April 2011

Michael Zhang

Show Off Prints with a Giant Photo Album Coffee Table

Having a coffee table that looks like a giant photo album is already pretty unique, but what about a coffee table that also functions as one? Remembrance is a coffee table designed by North Michigan University design student Mitch Steinmetz that opens up to reveal your photos like any good giant photo album should.

Michael Zhang

The Story of How the Influential Nikon F SLR Camera Was Designed

The Nikon F, Nikon's first SLR camera, played an important and influential role in photographic history after it was unveiled in 1959. It was the first to combine many of the emerging camera design ideas into a single body, and was the first SLR system widely adopted by professional photographers around the world. This is an interesting 20 minute documentary film that tells the story of how the camera was designed.

Michael Zhang

Soaking Film in Alcohol Gives Photos a Strange Look

Here's something to try if you feel like shooting some abstract analog photos: drop your film in some rubbing alcohol and let it soak for about ten minutes before shooting with it. Just be sure to let it dry out first lest you want to sanitize the inside of your camera. The resulting photographs should have a blue, green, and purple tint, along with tiny brown dots in random places. These photos were shot by Flickr user Casey Holford using soaked Kodak Ultramax film.

Michael Zhang

Inconspicuous Camera Bag Designed to Look like a Quiver for Arrows

If Legolas from Lord of the Rings ever decided to trade his bow for a camera, the new Urban Quiver by the newly formed Blackstone Bags is a camera bag he might use. The quiver shape keeps it from attracting too much attention from would-be thieves, while the compactness allows it to be stored in small spaces like the overhead bins on airplanes.

Michael Zhang

Reuters Team Photo Gear for Shooting the Royal Wedding

The highly publicized wedding of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton is happening tomorrow, and Reuters will be sending a 15 member team composed of photographers from all across Europe to cover the event. The photo above by team member Phil Noble shows the crazy amount of gear he and photographer Kai Pfaffenbach will be carrying.

Michael Zhang

Pinhole Camera Made from a Pine Nut

Transforming foods into pinhole cameras appears to be one of the popular trends. We already shared the egg pinhole camera, and now here's the pine nut pinhole camera. Italian photography student Francesco Capponi created this tiny camera by painting the inside of the shell black, poking a hole in one side, loading it with a piece of photographic paper, and using his thumb as a shutter. He calls it the "PinHolo", a play on words since "pinolo" is Italian for "pine nut".

Michael Zhang

Lower ISO Doesn’t Always Lead to Higher Quality Images

When learning about ISO, you've probably heard that the lower the number, the lower the noise and the higher the image quality, but did you know that this isn't always the case? The reason is something called the base (or native) ISO of a camera -- the ISO achieved without amplifying the data from the sensor. This is usually somewhere between ISO 100 and ISO 200.

Michael Zhang

Nikon Image Authentication System Cracked Just Months After Canon’s

In December 2010, Russian security firm ElcomSoft announced that they had cracked the encryption software that Canon uses to prove that photographs are genuine and unmodified. Today they announced that they've also cracked Nikon's system, which shows that forged images can be made to pass validation using Nikon Image Authentication Software. To prove their point (like they did in the previous case), they released a series of ridiculous images that pass validation. The above image shows Russian president Dmitry Medvedev addicted to Apple(s).

Michael Zhang

Add-on Grips for Compact Cameras Designed for Little Hands

Compact cameras are portable and convenient, but often they trade ergonomics for their small size. If your camera is a bit too small to hold comfortably in your large hand, Flipbac Camera Grips are designed to help you get a grip. Their shapes are inspired by actual grips found on larger compact cameras, and each one sticks to your camera securely and non-messily using 3M adhesive.

Michael Zhang

Nikon 50mm f/1.8G Lens Becomes Official

After being accidentally leaked on Nikon's website a couple weeks ago, Nikon's new AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G lens was officially announced today. The lens -- compatible with both DX and FX DSLRs -- features an unusual aspherical element that typically isn't found in lenses like this. It will be available starting June 16th for $220, which includes a lens hood.

Michael Zhang

Lake Photographs Made Abstract Using Lake Water

For his project Lakes and Reservoirs, photographer Matthew Brandt exposed using both light and water -- after shooting photos of each lake or reservoir (i.e. exposing with light), he made a chromogenic print and then soaked the photo in the water that was photographed, thus exposing it to water.

Michael Zhang

Use a Pringles Can as a Cheap Diffuser for Macro Photos

Flickr user Steve Kushnir came up with this neat idea of building a cheap DIY diffuser using a Pringles can, two layers of paper towels, and some rubber bands. He attached it to his Nikon D5000's popup flash and uses it for macro photographs of creepy crawlies.

Michael Zhang

Nikon D5100 Carefully Dissected, Found to Have “4 Billion” Screws

If you've ever wanted to know what the guts of a Nikon D5100 look like, iFixit just published a meticulously documented teardown of the camera. Aside from pointing out the various parts found in the body, an interesting conclusion the iFixit team came to was that the D5100 has a horrible "Repairability Score" of 2/10, where 10 is easiest to repair. The reason? "Approximately 4 billion screws hold the device together" (They're exaggerating, of course).

Michael Zhang

Still Photos with a Dash of Movement

Photographer Jamie Beck has a beautiful series of images that she calls "cinemagraphs". They're animated GIFs in which only a small piece each photograph is animated, making them a neat fusion of still and moving images. It's amazing how much a tiny bit of movement in a still photo can do. They're almost like the moving pictures you see in Harry Potter!

Michael Zhang

Interview with Microstock Photographer Yuri Arcurs

Yuri Arcurs -- AKA the "King of Microstock" -- is the best selling microstock photographer in the world, selling over 2,000 images a day and 2 million a year. Visit his website here.

PetaPixel: Could you tell us a little about yourself and your background?

Yuri Arcurs: I was born in 1976 in Aarhus, Denmark, where I still live with my fiance, Cecilie, and our dog, Maff. As a child I spent some years in the U.S. but I returned to Denmark and joined the army, and later on I continued with my studies in Psychology at Aarhus Univerity. These days I feel like I’m not doing much else besides stock photography, but when I do have time for other things I really enjoy a good work-out. I have always been a very active person, which was probably one of the reasons I joined the army when I was younger, but right now I try to focus all of my energy on stock. So, unfortunately, marathons and the likes will have to wait!

Michael Zhang

What it Looks Like to Focus a Rangefinder Camera

If you've never used a rangefinder camera before, this video provides a visual look at how focusing works (a Leica M2 is used). Basically you're given a second (smaller) image of the scene, and your goal is turn the focus ring until the two images match up for the subject you'd like to have in focus.

Michael Zhang

76-year-old Photoshop Master in China Restores Old Photos for Free

Having old photographs restored is a service that many residents in China can't afford, but a 76-year-old man named Baojun Yuan is doing his part to help his fellow citizens by offering his astonishing Photoshop talents free of charge. After learning how to use the program when he was 60 years old, Yuan purchased a computer and scanner, and has fixed more than 2,000 photographs. He says, "my teacher just taught me how to repair the photos, but he forgot to tell me how to charge."

Michael Zhang

How Nikon (And Other Big Companies) Responds to Design Suggestions

On Nikon's question and answer Facebook app, a guy named Andrew Yu offered the idea of replacing the shutter button with two touch sensors and received the above response from Nikon. It's an interesting look at how Nikon, camera manufacturers, and big corporations in general usually respond to ideas and suggestions from the general public.

Michael Zhang

Controversy After Vegan Magazine Found to Use Non-Vegan Stock Photos

In the past week or two there has been an interesting controversy regarding the use of stock photography: vegan blogger quarrygirl.com published a post on April 13th accusing the nations leading vegan magazine VegNews of using non-vegan stock photos to illustrate its vegan recipes. An example presented is a "Vegan Spare Ribs" article that uses a Photoshopped iStockPhoto image of actual barbecue spare ribs (shown above).

Michael Zhang

Imagining a Compact Camera Designed by Leica and Apple

The Leica i9 is a concept camera case dreamed up by design firm BLACK Design Associates for the iPhone 4. Unlike the Slow Photography Camera we shared last week, the i9 is actually an independent camera that simply uses the iPhone as a giant touch screen and as a modem for the web.