Expert Advice from Instagram Gurus: Tips from the Top PetaPixel

Let’s be honest. We’re all guilty of judging by superficial features. Chances are that even you have been so vain — comparing your figure to that of perfect strangers only to be left with a sulky sense of defeat. But don’t fret, you’re far from alone when you feel a tinge of jealousy (perhaps more than a tinge) at the sight of an Instagram account with over 100K followers, making yours look inactive.

At least you haven’t been so frivolous as to indulge in a petty confidence boost at the sight of a follower count in the low hundreds? Right?

Now that we’ve laid our transgressions on the table, it’s worth exploring the real value behind this otherwise innocuous number that has become canonized as a trusted badge of success — or lack thereof — in the mystifying realm of social media.

If being famous on Instagram pays exclusive dividends to the few professional photographers who have cracked the code, then we want to know how they did it. To shed some natural light onto the foggy peak of Mount Instagram, I decided to fly straight to the top for some first-hand reports on the view from above.

Upon my arrival, I caught up with a few photographers who manage accounts with eye-popping figures so as to become #InstagramEnlightened. First, I spoke with photographer Sara Hylton (@sarahyltonphoto), who somehow managed to gain another 4,000 followers in the time it took me to write this piece. Sara is an accomplished freelance photographer who has been in the Instagram game for over five years and, judging by the numbers, appears to have it all figured out. She has attracted over 100K followers to date by presenting stunning and engaging images that consistently leave her audience wanting more.

But let’s consider the devil’s advocate: in an environment replete with unfettered cuteness and exaggerated opinions, imagery alone is not enough to attract — and keep — droves of dedicated followers. As it turns out, Sara might agree with that outlook, so she has solidified a multi-pronged strategy that favors quality over quantity while producing a refreshing dose of authenticity.

Strong visuals go without saying. We are inundated with so many visuals every day, people posting pointless selfies and animal pictures. In order to grab someone’s attention and to keep your community engaged, what you post has to say something. Keep your captions authentic to who you are so people can connect with you as a real person. I think these days we are all craving a little more realness.

A healthy combination of less-is-more and keeping-it-real comprises the cornerstone of Sara’s Instagram strategy. By thinking of her work in terms of its intrinsic and enduring value, rather than the fleeting attention it might attract, Sara has curated an Instagram page that presents a comprehensive showcase of her work.

I see social media as another marketing tool. But the platform lends itself to a kind of portfolio that allows me to share ongoing/published work with my community and editors. It’s very important for me as a way to connect with folks in the industry — I think Instagram is used more than websites now.

With this astute philosophy, Sara has gathered quite a following. She has built a vast community of dedicated supporters scattered across the globe who regularly engage with her work. Each of Sara’s posts receives hundreds of likes accompanied by a slew of both flattering and insightful comments (there’s that jealous tinge again). Who wouldn’t relish such universal praise and encouragement?

But what about actual clients? Are any of these doting admirers looking to hire Sara?

I can count on my hand the number of jobs I’ve received directly through [Instagram], but the number of followers I have is sort of a quick gauge for editors and clients to see that I’m legitimate and that it will ultimately benefit them. I have a great community of followers which helps keep me engaged in a highly isolated industry.

Okay, so the payoffs may be less tangible when it comes to connecting with clients, but once connected, they will see the benefits of hiring her.

That lack of immediate benefits doesn’t faze photographer Stephen Matera (@stephen_matera), who has been blessing his followers with objectively gorgeous nature landscapes since way back in 2012 when the platform was more molehill than mountain. And he has the figures to back it up. Heck, Stephen even boasts the initials of a born social media aficionado while keeping his 155K highly engaged followers satiated with more than just the promise of bliss. Stephen brings his community behind the scenes of his enchanting shots with charmingly descriptive captions:

It’s not hard to see why Instagrammers en masse cherish a weekly postcard from Stephen. In one quaint paragraph, he has the ability to invoke visions of cozy fireside chats over steaming cups of CBD-infused tea. But, before you get too comfortable, don’t forget that strong imagery and engaging captions will only get you so far. Just ask Stephen:

The key for me was getting lucky a couple of years ago by becoming a contributor to the National Geographic Travel account, and their massive following (now over 35 million) has built my Instagram following. I think that is the best way now to increase your following. Work with a big account to get exposure for your work.

Ah. There’s that tinge again. But for those of us whose invitations from National Geographic may have gotten lost in the spam folder, there’s still hope. I’ll let Stephen explain:

Certainly, hashtagging and getting reposted on popular accounts helps, as does commenting and being engaged. I think it’s best to keep it positive and build a following organically, posting what you are passionate about (and good at). It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers game, but what is probably more important is that your followers are true fans of your work and really want to see what you’re creating.

Stephen’s philosophy is simple: Stay true to your craft and to who you are. His emphasis on the basics allows him to reach his audience on a personal level that fosters likeability and engagement. He doesn’t stray from his true nature and has succeeded in carving a path of his own through notoriously dense territory. So, with all of that talent, ingenuity, and opportunity, how has planting a flag firmly at the top helped Stephen’s photography career?

I think the benefits are not necessarily concrete and can be hard to pin down. But I think my Instagram following has helped raise my presence among my commercial clients, even though they are completely different genres. I don’t have any evidence of this, but I think a big following has helped my SEO for my website. I think the SEO algorithms must look at social media following as part of the rankings. I managed to get #1 (non-ad) ranking for the search term ‘Outdoor Lifestyle Photographer’ on Google in the past year or two as my following has increased, and I think that has had an effect.

There is little doubt that Stephen has received a significant amount of click-through to his website from Instagram, and this is clearly an effective conduit for digital traffic. As Stephen has expressed though, real-world output remains far less measurable than clicks on a screen, as the hazy barrier between virtual metrics and actual clients presents an added obscurity to an already unpredictable field. It appears that an uptick in traffic most often translates simply to an increase in attention or notoriety, while often falling short of producing work.

Some would even attest that social media stardom comes with a few drawbacks, occasionally making it more difficult to get clients. Photographer Philip Edsel (@edsel) explains that big numbers can also result in some unsavory associations:

[Instagram] has helped me in some regards, mainly because it has opened up doors to work with companies I want to partner with. I’m a member of Sony’s Alpha Collective (their “influencer” ambassador group) which has been an amazing opportunity for me. But as a professional commercial photographer, there is certainly a stigma attached to being an ‘influencer.’ Most of them aren’t professional photographers that know how to handle large productions and execute on big projects. I definitely don’t market myself as an influencer or lead client convos with my following on IG. In fact, I rarely mention it.

Philip employs an approach to Instagram that might sound familiar by now. He keeps his content genuine, purposeful, and high in quality in order to produce engagement. Philip emphasizes relevance while shunning the all-too-common practice of posting ordinary images with “cheesy captions.”

Bring something to the table. Talk about how you made the image, or what the image means to you, or something else entirely — just talk about something.

Like Sara and Stephen, Philip fully understands the importance of the caption. Too often, photographers treat Instagram as a purely aesthetic platform while neglecting to embrace the caption as an opportunity to pull viewers into an image. Whether a short description of what went into the creation of your work or a more in-depth discussion of a broader topic related to a shot, the caption is an essential tool to connect with an audience and reach viewers on a deeper level.

For those of us who find difficulty in crafting a cunning caption, I would suggest approaching the task with honesty and authenticity. Put yourself in your viewers’ shoes. Consider what you like to see in a caption, and, most importantly, offer something of value that will ensure viewers will want to read or see more. Philip also insists on avoiding some of the less-organic methods that many enlist in order to cut corners.

Don’t do anything corny. We see through it. Don’t follow/unfollow, don’t use bots to comment, etc. That stuff is obvious, but people still do it. Genuine engagement is really the only way forward on Instagram these days. There’s no magic bullet for growth, and anything that looks like a magic bullet is probably a scam.

As we near the end of our journey and make our descent from the dizzying heights of virtual stardom, we emerge with a clearer sense of the qualities of a strong social media presence and what it takes to attain them. With the insightful wisdom of our seasoned experts, we have ascertained some of the keys of social media success while determining that there are few — if any — shortcuts to the top.

Some common attributes shared by the talented and hardworking photographers I spoke with are worth noting. One of these defining traits appears to be a well-grounded view of social media as a useful tool (among many) in an ever-changing and challenging profession. Each of our gurus realizes both the benefits and limits to maintaining a trove of followers with a remarkably sober perspective. Each expressed a keen awareness of the value of hard work and real-world relationships while humbly embracing the accessibility that they had afforded as a result of on-screen popularity.

While few might suggest that social media has no place at all in the business of professional photography, we’ve found that the obscurity of this landscape produces an enticing mirage, luring us to honor the follower count as a measure of success. Naturally, as competitive instinct kicks in, we clamor for a higher perch on the hill with hopes of proving our worth among a crowded cohort of contenders. But it appears that what is far more important than a figure hovering at the top of a page is the sheer value that the site brings to viewers. When photographers master the art of bringing important content to viewers at a level far beneath the surface of pure aesthetics, they are naturally reimbursed in the currency of engagement. Alas, converting that engagement to a different type of currency has proven a less attainable feat.

One truism that we can be grateful for is the fact that we find ourselves in an era of unprecedented enthusiasm for the art of photography — with virtually unlimited access to boot. Photographers today have the ability to effortlessly reach beyond the confines of a once insular trade and into the palms of the masses. While this environment forcefully stretches the bounds of opportunity and capability for photographers and creators of all kinds, it also presents a plethora of new challenges and forces us to continually reshape our understanding of a timeless art form.

Finally, I will leave you with the insightful and inspiring words of Philip Edsel as he boldly professes from the summit:

The days of organic Instagram engagement at scale are over. Now it’s not about being first, it’s about being better at what you do. Make great work, show it, and interact with other people in your genre who will appreciate your work.

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About the author: Cliff Willson is the a publicist and designer at Wonderful Machine, an art production agency with a network of 600 photographers in 44 countries. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. If you have any questions, or if you need help with your social media presence, you can give Wonderful Machine a call at 1 (610) 260-0200 or reach out via email.

Photographer Paints Portraits of Inuit People into Polar Night Landscapes PetaPixel

“Northern Lights” is a new series of photos by French photographer Fabrice Wittner, who used stencils, light painting, and long exposure photography to combine historical portraits of Inuit people into modern-day polar night landscapes.

“The nocturnal and mystical mood created around an old Inuit imagery is enlightening the polar night to make us think of the fragility of a culture and its environment,” Wittner writes. “A matter we could be dealing with anywhere on Earth, a matter that is resonating with current ecological and climate issues.”

Wittner first found archives of portraits from old expeditions to Greenland and Alaska. He redrew the portraits onto the back of leather tarps before using a precision knife to cut out holes.

“This part can take long as the characters are sometimes very detailed,” the photographer tells PetaPixel.

Wittner then finds a location and frames his shot before placing the stencil into the scene (attached to a softbox and remote flash).

“What is crucial here, is the fact that everything is done on a single exposure from 30 seconds to 5 minutes,” he says. “When I trigger the camera, the flash pops, printing the stencil’s shape on the sensor. Right after, I put the cap back on the lens to remove the stencil from the frame. The exposure of the photo is still running at that time.

“I remove the cap from the lens then let it go long enough to get the correct exposure on the background. When the shutter finally closes, I have my picture with the enlightened character standing in a well-exposed landscape. I obviously calculate the exposure of the landscape in advance.”

Here are some of the photos that resulted from this technique:

Here’s a behind-the-scenes video showing how the project was done (it’s in French but you can turn on auto-translated captions):

“I could say these ghostly figures symbolize the conflict between ancient traditions and modern issues due to technology or environment matters,” Wittner says. “Like ancient memories coming from the past to witness the inevitable change of their world.”

Vivo’s New Concept Phone Features a ‘Gimbal-Stabilizing’ Camera PetaPixel

The Chinese smartphone company Vivo has unveiled its new APEX 2020 5G concept smartphone. It’s a device that comes with a number of interesting photography-related features, including what the company calls a “gimbal-stabilizing camera.”

The back of the phone features a relatively thin dual-camera setup. The first is a 16-megapixel periscopic camera that features an optical zoom range of 5x to 7.5x.

On the bottom of the module is a 48-megapixel “Gimbal Camera.” Vivo says it managed to embed a tiny “gimbal-like structure” into the main wide-angle camera, providing twice the stabilization as traditional optical image stabilization systems.

“It achieves optical stabilization both in the front-back and left-right inclined directions, which largely keeps the integrity of the image,” Vivo says. “The design of this main camera also achieves stronger capacity for night photography.”

Engadget writes that the design of the stabilization system was inspired by the chameleon’s eyeball.

Another photography feature in the APEX 2020 is Instant Photobomb Removal. Using its powerful computing powers, the phone “can perform real-time image segmentation and background repair synchronously,” removing photobombers from your photos to keep your subject as the center of attention in the frame, even when backgrounds are busy.

The phone also features Voice-Tracking Autofocus. By combining image recognition algorithms and its three built-in microphones, one of which is dedicated to autofocus purposes, the APEX 2020 can keep focus locked onto subjects that are speaking within the frame.

On the front of the camera, the 16-megapixel selfie camera is hidden inside the 6.45-inch 2330×1080 AMOLED display. When the camera is activated, the screen area turns transparent, allowing clear photos to be captured.

Other features and specs of the APEX 2020 include 60W wireless fast charging, Android 10, Snapdragon 865, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

The Vivo APEX 2020 is a concept phone that we’ll likely never seen in the real world, but previous iterations of this concept line have been good at predicting soon-to-come features in the world of smartphones. So get ready: we may indeed see some of these interesting ideas hit new phones on the market over the coming years.

(via Vivo via Engadget)

Photography as a Zen Art PetaPixel

Sometimes you know about two things in completely different parts of your brain, and then one day, for no reason, you put them together and your head explodes — a cascade of understandings like the last scene in “Usual Suspects”. After 40 years of taking pictures, that happened to me. One idea changed me overnight. And if you have a camera it will change you, too.

There is absolutely no doubt that it’s important to understand how your camera works if you want to take consistently great photos. Even with the powerful automatic (and artificial intelligence) built in, I would still say a photographer should understand the three branches of photographic government: shutter speed, f-stop, and ISO. They form checks and balances, and work together, to achieve your photographic vision.

But then there are the pesky “rules” of composition. I won’t argue here (but I will argue) that they are bogus — not that they are just inappropriate, but that they make learning to take photos harder, not easier. Every photographer ever (and I say that without hyperbole) will tell you that “you learn the rules, and then you can ignore them” and “they’re just a starting place”; I’m simply going a little farther and suggesting you discard them from the start. It’s the wrong way to approach photographic compositions.

Half Moon Bay, 2017

Consequently, learning to take better pictures ends up being a hodge-podge of facts, rules that can be discarded, and pointless exercises. I love photography but have always felt something was missing from photographic education.

My Approach

I have always enjoyed haiku. Haiku reminds me that there are many poetic forms — limericks and sonnets and so forth — and haiku is another, but it’s very constrained, very short. Strict rules. All poetic forms have history, but unlike others, haiku also has a philosophy. That makes it different.

Camera in the rain
Misty pictures, ruined lens.
Was it worth it? Yes.

My own photography felt like this — a poem with a series of rigid arbitrary constraints that I enjoyed playing within. Other people’s pictures were like other poetic forms. For me, I like uncropped, monochromatic, unretouched, horizontal aspect, etc. A certain camera, or type of film, is a creative constraint. Working within constraints is important, and haiku reminds me of this. Rigid constraints are a poetic form, a creative game, and can be part of the enjoyment of taking pictures. This was one aspect of haiku that resonated with the way I thought about photography.

Palm Springs, 2015

Haiku is a Zen art — and so, increasingly curious, I began to explore other Zen arts. I was always drawn to bonsai trees, beautiful and cool and, like haiku, interestingly constrained. The more I read about these arts the more I noticed I could often substitute the word “photography” for whatever I was reading about, and it seemed not only to fit the way I thought about picture taking, but it added delight and insight.

And then I began to explore the Zen art of flower arranging, ikebana. There are many schools of ikebana, many aesthetic styles, some more rules-based than others. And what struck me was that ikebana was more instructive and applicable to photographic composition than any “golden mean” or “rules of thirds.” Ikebana speaks to weights and balances, proportions and harmony. Many of the skills felt related. It was then that I began to dive in more deeply. If my photos were like haiku, and if ikebana could inform photographic composition, what else could a study of Zen arts provide?

Sea Ranch, 2020

Over the following months, I began to study other temple arts, as they are called. Not just haiku, bonsai and ikebana, but kintsugi (fixing broken ceramics with gold), origami (paper folding), enso (the calligraphic drawing of circles), and the overarching philosophy around wabi-sabi. I’m not a master of Zen, but I could recognize how lessons from these arts fit neatly with my personal feelings about photography. They addressed questions like “what is worth photographing?” “why do we even bother taking photos?” “should I Photoshop or not?” “why should we print?” and even “what makes a photo beautiful, or good?” and so on.

I looked to see if other books and curricula already taught from this vantage point, and what I found was that books on “Zen and photography” were almost entirely about using photography to practice Zen — which admittedly is very cool. They speak of using your photographic practice to be more present, to be mindful, to see beauty, and so on. But what I’m suggesting is different: I am not aiming to help you practice Zen or reach enlightenment, I’m suggesting that Zen arts, in particular, can help you get better at photography. The philosophy forms an excellent foundation and gives rationale to otherwise disparate rules and approaches.

Sonoma, 2020

The Zen arts approach doesn’t address the technical aspects of photography. You still have to learn about f-stop and shutter speed. But even with automation, those awesome cameras won’t compose a photo for you, they won’t enlighten you about what to take pictures of or how to see beauty.

Many accomplished photographers get bored. And their pictures get boring. To avoid burn-out it can be good to have some structure. I believe I’ve found it, and I think it’s the first innovation (or at least “alternative”) in photographic education in ages, and ironically, it’s the oldest method.

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P.S. I’m giving a couple one-day workshops in San Francisco in March to touch on these, and a 4-day intensive workshop later this year. And while I’m currently finishing a book on this topic, my interactions with beginners and amateurs is refining the curriculum — so please, I invite you to explore this with me and contribute to both the book and the courses. Zen arts, like photography, are a life-long pursuit. So no matter where you are in your path, from just starting to seriously advanced, I hope that this approach will help you grow and enjoy your photography more.

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About the author: M.H. Rubin is the Founder and CEO of Neomodern, and host of the podcast “Everyday Photography, Every Day.” The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. To see more from Rubin, visit Neomodern or give him a follow on Instagram. This article was also published here.

Photographer Captures Vast Array of Wild Animals that Use the Log Bridge Near His Home PetaPixel

A couple of years ago, wildlife photographer Robert Bush Sr. set up a trail cam on one side of a log bridge near his home in Pennsylvania. In the viral video above, he collected one year’s worth of footage into a single compilation that shows the incredible array of wild animals that use this bridge.

Bush runs the Facebook Page and YouTube Channel Bob’s Pennsylvania Wildlife Camera, which is where he posts all of his footage as it’s captured. Most videos are only a 20-40 seconds long, but once in a while he’ll create a compilation like this one, which was picked up by NBC affiliate WSLS 10 last August.

The video didn’t really blow up until earlier today, though, when someone shared it to the r/videos subreddit. Since it was posted just 8 hours ago, the video has already received over 31K upvotes, pushing the view count of the WSLS 10 version up over 210K … about 10x the number of subscribers the news station actually has on YouTube.

You can still find the original “The Log” video, released in August of 2018, on Bush’s own YouTube channel:

Check out both videos above to see two years of “The Log” for yourself—complete with deer, raccoons, squirrels, bobcats, grouse, beavers, and one particularly entertaining clumsy bear.

Just be forewarned: this will probably make you want to go out and buy a trail cam. Then again, given the amount of times trail cam footage has shown up on PetaPixel throughout the years, that might not be such a bad idea…

Photokina Organizers Say They Won’t Cancel the Show Due to Coronavirus… for Now PetaPixel

Despite MWC, then CP+, and now other major expos like them being cancelled due to fears about the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus, the organizers of Photokina 2020 have announced that “there is no reason to cancel at this stage” and that the show will go on as planned.

According to DC Watch, the news was shared during a press conference where representatives from both Koelnmesse and the German Association of Photography sought to put fears of Photokina’s cancellation to rest… at least for now.

“At this time, there is no reason to halt a large-scale event like Photokina,” said Christoph Werner, Koelnmesse Vice President, citing advice from the WHO, the German Federal Ministry of Health, and local health authorities in Cologne. He confirmed that precautionary measures would be taken, such as installing hand-sanitizers, but made it clear there are no plans to cancel the show as of this press conference.

“Unless the health authorities announce that the trade fair should be stopped in Europe, it will be at the discretion of the exhibiting companies,” added Kai Hillebrand, the Chairman of the German Association of Photography.

Photo courtesy of Photokina/Koelnmesse GmbH

As you might recall, CP+ 2020 put similar measures in place and said similar things about not cancelling the show ahead of ultimately pulling the plug. When they finally cancelled, the show’s organizers cited “uncertain prospects for effective treatments and remedies for coronavirus,” and said they had decided to “put the health and safety aspects of stakeholders first.”

The Photokina organizers obviously feel that things are still relatively under control (or that they might be by May), but Hillebrand’s statement about the “discretion of exhibitors” might end up being prophetic.

Mobile World Congress only cancelled after almost every major player pulled out of the show, and with Nikon, Leica, Olympus, and Fuji all skipping the show already, it wouldn’t take much to damage Photokina’s exhibitor list beyond repair. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the situation as the expo—which is scheduled to run from May 27th – May 30th—gets closer.

(via DC Watch via DPReview)

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Image credits: Header photo taken at Koelnmesse’s Annual Press Conference 2019, used courtesy of Photokina/Koelnmesse GmbH

DOJ Backs Christian Photographer Who is Afraid Law Will ‘Force’ Her to Shoot Same-Sex Weddings PetaPixel

The US Department of Justice weighed in on a controversial Kentucky lawsuit this week, when they backed a Christian wedding photographer who is suing the city of Louisville over a law that could, potentially be used to “force” her to shoot same-sex weddings.

The lawsuit first made headlines in November, when conservative advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom filed the suit on behalf of photographer Chelsey Nelson. Nelson and the ADF are attacking Louisville’s 20-year-old ‘Fairness Ordinance,’ which prevents discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

The lawsuit claims that this ordinance infringes on Nelson’s freedom of religion and speech, because it could be used to “force Chelsey to create photographs for, blog about, and participate in solemn ceremonies she disagrees with—same-sex wedding ceremonies.”

The suit was largely written off as un-winnable by legal experts when it first surfaced—Nelson hasn’t even been approached by a same-sex couple, and is filing the suit preemptively—but the US Department of Justice obviously disagrees. In a “statement of interest” filed with the court this week, the DOJ weighed in in support of Nelson, expressing confidence that she would win this suit on First Amendment terms.

“The central question presented in this case is whether the government can compel a wedding photographer to photograph, provide photography editing services for, and blog about weddings of which she does not approve, and does not wish to photograph or to promote,” reads the statement. “The answer is no.”

It goes on to site a Supreme Court case that was won by a baker in Colorado, who was cited for refusing to provide services to a same-sex couple. This case is similar, argues the DOJ, because photography is “expressive” and therefore count as a form of “speech.”

“Forcing Ms. Nelson to create expression for and to participate in a ceremony that violates her sincerely held religious beliefs invades her First Amendment rights in a manner akin to the governmental intrusion in Hurley,” continues the statement. “Defendants have not offered, and could not reasonably offer, a sufficient justification for that compulsion here. As a result, the First Amendment bars the application of the Metro Ordinance to Plaintiffs.”

You can read the full statement from the DOJ below:

The major difference between this case and others that have been cited in the statement, of course, is that this isn’t referring to any specific event. Nelson has not even been asked, much less “compelled,” to shoot such a wedding or blog about it, and is instead suing in order to prevent the possibility of such a lawsuit in the first place.

The City of Louisville is arguing that Nelson has no cause to challenge the ordinance and has asked the judge to dismiss the case, an argument that was backed up in a brief filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

“Nelson Photography must know who a prospective customer is before deciding whether it will refuse to serve that person,” argued the ACLU. “That is identity-based discrimination, not an objection to the provision of a specific product.”

(via NBC News)

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Image credits: Photos courtesy of the Alliance Defending Freedom.

This $20 Adapter Lets You Connect the GameBoy Camera to a Cheap Receipt Printer PetaPixel

The GameBoy Camera is a cult classic, but finding paper for the GameBoy Printer that it uses is a pain. Fortunately, industrious creator Vaclav Mach engineered a solution that’ll let you attach the GameBoy camera to any cheap thermal/receipt printer you can find.

Mach calls his creation the “GameBoy Printer XL,” but it’s basically an adapter that allows you to connect your GameBoy with Camera to any modern receipt printer. And he’s selling the whole thing as a DIY Electronics kit on Tindie for just $20.

As Gizmodo points out, this saves you the trouble of needing to find (or cut your own) thermal paper for GameBoy’s printer by converting the proprietary connection into an RS232 serial interface that will work with a wide range of ESC/POS receipt printers. These printers can be found for less than $50 online, and the thermal paper refills are dirt cheap as well.

If you want to take a stab at building your own from scratch, all of the necessary instructions and code are available on GitHub. But if you’re not a DIY enthusiast, you can pick up the kit with all necessary pieces on Tindie… although there’s still some assembly required.

Check out the video up top to see how this creation works, and if you want to see all of the ways you could put your GameBoy Camera and new “XL Printer” to use, you’ll find plenty of low-res inspiration in the PetaPixel archives.

(via Gizmodo)

How Fujifilm is Helping Fight the Coronoavirus PetaPixel

As the world scrambles to find an effective treatment and develop a vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus, camera maker Fujifilm’s name popped up in the headlines, but it had nothing to do with the cameras or film that they’re known for.

Like many of you, I’ve been casting a wary eye at the news the past few weeks as concerns mount over the coronavirus. And that fear, uncertainty, and doubt was reflected yesterday in a huge, worldwide stock dump. We saw the DOW dropping 4.4% in its worst one-day point drop in history. That compared to Japan’s benchmark Topix index, which slumped as much as 4.2%, the most since December 2018.

However, if we look at what Fujiflm holdings is doing, it’s doing exactly that, it’s holding steady. And five days ago we actually saw an 8% stock increase. So why is Fujifilm stock holding steady while so many others are suffering?

According to Bloomberg, it’s in response to Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato’s comments over the weekend on the country’s plans to recommend its Avigan drug to treat coronavirus.

In his statement, Kato affirmed that while there is no effective treatment for COVID-19, there is perhaps some hope in an antivirus drug Avigan (marketed under the name Favipiravir). Kato told reporters his ministry will check how effective flu drugs are at fighting the disease and, if necessary, make it possible for many medical institutions to administer them to patients.

This is particularly interesting to us photographers because Fujifilm Holdings actually developed this drug.

Keep in mind that photography and imaging make up only 16% of Fujifilm’s 22.6 billion in sales for the Japanese fiscal year ending March 31 2019, whereas 43% of that total revenue was made up of health care and material solution sales. Much of this was from Fujifilm’s pharmaceutical unit called Toyoma Chemical, the developer of Avigan. And while Avigan has proven extremely useful in treating Ebola virus, as well as many other flu-type viruses, it’s still in clinical trials and labeled as an experimental treatment.

Nevertheless, the Japanese government kept stockpiles of the drug in preparation for influenza outbreaks and China is currently testing a generic form of this drug as a possible treatment for the COVID-19.

So it seams that, in addition to the 7 million Chinese Yuan (approximately $1 million) worth of medical diagnostic systems, clinical examination devices, and Fuji Xerox’s printers that Fuji sent to China earlier this month, Fujifilm may also have another very important way to offer help during these uncertain times.

We certainly wish them and all others fighting this global concern all the best. In the meantime, if you’re a Fujifilm fan, best to get those Fuji X-T4 and/or Fuji X100V pre-orders in now if you want any hope of getting them in early 2020, in the face of China’s manufacturing crisis.

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Full disclosure: Andrew has a very small amount of Fujfilm stock and a very large amount of Fujifilm gear.

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About the author: Andrew is a documentary photographer and product designer living in and documenting the America’s Southwest. Andrew runs a photography YouTube channel with his wife Danea.

Facebook Now Lets You Turn Any 2D Photo into a 3D Image Using AI PetaPixel

Facebook just expanded 3D photo posting to phones that don’t actually capture depth data. Using the magic of machine learning (i.e. artificial intelligence), Facebook taught a neural network how to “infer 3D structures from 2D photos,” even if those photos were taken with a single lens camera.

The announcement was made moments ago on the Facebook AI blog, where the company’s engineers went into depth on how exactly they pulled this off.

“This advance makes 3D photo technology easily accessible for the first time to the many millions of people who use single-lens camera phones or tablets,” reads the announcement. “It also allows everyone to experience decades-old family photos and other treasured images in a new way, by converting them to 3D.”

Facebook is obviously not the first to use AI to infer 3D data from a 2D image. Google has been doing it with the Pixel phones for years, and the LucidPix app we wrote about last month does much the same thing. The difference is that Facebook is bringing this to more users than ever before, and it’s available for free—no need to buy one of Google’s phones or pay for the premium version of an app to get all the features.

It should also do a better job than some of the more accessible implementations out there, simply because this technology has the full weight of Facebook’s engineering muscle behind it.

The technical details are complicated, but according to FB, their convoluted neural network can estimate the distance of every single pixel form the camera by using four different techniques:

• A network architecture built with a set of parameterizable, mobile-optimized neural building blocks.
• Automated architecture search to find an effective configuration of these blocks, enabling the system to perform the task in under a second on a wide range of devices.
• Quantization-aware training to leverage high-performance INT8 quantization on mobile while minimizing potential quality degradation from the quantization process.
• Large amounts of training data derived from public 3D photos.

The result is an estimated depth map that looks like this:

Of course, if all of the above sounds like gibberish, take comfort in the fact that it seems to work very well. As you can see from the examples below—which were all converted from standard 2D photos–the results are quite convincing.

Even when the system is being challenged by a very complex image like the Trevi Fountain in Rome, the amount of depth data inferred is staggering:

If you’re curious about how this technology actually works, you can dive much deeper on the Facebook AI blog.

If you’re more interested in how this impacts you, just know this: whether you want to convert “decades-old family photos” to 3D, or you want to convert your professional portraits into 3D-like creations, FB now lets you do that. You just need to upload it using the Facebook app on “an iPhone 7 or higher, or any recent midrange or better Android device.”

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Image credits: All photos and animations provided by Facebook and used with permission.

Recreating a $1,000,000 Hershey’s Commercial on a $500 Budget PetaPixel

We had exactly one last take to get this right. “Hold…hold…okay go!” We all held our breath as our motorized graham crackers moved toward each other, hoping the last twelve hours weren’t a complete waste.

I recently teamed up with​ Armando Ferreira​ to re-create two commercial shots that were made using expensive cinema robots, on a shoestring budget. Both shots came from ​Steve Giralt​, a brilliant visual engineer who pushes the boundaries on practical effects using cinema robots like Kira, Mia, Vigo and Bolt.

We recreated a fairly well-known commercial Steve produced for Hershey’s chocolate that was live in Time’s Square.

We knew this would be a difficult task, with so many moving parts (literally) and variables that are essential to bring this shot to life. We had a bit of an advantage though because we were on our second shoot day, and we learned a ton about this process on day one, where we ​recreated a shot of a Nike shoe using the Laowa 24mm probe lens.

From our day one experience, we knew right away what tools we needed to pull off this shot. We used a budget camera, lens, and only one light for this setup. Here is the exact gear list and what it would cost to rent that equipment for two days.

I wanted to keep this shoot as low budget as possible as an answer to the question I get all the time: “how can I do this if I’m just starting out?” For so many new videographers, or even experienced videographers wanting to attract a different type of client, it can seem impossible to level up your portfolio until you land that first client.

But with the equipment you already have, a DIY rig, or even by renting a few key pieces of gear, anything is possible. I’m pleased with the final shot we got in this process, but this exercise would’ve been far easier if we weren’t trying to replicate an exact, finished product.

If you have the time to make and execute a plan, try producing impressive footage or even an entire commercial for your dream client. At worst you’ll improve your skills and add high-quality footage to your reel. At best you could sell that spec work to that dream client! My first ever big clients were Sam Adams Beer and AT&T, and being only one year into my journey as a videographer, that was only possible through spec work.

Check out the ​full video​ to see the result and the entire behind-the-scenes as we problem-solve through the process. And if you’re interested in learning how to tell good stories on a budget, you might also enjoy this video where we ​filmed a car commercial with $274​.

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About the author: Alex Gasaway is a social entrepreneur, YouTuber, and Podcaster. You can find out more about her and see more of her work on her website, YouTube channel, and Instagram account.