April 2011

Michael Zhang

Ghosts Captured Using Light Painting

These ghostly figures you see in these photographs weren't Photoshopped in, but are purely done through light painting. If you remember the creative 3D light painting technique using an iPad that we shared a while back, Croix Gagnon and Frank Schott took it a step further and put a slightly morbid twist on it. For their project "12:31", they "painted" using a laptop and an animation showing cross-sections of a human body!

Michael Zhang

A Tour of Ansel Adams’ Darkroom

Here's a rare behind-the-scenes look into Ansel Adams' home in Carmel, California and the custom built darkroom in which most of Adams' famous prints were created. It's pretty amazing how much editing Adams' did in transforming the plain negatives into the beautiful works of art hanging on walls around the world.

Michael Zhang

Simple Guide for Getting Started in Digital Photography

Reddit user geft created a useful primer to get newbies started in digital photography. It's a single image measuring 1045x5480 pixels that covers sensors, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and camera controls. This would be a great thing to print out, laminate, and give as a gift to someone who's looking to learn.

Michael Zhang

Nikon D5100 Officially Announced, Offers Night Vision and Special Effects

Nikon officially announced their new D5100 DSLR today, replacing the D5000 in the entry-level category. The 16.2 megapixel camera with a 1.5x crop factor has a 3-inch swiveling LCD screen, 4fps continuous shooting, an ISO range from 100 to 6400 (which you can boost to 25600), 1080p video recording at 30fps, and built in sensor cleaning.

Michael Zhang

iPhone 5 Rumored to Pack an 8MP Sensor Made by Sony

If you think the 5-megapixel sensor found on the iPhone 4 is good, wait till you see the camera found on the next iPhone -- it's reportedly going to be a 8-megapixel sensor made by Sony. The Street wrote back in 2010 that the next version of the iPhone to arrive in 2011 would pack an 8-megapixel Sony sensor rather than the 5-megapixel OmniVision one found in the current phone, and Sony's CEO Howard Stringer seems to have confirmed that today in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Michael Zhang

Post-Processing a Band Photograph

Some friends of mine asked me to shoot a quick band photograph of them recently without any preparation or planning. Luckily, the location was pretty nice (we were at a hostel) and the weather was a bit cloudy so there wasn't harsh sunlight.

Michael Zhang

Take Fun Portraits of Your Cat Using a Flatbed Scanner

Did you know that flatbed scanners make fun portrait cameras as well? Just place your cat on the glass, do a quick scan, and you'll have a strange looking portrait shot from below! Apparently this is pretty popular among cat lovers -- a Flickr search for "cat scanner" returns thousands of results! This gives "cat scan" a whole new meaning!

Michael Zhang

Giant Spheres Created with Light Painting

Photographer Denis Smith creates photos giant balls of light without any digital trickery, relying instead on light-painting. His technique is to spin a light around while slowly turning his body, creating spheres of light when seen in a long exposure photo.