July 2011

Michael Zhang

Jowling: Photos of Violently Shaking Heads at Fast Shutter Speeds

Yesterday we shared some fun portraits of dogs taken while they shook of water, but you can take similar portraits of people too. It's called "jowling", and is far less adorable. Here how Urban Dictionary defines "jowling":

The violent shaking of one's head side-to-side in order to obtain a photograph of one's face distorted from the intense side-to-side motion.

One useful thing you can do with this technique is to simulate a heavy punch to the face.

Michael Zhang

World’s First Stop-Motion Animation Done with Fake Fingernails

It's not a microscope stop-motion animation, but this stop-motion ad Kia created for its 2012 Picanto is pretty incredible. Over the course of 25 days and nights, they used 1200 bottles of nail polish to paint 900 individual fake fingernails. Each nail took a whopping 2 hours to paint.

Michael Zhang

How NASA Modifies the Nikon D2Xs DSLR for Space

Ever wonder what the bulky white coverings NASA uses on its DSLRs is for? Popular Photography sent the agency some questions regarding its use of the Nikon D2Xs, and found out some interesting details about astronaut photo gear.

Michael Zhang

Portraits of Dogs as They Shake Off Water

For her series "Shake", pet photographer Carli Davidson photographed curious portraits of dogs shaking off water. Use a fast shutter speed and you can capture all kinds of strange expressions on your dog's face.

Michael Zhang

Before and After Portraits of Joggers

Photographer Sacha Goldberger set up an outdoor studio in a Parisian park and asked joggers who ran by to sprint and then pose for a photograph while out of breath. He then invited the same joggers to visit his studio one week later to be photographed in the same pose, but dressed up. The resulting photos are an interesting series of "raw vs. proper" portraits of strangers.

Michael Zhang

Turning the Eye into a Camera Sensor

What if in the future, the human eye itself could be turned into a camera by simply reading and recording the data that it sends to the brain? As crazy as it sounds, researchers have already accomplished this at a very basic level.

Michael Zhang

Magnum Turns to Crowdsourcing to Tag Their Massive Photo Collection

Want to play role in the legendary agency Magnum Photos? Well, now you can as a "Magnum Tagger". The cooperative is having a tough time keeping their large archive of historical photographs organized and easily searchable. Of the 500,000 images they've uploaded to the web, about 200,000 have little or no associated metadata.

Michael Zhang

The Amazing “Rooftopping” Photography of Tom Ryaboi

Thrill-seeking photographer Tom Ryaboi is one of the pioneers of "rooftopping", the practice of climbing to the tops of skyscrapers and shooting pictures off the edge. Photographers who participate in this new craze aim to visit the tops of every tall building in their city, capturing the incredible -- and adrenaline-pumping -- views that they afford.

Michael Zhang

Porcelain Unicorn: A Powerful Short Film in Six Lines and Three Minutes

Last year Philips ran a contest called Parallel Lines in which they asked people to create a three-minute short film using only six lines of dialogue: “What is that?”, “It’s a unicorn”, “Never seen one up close before”, “Beautiful”, “Get away, get away”, and “I’m sorry”. After more than 600 entries were submitted, director Ridley Scott selected the above film, titled "Porcelain Unicorn", as the winner.

Michael Zhang

Nikon Mirrorless 2.7x Sensor Compared to Other Sensor Sizes

dpreview forum member Jorginho created a couple side by side images showing the recently leaked Nikon mirrorless camera sensor next to other sensor sizes. It gives us a visual look at how big a 2.7x sensor actually is. Above, we see the Nikon sensor next to the tiny Pentax Q sensor, which has a crop factor of 5.7x.

Michael Zhang

How to Scan Film Using Your Phone or Tablet Computer

We shared a couple weeks ago that it's possible to scan film using an ordinary flatbed scanner and a DIY cardboard adapter, but did you know you can also use a large-screen cell phone or tablet computer to provide the necessary backlighting? All you need is a way to turn a large portion of the screen entirely white (e.g. a "flashlight" app). Simply place the device facedown over the film on the scanner, and scan it with the cover open.