March 2010

Michael Zhang

Camera Failure Versus Price and Brand

SquareTrade is a company that provides warranties for consumer electronics. As such, it has a good deal of data on digital cameras and, more specifically, how often they fail. After a three year study of over 60,000 new digital cameras, they've published a report with their findings.

Michael Zhang

Unofficial Flickr App Approved for the iPad

An unofficial iPad Flickr app called "Flickr Photos" has been approved for the iPad app store. The $2.99 app, created by Garlic Dumpling, allows you to do download and view both your own photos and your contacts' photos in a minimalistic interface. There's no word on whether the official Flickr application will be ready for the iPad when the store launches, but the iTunes preview page for the official Flickr app already states "Flickr for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store".

Jessica Lum

NBA Jam for Wii Incorporates Photos into Game Graphics

Boom shaka laka! If you're familiar with 90s arcade games, you might recall NBA Jam, the over-the-top basketball sim. EA Sports is developing a remixed, updated version of the classic for the Nintendo Wii, to be released this fall. As a major part of their art design, the game uses real photographs of NBA players' heads, attached to digitized bodies.

Michael Zhang

Photoshop Content Aware Fill Parody

Last week the web was abuzz with excitement over a demo Adobe created for their upcoming "Content Aware Fill" feature. Well, it didn't take long for parody videos to spring up, mocking how easily Photoshop will soon be able to completely create new "realities". The above video is one such parody, ending with this gem:

Jessica Lum

Actor Aaron Eckhart Loves Photography

It's fairly common for actors to try their hand at directing or producing films, but Aaron Eckhart has created a bit of a buzz by shooting his own photos. The self-described "photo geek" completed a commercial shoot for Molly Sim's jewelery line. Eckhart hopes to go pro soon and have his own exhibitions.

Michael Zhang

Stop Motion Animation with Knitting

Knitting is getting quite a bit of coverage on PetaPixel this week. Just a couple days ago we featured the surreal knitting photographs of Daniela Edburg. The above is an creative commercial for natural gas by TBWA Brussels and directed by Olivier Babinet. What's amazing is that all the stop-motion animation you see is done using wool and a team of super dedicated knitters. They've also released a behind the scenes video showing how the commercial was made.

Michael Zhang

Make Your Own Printable Lens Hood

Lens hoods are ridiculously expensive considering the fact that they're simply fancy plastic tubes. If you'd like to use a lens hood but don't feel like shelling out wads of cash, you can create your own cardboard lens hoods!

Michael Zhang

Ads Coming Soon to a Photo Near You

You've probably seen in-video advertising, but how about ads placed in images? A company called Image Space Media wants to make sure you do.

Established in 2008, they're the first and leading provider of in-image advertising on the web. This means relevant advertisements are placed in an overlay that appears over a portion of an image or photograph, just like the advertisements YouTube places at the bottom of most videos.

Michael Zhang

Magazine Cover Mockup for the iPad

This video, created by California photographer Jesse Rosten, offers an interesting glimpse at what digital magazine covers might look like for the iPad. Rather than offer a static photograph of the beach as the print version of Sunset Magazine would, this cover is brought to life with both video and animation.