady the camera but this isn't a must as if you find your shutter speed is creeping towards the slow side, just use a slightly higher ISO.

 

3. The Set-Up

1. Choose a window that has interesting raindrop patterns and that is facing a plain background. The background should be a long way off so a window into a garden with trees, grass or a fence at a good distance is ideal. The choice of background can really make a difference; a light background such as a sky will often result in the droplets having a darker more defined outline while a dark background will make the centres of the droplets more prominent.

2. Make sure the window is clean! Any fingerprints or smears will show up. Double glazed windows should be in good condition free of condensation.

3. Set your camera up on a tripod and point it at the window. Make sure the camera back is parallel to the window for the best results.

4. Focus on the drops. You may have to use manual mode if your camera has it because the drops can sometimes confuse the focusing sensor so it misses them. On double glazing, some cameras may be fooled by the closer inner layer so manual focus is a really useful option.

5. Move the camera position to get the best range of drops in the frame and watch the background for change in tone. If there's an area where the tips of shrubs meet the lighter sky and that's in the photo it will spoil the result. Move either up so you just have sky or down so you just have shrubs as a backdrop.

6. Set an aperture to its widest setting so the background is thrown totally out of focus.  If you have a compact with no manual control but with scene modes, try taking pictures at different scene modes and compare the results to see if one throws the background out of focus. This will usually be something like portrait, food or close up mode, not landscape or infinity modes.

 

Check out more Close-up photography tutorials.

One year into a leap from software to full-time creativity, I reveal the unexpected challenges and surprising victories that transformed my journey. What happens when passion meets the harsh realities of freelance life?

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The lens is arguably the most important piece of photography equipment you own. So, make sure you're spending your money wisely.

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Under the Foam by Henrique Casinhas

 

The World Sports Photography Awards returns for its seventh year and is now accepting entries. Canon joins as the official imaging partner, marking a new chapter for the competition.

The Awards acknowledge sports photographers who know how to capture the emotion, strength, and precision of athletic moments. Each year, a panel of judges from sport, media, photography, and branding selects the strongest images.

Canon’s partnership reflects its long-standing connection to sports photography. With decades of experience and technical leadership, Canon shares a commitment to supporting photographers who document the power and intensity of sport.

A new category has been introduced for 2026: the Canon Emerging Talent award. This section is dedicated to photographers under the age of 30 who show strong skill and creativity in documenting sport. It aims to recognise the next generation of talent and give them a platform to be seen.

Richard Shepherd, Product Marketing Senior Manager, Imaging at Canon Europe, adds:

"Canon has a rich heritage of capturing sport’s most iconic moments, and as the camera of choice for the majority of photographers entering these awards, this sponsorship reaffirms our commitment to delivering the robust, reliable, high-speed equipment that empowers them to tell those powerful stories. We are especially excited to introduce the ‘Canon Emerging Talent’ award, which will shine a spotlight on the remarkable skill and passion of the next generation.”

 

The Great Water Ditch by Magdalena Strakova

 

Photographers are welcome to submit up to 10 sports images taken between December 2024 and November 2025. This year's competition includes 24 categories and is free to enter. The deadline is 24 November 2025. Photos that were entered in last year's contest can't be submitted again.

 

Entry Details for 2026 Awards:

• Entries Open: Now
• Deadline: 24 November 2025
  • 13:00 New York City
  • 18:00 London
  • 19:00 Amsterdam
  • 03:00 Tokyo (25 November)
  • 05:00 Sydney (25 November)
• Eligibility: Up to 10 sports images taken between December 2024 and November 2025
• Categories: 24 sports categories
• Entry Fee: None

 

The World Sports Photography Awards has a zero tolerance policy for image manipulation or editing. All entries must be original and capture the moment as it happened. This rule is in place to respect the time, effort, and skill photographers put into their work. For full details about the competition, please visit the official website of the World Sports Photography Awards.

Are we making photos to be seen or to be felt? Today, photographers navigate between creating content for attention and creating meaning for expression—a choice that shapes not just our work, but how we experience it.

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Professional work often comes down to speed and flexibility. A fast standard zoom like a 24-70mm f/2.8 is one of the most useful tools you can keep in your kit, and Nikon’s update to their flagship model brings a mix of subtle improvements and some genuinely new features worth paying attention to.

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The Fujifilm GFX100RF challenges the way you think about medium format. A camera like this doesn’t simply compete with interchangeable lens systems. It pushes you to consider portability, design, and shooting style in ways that matter when you’re out in the field.

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