Shutter Release: Optical science, black and white photos on your phone, Lightroom Auto Tone and more

There is a lot of interesting content out there and we want to help make sure you see as much of it as possible. While we are dedicated to bringing you the best original content we can, our colleagues and peers around the web create a lot of great articles, tutorials and videos worth sharing. Alongside the occasional small photography gear announcement, Shutter Release is designed to deliver interesting content from around the web.

In today's Shutter Release roundup, we will look at medium format versus full-frame cameras for architectural photography, revisit a video about the history and science of lenses, consider advertised versus real-world speeds for memory cards, a tutorial for creating dramatic black and white images, an overview of noise reduction methods and finally finish with an article about Lightroom's Auto Tone feature and when it should be used.

Medium format versus full-frame DSLR and mirrorless cameras for architectural photography - SLR Lounge

As medium format cameras continue to become more accessible, thanks in large part to the Pentax 645Z a few years ago and the recent release of the Fujifilm GFX 50S, some photographers are having to decide between cameras like the Canon 5DS R and the GFX 50S. If you're an architectural photographer, does medium format result in much better images? This is a question that architectural photographer Usman Dawood wants to answer in the video below.

History and science of lenses - Mirrorless Rumors

Filmmaker IQ makes a lot of great videos about filmmaking, many of which should be of interest to photographers too, such as their video last month about hyperfocal distance. The video below about the history and science of lenses may be from 2015, but it's worth revisiting as it's a fascinating in-depth look at the optics which make images (and video) possible.

Memory cards: advertised versus real-world speed - SLR Lounge

Tom's Tech Time has taken a look at the speeds of MicroSD cards and tested how the advertised speeds compare to real-world speeds.

Creating dramatic black and white images - ISO 1200

How does photographer Sean Tucker create dramatic black and white images on your phone for Instagram? Find out below! You can follow him on Instagram here.

An overview of different noise reduction techniques - Digital Photography School

There are so many ways to reduce noise in images, including built-in methods in basically every photo editor and more specialized dedicated software solutions. Photographer Jim Hamel has written a nice overview of noise reduction for Digital Photography School, which is well worth checking out.

When to use Lightroom's Auto Tone feature - Lightroom Killer Tips

Should you use Lightroom's Auto Tone function? If so, when? Read Scott Kelby's recent post about the topic here and see examples of how the function works.