Cameras

Want to shoot some monochrome landscapes? Take a look at this article.

What you see above is a “map” of Paris created by collaging thousands of photographs shot in the city. It’s just one of the amazing pieces in Japanese photographer Sohei Nishino‘s Diorama Map project. The series contains maps of many of the world’s most famous cities, and all of them are photographed and collaged by hand. To create each diorama map, Nishino visits a city and shoots thousands of photographs while walking around within them. His goal is to capture his personal memory of traveling around that city, and this stage often takes weeks — or even months. Hundreds of rolls of black-and-white film and tens of thousands of photographs later, he develops and prints the film himself in a personal darkroom, brings everything into his studio, and then begins to edit them. He selects thousands of photographs that are representative of what he would like to show, and then sets to work creating a collage. Using a sketch of the city’s layout on a giant white canvas, he spends months cutting photographs and gluing them onto the map in the locations they belong. The maps are not meant to be accurate recreations of exactly what a city looks like from above, but are instead more representative of his personal memory and experiences. The process is tedious, but Nishino still manages to produce them at a rate of about three per year. Here are some of the diorama maps he has created so far: Berlin, Germany Tokyo, Japan Shanghai, China Rio De Janeiro, Brazil New York City, New York London, England Jerusalem, Israel Istanbul, Turkey Hong Kong, China Here are a couple of time-lapse videos showing Nishino creating one of his diorama maps: You can see more diorama maps and more of Nishino’s work over on his website. Diorama Maps by Sohei Nishino (via POTB) Image credits: Photographs by Sohei Nishino and used with permission

Memorial Day weekend typically does not have wild digital camera specials, so we will not post a "Situation Room" here at the main blog. You can keep tabs with the latest specials at the Camera Deals blog with the easy to remember url NoisyDeals.com 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.

Want to have some fun as you’re learning how to use Photoshop for image editing? Try creating a “Photoshop Chimera.” In Greek mythology, the Chimera was a monstrous creature composed of three different animals: the lion, snake, and goat. The term “chimera” has since come to describe any imaginary creature that’s the mashup of two or more real animals. Reddit user Arne Olav has attracted some attention as of late for his humorous chimeras created by compositing two different photographs of animals. The photograph above shows a “Guinea Lion,” or what you get when you combine a guinea pig and a lion. Olav doesn’t claim to be the originator of this concept; you’ve probably seen similar photo mashups floating around since the advent of the Web. He tells us that he personally began dabbling with the idea while going through a particularly difficult exam season in school back in 2012. Needed a break from his studies, he decided to de-stress by splicing guinea pig heads onto various animals. He soon started combining all kinds of animals, and his work started attracting the attention of humor sites across the web. Here is a selection of Photoshop Chimeras Olav has created so far: Regarding his technique, Olav tells us, It’s important that the pictures are taken from approximately the same angle, so that the animals can be put together in a natural way. For example, let’s say I’m making the cross between a proboscis monkey and a bird. First, I put the pictures in two layers. Then I adjust the size and start erasing the bits that are superfluous: After that, the rest is fine tuning. Edges between the animals need to be smooth, which can be done using a soft semi-transparent eraser tool, and colors and lighting have to be adjusted. Then the picture is finished. Olav says his interest in Photoshop first developed through his photography hobby. In addition to use it to post-process his photographs, he decided to experiment with (and improve in) Photoshop by getting experimental with it and using it for leisure. You can follow along with his strange animal mashups on his Reddit submissions page. There’s also an entire sub-Reddit dedicated to this concept called Hybrid Animals. Thanks for sending in the tip, Sam!

Want to see what lava from a volcano looks like up close? Photographer Daniel Fox has spent a number of weeks this year photographing lava near Kalapana on the Big Island of Hawaii. Rather than photograph the lava in the context of its surroundings, he decided to get in close and create abstract images showing its intensity. Fox tells us he focused more on shooting abstract, artistic photos (rather than landscape photos) by using a telephoto lens rather than a wide-angle one. He shoots with a Canon 100-400mm and Canon 100-300mm on his Canon 7D. He tries to leave the photos relatively untouched, but he does occasionally do some masking, rotating, and cropping in addition to basic Lightroom image adjustments. Here is a selection of Fox’s lava photographs: Fox also shot some footage of the lava to create this piece titled “TIME”: Compared to the free flow of lava, active and fast, these clefts are the result of a constant but slow force. One fracture at a time, earth is moved forward to form new landscapes, erasing old ones behind. Invisible at day, their presence and intensity is only revealed at night, cracking the dark world open, light a lightning splitting the sky in pieces. You can find more of Fox’s work on his website and on Instagram. He’s planning to hold an exhibition of these lava photos in San Francisco come fall. Image credits: Photographs by Daniel Fox and used with permission

Samsung has released the source code for its NX2000 and NX300 cameras as open source. Along with the open source release, Samsung is also providing build instructions for each camera. You can find the open source downloads here on Samsung’s website. See the NX2000 build instructions below. [ BUILD instructions ] GPL/LGPL software for the Samsung NX2000 Series This software distribution consists of GPL and LGPL components used in the Samsung NX2000 Series Samsung Electronics, Co. Ltd. (°?Samsung°±) is pleased to make available to you the various source codes (“Source Codes”) for download from this website (°?Download Service°±) at no charge. By using the Source Code and/or the Download Service, you expressly assume all risk and liability associated with and/or caused by the same and complying with all applicable user agreements that accompany each Source Code. To the extent any of the Source Codes are licensed under public licenses such as the GNU General Public License and/or GNU Lesser General Public License, such licenses can be found in each of the files containing the Source Codes. SAMSUNG PROVIDES THE SOURCE CODES AND THIS DOWNLOADING SERVICE “AS IS” WITHOUT REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND AND ALL SUCH WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, CURRENCY, AVAILABILITY, TITLE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. SAMSUNG WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM THE USE OF THE SOURCE CODE AND THIS DOWNLOADING SERVICE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SAMSUNG IS NOT OBLIGATED TO PROVIDE AND DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY SUPPORT OR ASSISTANCE WITH RESPECT TO THE SOURCE CODES OR THE DOWNLOAD SERVICE. This downloading service shall not affect nor extend any warranty or disclaimer which Samsung makes in each of Samsung’s products in which the Source Code (or object/executable code based thereon) is incorporated. System requirement (Strongly recommended) * OS: Ubuntu 10.04 or newer The NX2000 Series has an Embedded Cortex-A9 (800MHz, L1 32KB, L2 256KB) with Neon processor; the software is normally cross-compiled for that processor. All of those softwares have to be built with the ARM toolchain gcc. (arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc (Sourcery G++ Lite 2009q1-202) 4.4.1) * Building Linux kernel and private drivers * Unpack the nx2000.tar.gz into your home directory * cd TIZEN/build * Run “make nx2000_config; make bootloader; make kernel; make firmware” * Check if TIZEN/build/binary/firmware/nx2000.bin is exist * Building a package 1. Extract sbs module * Place sbs.tar.gz into your home directory * tar xvf sbs.tar.gz 2. Extract sbs-install module * Place sbs-install.tar.gz into your home directory * tar xvf sbs-install.tar.gz 3. Build a package * cd ~/TIZEN/build * make nx2000_config * cd ~/TIZEN/packages/ * sbs -b 4. Install your package * You can find 3 deb packages ( xxx.deb, xxx-dbg-xxx.deb, xxx-dev-xxx.deb) Just ignore dbg and dev packages For more information, refer /debian/control file * Install package with following command (e.g.) sbs -et dpkg -i libscl_0.1.0-5_armel.deb * To apply your package, please run next command in ~/TIZEN/build - cd ~/TIZEN/build - make nx2000_config; make bootloader; make kernel; make firmware last updated: 2013-05-07 [via Photo Rumors] 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 permitte

The thin Samsung ST150F camera provides a high-quality f/2.5 lens and includes built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, all for less than $150. You can use a remote viewfinder app to merge the ST150F with your smartphone, allowing for remote control of this camera....Read Full Post

Photographer Joshua Lambus has put together a beautiful series of photographs showing luminous creatures of the deep glowing with light against a pitch-black background. The project is titled “Blackwater.” The photographs were captured in the ocean during the Hawaii-based photographer’s deep dives. “My photos are to show people things they haven’t seen before… or maybe things they see all the time… in a way they’ve never cared to look,” Lambus writes. Lambus is a veteran of deep dives, having logged hundreds of dives for both personal and commercial purposes. The dives are held in the darkness of the night in water that is thousands of feet deep. Lambus ventures deep under the surface to photograph the animals as they float by. In an interview with Underwater Photography Guide, Lambus compares photographing the faintly glowing creatures to taking pictures of a piece of aluminum foil and a piece of plastic wrap in a your closet with the lights out. If you can photograph them in focus and well exposed, then you’re fit for this type of underwater photography. Does your camera focus well in low light? If not are you good at manual focus? Which is better? Next is lighting. Best positions for strobes? How do you light up your subject without lighting up the rest of the plankton around it? Do you expose for the reflective part of your subject or the transparent part? How do you do both? How comfortable are you with knowing where the controls are on your camera? Because at night you can’t see what you’re doing, and you better have a good hold on that camera because if you drop it you don’t get it back. Trust me. [#] In terms of gear, Lambus uses high-end Canon and Nikon DSLRs protected by various underwater housings. Here are some of the beautiful photographs found in the series: You can find more of Lambus work over on his personal website and in his portfolio. Blackwater by Joshua Lambus (via My Modern Met via Laughing Squid) Image credits: Photographs by Joshua Lambus and used with permission

Over on Reddit, photographer David Vincent Wolf has been answering questions about his newest project: a music video for Portugal. The Man's new song, "Atomic Man." It's an incredible combination of still photography and automatic tweening that creates a mind-blowingly freaky final product. According to Wolf, the video is comprised of more than 5,000 shots, which were then stitched together in Final Cut Pro 7 and After Effects. He used a plugin called Twixtor to interpolate the difference between each frame. Sometimes, it creates... (read more)

We’re off to Sydney. If you are in Sydney this week then visit us at the L&P IQ World Tour Event. In the meantime enjoy What’s in Kevin’s Bag and see the gear he takes on a photographic trip. Watch our Facebook pages as well as postings here for the latest on our Australia Adventure. Stephen Johnson an instructor on our previous Antarctica workshops and well known landscape photographer has a few openings left on what looks like a great workshop into the Alaska Wilderness. To check out this workshop and register visit his Workshop Page ...