Cameras

Lately I’ve been looking for ways to photograph people besides just my friends and family. I was super inspired after reading photographer Peter Waterman’s account of photographing 80 people in 1 day. I’m a hobbyist just looking to improve my skills and have fun. I like to get the best bang for the buck with my equipment purchases and keep my gear budget contained. I checked my town’s local event website and noticed there was a 10K run scheduled for the upcoming weekend. I had never shot a sporting event before; I usually just shoot portraits and travel. The race map showed the course went right by my house so I had a perfect opportunity to take some pictures. I wanted to experiment and practice with lighting so I made a list of different strategies I could use. I thought about using umbrellas to soften the light, a boom stand to get the light right over the runners heads and using multiple flash locations. When race day arrived it was raining on and off so I changed my strategy. I used a single light stand with a 3 flash bracket. I used 2 YN560II and 1 YN560III flashes on the single bracket. I shot them all in manual, zoomed all the way out (24mm) and ½ power each. Shooting on half power kept my recycle times quick, and extended the number of flashes the batteries could handle. I decided to use no lighting modifiers due to the weather. Going bare flash helped keep the light intensity up since I did not lose any light through the umbrella. I did place a clear plastic sandwich bag over each flash to protect them from the rain. That worked great. I used my trusty YN-603N remote trigger on a Nikon D5100. I got to the race about 10 minutes before it started, so I didn’t have much time to experiment with different lenses. I set up my lights and got in a few test shots. I used manual exposure, ISO 100, 1/200th, varying the aperture from f4 – f5 to control lights. At first I had my 50mm 1.8 mounted which was not wide enough for the position I was shooting from. I quickly switched to a 35mm 1.8 just before the first runners arrived. It turns out I was lucky it was overcast and rainy for most of the race. This allowed me to use the little speedlights to add enough light to be visible in the photo. The sun came out for a few minutes near the end of the race and overpowered my little flashes at the max sync speed of 1/200th of a second. I used continuous focus, which I don’t have much experience with. Usually I use single servo – single focus point, and half press until I’m happy with the focus. In this situation I had to try to keep the focus point over my subject while they ran by. This was harder than I expected. Reviewing later on the computer, I noticed that about 60-70% of the shots were in focus with this method. The hardest part was choosing a subject when there were large groups of runners. There are so many competing interests I found it tough to make the split second decision about who to focus on. Lessons Learned Weather preparation paid off. I was wearing a rain jacket, and had my gear in plastic bags. No issues there. When the rain stopped mid-way through that was just a bonus. I wish I had brought my travel stool. I have a folding camping stool that would have been perfect, but I decided not to bring it. My legs are pretty sore from squatting and kneeling for most shots. I was very surprised the batteries lasted on the flashes the whole time. I took about 400 pictures. The only shots I missed due to slow recycle time was when I used the continuous shooting mode. I quickly switched to single picture mode early on. Since I was shooting at ½ power I could get shots off in pretty quick succession. I had no issues with the flashes overheating or being otherwise damaged. Using the prime lens I found myself having to be patient and waiting for the runners to fill the frame. Since I was using a prime lens, I could not zoom to compose. Many of the runners would see me and make funny expressions waiting f

We try to shed a little light on Lightroom's Catalog to give new users a little more knowledge.

Digital editing is performed by all photographers. In fact, the more WOW! Factor a photo has, the greater the likelihood the photo has been digitally edited, perhaps even to the point of “manipulation.” This is the dirty secret that most point-and-shoot photographers never learn: your camera, however sophisticated and expensive, will never take these pictures out of the box; you have to post-process the pictures. So, when readers pointed out that the winning entry in the recent Word Press Photo contest looks obviously digitally manipulated (with a very pronounced tone enhancement), World Press Photo got defensive and, after submitting the photo to Fourandsix Technologies for “forensic analysis,” declared the winning entry’s digital editing totally acceptable. Just what did photographer Paul Hansen do to his winning photo to stir such controversy? The experts at Fourandsix Technologies found that though Hansen’s winning photo was “retouched with respect to both global and local color and tone,” they “find no evidence of significant photo manipulation or compositing.” So, what is the problem? Why is there even a controversy? It is because the tonal enhancements applied to the photo is so very obvious to the naked eyes. Many photographers who have played with so-called HDR photography can spot the over-the-top digital enhancements right away. However, World Press Photo has officially given its blessing that such heavily enhanced photos are acceptable as journalistic photos and so falls within their rule that “retouching which conforms to currently accepted standards in the industry is allowed.” Even without any digital editing, the content of Hansen’s winning photo packs such a punch as to stop you in your track and elicits a reaction. In our view, that photo deserves to win but requires zero to minimal digital editing. It is sad that the controversy about how much digital editing is acceptable has relegated the content of the photo into the background. View the before and after pictures. via Imaging Resource

More bumps in the road are probably in store for Bitcoin. The virtual currency has seen some massive swings in value over the last several weeks, but that volatility is not likely to end soon, its lead developer suggested on Saturday."We've been on a rollercoaster ride," said Gavin Andresen , chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, which provides much of the core backend development for the currency."I expect for the next few years we're going to remain on a rollercoaster ride," he said, speaking in front of a packed room of developers, enthusiasts, venture capitalists and other industry players at Bitcoin 2013, the first conference in Silicon Valley to be held on the topic.Bitcoin is a digital currency that is managed and traded on a peer-to-peer computer network. Often referred to as a form of "crypto-currency," it is intended to be a decentralized form of payment not regulated by any financial institution or governmental body. A variety of online retailers and a growing number of brick-and-mortar stores are now accepting Bitcoins, which can either be purchased through exchanges on the Internet or "mined" by using specialized hardware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Canipre — short for Canadian Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement — is a Canadian anti-piracy company that has joined hand-in-hand with film studios and record companies to track down those who steal and share stolen content over the internet. On the surface there’s nothing wrong with this, what is wrong is when an intellectual property advocate is found using photos without permission, which is exactly what happened to Canipre a couple of days ago. According to Vice Canada, who broke the news, three photographers found their photos were being used by the site a few days ago, and none of them had given the anti-piracy company permission. The three photogs are Steve Houk, Sascha Pohflepp and Brian Moore, the last two of which licensed their images CC, which means Canipre had only to credit them to avoid any embarrassment. Unfortunately, they had not done so. For their part, the company responded promptly (if, in some opinions, inadequately) when Houk contacted them via e-mail to get his photo taken down. Canipre managing director Berry Logan contacted him immediately apologizing and explaining that it was a third party web developer who had licensed the photo through an image bank. Houk claims he has never licensed his photo out to anyone: I pointed out to Logan that if that was true, he had basically paid his vendor to rip off other people’s creative work. Logan told me that he would contact his web provider and have the image removed. He also told me that he would provide me with the name of the website developer and the name of the image bank where they obtained my photo. I did notice that they took down my photo, but I have not heard back from Logan regarding the name of the developer and where they sourced my image. All of the photos have actually been taken down, and we assume that Canipre will get in touch with all of the photographers to, at the very least, apologize profusely. The damage to the company’s reputation, however, is done. As Houk explained in an email conversation with Vice, “it was disheartening to see a company that champions intellectual property rights pirating someone else’s creative work.” (via TorrentFreak)

A few weeks ago, we reported that Sony may be in the process of dropping its unique pellicle mirror SLT technology. The rumor claimed that the company would be saying goodbye to the translucent mirror in favor a fully mirrorless A-Mount line. Well, if patents are to be trusted, that rumor has been confirmed just as another exciting Sony rumor hits the mill. According to Photography Bay, Sony has recently filed a patent application that confirms the company’s intent to move away from the SLT. The A-Mount line will continue in both APS-C and full frame variants, only the resulting bodies will be fully mirrorless. Additionally, Sony Alpha Rumors is claiming that some of their best sources are confirming previous whisperings of an upcoming Sony A-E Hybrid bridge camera. The camera would somehow accept lenses from both the A and E-Mount lines, and according to SAR’s sources, it just got the go-ahead from upstairs. In addition to a followup to the NEX-7 expected sometime in October, we apparently now have FF and APS-C mirrorless A-Mounts to anticipate in early 2014, and a possible game-changing A-E Hybrid Bridge camera that should arrive by the end of next year. For now, no further details are available, but as release and announcement dates draw near, Sony owners would do well to keep an eye out for spec and photo leaks. (via Photography Bay and Sony Alpha Rumors)

Earlier this week, French software company DxO Labs released an update to its flagship Optics Pro workflow app, right on its regular monthly schedule. Compared to the preceding release, DxO Optics Pro adds support for a number of new camera models including the Canon Rebel T5i, as well as adding a vast selection of new lens modules. It also fixes several problems discovered in the earlier version. New cameras supported by DxO Optics Pro version 8.1.6 include the following Canon EOS Rebel T5i (aka EOS 700D / EOS Kiss X7i) Leica M... (read more)

Shoppers will soon have a tough time trying to pick up a cheap Olympus point-and-shoot compact camera. The company has said it is planning to do away with its V lineup of low-cost compact cameras, priced just under $200 at various retailers. The move comes as the company anticipates a steep decline in its camera business, with forecasted digital camera sales this fiscal year expected to be about 2.7 million units, down from 5.1 million units last year. Olympus president Hiroyuki Sasa has put the financial loss from its camera business at about $225 million. The company is instead focusing on attempting to turning a profit with the sale of their higher-end mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses. In preparation, Olympus has already begun restructuring its manufacturing system – bringing five factory locations to just two sites in Vietnam and China. In doing so, the company will also be cutting spending in their research and development departments, thanks to fewer camera model offerings. As a result, they’ll be reducing the amount of staff in its camera business by 30 percent by March 2014. Selling affordable compact cameras has become increasingly difficult in a world where camera phones are virtually everywhere. Not surprisingly, more and more users are finding the camera right on their mobile phones more than sufficient for their personal needs. (via Wall Street Journal via Twice)

Vlad Polyanskiy today is proud to announce the release of Light Meter, a new utility for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. We have made this illuminometer for that you could save on purchasing of professional illuminometers which cost hundreds of dollars. At the same time we love beautiful design and we like to surprise, therefore, having acquired our illuminometer you also receive the graceful and extremely convenient device with intuitive interface. Moscow, Russian Federation – Indie developer, Vlad Polyanskiy today is proud to announce the release of Light Meter – lux measurement tool, a new utility for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad which allows you to measure lux value of any area you want. Exclusive accuracy of measurements. Calibrated with professional high-precision illuminometer. We have made this illuminometer for that you could save on purchasing of professional illuminometers which cost hundreds of dollars. At the same time we love beautiful design and we like to surprise, therefore, having acquired our illuminometer you also receive the graceful and extremely convenient device with intuitive interface. Features: * Inaccuracy less than 10% * Unique and attractive design * Exclusive simplicity and convenience of use * Integrated help Supported Languages: * US English, Russian Device Requirements: * iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad * Requires iOS 5.0 or later (5.0 tested) * Universal Application * 8 MB Pricing and Availability: Light Meter 1.0 is only $0.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Utilities category. Promo codes are available for qualified reviewers. Please specify the website or blog you represent when making your request. All future updates are included with initial purchase of full version. Light Meter 1.0: http://lightmeterpro.com Purchase and Download: https://itunes.apple.com/app/light-meter-lux-measurement/id642285909 Screenshot: http://a1244.phobos.apple.com/us/r1000/083/Purple2/v4/5f/61/96/5f619609-7f66-6af4-3029-743a2daf21ed/mzl.faxpmvbs.320×480-75.jpg Based in Moscow, Russia, Indie developer Vlad Polyanskiy creates apps for the iOS and OS X platforms. Copyright (C) 2013 Vlad Polyanskiy. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners. ImagingInsider.com #vladpolyansjiy #lightmeter #imaginginsider

A team of researchers at the University of Glasgow’s School of Physics and Astronomy just published a paper in Science that details how they managed to use an altered style of “ghost imaging” photography to create accurate three-dimensional images. While a normal camera uses a many megapixel sensor to collect location and intensity information about incoming light, creating a picture in the process, ghost imaging creates an image by collecting information about the light that didn’t hit the object. Usually this process still involves a camera. Scientists split a laser beam, creating a paired light source, and place a traditional camera in the path of one beam and the subject with a single-pixel sensor nearby in the path of the other. The sensor gauges the intensity of light bouncing off of the subject, and the camera then measures the difference in intensity between that light and the beam it receives, creating an image from the results. In the case of the Glasgow team, however, they’ve done away with the camera altogether, and are instead using four single-pixel sensors to create a three-dimensional image. For their setup (seen above) they use a projector to shine computer generated black-and-white patterns onto the subject — in this case a mannequin head — and then rely on four detectors (one above, one below, and one to each side of the projector) to determine the intensity of the light bouncing off. The computer then compares each black-and-white pattern to the intensity recorded by each detector, and overlays the results to create a picture. It’s the same as if you replaced the projector with a traditional camera, and the four sensors with light bulbs, only the light is moving in the opposite direction. Each detector generates an image with different lights and shadows, and by combining the four shade profiles using the “shape from shade” technique, they create an accurate 3D representation. Here’s a video put together by the University that walks you through the complex process of generating a 3D image without using a camera: For now the images are crude, but the advantages of using single-pixel detectors over multi-megapixel cameras are numerous. Beyond the surveillance uses that many ghost imaging proponents have suggested, single-pixel sensors can be made to detect wavelengths far outside the abilities of our eyes or traditional image sensors. “It could be used to look for the telltale gases which leak from the ground where oil can be found, for example, or it could be tuned into the terahertz range to probe just below the skin to search for tumours or other medical conditions,” said Matthew Edgar, a research assistant who spoke with Phys.org. “We plan to continue working on the system and perhaps working with commercial partners to bring a version to market in the future.” For more information, read the full scientific article published in Science or head over to The University of Glasgow website to see their writeup on the project. 3D Computational Imaging With Single-Pixel Detectors [Science via Gizmodo]