Just heard the terrible news that Photojojo founder Amit Gupta has been diagnosed with leukemia. Amit’s a super nice guy who has done a ton for the photo-lovin’ community by spreading the joy of photography through his business. Postagram is trying to fill his hospital room with get-well-soon cards by offering a free postcard through the promo code “superamit“.
Here’s to wishing you a speedy recovery, Amit!
If you’re a longtime Instagram user that recently upgraded to Version 2, you might have noticed that the filters don’t quite feel the same. Don’t worry, it’s not just you: each of the filters was indeed tweaked in the app’s overhaul. Despite the new live view and faster response times, many users aren’t too happy about the changes that were done to their beloved filters. Owen Billcliffe over at My Glass Eye did a side-by-side comparison between old and new filters to show the differences. The filter shown above, “Lord Kelvin”, has a significantly different look in the new version.
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A Nikon patent published today details a new dust reduction feature that might make its way into future Nikon DSLRs. The basic idea is the introduction of a hole at the bottom of the camera’s mirrorbox that is designed to catch dust when the mirror swings up. Nikon claims that the feature reduces dust found on the sensor by 50% after 10,000 actuations.
(via Photography Bay)
Instagram’s filters are meant to mimic the look of vintage and toy cameras, but have you ever wondered which cameras and films you’d need to make analog photos with the same look? The folks over at 1000memories decided to tackle this question and, after a good amount of research, came up with a neat infographic showing the different camera and film combinations you can use to recreate popular Instagram filters.
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Photography business analyst Dan Heller has written a helpful post in which he busts common misconceptions photographers in the US have about model releases. A big one is that you need to first obtain a model release before selling photos of people. Heller writes,
[...] newspapers buy photos, and their use of the photo is unlikely to need a release. So, selling a photo (and making a profit doing so) to a newspaper also does not require a release. And because the law does not require you to have any knowledge of the buyer or their intended use of a photo, you are always allowed to sell photos without a release.
His point is that model releases have to do with photographs being published, not sold. A photographer cannot publish the photos however they’d like, but they can sell them however they’d like since liability rests solely with the eventual publisher. That said, it’s still a good idea to always use one, since they’re often required by the buyers.
Busting Myths about Model Releases [Dan Heller]
After the widespread looting that occurred in the UK recently, a guy named Mrog Deville was inspired to distribute photographic art to the masses. Through his project This Was Found, Deville makes prints of photographs, frames them, and then leaves them in various locations where you normally wouldn’t expect to see art. His hope is that either the works will be left untouched at those locations for the public to view, or that people take them home to treasure privately. Finders can also visit the website to report the print as being claimed.
DxOMark has just published its findings on the quality of Nikon’s new mirrorless camera sensor, and the verdict is that Nikon did a pretty good job milking quality out of the small 1-inch sensor:
With regard to its size, this ranking is a big surprise, as the Nikon J1 sensor manages to score close to or even better than larger sensors (including 4/3 sensors).
[...] On the other hand, its low-light ISO score is a bit low: 372, which reflects the impact of the sensor size. Indeed, this score is naturally dependent on the sensor size: the bigger the sensor, the more light it captures. So even though the quality of the pixels provided by Nikon is very close to that of its main competitor, its sensor size physically limits the image quality.
If low-light shooting is your thing. then you might want to look into cameras with larger sensors. However, for everyday photography the new Nikon line perform surprisingly well given how much smaller its sensor is compared to its competitors.
Here’s an interesting behind-the-scenes video that shows what a workday is like for fashion photographer Peter Stigter.
It’s a hectic job, being a runway photographer. Racing through the city, meeting editors, dragging your box up and down the stairs, getting you equipment ready. And then, finally the show starts. Suddenly everything becomes quiet.
It’d be awesome if every professional photographer made a video like this to give people a glimpse into their lives. If you know of any similar videos for other photographers, link us to them in the comments!
(via ISO 1200)
You’ve probably heard the expression “It’s the photographer, not the camera”, but apparently Nikon — or at least one of its PR people — hasn’t. A few hours ago the company updated its Facebook page with,
A photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses, and a good lens is essential to taking good pictures! Do any of our facebook fans use any of the NIKKOR lenses? Which is your favorite and what types of situations do you use it for?
Needless to say, the post was met with quite a bit of disagreement in the comments.
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Lens hoods can become loose over time, leading to annoying rattling sounds or problematic vignetting if the hood rotates into your shots. Instead of buying a replacement hood, you can apply a quick fix using a little tape or glue. Simply cover the threads with a few layers of tape or a few dabs of non-permanent glue (be sure to wait until it dries). The extra material around the threads should help the lens hood to secure much more tightly to your lens.
