August 2011

Michael Zhang

Playing with the World Through Forced Perspective

You've probably seen (and taken) forced perspective photos before, but South Korean artist June Bum Park goes one step further, using footage from cameras in high places to control cars, pedestrians, and other things in the scene as if playing with a miniature world.

Michael Zhang

Geeky Film Canister Christmas Lights

Have a bunch of film canisters lying around and not sure what to do with them? You could use them to geekify your Christmas lights by punching a hole in the caps and sticking the lights in.

Michael Zhang

A Neat Look at NYC’s Vibrant Analog Photography Community

Update on 12/18/21: This video has been removed by its creator.

CNN made this creative video highlighting the fact that there's still a remnant vibrant community of film shooters in New York City. It's seen from the perspective of someone typing in "analog photography" into a futuristic Qwiki-esque search engine.

Michael Zhang

Large Objects Shot as Miniatures Using a Giant Coin and Tilt-Shift Effects

Norwegian design studio Skrekkøgle -- the one that printed a photo with a cremated dog -- has a creative project called "Big Money" in which they made a giant 20:1 replica of a 50 cent Euro coin. They then placed the coin next to large objects and photographed them together, making the objects look like tiny toy replicas.

Kip Praslowicz

8 Ways to Title an Online Photograph

I love what the Internet has done for the sharing of photography. Social websites such as Flickr make it so easy to get our work in front of the faces of people on the other side of the Earth so easily that it boggles my mind sometimes. This incredible ability of technology has one horrible side effect however. I'm talking about title fields.

Michael Zhang

That Explains It: Canon vs. Nikon Debate Linked to Self-Esteem

Ever wonder why certain people always seem to engage in meaningless Canon vs Nikon vs et al. camera brand debates at every opportunity? A recent study conducted at the University of Illinois has found that the more knowledge and experience you have with a particular brand, the stronger your self-esteem is tied to it.

Michael Zhang

Cremation Portrait: Owner Has Photo Printed with Dead Dog’s Ashes

There's all kinds of things people do to remember their beloved pets after they pass away, but here's a pretty creepy one: a dog owner in Norway had a photo of their Gordon Setter named Susie printed with her ashes. Norwegian design studio Skrekkøgle figured out a way to rebuild a printer to accept dog ashes as "ink", allowing them to print a vintage-looking black-and-white photograph of Susie.

Michael Zhang

Amazing Optical Illusion Shows That Our Eyes Are Horrible Light Meters

Here's a mind-bending video in which someone created the famous checker shadow illusion in real life. The optical illusion takes advantage of the way our brains process lighting and shadows.

As with many so-called illusions, this effect really demonstrates the success rather than the failure of the visual system. The visual system is not very good at being a physical light meter, but that is not its purpose. The important task is to break the image information down into meaningful components, and thereby perceive the nature of the objects in view. [#]

Interesting huh? Our eyes aren't very good as a light meters, since they're easily deceived by context.