Cameras

Check out the picture above. Pretty cool, huh? Well, to make photos like this you can use a special technique. It wasn’t invented by me, but by a Bay Area photographer named Scott Jarvie. It’s a pretty eye catching way to take portrait photos, and here’s an introduction to how it’s done. I first stumbled across the Jarvie Window technique when I was reading Scott Jarvie’s blog. Scott apparently discovered the new technique himself while wandering around a PhotoWalk event in Utah with a ring flash. After someone lent him a super wide angle lens, he snapped a picture and discovered that an awesome photo had resulted. After reading about the technique, I wanted to try it out myself, so I followed his directions and created my own Jarvie Window setup. Most photographers are going to have some of the basic things to start using this technique, but most will probably have to buy a few things to make it work. You really need 4 things to be able to take these pictures: a DLSR camera, an external flash, a ring flash adapter and a super wide angle lens. If you have those things you are set and can start. Well, I had two of the things — a pretty nice Nikon DLSR camera and a SB700 Nikon Flash — but I didn’t have the ring flash adapter and my wide angle lens (14mm Nikon) was just not wide enough to avoid catching the edges of the ring flash adapter. So I had to spend some money to create my rig. The flash that I already have and use is an SB700, which runs about $300 and is Nikon’s more basic flash. I found that it’s perfect for all types of flash photography and works particularly well with the Jarvie Window technique. You’ll notice that I have it taped around the base. I did that because I needed to raise the flash head about a 1/4 inch with a wedge I created out of paper, since the ring flash adapter was weighing it down and causing the bright edges of the ring flash to fall out of view. Some people hold the ring flash while they are taking the pictures, but I just prefer to put the wedge in and crudely tape it. Since I have two SB700s I just decided to dedicate this flash for this purpose. The next step was getting a ring flash. I decided to use the flash that was recommended, called the Ray Flash, which I found on Amazon.com. It ran me about $150 and you need to get the right size adapter based on the flash you are using, since the flash head size and shape is different. The Ray Flash is just an adapter and doesn’t require any batteries since it is basically taking the light from the flash itself and channeling it down a lighted tube to a ring that fits around the lens. It’s pretty cool, and I find it is fairly robust since I have dropped it about 10 times and doesn’t even have a scratch. That’s really key for me: to have camera equipment that can take a beating, since I am pretty merciless and clumsy with my stuff. The next step was to get the right lens. The recommended lens was a Sigma 8mm which is extremely wide angle. When you have an FX format camera such as the D3S that I am using, the pictures you take with the lens come out completely round. There is not a lot of functionality with the lens other than taking super strange photos at a very, very wide angle. Before buying the lens I tried using my Nikon 10mm lens, but I found that it did not work with the technique correctly. The minimal focal length was a 5 inches from the subject, and that does not work with this technique as you literally have to be two inches from someone’s face to make this work. I ended up ordering the Sigma 8mm lens. It was not cheap and ended up costing me about $800. I’ve tried the lens now for two weeks and it is actually super sharp when you are a little over an inch from a subject — amazingly so actually. The problem with the 8mm focal length is that I think it is just a little too wide for an FX camera which makes it not really practical outside of just using for these types of portraits. It’

In one of their daily specials, NewEgg is offering Adobe Lightroom 4 (full version) as a software box to be delivered by mail for $70 with free shipping. This comes as a "combo deal", you buy it together with Malwarebytes Anti-malware software. No coupon is needed, just add to cart and both software titles will be added to your shopping cart with a total price of $70. This is a limited time offer that will end by 3am ET on Sunday at the latest. The Lightroom 4 software box is good for either Mac or Windows, but the Malware software is for Windows. If you are a Mac user, you can either sell/trade/gift the Malware software, or better yet, use it as an ironic gift to a Windows user, "you need this a lot more than I do" ;-) Today's deal theme is storage (external hard drives and SSDs), so if interested, check the Camera Deals blog for the latest specials or check its Storage category more specifically. For the latest camera specials and in-stock alerts, check the Cameras Deals blog. Republication of this RSS feed on any website or blog or app is prohibited and violates the terms of use of this RSS feed. This text comes from the RSS feed of 1001noisycameras.com. This full-text RSS feed is provided as a service to our loyal readers for their personal use. Republication fees start at $1000 per month and will be billed to violating websites.

Key & Peele are a pair of hilarious comedians that are part of their self-titled show on Comedy Central. Their videos from Comedy Central are frequent viral hits, and these guys just seem to always be on. They also recently made Fast Company’s list of 100 Most Creative People. During a photo shoot for Fast Company (shown above), Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele kept their improve rolling while the photo shoot attempted to move forward. If you haven’t seen other skits from Key & Peele, allow me to introduce you to the East/West College Bowl below. [Fast Company via FStoppers] Copyright/DMCA Notice: The RSS entry was originally published on Photography Bay and is protected by copyright laws. It is unlawful to (a) edit, modify, alter, or create derivative works of the text, content or links supplied by Photography Bay, (b) use any robot, spider, scraper, other device or manual process to monitor or copy any content from the Photography Bay RSS feed, (c) sell, retransmit or commercially exploit the Photography Bay RSS feed, headlines or content in any manner except as expressly permitted in writing by authorized representatives of Photography Bay, (d) incorporate advertising into or the placement of advertising associated with or targeted towards the Photography Bay RSS feed or (e) use the Photography Bay RSS feed for any unlawful purpose or in violation of the rights of others. RSSID#794326 Related posts: The World’s First iPhone 4 Wedding Photo and Video Shoot Bui Brothers Shoot BTS Video of Drew Gardner Fashion Photo Shoot Andy Samberg Photo Shoot as Tennis Stars

As data-transfer shifts increasingly to the cloud, the servers stacked in datacenters handling the data become increasingly crowded. Virtualization means multiple users can share a single server. This has positive aspects: servers don't sit idle, scalability is less of a concern, and datacenter efficiency improves. But there's a problem with too many users on a single server. And it's going to get worse. It's called "the noisy neighbor problem," and here's what happens: disk I/O for one user starts to interfere with the operations of another user on the same server. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The nation's critical infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber attacks and better information sharing is needed to strengthen defenses. That's the message Charles Edwards, deputy inspector general for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told a Congressional committee at a public hearing on Thursday. Since 1990, Industrial Control Systems, which are used to manage components of the country's critical infrastructure, have been connecting to the Internet to improve their operations, Edwards explained in written testimony submitted to the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies. However, companies hooked their control systems into the public Internet with little regard for security. "[Security] for ICS was inherently weak because it allowed remote control of processes and exposed ICS to cyber security risks that could be exploited over the Internet," Edwards said. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

For a limited time, DigitalRev has the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens available for $379.00. Compare at $649.00.

Amazon has the SanDisk Ultra Plus 256GB SATA 6.0 Gbps SSD (Solid State Drive) available for $159.99.

Bitcoin is growing up. The virtual currency that caught the public's attention last month when its value zoomed briefly past US$200 kicked off its first Silicon Valley conference Friday evening and shows no sign of losing momentum.The event is small by Silicon Valley standards, with about 1,000 attendees expected and 19 exhibitors, but it's bustling with startups launching new exchanges, software developers looking to strengthen the Bitcoin network, and venture capitalists seeking places to invest.There's now $45 million a day being traded on the Bitcoin network, or $16 billion a year, according Peter Vessenes, chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, who talked at the start of the event in San Jose, California.The volume of activity is accelerating, he said. There have been 18 million transactions in the four years since bitcoins were introduced, and the figure is expected to reach 20 million next month.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Last Updated (18 May’13): - Review & Sample Photos @ Photoreview Sony SLT-A58 is a 20.1MP Exmor HD APS-C CMOS Sensor DSLR Camera with Translucent Mirror Technology. It features SVGA OLED Tru-Finder 1,440k-Dot EVF, 2.7-inch Tilting LCD Monitor with 460.8k-Dot resolution, 15-Point AF with 3 Cross-Type Sensors, Full HD 1080i/p Video Recording at 60 or [...]

Samsung Mobile introduces the Galaxy Core Android phone : Samsung Electronics is proud to present the Galaxy Core, a new Android smartphone designed to offer powerful dual core processing power for multitasking, Dual SIM functionality for easy transition between work and play, and a wealth of innovative features. The Galaxy Core (also known as: Samsung GT-I8260) is a mobile device that can operate seamlessly and effectively in all aspects of life. This Android phone from Samsung is the perfect mobile handset for the users looking for optimal balance of portability and power. The Galaxy Core will be available in Single SIM and Dual SIM versions. Official price information was not mentioned in the press release.