March 25, 2011

Customer: Why are my 8x10 prints being cut off? Salesperson: Well, your camera shoots in 2:3 aspect ratio which is a different proportion of rectangle. The 8x10 print is 4:5. Customer: I want my prints in full size. Salesperson: You have three options. A) We stretch the image. B) We crop the image, or C) we can put white strips on the sides but that won't be very pleasing. Customer: Can't I just put what I have on my camera on the paper? Salesperson: You know how when you watch a HD video and …

YouTube user haakvi was taking pictures of a small lake near Oslo, Norway with his Nikon D90 when he noticed something interesting about the lake's reflections. This video shows an interesting way to shoot the reflections -- you could do the same thing with photographs, but then you wouldn't have the "twist".

With its photography-related businesses struggling and no end in sight to its stock's free fall, Kodak is turning to patent infringement lawsuits as a way to generate revenue. The company is currently in a patent dispute with Apple (iPhone) and RIM (Blackberry) over a patent it holds for previewing image on camera phones, and hopes to generate over $1 billion in royalty revenues if it comes out victorious. Previously Kodak had used this same patent to win nearly $1 billion from Samsung and LG.

Who says you need uber-expensive lighting equipment to shoot nice-looking studio portraits? In this video, photographer Bert Stephani shows us what you can do with cheap halogen work lights (you can find them for about $30-$50) and a couple shower curtains.

This cute little vintage twin-lens reflex camera by Chinese stationary company deli is actually a pencil sharpener in disguise. Instead of loading it with film, simply stick a pencil into the top "lens" and turn the handle on the back to sharpen it. It has an adjustable sharpness knob, and the top half pulls out when you need to dump the pencil shavings.