February 2012

Michael Zhang

How to Take Incredible High-Speed Photos of Muzzle Flashes

Here's an interesting video tutorial by Destin of Smarter Every Day that shows how you can capture amazing photos of guns being fired and their muzzle flashes. Here's the "basic" idea: he uses a piezoelectric transducer to convert acoustical energy into an electrical pulse, which he sends through a pulse generator. The pulse from the pulse generator is used to trigger a flash and an high-speed exposure. This allows him to photograph guns at the moment they're fired in the same way many people photograph lightning.

Michael Zhang

New York Times Launches Tumblr for Historic Photo Archive

The New York Times has launched a new Tumblr site called "The Lively Morgue" to breathe new life into items in the newspaper's photo archive (nicknamed "The Morgue"). Each week they'll be sharing several historical photographs found in massive collection.

Michael Zhang

Strange Scenes Spotted by Google Street View Cameras

Named after the fact that Google Street View cars shoot with 9 separate cameras, Canadian artist Jon Rafman's Nine Eyes of Google Street View website is an ongoing project that publishes strange scenes photographed by Google's automated cameras. Rafman writes,

This infinitely rich mine of material afforded my practice the extraordinary opportunity to explore, interpret, and curate a new world in a new way. To a certain extent, the aesthetic considerations that form the basis of my choices in different collections vary. For example, some selections are influenced by my knowledge of photographic history and allude to older photographic styles, whereas other selections, such as those representing Google’s depiction of modern experience, incorporate critical aesthetic theory. But throughout, I pay careful attention to the formal aspects of color and composition.

[...] I can seek out postcard-perfect shots that capture what Cartier-Bresson titled “the decisive moment,” as if I were a photojournalist responding instantaneously to an emerging event. At other times, I have been mesmerized by the sense of nostalgia, yearning, and loss in these images—qualities that evoke old family snapshots. I can also choose to be a landscape photographer and meditate on the multitude of visual possibilities.

Michael Zhang

Playing with Fire: A Burning Man Photo Shoot

Photographer Benjamin Von Wong recently had the idea of doing a photo shoot that involved a model being lit on fire. He assembled a team of people -- including a person willing to be lit on fire and some fire experts -- and then set out to turn his vision into a reality. This interesting behind-the-scenes video shows how they went about capturing a burning man without using Photoshop to add in the flames.

Michael Zhang

Untouched Sample Shots Captured with Nokia’s New 41MP Camera Phone

Nokia has released a set of sample photographs in order to show off the camera quality of its new 41MP 808 PureView camera phone. The 33.3MB ZIP file contains just 3 untouched JPEG images -- the largest of which (seen above) is a 5368x7152, 38-megapixel photograph that weighs in at 10.3MB. The quality is quite impressive, given that the images were captured with a phone.

Michael Zhang

Adobe Launches Photoshop Touch for iOS and Android Tablets

After announcing its impending arrival last year, Adobe today officially launched Photoshop Touch for the iPad and Android-powered tablets. The app offers many of Photoshop's core tools:

Use Photoshop features designed for the tablet such as layers, selection tools, adjustments, and filters to create mind-blowing images. Use new Scribble Select to easily keep and remove elements of an image.

It's priced at $10 and is available from the iTunes App Store and the Android Market.

Michael Zhang

Bizarre Photos of Stuffed Animals Turned Inside-Out

Zurich-based designers Atelier Volvox have a project titled "Outsiders" that consists of various stuffed animals turned inside-out. The toys were purchased from second-hand shops, cut open, turned inside out, re-stuffed, and sewed back up.

Michael Zhang

Canon 5D Mark III Photos and Specs Leak Ahead of Impending Launch

We're on the verge of seeing the successor to the Canon 5D Mark II, the 5D Mark III, and photos and specs are already starting to emerge ahead of the camera's rumored March 2nd announcement. The camera will reportedly have a 22MP sensor, 61 autofocus points, 100% viewfinder coverage, a 3.2-inch LCD screen, dual CF/SD slots, and a price tag of around $3,500.

Michael Zhang

Nokia Unleashes a Game-Changing 41-Megapixel “PureView” Camera Phone

Nokia dropped a bomb on the cameraphone market today by introducing its new 808 PureView phone -- a phone that is capable of capturing 41-megapixel photos. The native resolution of the phone (16:9) produces 38-megapixel images measuring 7152x5368. The phone also allows you to capture 5-megapixel images by condensing every seven pixels into one, which dramatically reduces noise and improves image quality. Other features include a 4-inch screen, 16GB of built-in storage, a Carl Zeiss f/2.4 lens, lossless digital zoom (i.e. cropping a photo out of the giant image), and HD video recording. It'll hit store shelves in May at a price of €450 (~$600).

Michael Zhang

Guy Photoshops Celebs Into His Annual Holiday Party Photos

Every year, graphic designer Everett Hiller and his wife throw a party during the holiday season. Afterwards, Hiller Photoshops the photographs captured at the gathering before sending them out to friends and family. He doesn't just fix white balance and removed red eye, but instead sneakily Photoshops various celebrities into the shots. Hiller finds source images of celebrities by doing a search on Google Images for the name -- ranging from presidents to movie stars -- and uses certain keywords (e.g. "dinner" or "I met") to find candid/amateur shots. Photoshopping the celebs into the photos takes about 45 minutes to do.

Allen Murabayashi

Rant: I Love Photography

It might sound strange to use the verb "Love" in the title of a rant. But here goes.

I love photography.

Why am I telling you this? Isn't it self-obvious? Don't we all love photography? The answer is no. There is a percentage of photographers who hate photography. They do not appreciate photography. They do not consume photography. They don't look at photo books or photo magazines. They hate the guy with the iPhone taking Instagram shots.

Michael Zhang

Portraits of People Posing with All of Their Possessions

For her project titled All I Own, photographer Sannah Kvist asked her friends to pile up all of their belongings into the corner of a room and then pose with the pile for a photo. The portrait subjects are all Swedish young adults that were born in the 1980s.

Michael Zhang

Photos of a Lone Robot’s Attempt to Coexist with the Natural World

Photographer Thomas Jackson, whose swarm photos we shared earlier this week, has a creative project titled The Robot that "offers a darkly humorous narrataive about a lone robot's failure to co-exist with the natural world." It's a series of photos that brings a cleverly arranged heap of metal to life.

Michael Zhang

Business Cards that Mimic the Look of an Old Zenit Viewfinder

Greek silkscreen printer Manolis Angelakis was recently tasked with designing a new set of business cards for close friend and photographer Alexandra Stamopoulou. Given her profession, he decided to create a stylish card that emulates the viewfinder of an old Zenit camera. The simple but effective design was silkscreened onto sheets of transparent vinyl.