LATEST ADDITIONS

It was a heady affair covering camera supports at photokina, with dozens of new tripod tops from a variety of manufacturers. The trend is toward greater precision and quality: increased control, with spring counterweights to balance heavy lenses, calibrated friction control as pioneered by Novoflex, panoramic calibrations, and quick-release plates. Some manufacturers...

Walking through some of the halls at photokina, you could be forgiven for thinking digital photography has taken over. But look again and you can find plenty of silver halide waiting to be discovered: new films, chemicals and papers, updated enlargers, a new cold light source, and a new archival washer. Old friends, companies like Paterson Photographic, Condor, Tetenal, and...

"How do you get a handle on telling the story of life on earth in images? It took tons of research to master the material."

For his most recent book, Life: A Journey Through Time, Frans Lanting traveled, researched, and photographed for over six years, but when you consider that his goal was to document the story of life on earth, it seems a reasonable amount...

Whether it's adding light to shadows to create a good balance of tones, or brightening color on overcast days, fill flash provides an extra burst of light that can do the job. Close-up fill can be done with the built-in flash that comes with many cameras, or auxiliary flash that mounts on the camera's hot shoe. In either case, fill can be modified using the power...